I'm Here, I'm Here

Yesterday was the day that 56 large animals were massacred in Zanesville, Ohio. Right alongside that story was a headline which read, “1 in 10 Americans take anti-depression pills.” I see the not-so-ironic correlation and it’s bothersome. So bothersome, in fact, it has roused me from my sleep.




I wish I could go back to sleep, both literally and figuratively. Just yesterday I watched my recorded episode of The Housewives of New Jersey reunion on Bravo while effortlessly ignoring the endless images of war on the news. I honestly can’t keep up with all the international conflict. Who is our enemy again? Libya? Afghanistan? Who’s occupying Wall Street? I read about an obscure physics theory once that said it is possible our future relatives have harnessed telepathic powers that defy arbitrary space/time rules, and that the images that reach us (in the news, religion, literature) are messages from our future selves. Maybe a futuristic relative of mine, who would of course be bad-ass, sent me the Zanesville massacre hoping to wake me up from my reality TV hibernation. I feel like I’m in tenth grade algebra again, Mr. Richards says my name and it startles me awake, I wiping drool from my mouth while reassuring those around me, “I’m here, I’m here.”



I think what has really shook me to my soul, however, are the people who after looking at the images of 56 animals lying lifeless in a field (some of which are almost extinct) could rationalize the pain and injustice away. Well, tranquilizers are expensive. Plus, they’re tricky to use, and who knows if they’d work at all. Nothing scares me more than the cold, blank, mechanical gaze of rationality zapping the emotions out of our bodies.
I called it rationality. Psychology calls it “Just world syndrome,” and I think it’s more like a pandemic. It’s a fierce, belligerent devotion to the status quo. That little voice that says, “Sshhhh, it’s okay, everything is just how it should be. Go back to sleep.”

Examples:

Humans are systematically running species into extinction, one by one: Hey, that’s what happens on earth. Darwinism. That’s what happens, that’s what has always happened. Animals go extinct sometimes.

Global Warming and destruction of the environment: Look, this can’t be humanity’s fault. The earth has natural cycles and sometimes the temperature heats up. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the enormous amounts of toxins we pump into the air, water, and ground. Naw, it’s probably not the fossil fuels we burn into the air. And really, all this devotion to the earth has reached false idol status. We should forget this nonsense and going back to being docile Christians.

Prisons are little more than colleges of crime, making criminals better at crime rather than rehabilitating them: Fucking hippy. What, you want to rock them to sleep at night, read them a story? They’re animals! I say we kill ‘em!

These are just a few examples of how we use rationality to zap away empathy, compassion, and emotion, thus, creating the illusion that the world is a just place. I’m an anger person. By that I mean, when I hear people talk about the Zanesville massacre, and they say something about the cost of tranquilizers or how tricky they are to use, I pretty much want to shoot them with a high powered rifle and leave them dead in a field. But the truth is, I understand the impulse to pretend the world is just. In that regard, I say we are addicted to denial. A nation of denial junkies. Rationality is the remedy and depression is the side effect.



In Greek mythology, warriors sometimes found themselves washed ashore the island of Lotus Eaters. They’d just be sailing along the ocean, doing warrior things and all the sudden they’d meet lotus eaters, eating away the lotus plant is a peaceful trance-like apathy. Something about the plant caused people to detach from life and lose the ability to feel emotions. Sometimes the warriors would fall victim to the plant and, consequently, wouldn’t be warriors anymore. That’s what’s happened to me lately, except my lotus plant is Direct TV. But, I’m ready to be a warrior again. I’ll wipe the sleep drool from my mouth, “I’m here, I’m here.”

So here is my first blog in too long. Maybe it, too, is a projection sent from our future selves. What I think they’re saying is, “HEY! Shit kind of sucks right now—no, really, it does. So wake up and do something about it.” Let’s put down the lotus plants and become warriors again, for posterity’s sake.