Coming soon…

Warning: This rant was originally written in November of 2005 when I was supposed to be writing a paper or something actually productive. It represents the scattered thoughts of a confused and frustrated undergraduate trying to understand what is right and wrong in grey areas and not-so-grey areas.

“I look up, but the face swims before my eyes, dissolves, huge and transparent, melts into the motionless trees and the sea of people…I blink rapidly: Henri. ‘Listen, Henri, are we good people?’ ‘That’s stupid. Why do you ask?’ ‘You see, my friend, you see, I don’t know why, but I am furious, simply furious with these people - furious because I must be here because of them. I feel no pity. I am not sorry they are going to the gas chamber, damn them all! I could throw myself at them, beat them with my fists. It must be pathological, I just can’t understand …’”
-Tadeusz Borowski, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”

Canada is the closest and arguable most important trading partner with the nation that can rightly be called the epicenter of a global culture of decadence and excess, a hierarchical superstructure built on a foundation that is not Christ, and is neither peace, justice, or equality, but a foundation that is the oppression of an impoverished and uneducated mass.

The middle classes have been duped into believing that we are somehow important in this structure, and the elites tease us through the exports of Hollywood, prime-time television, and video games. These illusions have made us think that in this house built on the backs of the underclass, the untouchables, we are somehow privileged to wine and dine with the big wigs. We are not the foundation of this house, we are the ottomans and footstools for Capitalists.
The children of the middle class attach bayonet to rifle along with the children of the lower castes as they serve in Afghanistan/Ethiopia, their families paid by the Federal government for their service.*Our children fasten explosive belts to their waists along with the children of the unemployed in Palestine/Iraq, their families reimbursed alike by Arab elites for their noble sacrifice. For what? In the name of Canada/the United Nations, in the name of Allah, in the name of Manifest Destiny/the Project for a New American Century, in the name of the Khalifah/the pan-Arabian Ummah. The ‘Good Guys’ and the ‘Bad Guys,’ whatever side we stand on, are in actuality brothers, and are both being teased and controlled by the same common enemy:

Those who do not care about anything but themselves, who exploit those who care about everything but themselves.Big-budget films distract us with the promise of a brief two hour escape from reality. But the downfall of movies is that once you exit the theater, the fantasy is over. But those who consider themselves overmen but are not have found another way to keep us entertained and distracted. The serials on the Television are an iron chain that keeps us slaves to the ongoing drama - “What is going to happen next to such-and-such a character? Will X and Y get together? How much sin can we watch, nod our heads and consider entertainment tonight?” These mindless continuing never-ending stories (Read: ‘The OC,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’)* allow us to indulge in a lifestyle that most of us will never actually experience, it is a distraction, it is a fantasy, it is a tool of obedience and voluntary servitude to Capitalism and the Prince of the Air and the King of this World.

Some serials and sitcoms tell our youth that it is normal to have sex on a first date. It is abnormal to be a virgin. It is immoral to save yourself for one special person; namely your husband/wife.
To the female it tells her that while sex is special, it is not to be saved for your husband. A boy who is important to you now is good enough. It is not your lifelong mate that is important, it is who your first partner is that is important (first of many hopefully, that is the mark of an independent woman). Oral sex isn’t really sex, it is harmless fun; an easy way to maintain purity if you’re not ready yet. STIs are bogeymen for teenagers created by mean adults who don’t want them to have fun. Teenagers know what real life is like - just look at ‘Friends’ or ‘Seinfeld’ - these people have casual sexual relations all the time and never contract infections or become pregnant.
If a girl ever is good enough to play on a boys team in any kind of sports, it is so exotic and unusual that a big deal must be made of it and a feature film made in her honour, perhaps also an award in her name should be handed out annually.
Additional knowledge that our culture must teach our female youth is that if you cannot fit into a size two dress or under, you need to diet because you’re a fattie. If you go out of the house without makeup on, you will be a social outcast forever. Having pimples is a sign of a rare disease that usually doesn’t happen to teenagers. If you develop one you should stay home from school and wash your face until the pimple areas bleed.

For the males, our culture teaches them that the most important debate that they will ever face is whether it is size that matters or what you do with it. The Jury is still out on that verdict, but you better be prepared for a verdict either way, or you’ll die poor and lonely because no woman will ever fuck you. “Love” is all based on two things anyway: your penis and your pectoral muscles.
Men do not eat salads, or any vegetables really. The food of masculinity is grease, protein, and carbohydrates. A sign of male stability is not caring about your diet. You must participate in every sport that is available to you, and moving a ball to one end of the field or getting a puck past a goalie are the defining moments of your life. They are to define your very essence. They demonstrate your gender. Hopefully your parents helped to reinforce this by plastering your room with images of soccer balls, footballs, and basketballs when you were younger. If you are good at sports, you will have access to plenty of women. If you suck at sports, you will never get a date (with the possible exception of the ugly quiet girl that everyone teases, but even she might laugh at you).
Real men don’t show emotion, and if you ever cry, God will cue a laugh track that will expose you for the wuss you are, just like on TV. Oh, and if this wasn’t enough stress on the adolescent’s life, remind him that unless you lose your virginity before you graduate from High School, you will become a permanent LOSER. No one will ever hire you, and women will cringe when you come near, suspecting you to have some physical abnormality.

And we know that these are all lies - but why are they created? Who starts them? Who perpetuates them? Why are we allowing these lies to be propagated? It is as though there is some organization or being out there causing all these influences with the express intent of destroying us.

We become restless, monsters of consumption, slaves to trends, seeking acceptance, seeking to join in the dance that the elites show us. We are not satisfied with what we have, we always want more. A faster car, a nicer jacket, darker jeans, shiner necklaces, a bigger house, better grades, more expensive furniture, more DVDs, a different lifestyle, the one that so-and-so has on MTV, the one that so-and-so had on that movie, more money, more trips to exotic places, more this and that, more food and pleasure, more drugs, more alcohol, more indulgence, less family, less Jesus, less Bible, less pie in the sky and by and by.
Reality television indulges our lusts for wealth, excitement and adventure. Maybe, possibly, someday, we’ll be fortunate to participate in the tease of the elites that allows us to nibble on the scraps that fall from their tables and enjoy their lifestyle for a day, to the amusement of everyone else. Celebrities tantalize our senses and our selfishness by showing off what their exploitation has produced for themselves. Music videos destroy our attention span until we can only maintain our attention for three-four minute time slots at once. Video games return our attention span to us for hours upon hours, days upon days, until our attention is focused solely on a single task: rescuing the princess, moving onto the next level, gunning down x amount of thugs / prostitutes / zombies, or worse, being caught into a never-ending online addiction that unlike films or television shows, has no end, and keeps the consumer trapped in their rooms for days, obsessed with an activity that when all is said and done, is utterly pointless and has no redeeming value other than as a way to pass the time. Worse than the indulgent fantasies of TV and the cinemas, video games bring the consumer directly into the fantasy, blurring the line between observation and participation.

The Internet is a double edged sword, providing many opportunities for education and free flow of information, yet also brings pornography, immorality, and idleness directly into many people’s homes. No longer do men have to purchase a magazine from a shady store to indulge in a nonexistent fantasy, it can be done in the comfort of your own bedroom. No longer is a disguise needed, a clearing of ones Internet history can suffice, with no record remaining. Suddenly this activity that “every man does” and “doesn’t hurt anybody” isn’t so innocent anymore. Husbands suddenly find that their wives no longer satisfy them. They expect something more. Real women are not like the woman that they married, apparently. A multitude of women await the husband through the web, and he no longer needs his wife. He does not love her as he used to. He leaves his wife. The man’s daughter grows up without a father, without a daddy, and then seeks to find that missing love of a man, the love of a daddy she never had, she seeks the love of a father in boys who abuse her and will tell her anything to be satisfied. She goes from one loser to another, hoping to find true love, but guys do not want true love. The girl is hurt and injured, the girl showers several times a day feeling ashamed and dirty because of what she did, but unable to remove her crimson stain, her scars received having thought that she had found ‘the one.’

And what does society offer in consolation for all it’s crimes? Nietzsche’s madman tells her that churches are the tombs and sepulchers of God.
If you don’t know how to have fun, learn to drink. If you don’t know how to cry, learn to make fun of others. If you want to pursue purity, wear a condom. If you don’t want to be a role model for the youth, do all your crimes at night. If you don’t know how to relax and cope, if you can’t stop worrying, release with an orgy of smoking/drinking/fucking. If you don’t want to think, drop some dope, smoke some weed, watch some TV, have a few grammes of soma with your coffee.

Higher tuition rates mean less people can go to university. Is this a bad thing? Once I have my degrees, it is in my best interests for tuition rates to keep increasing. If higher education becomes less attainable, then less people will have said education.

If everyone has a Ph.D., my employment prospects become less promising. So it is in my advantage, if I want to continue to enjoy my place in society, to favour tuition hikes in the following years (after my education is completed), so that I am further separated from the backbone of Western Civilization and not trod upon (that much). It is in my best interests to favour capitalism, to favour the aims of the ‘War on Terrorism’ to maintain my comfort. It is in my best interests if I support a North American missile shield in my backyard, it is in best interests if I hail the leadership and aims of the Heimatsicherheitsabteilung. It is in my best interests to support American World Hegemony, because I speak English and live in a position of close proximity to the Heima-cough-excuse me - I mean, Homeland. American Imperialism is a hell of a lot better than European or Chinese Imperialism would be, right? All are built on the broken backs of boys with M-16s (or an apparent 5.8 x 42 cartridge as the Chinese now appear to be using) and the lower classes.

I can’t.
I can’t support ‘Iraqi Freedom’ or ‘Infinite Justice’ or the ‘Project for a New American Century’ out of conscience - can I? We know that the wars were started on lies and intentional deceit. We know that any and all blowback on American soil will support these projects. Can the ends justify the means? Never.
Is it in my best interests to follow the crowd and accept the inevitable? Yes. But I can’t. Can’t I? I can’t enjoy this, I can’t just sit back and watch it happen, can I?

How can I enjoy this decadence that is built upon the availability of cheap oil?
I can buy bottled spring water from Vancouver that has been trucked across the country, from sea to sea. And buying it will not put me in debt. I can buy bottled spring water from France. I can buy bottled spring water from Nova Scotia. I can buy filtered water from Nova Scotia. I can filter my own water from Nova Scotia. I can buy bottled artesian water from Fiji.
Fiji is an island in the South Pacific ocean. And apparently there is enough of a market for artesian water from Fiji in Antigonish that a capitalist can justify bottling said artesian water and ship it to Antigonish, Nova Scotia - and make a profit. Petroleum is that cheap. Instead of just drinking Nova Scotian water I can spend money and buy WATER (still one of the most plentiful substances on Earth) from Fiji.
Oranges are trucked from Florida to Nova Scotia. Bananas are shipped from (Costa Rica?) to Antigonish. Let’s face it; despite our complaining over the prices at the pumps, gasoline is cheap. Dirt cheap. Cheaper than water from Fiji.

Average price for a litre of gas = $1
Price for 500ml of artesian water from Fiji (last time I checked) = $1.49

Everyone cannot be a medical Doctor. We still need people to sweep the floors, we still need people to shovel overpriced nutritionally-deficient hydrogenated oil-laden popcorn into paper bags at the cinemas for our consumption. We still need people to answer phones in call centers. We still need people to perform road maintenance. We will need people to operate sewage pumping trucks. We still need third-world children to apply adhesive to plastic and dead cattle flesh to produce a new line of $159.99 USD fancy shoes (just in time for the new fashion season - here’s a tip: navy is the new black) for undergraduates to fasten to their feet on Saturday night when they (with friends) become intoxicated, go to a certain building where currency is exchanged for entrance, where additional intoxicating beverages are purchased and consumed (much to the delight of the owners of said buildings) and where noises, produced by electronic machines and the voices or wealthy (artists? emcees? musicians?) businessmen which are then recorded and sold to the deejay of the aforementioned building and replayed so the intoxicated masses, now joined by scantily clad (and also intoxicated) women who are looking for attention to enhance their low self-esteem (because the media and the aforementioned cinemas, television, and internet tell them that to be desirable and attractive they must look a certain way and must conform to a certain standard, and unless you’re on the cover of a magazine or in an advertisement for perfume or denim, you have yet to ‘make it’), dance and grind with one another in a mass clothed orgy of consumption and Von Dutch hats, with the hopes that perhaps when the building closes down one of these intoxicated women who is either very affectionate or intrigued by one man’s shiny new sneakers, might come back to his apartment where they will copulate, waking up the next morning to a headache and confusion, followed with a ‘walk of shame’ back home (the implication being that the shame did not begin the previous night), where the woman and her friends will get together, eat grease to ease their hangovers, wallow in affirmations of what an awful night that was, and spend the remainder of the week in anticipation and preparation for next Saturday when the scenario will be repeated. Sometimes this is the case with many people. Why does this system of consumption provide so much comfort for people?
We consume shoes, alcohol, clothes, food, music, etc at an alarming rate. And it all provides to support the lifestyles of the elite. Why do we continue to follow these lifestyles? Why do we continue to consume?Because we like it.

Slow down. Was this a critique of television or capitalism or the war on terror that got out of hand? No. It is a criticism of Western Civilization. Or maybe just a rant.

This is mostly a criticism of myself. Am I exaggerating the impact that all these things? Does committing an hour of your week to watching a television drama really that big of a deal? No, of course not. Many good people watch television. Most people who watch television are good people. Actually, whether or not you watch television has nothing to do with your classification of being either righteous or unrighteous. Not one thing.

I am not condemning the television. I am not condemning the cinemas (I go to the cinemas). I am not condemning the internet. All these things are not causing people to act one way or another, and these things are not evil in and of themselves. The issue here is people’s hearts, something that cannot be changed unless they are willing. What then is my point?
My point is that I am a part of this culture of decadence and excess. I live and exist and am surrounded by it everyday. Why do I find myself hating not only it, but me? If I hate it, why am I not doing anything? For the believers, we have been called not to reform society, we have been called to preach the Gospel. Where does my mission begin and where does it end? What actions should flow out of preaching and living the gospel? How can I reconcile being a part of this society and hating it, yet enjoying the opportunities it affords me?
Why do I enjoy this hierarchical structure, how can I with a clean conscience? I was raised in the middle class and while I have been afforded the opportunity to go to university and am not among the lower classes, I am certainly not among the elites and upper classes. How can I stand this inequality that exists?
How can I reconcile my feelings of contentment here while still wishing for economic and social justice?

My point, my question is this: How can I reconcile these two opposing opinions? I might as well ask how could a vegan reconcile his eating of a cheeseburger?

*-I am not condemning the government of Canada and the services it provides (roads, healthcare, military, civil police, etc) and I am certainly not condemning the Canadian military for the work it does overseas with the UN peacekeeping corps.

*-Some may object to my analysis of “The OC” considering I have only watched 1/4 of one episode and therefore are not informed enough to make a proper judgment, and “Desperate Housewives” because I have never actually watched this series. I have nothing to respond to this with. I know enough based upon the sound witnesses of others that these shows dramatize and glamorize a material and immoral lifestyle. For those who pursue righteousness, are these serials not just simple ways to indulge a little bit in that lifestyle that our flesh craves without actually living it? Is this not perhaps the greatest cop-out of our generation? What in these serials can be considered “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report…”? (Phil. 4.8)

Thanks to Adbusters, Antipas Ministries, Dr. Zecker, Professor Strickler, Dr. Lalande, and Dad’s rants on the hidden petroleum crisis.

Anything that is praiseworthy in this rant belongs to Yahweh. Anything that is in error belongs to myself. May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.

~ by Tyler on January 30, 2007.