Happy Time!

              The happiest time in a man’s life, and I would put this question to any man if he was honest with himself, is the time between conception and birth. Three hots and cot…eating and sleeping 24 hours a day…life is a perpetual lazy summer’s day. However, once expulsed from paradise all bets are off. Now people are telling you what to do, where to go, how to act. In some cases who to kill…Pushed and prodded in directions that to most would seem insane man eventually settles in and hunkers down for the long, slow fade to oblivion.

            The greatest pessimist in history was one Latimore Bivens DeGroot upon the moment of his birth took one look around then proceeded to claw his way back up into his former residence never to be heard from again! Extreme perhaps, but none-the-less a sober reaction to an insane situation.

            The powers that be are called just that because without their power they would not be. Without being they have no power so they do whatever it takes to maintain power and revels in the fact that the masses spends every waking hour currying its favor, either by promoting the power structure or willfully bowing in front of it. There is no in between.

            Baby Latimore did the only thing a reasonable man would do in his situation, yet most of us do not have this fore thought and instead will take our chances that the culture has our best interests at heart. It is rare for our best interests and the culture’s best interests to gibe in any meaningful way. The culture is selfish and defines itself in purely narcissistic ways. In order for this machine to run smoothly we need likeminded operators. The machine cannot be efficient if there are too many savage minded citizens.

            What about these “others” who receive no sustenance from the culture as it stands? Where do they go to find nourishment? This is a tough question. It seems that the culture in a Darwinian sense would just as soon let these contrarians go by the way of the buggy whip. By this I mean eventually not be naturally selected. Life would run smoother with less irritation if the bane of the culture’s existence no longer were to be.

            The poet, the painter and the mad man your services are no longer required. Politicians, clergymen and the talking heads are now the litmus to which all commercial thought is measured against. These are the beacons that illuminate the surface.

            There hasn’t been any real news for a very long time. What has taken its place is a seamless, translucent reality. It looks like reality, but is missing one very important ingredient, none of the bitter aftertaste. It’s the bitter aftertaste that makes us and keeps us human and moored.

          For those you who refuse to get with the program learning to tread in the schmaltz of modern culture might be your only way to survive.

          However, if you happen to be a spineless yes man we would only be too happy to have you fill out an application.