Excerpt from Chapter 5 of my new ebook f'd: For Your Own Good: Social scientists tell us that brains under the influence can not be relied on to perform properly. They simply cannot function properly when neurons are misdirected by outside forces. Those forces are sometimes obvious and sometimes so subtle they can go undetected. We don't really know, for example, why some people enjoy torturing other people. The perpetrators may tell us what they think they are thinking, but close analysis shows there is no real logical or empirical mental process involved. Thinking may not apply. Muddled brains may just be reacting like water boils when it is heated. Most people want to believe there is simply something wrong with the way killers are wired. Normal brains do not allow humans to rationalize torturing and murdering other human beings. But who defines "normal"? And does normal happen by accident or can it simply evaporate over time? Are we all born normal? I guess that is why we have social scientists. To tell us how to be "Normal" and how to avoid those that are not. One thing is for sure: Getting hooked on anything other than oxygen has its hazards. Even those that are hooked on work (workaholics) suffer side effects. Listen to the warnings about using prescription drugs! Many of the side effects are worse than the disease! In modern culture most people are hooked on dozens of habits. Whether it is tobacco, booze, marijuana, sex, gambling or PEDs, we all have our weaknesses. We are creatures of habit. We stick pretty close to routines because it allows us to function without the interference of focused thinking. The things we like we overindulge. That is not a value judgement, just a fact. Moderation is a remnant of a past era. Modern culture is based on consumption: Cellphones, TVs, and refrigerators are ubiquitous. If one is good, two is better. How many old cell phones do you have in a drawer? How many TVs do you have in your house? How many social media accounts do operate, visit or discuss every day? We collect habits like memories, storing them for future reference. It takes an effort to recognize how many habits we have collected over the years. They are revealed when our offspring point out how our language betrays our age. My wife went to the library recently, and asked if they had any "Books-on-Tape"? The receptionist rolled her eyes and bit her lip. Being hooked on things that chemically alter perceptions has always been recognized as dangerous to society. But in recent years we are beginning to understand how electronic impulses can change our brains. Psychologists have used shock therapy to reorder the neuron paths in people that exhibit untreatable anti-social behaviors. That treatment was almost universally applied without the patient's consent. What is happening in society today is a form of voluntary shock therapy. The recipient gives themselves the shock because it causes a sense of euphoria, just as opioids do. And they can give themselves a dose whenever and wherever they need it. Our culture has undergone massive prescription and illegal drug therapy for generations. What used to be deemed reckless is now considered recreational. Do you know anyone that is entirely "drug free"? For most of my life when I needed some medicine my doctor would give me a prescription, tell me to take it two times a day for two weeks, and check back later. Now, every prescription is permanent. It is added to the menu of other drugs taken everyday, forever! That only makes sense to the drug dealers. Gambling was also considered anti-social and self destructive. Now we celebrate it and have awarded Native American tribes an exclusive franchise to grow the subculture and administer the fix to millions of addicts across the nation. Sex outside of marriage was frowned upon for hundreds of years. Now it is classified as a natural bodily function, like bowel movements. We start potty training our kids in preschool about what pleasure can be derived by sharing their private parts with friends. Eating used to be considered vital to survival of the species. Food was scarce and because of that people worked long and hard to acquire enough to feed themselves and their family. As technology improved society's ability to provide and store food, it slowly became less of a privilege and more of a right. Society started spreading access to food across economic barriers. In the modern era, food is just another form of entertainment. We indulge in eating events every day! Some are just regularly scheduled programs like TV soap operas, and others are meeting at restaurants with friends and enjoying a Super Bowl game! Food has become an indulgence, a way to cause the body to release endorphins, to grease the friction of social conflict and to celebrate every milestone. I got a good night's sleep last night, time for some strawberry pancakes and whipping cream! Even the most health conscious eater has their habits. Control freaks may have expunged their cravings for meat and sugar, but they have replaced them with the pleasure of conquering their emotional weakness for ice cream or fat in their diet. They are hooked on diet control. Exercising control is just as addicting as avoiding it altogether. In fact, control is a neurosis. It can be blamed for many dangerous and debilitating behaviors. "Control freaks" are people who obsess on habituating control of themselves, but more importantly, of others! The COVID19 pandemic has been a windfall for control freaks. They are relishing the opportunity to exert maximum control over everybody! If you are reluctant to participate in a massive medical experiment and refuse to inject yourself with an entirely untested mRNA immune system reprogramming formula that includes graphene oxide , then you are a threat to society! You are selfish and dangerous, because you could infect the rest of us who are vaxxed and theoretically protected from the coronavirus. Taking the newly released gene therapy is For Your Own Good. Don't you see, if we all get injected, then we are all able to go back to our venal habits of over indulging in social self gratification! Control freaks always cloak their bullying in the pretense that what they want is only what is best for you. What gives them power is your capitulation to their assault on your "common sense". You are simply being stubborn and irrational if you only consider your own safety. Hmmm... Humans that provide "Public Service" are celebrated because they typically sacrifice much of their own ambition, wealth and freedom, to contribute to the greater good. In America we operate a Constitutional Republic that, in theory at least, provides an avenue for those individuals to do the "People's Work". We invest our trust in a few individuals that have agreed to be our political voice. Unfortunately, history tells us that even those people have their sirens. They may start out with the best intentions, but too many end up, like fish in a school, caught in a net. Or perhaps what happens to them is driven by a more basic human need. They get hungry for power, and when they see that bait dangling at the end of the line cast by special interests, they get hooked. As a person that resists indentured servitude, it is my contention that modern consumer culture has instituted a new version of the slave plantation. Instead of dragging poor blacks across the ocean to place them inside of fenced prisons and forcing them to provide their labor for next to nothing, our world now operates an entirely different form of servitude. Eat it up slaves! Just keep forking over thousands and thousands of dollars and we can keep the endorphins coming perpetually! It is essentially a ponzi scheme: Your brain needs stimulus, they provide it, then you ask for more and after sucking it out of your brain, they give you some more. In between, you pay. What a business! It would be considered a vicious cycle if you recognized it actually existed, but few do. It is the Great Brain Robbery! You are at once the victim and the beneficiary. Even when you sense you have been robbed, it gives you a great rush. Mexican Drug Cartels have nothing on Big Technology. |
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