In case you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a lesson we’re learning from this pandemic.
YOU CAN’T FUCKING MAKE UP YOUR OWN RANDOM REALITY
Here’s the thing, there’s a lot of people running around with crackpot ideas of how the world works and what they’ve got a right to do in it and the simple fact of the matter is THEY’RE FUCKING WRONG! Not only that, but they demand that everyone else accept their stupid beliefs, no matter how hair-brained they may be, and treat them as “gospel” and indulge their every whim. This is the nature of the “post truth” world we’ve created where YOUR reality is just as valid as MY reality, no matter how completely divorced from REAL reality it might happen to be.
This is why we have a US president who does nothing but lie and cheat and deceive, but still maintains a support base which is adamantly and unquestioningly dedicated to his delusions and every disgusting deception he perpetrates. We’re all supposed to accept and tolerate these brainwashed morons while they lead the world into a sewer race to the bottom of the extinction barrel. They’ve abandoned any sense of reason or rationality and, instead, proudly embraced deliberate ignorance as a virtue, proclaiming their “beliefs” as proof of righteousness.
Everything about how this pandemic has manifested and spread throughout the globe is a testament to the tolerance of irrationality within the public sphere. The American founding fathers insisted on the separation of Church and State for a very good reason. They realized that subjective belief systems were poison to the successful management of any kind of society. Coordinating the infrastructure of a modern, technological civilization cannot be accomplished on the basis of “thoughts and prayers”. The systems we rely upon to maintain food supplies, utilities and economic viability MUST be managed solely on the basis of reasoned, practically planned actions which are vetted to ensure they do not cause harm to the society they serve, nor the environment in which that society exists. The collapsing of these systems is entirely the result of our indulgence of irrationality, pushing profit motives over communal standards of living.
This crisis is going to demand we, as a civilization, either put some outmoded conceptions to bed, at long last, or stare down the barrel of extermination. The planet is already making it clear to us how it is capable of putting us in our places when we don’t have our shit together. Let’s just keep in mind that this modern civilization has less than a couple of centuries of existence to speak for itself. That’s barely a “tick” of the cosmic clock, so assuming that what we’ve built is in any way “permanent”, is the height of hubris. We can only play the fools game for so long before the bill comes due and we have to pay for our willful ignorance.
So let’s start with the BIG one - religion. I’m particularly speaking of this belief that existence was created by some anthropomorphic being who takes a personal interest in each of us and the lives we lead. This is the entity people pray to so that their sports team wins or they get that raise at work or mom orders pizza for dinner instead of making steamed broccoli. It’s also the one with whom some claim to have “personal” conversations and who receive “messages” they’re supposed to relay to the rest of us in order to dictate what we’re allowed to do. Yeah well, that’s all bullshit. It doesn’t exist. And I’m done indulging idiots who insist in believing this garbage and then try to shove that down my throat as a consideration for how the world should be organized. I’m done letting these simpletons tell me that their “God” doesn’t like how I fuck, or doesn’t want me to read some book, or that Jesus is gonna “take the wheel” and keep us all safe from the bad things in the world. These people are a menace to everyone else on this planet and it’s time people who hold to reason and science and empathy and thoughtfulness stop making excuses for these ethically vacant losers and pulled the plugs on all their power bases. For one thing, tax their goddamned churches out of existence. They’re tax exempt because the churches know they’d be bankrupt the instant they had to function like any other business in the community. And if you think that “God” is going to guide you, then you DON’T get to make decisions for ANYONE ELSE. You don’t get to make laws or determine ANYTHING about the way civilization runs because you are INCOMPETENT. You’ve abandoned reason and facts and have no business doing anything but huddling in your church and giving thanks to those who are smart enough and competent enough to do the real work that makes living possible.
And let’s please all just agree to AGREE! We have to establish certain fundamental guiding principals in order to ensure we are not subject to the kind of conflicts which have crippled our governments in recent years. This political stalemate between parties has got to come to an end. Entrenching factions into intractable extremes has left us hobbled within our political mechanism. We’re unable to move forward on anything because every action by one party is immediately seen as a cause for resistance by the other. We can’t manage emergencies like this. This pandemic has swept over the globe because we’re incapable of coming to any kind of agreement on anything to prevent it. We have to find some kind of basis for coherency within these processes and the most important thing we can do towards that end is to ELIMINATE the use of spiritual and religious rhetoric in these decisions. Ideology should not be a factor in political processes. The only thing that should count is a reasoned analysis of the situation where logic and rationality, using the most up-to-date data and knowledge are employed. Party systems which enforce particular belief systems onto the democratic process result in nothing more than a broken system. All candidates should be independents and judged solely on the basis of their policies and whether they stand the scrutiny of logical critical analysis.
The idea of “leadership” also needs to be completely overhauled and, essentially, abandoned. The concept that ONE individual is seeded with ultimate authority is completely preposterous in a modern society and is no more than a hangover from the monotheistic religious view of power structures. That structure wants to create a living “God” on Earth to rule over us. Some would argue that the US aren’t doing that with the office of president because it is open to “anyone”. Well, that’s another thing that needs to be rethought. The disaster that is Trump is a clear example of the dangers of letting “anyone” into that seat of power. It should be like any job and have qualifications and a job description and only those who meet the qualifications are considered as candidates for the role. The fact this has never been established is a fatal flaw in the system. Governance should not rest on the shoulders of any individual and those who are responsible should be vetted by qualified peers who understand the complexities of the positions being filled and only approve those who clearly meet those requirements. Sure, you can still grow up to be a member of a senior oversight council, but only after you’ve invested a significant portion of study and practical application towards achieving the role.
Participating in the governance of a society should require people to be informed and educated in the first place. Those who are ignorant of processes should not be given influence over them. But this must not be turned into an elitist system. The key here is to ensure access to information and education is egalitarian and open to all. But you don’t get to have a say if you choose to opt out of the process and just sit on your ass eating donuts and drinking beer. If you want that kind of lifestyle, you’re welcome to it, but don’t expect to have a say in what happens in the world around you. If your choice is to be ignorant, you don’t get to drag the world around you down into the garbage pit.
Letting faith and fantasy have equal footing with rationality has opened the gate for disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. Thinking that we can all live in our own reality bubble, making up our own rules and not having to deal with any consequences, has left our civilization frail and vulnerable to the forces of nature, forces which we have turned a blind eye to in the past century. Just because we each experience our own idiosyncratic relationship with existence does not mean that existence itself is subject to our whims. We may be able to change some aspects of it, but most others are well outside our control. In this sense, the “Serenity Prayer” is actually a very apt example of how to orient oneself to reality. It’s about understanding the difference between things that can be changed and things that must be accepted as they are. It asks the individual to cultivate the wisdom to know the difference and act accordingly, summoning the courage to make the right changes, when possible, and embracing acceptance for things which cannot be changed, and instead finding ways to adapt ourselves.
The bottom line here, however, is that we can no longer afford to indulge ignorance and proud stupidity as having equal footing with rational, reasonable comprehension. We are going to disagree with these people and we don’t have to be nice about it because those who are demanding we placate their “Gods” aren’t being nice to us.
