We have been groomed. We have been deceived. We have been manipulated. And in turn, we ourselves became groomers, liars, and manipulators.
As long as I’ve been alive, in fact since America’s victory in World War II, our culture has been completely fused with materialism. Money, status, comfort, luxury, science, and technology have been used to allay our fears, numb our trauma, distort our intuition, and erode the truths that have sustained humanity for thousands of years.
We live in a post-truth, post-betrayal America. Where do we go from here?
We outsourced child care to the government through public schools and daycare centers in exchange for two-car garages, microwaves, color televisions, women’s liberation movements, and TV dinners. Baby boomers chose to align their careers with the Joneses over the well-being of their children.
I’m a child of the 80’s. Generation X. I walked to school, delivered newspapers (remember those?), and played “gutter games” with my neighborhood friends on summer nights. From the age of 6, I played with friends for three to four hours a day, unsupervised. I was a “latchkey kid.” That was great.
Gen X may be the last generation to have fights after school. We didn’t have authority figures trying to solve all our problems and suffocate us. We had to figure them out ourselves. Often they were resolved by fistfights.
There will be no fights after school today. Instead, schools are staffed with metal detectors, schools are staffed with police, illiterate graduates, and crazy climate change fanatics who worry about a dying planet. .And school shootings are occurring.
Is it okay to close down public schools?
It took me just a few years working in the business world to realize that I hated every single thing I did every day. Maybe 10 months after I started working as a general manager for a major company, I “got it” and it became a job I hated. Please note that although we have been the “price leader” in our industry, this term does not mean “quality leader.” But it wasn’t the most honest company.
We overcharged our customers until they howled. They then back out and wait until things calm down before raising prices again.
I went to night school for 10 years as a military officer so I could get a “real job” after I left the military. I worked hard to make sure I got the position I wanted, only to find out that I hated it. I hated that job. I hated who I had become. The work had no intrinsic value.
i absorbed it profit, profit, profit, material, material, material, lie, lie, lie ethics. I worked for this company in the oil and gas industry around the same time Enron went bankrupt. I learned that Enron is the standard. They’re all Enron. We are all Enron. We lied about everything.
Let’s talk about honest work that gives me joy. That’s when I scooped dog poop off the lawn, knowing no one would step foot there. seriously. Honest work will soon be rewarded. I also love mowing the lawn.
In 2017, my wife and I refinanced our home. We had to replace stairs, laminate flooring, toilets, and a lot of other little things that we had been putting off. I had never used power tools before. (Thank you very much to everyone at public schools.)
The work was hard, but I learned something new every day. I had to figure out what to do with the nose and landing on the top row. I struggled with this problem for a few days, but then “” bam! I had an idea. It was difficult, but I did it.
I was in a coma every night for about 6 weeks while doing all this remodeling, and I loved it. I loved myself, my wife, and my family. I was a better person. doing something productive. One that included real, honest feedback about my performance.
I have a confession to make here. I voted for his legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage in 2012. I know I was lied to and would like to cancel both votes if possible. It turns out that slippery slopes are often vertical.
Think about all the lies you have ever been told or believed. Trading is for losers. Don’t let marriage or children interfere with your career. Sleep, it’s “empowering”. Porn is normal. OnlyFans is for liberated women. Let’s take a pill. Please get the vaccine. Fat makes you fat. Don’t worry about carbs. Take this medicine if you feel depressed. Take that pill to have sex. If you are overweight, take this prescription. Take statins. If you take these drugs for the rest of your life, you will feel “normal.” Fat people, drunk people, and stupid people valid choices in life.
Empty sex is the point. The point is the life in the sky. The focus is on depression and anxiety. The key is excitement and distraction.
The only thing that saved me was being poor enough to need the Army GI Bill. What civilians don’t understand (and this is often beneath the surface for most veterans) is that the greatest benefits to be derived from military service are not germane but orders of magnitude more profound and meaningful. That’s what I learned in the military: interpersonal relationships. It supports us. That’s what keeps us alive.
Lydia Denworth elaborates on this argument by saying,Friendship: The fundamental bond of evolution, biology, and the extraordinary forces of life.Please read.
By the way, please read (or reread) “”.A brave new world, by Aldous Huxley. This novel depicts “erotic play” for children under the age of five. Everyone takes a drug called Soma that gets you high without getting a hangover. Medicines are just a distraction. There are many such things. It might be weed, the internet, games, booze, but it’s definitely cell phones.
We have been and continue to be groomed, lied to, and manipulated. We live in a post-truth, post-betrayal America. Where do we go from here? I’m not sure. But the first step is to reject the lie and live a life of truth.
