Atheist Meditations: Marlboro Man

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Marlboro Man

Yesterday a major British scientist released a statement declaring that the world and the warming effects of human activity have already passed the point of no return. 'Within this century, billions of us will die, and the few human breeding pairs will be forced into the arctic where the climate is tolerable' - or something like that. Yep, children born today will get to see the end times. The Four Horsemen will return, and many of us will die in those predictable ways.

Sure, there will still be many other scientists who come out and urge us towards taking steps to save the planet, but we all know better than that. Like any realistic changes are going to take place in the next ten to fifteen years, and even then the population will have continued with its maddening momentum to reduce the Tree of Life into consumer products and yet more suburban homes. The 100 million sinful non-thinkers who make the choice every day to turn on Christian Radio and tune out reality will believe these calamities are part of Armageddon - in a tragic way they will be right.

I'm still going to try to fight the good fight, but I'm not going to beat myself up with too much guilt over the fate of life on this planet. Certainly, I'm an educated sentient being, and a citizen of the world's last, most powerful empire, but I am only 30 years old. Half of my conscious life has just been overcoming the self-esteem smashing effects of modern, institutionalized existence and a childhood of having bullshit images beamed directly into my skull for four plus hours a day. I had to find love, friendship, and read a mountain of books (plus try to write one. . .) Perhaps some are born with the fire of social change already burning bright at 18, I needed to stoke a few other fires, and maybe enjoy a bit of the smoke.

The battle over the fate of the planet was really lost before I got out of junior high. The Idealistic Inferno that raged during the sixties and early seventies was but a golden hue upon the horizon when I came of age. What happened to all that debate about 'Population Bomb' and 'Waldon II'? The bards of peace were killed, the great orators of equality were shot down, and a generation grew tired to standing up for something greater than themselves - so they elected the Marlboro Man to be President. A man who had spent his entire life reading off of cue cards, and pimping his cowboy good looks to an industry that has killed more Americans, in a slower and more degrading fashion, than died in Vietnam.

He was a man who only needed to see one side of an issue, the side that was paying him to speak. So, after decades of monied interests slowly eroding away at the Fairness Doctrine, within the media of our country, the FCC under Mark Fowler dissolved the rules regarding equal time to be given to those on the opposite side. Amazingly, both houses of congress passed a bill that would have re-instated this practice, but Reagan went against the majority of elected representatives and vetoed that in 1987.

No longer did a broadcaster have to portray both sides of an issue, or allow individuals who were personally attacked to have an opportunity to respond. Thus the door was opened wide for cancers like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the Religious Regimes to begin their steady spread through the body of our nation's politic. So now 'fair and balanced' means repeating the statements of the pro-war lobby 400 times for every sentence a questioning skeptic manages to slip in. Now 'liberals' are craven, sexually disfunctional idiots, whose own self-hatred causes them to lash out at America and try to drag it down with them. Now the only christians you are going to hear on the radio are the ones with money - those who have not 'chosen to move beyond the phophesying of smooth patriotism' as Martin Luther King jr said (linked in previous posting).

Even when Neo wakes up from the Matrix, he can't save the world.

So we can try to fill our lives with truth. Cultivate the most meaning and value we can with the relationships we got. Try not to blame the Baby Boomers too much for failing, against such technological advancement perhaps they never did have a chance. We can try to live our lives to the fullest, and live by damn high moral standards, but we should accept that the Idealism we yearn for in our hearts is not realistic. Idealism can no longer be entertained as a notion of a utopia where racism is non-existent, and we all wear white cover-alls in a classless society. Idealism will now be laying down your life, meaninglessly, before the brutal train of an industrialized society out of control.

Pragmatists will do whatever they have to in order to survive. Idealists will make choices determined to have at least some Ideals in their life from which they will not waver.

May you live in interesting times, and bum a square off the Marlboro Man.

# posted by Aurelius : 18.1.06

Comments:

What a heart-wrenching post. I spend so much time fuming at others who have squandered our beautiful planet until it has become cancer-ridden and covered with parasites. Maybe it's just time to accept that it is gone and enjoy what is left.

But I can't stop myself from muttering under my breath about those self-centered bastards.

# posted by

Anonymous : Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:49:00 AM

I guess, if I had to choose, I'd probably prefer the world to end with a bang rather than a whimper. With the crazies in power all over the world at the moment, that's probably going to be what happens. Maybe it's for the best to not see all the thousands of species of animals go extinct over the years, and the various rain forests of the world leveled to build furniture. I guess it all depends on whether you prefer deep, sudden trauma or lingering sadness that slides slowly into oblivion.

# posted by

Anonymous : Wednesday, January 18, 2006 2:54:00 PM

Thanks for the feedback, yoall. I suppose I was waxing a bit melacholic.

Stay groovy,

# posted by