"Stuff"

Sunday, June 18, 2006

"Stuff" has become the new opiate of the masses.

Recall the old George Carlin routine...where we put our stuff, why we collect stuff, names we call our stuff...

In the 21st century, stuff has now taken on a new moniker. The never ending pursuit of stuff has become an American pastime. Oh yes...we have always suffered from the "keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome. But, today's world has perfected this acquisitiveness to an art! I am not implying that technology is bad, nor that life in a computerized age is bad. The point I AM making is that technology unbalanced is a detriment to individuals and to societies.

What is worse, however, is that I have come to believe that the government/corporate coalition is now using "stuff" to keep us anesthetized, so to speak. As long as we can pursue the accumulation of stuff,as long as we can be the first one on the block to own that new gadget, we subliminate and eventually repress the losses of freedom that the government appears to be imposing upon us daily. The average American is happy to absorb these losses of freedom as long as they appear not to affect them personally.

We have seen so many Americans state that, in this age of perceived or real terror (you make the call as to which), they are willing to grant to this administration Orwellian powers under the guise of the government as caretaker model. This is a deception. If we continue to cede to the government authority which was specifically denied them by our constitutional "founding fathers", we will all end up paying the price.

Unfortunately, however, this "stuff", this 21st century opiate of the masses, proves to be the distraction, the incentive, the addiction...call it what you will...that the public sucks up at an unheard of pace.

This is the reverse of sensory deprivation...it is sensory overload. Our lives and minds are bombarded with a plethora of stimuli. Our children are beginning to forget what books are. We allow our minds to atrophy as a result of this milieu where we let computers think for us. And we continue to acquire the latest and greatest contraption that, they say, will simplify our lives.

We need to pull ourselves away from this sugar sop. It's effects are just like the sugar buzz with which we are all familiar. Quick lift followed by lethargy.

Resist the government/corporate plot to subvert your inalienable rights. Speak out against tyranny, inequality and the proclivity to trade our freedom for an elusive, fabricated and short-lived appearance of security.

Refuse to be dominated by "stuff". Teach your kids the value of books and the importance of thinking for themselves and self-reliance. Encourage activism and involvment...no one need sit on the sidelines.

And...never forget that oft quoted adage..."When they came for the Jews...I wasn't Jewish, so I did not stand up...when they came for the Gypsies...I was not a Gypsy, so I did not stand up...when they came for the Communists...I was not a Communist and I did not stand up. And, again, when they came for the trade unionists...why...I was not a trade unionist and I did not stand up. When they came for me...there was NO ONE LEFT TO STAND UP."

There are no excuses to not stand up!!

trickster108