Something’s Wrong

“Something’s Wrong”

“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?” – Morpheus (The Matrix)

“Well do ya, punk?” – Dirty Harry

 

 

You’re standing on a street in the centre of a busy city. It’s the middle of the day and the street is packed with people. You’re standing still, but you’re quite alone in this. All the other people are moving, some up the street, some down it, all around you. It’s as if you’re standing in the middle of a shallow river, with the people as the currents of the water. Just like the water, your presence is of no consequence to these people. Most of them are too far from you for your standing still to have any effect. Those who pass closer to you simply alter their course slightly to avoid hitting you and then continue as if nothing happened. None of them really notice you, none of them look at you, none of them wonder to themselves, “why is there a person standing still in the middle of this street?”

If you look a little closer, you might notice that most of these people are following similar paths up or down the street. Unconsciously, they seem to be falling into lines, like a procession of ants. You wonder to yourself about the thought process in the minds of these people. Do they do this deliberately, or is it an unconscious accident? Where are they all going? How is it that so many people can be following the same path? Aren’t they all individuals? Don’t they each have their own agenda, their own tasks to complete that day, which should take each one of them on a different path from all the others? Yet here they are, marching in a relentless procession towards…what, exactly? The shops!?

As you look around, doesn’t it fill you with disgust? With utter revulsion, in fact? Why aren’t any of them standing still, as you are? Don’t any of them ever pause and reflect on what they are doing? It doesn’t seem so. You realise that you have become an obstacle amidst a current, a flow, a drift. For that seems to be all these people do…drift. The lack of any moments of reflection tells you all you need to know about these people. They don’t reflect on their actions because they are not really aware of their actions. None of them really know why they are here, or what they are really doing. They are just drifting, not one of them with an authentic thought in their heads. They are simply a herd, and none of them notice you, the one individual standing amongst them, a small island of resistance in an otherwise constant flow of mediocrity. None of them notice you, for to notice you would require thought, would require reflection, things entirely lacking in the minds of these people.

So what makes you different? Why are you so special? How is it that you are the one standing still in the midst of this constant drift, while everyone else is merely a part of it? Are you better than them, smarter, wiser? Maybe, but what good is that? Forget them for a moment, and look at your own life. Is it going the way you want it to go? Are you doing the things you truly want to do? Are you being fulfilled? What’s the use in being so much more consciously aware than these other people, if it leads to such misery?

Look back at them, their faces smiling in blissful ignorance. Is that what you want? Is your desire to fit in so strong that you would sacrifice your own consciousness? Should you just try to forget the truth you alone seem to be aware of, that there is something very wrong with the world, that all these people are living ignorantly, unconsciously? Should you cast this all aside, don a mask of blissful ignorance and attempt to blend in with this drift of smiling people? Would that lead to fulfilment? Somehow, you think not. Truth doesn’t go away just because you find it unpalatable. You can try to fit in all you like, it won’t make the truth any less true. Do you really want to live such a shallow life despite being conscious of its insincerity? How has it even come to be this way?

Look again around you. These people are all drifting, unconsciously through their lives, no better than any other animal. Yet look at the ‘unnatural’ setting they are in, the city, the buildings, the concrete, the asphalt. This has been built, built by humans, but by unconscious humans like these? No, this situation hasn’t come about unconsciously, by accident, rather, it has been consciously arranged. Somewhere, hidden behind the scenes, there must be more intelligent people who are in charge of this simulation of life you are witnessing. But for what purpose?

What are these people doing? Most are shopping, spending their hard earned money on consumer goods, giving them temporary bursts of joy. Some are in the midst of a working day, and those that aren’t likely would be on any other day. What work are these people doing? Some are working in the shops selling the consumer goods, others are working for businesses selling services, entertainment and other things all geared towards giving these people more of these little bursts of pleasure. It that the purpose of life, working most days in order to spend your free time in the pursuit of these little bursts of pleasure?

When these goods and services are purchased, what is being exchanged? Money, of course. These people work to earn money which they then spend on these little pleasures. Look around you again. This entire edifice has been built to facilitate nothing else, other than these exchanges, of money for little pleasures. But where does the money go?

When these people work, for the businesses selling the pleasures, whom are they really working for? They must have bosses, mustn’t they? When working, when selling, they are taking money from their customers and giving it to their bosses. Yes, they each receive a small wage packet at the end of the month, but where does that wage go? They go out and spend it on their own little pleasures, thereby giving the money back to the bosses. The bosses are clearly getting more money, and they too will have bosses higher up, who will get even more of the money and so on. But what for?

If money buys pleasures, then the bosses at the top of the pyramid must be getting the best pleasures of all. What’s more, with so many people working for them, they likely have far more time in which to spend their vast amounts of money on their bigger pleasures. And so we now see who has arranged this whole situation. The bosses, the big bosses at the top. They have somehow managed to convince millions of people, that life is all about the pursuit of little pleasures. So extensive has the brainwashing been, that these people will work and toil all their life just for a few little pleasures, while these big bosses do very little work and yet get all the best pleasures. A small group of bosses of the top, living lives of luxurious pleasure, being supported by a vast multitude of workers, who scramble around for the crumbs falling off the high table.

And here you stand now, right in the midst of it, this drift of scavengers, this writhing mass of unconscious, brainwashed rats all clamouring for the best crumbs, whilst in the far distance, if you listen very carefully, you can just make out the deep, gleeful laughter of the bosses far above, cackling as they rub together their big, clammy hands, filling the air with a foul, sweaty stench, the poisonous fumes filling the lungs of the people, drugging them and forcing them unknowingly to perpetuate this constant march of unconscious servitude.

These people are sleepwalkers. Yet you have woken up and found yourself in this nightmare. But do not despair. For though it may be hard to see from within this drifting mass, there are others out there, others who have woken up.

You are not alone!

 

 

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.” – Morpheus (The Matrix)

“What is Truth?” – Pontius Pilate

You have woken up. You have seen the horror of the world. Before you now, lies a path, beset on all sides by darkness, shadows, pain, ignorance and suffering. This is the Road of Truth, and you are standing at its very beginning. It is a long road, disappearing off into the distance, into the darkness. It may not seem like it from here, but there is a light at the end, the brightest light of all. Behind you is a door with a small window. Through the window you can see a wonderful comfortable room filled with warmth, with food and drink, with entertainment, with all the little pleasures you could ever want. But the room is small and entirely enclosed.

You now have a choice. You can go back through the door, back into the world of comfort, the world of little pleasures, you can seal yourself back into this little room, for once inside the door will disappear forever. Or, you can begin down the Road of Truth, towards the brightest light of all. The choice is yours.

Steel yourself! For the road is long and hard, with all manner of wild beasts and dark creatures upon it, lying in wait to block your passage. But fear not, for remember you are not alone, you will have guides, and at many points on the road you will find keys, keys to unlock various doors along the road, and each key is also a weapon, a weapon to be used against the beasts who will stand against you.

The time is now! The drugs of the masters are beginning to wear off, and more and more people are waking up as you have done. Come! Let the stream wash over you and cleanse away all of the ignorance of the past, all of the falseness instilled in you by the masters from afar. Step out of the river of mediocrity, leave behind your eyes, your ears, you will not need them on this road. You will need new eyes, new ears, for you will see things never before seen, hear things never before heard and together we will right the wrongs of the world, cast down the masters and rationally solve the universe’s great equation.

Think! You’ve felt this way for all of your life, haven’t you? You’ve always known that something was wrong somehow. The world you were presented with just didn’t seem right, did it? There had to be more to it, this couldn’t be all that there was to life. Well you were right. This world you know is false, a lie you have been told, a cave in which you have been chained, but now your chains have been broken, now you can clamber up, out of the cave and into the light.

Ignore the sleeping mediocrities, they are the walking dead, and they will try to drag you back into their prison. Cast them aside, hurl them back into their drift! Separate yourself from them and take your first courageous steps, the first true steps you have ever taken.

Your life has meaning. Your life has purpose. This road, dark though it may seem, is that purpose. All it takes is one step…