We Lost 40% of Ozone Layer Last 3 Months

CNN reported this month that 40% of the ozone layer over the Arctic was depleted from December 21st, 2010 to March 31st, 2011 -- roughly three months. I heard a CNN anchor report this, with some alarm. The clip provides confirmation. I also watched as this anchor continued, after a few sentences on this, to another news item -- about an unrelated business development or some such. Guess life on this planet not as big a deal.

Amplify’d from articles.cnn.com

Ozone depletion over Arctic 'unprecedented' this winter

April 05, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff

The depletion of the ozone layer over the Arctic region "has reached an unprecedented level," a loss of 40% from the beginning of the winter to late March, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.

The World Meteorological Organization blames the "record loss" on the "continuing presence of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere" and a "very cold winter in the stratosphere."

The ozone layer is the "shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet rays," the organization said.

See more at articles.cnn.com

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/fNXMkd

Will To Die - Thanatos Walking

"The Will to Die, Part 2: Thanatos Walking"
by SillyMickel Adzema

For the author's reading, with elaboration, of this part, click on the link to the audio site above or click the audio player here:

The Once and Future News sound bites

 

Will Our Species Survive or Die Out Like the Dinosaurs?

This part discusses an age-old question that has currently become of immense, literally vital, importance: Will our species survive or die out like the dinosaurs is the most crucial issue of our time. It is related to the fundamental fact of our existence for it is about the struggle between the forces of Life and those of Death. The consequences as to the winner of that inner struggle have to do with no less than the continued survival of life on this planet or total planetary collapse. 

"Sometimes the Lights Are Shining on Me; Other Times I Can Barely See"

In the struggle between the current powers of life versus death, it is helpful to remember Freud's paradigm-shifting observations about the human psyche on Eros and Thanatos. Freud showed how all humans lives are drawn out against the background of each person's inner struggle between the opposing forces of life and death...Eros and Thanatos.  Specifically, for our purposes here, Freud advanced an understanding that made his insights paradigm-shifting, viz., that each of us carry within us a Will to Die.

 

Freud established that we act out a will to live and to be in the sun and to have fun and to love and to like goodness and health and truth.

Freud also saw that we have at other times an opposite feeling that causes us to want to live in the dark; to not be around people; to shy away from life and the light and being seen and recognized and even to wanting to be lonely; that causes us to not care about fun, to hate and be angry, indeed to hate everyone and even to want to lash out at them for no reason other than what might be self-labeled as spite; that causes us to hate goodness, calling things "kumbaya moments"; that causes us to be jealous of others who are more giving and to hate them for that; to call people "goody two-shoes" or saying something is "schmaltzy"; or to be saying that all that good stuff is just "drama"; and putting out terms like "bleeding heart" liberals; that causes us to beat up on our bodies and abuse them with all kinds of substances and behaviors; and that causes us to not care about the truth, but rather to say things instead to hurt, get revenge, to get back at; or to say untruths to get advantage, to disable our competitors, to hide from the evils we commit which enslave us further in the hiding of them, and so much more.

Struggle Will Out

But Freud took it beyond our inner struggles and talked about how the events of the world, the actions and movements of history, and the dramas of all the ages are in fact the products of this inner struggle.

 

On one hand, our lesser selves are currently taking us on a path that leads inevitably, one way or another, to total species extinction, and not just that alone, but in fact total life extinction on this planet, and possibly even to planetary annihilation -- the destruction of this planet itself.

 

Ain't We Special?

He pointed out that we have a Will to Live, too--nothing earth-shattering there. In fact, so far he is stating nothing more than the common-sensical beliefs of the masses, indeed, the mainstream's--and here I mean even globally, or, as they say conventionally, the universally held--near-definition of humans, or What We Are. And at this point he is only reiterating the universal human belief that what characterizes our species above all others revolves around a superior Will to Live. While common-sensical that our Will to Life is part of a species superiority of ours, it is wrong...going too far. For would anyone say that other species don't also have an incredible Will To Live?

 

Not So Much

But this hyperbole or over-reaching in stating humans are unique in the degree of their Will to Life reinforces my point about Freud's ideas being zeitgeist-shattering.  For in this common, frequent, pervasive even universal, and nauseatingly repeated promulgation of supposedly the obvious, by any and all who speak before an audience--large or small, from a principal speaking in front of a gathering of high schoolers or a preacher before his gathering of church-goers to the TV media pundit before a world-wide audience, and even to a US President's audience of even greater global reach-- it is shown that it is not as true as is assumed. For it were really true, it would not need to be constantly reinforced and upheld, as if against some attack, or attacker? And if so, what is the feared attack or attacker? 

 

And here we get a clue into Freud's discovery and its utter undermining of all that which is normally said regarding our humanness. For regarding our being special in our Will to Live, this kind of "protesting too much" and its flip side of repeating it ad nauseum, as Shakespeare obviously saw, points to a hidden agenda.  Truths do not have to be repeated endlessly, mantram-like, even ritualistically. For they are self-evident and need as much propping up as the belief that the sky appears to be the color blue to us--and you don't hear much about that, do you?

 

My Dogma Barks Out My Specialness

But the pervasive repetition of the supposed Truth of our species Will to Live--especially the blown-up version that has it being the thing that makes us human, different from other species, "superior" to other species (there's a clue), and even "special" (clue.  Getting it?)--points to its being, not so much truth as dogma. And dogma does  need to be endlessly repeated in that such things are exactly about things that are not obvious truths.

In fact, this repetition of an obvious truth points to its being not true. For just as in the previous chapter "sad proselytists" had to say their untruths and unrealities out loud in order to buck up or reinforce their believability, so also human societies need to endlessly repeat, in order to reinforce against onslaughts of insight, their precious untruths. [Footnote 1]

 

But the reasons behind the promulgation of this supposed "obvious truth" go even beyond, since we are not dealing here with any written or standardized set about things not obvious. For, indeed, in the repetition of our superior life-valuing, it is put out as being something not needing institutional backing, being simply true in its obviousness. 

So what then?  Well, this repetitive characterization of Us, as Humans, has all the indications of something that has an intention, that has a calculation about it to achieve an affect on the audience--in this case--the masses of all humans. 

 

Humans' Uniqueness Among Species? We Suck Up

What is that intention?  Well, let us take a look at what the effect might be.  Anytime you place our species above all others (true or not), you are making as much as anything else a play to butter up your audience of fellow humans and appeal to their vanity...and thus, making them feel good, hoping that they will feel good, or, like you in return.  In commonspeak, that's called "people-pleasing." In the vernacular, it's called "sucking up."

 

OK, so we've established that people in front of audiences near-universally want to say things that will make their audience feel good towards them.  No, not so fast.  For that overlooks the fact that somehow...and get this; for if the spoken thing were of the obvious truth category, then why would this follow...that somehow all these people speaking out to others about the unique will to life they have know that saying such a thing will, in fact, give people a good feeling. That's another clue. 

More Socratic Dialoguing

And again, continuing this Socratic dialogue, well, wouldn't humans just, of course, feel good hearing about them being superior?  Doesn't everyone feel good when told they are better and such?  Well, now we're getting to where Freud took us. For he knew, as we all do if we simply think about it. The answer is "no, not necessarily or even usually." 

 

Think about it. If the Beatles were to be told they were a good band, would that give them a good feeling?  No. certainly not.  For that was so true as to be overwhelming and almost scary in its near-universal belief, to them (for having that kind of power and influence, especially when you come out of nowhere, from humble, unassuming backgrounds, had to make them wonder about this power and its source and where it would lead and all that).  Or take the obviously accomplished anybody, Pavarotti, say. Wanna tell Pavarotti he sings good? Don't think he'd feel a thing. 

 

But, you say, that's because they hear that all the time.

 

Ok, granted that. But think about when it would have felt good to them.  Look to your own experience and you realize that you feel good when people tell you things about yourself (especially when they state them as self-evident and obvious to all) about which you are not certain, about which you often or at least sometimes have doubts, and about which you are insecure!  Look to your own life.  Can anyone be flattered about the things they know to be without question?  Can you be flattered about the color of your skin or hair, or about….  Well, not stated as a fact.  Only if the person has some bad feeling in that area, first, and second, the fact is not stated, but that it is somehow good, positive, or "superior."

We scapegoat our planetmates because of our pathetically low self-esteem and those who play on that.

 

How to Make Someone Love You: Tell Them Something Wonderful About Themselves That They Doubt Is True

Skipping to the point here.  People can be made to feel good about things that they are not sure of.  They will feel good, because the thing they would want to believe, the thing that would make them see themselves positively, the thing that would feed their slanted bias toward themselves…. Ok, I'll finally use the word:  The thing that would prop up and feed a person's "ego" or the belief in one's goodness, superiority, and so on, in a world of so many others, well that makes one feel good, whether it is true or not.

 

So, we see that the intention is to salve the egos of the masses.  Why does it feel good?  Because it is universally true that the ego is in constant assault from something which makes it feel not good.

 

What is that thing that makes people feel not good about themselves, so that being told something that counters that would make them feel good?  Well, the answers, by psychologists since Freud, have many terms attached to them.  And by the way, before the psychologists there were the theologians attempting to answer this.  But Freud's analysis not only answered it, but put it in the largest context possible--one into which both psychologists and theologians would find an inroad.

 

We can say, to backtrack a bit, that this pandering by those in front of audiences makes people feel good because it supports the defense system that all humans have erected against the real truth (the one Freud first explicated).  It feels good because it supports the denial that all humans have against the real truth that they feel.

 

"Quit Hitting Yourself"

So this repetitive obvious truth about humans having a strong Will to Live is repeated to please audiences and make them feel good (people-pleasing) because it is a salve to the egos of the masses, which in reality are not merely bruised.  No, this goes directly toward propping up a particular defense, a particular denial that we all carry.  And that denial is that, IN TRUTH, humans don't at all feel like they have a tremendous Will to Live.  Why?  Well, how many things do you know you do which are "not good for you"; how many things do you not do which you know would aid the cause of our supposed universal desire to Live and to Live as long as possible?

 

The point is that humans, along with a Will to Live that is undeniable, also have a will to die.  How many times have you woken up, thought about all the pressures and obligations, or complexities, responsibilities…. Have thought about all the seemingly insurmountable obstacles or challenges that you are facing… have thought about all the things that just have to get done, yet you feel that you could not possibly have the time to do all of them….   How many times have you woken up and felt overwhelmed with what life has become and not wished to just curl up, go back to sleep, and never wake up again? How many times have you taken to drugs or intoxicants in full knowledge of their negative and even dire concomitants and simply thought to yourself, "Aw, what the hell. If I were to die, so what?  What's so great about life anyway?"  Or, with less clarity, simply said, "Well nobody lives forever!"

 

Do they sound like the pronouncements of a species that has a tremendous will to live?  No, in fact, alongside of our Will to Live, we have not only a will to die, but even a will to self-destruction.

 

Suicidal Ape

Now, the intention is not to repeat all that Freud and psychologists have said in showing how this works; and anyway, just look at the evidence around you of addiction, chronic accidentalism, unhealthy behavior habits without number, and of course the ultimate evidence: suicide.  And by the way, if we have such a strong Will to Live, superior to all other species, then explain why it is so that we are the only species that has suicide?  And we're supposed to be the conscious ones?

 

What Freud pointed out has tremendous explanatory power, especially now in our current worldwide financial upheaval, depression/recession, nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, near environmental collapse, wars and terrorism, nuclear armaments of planetary annihilation, and tendency to pollute body as well as environment, and even to do it thoughtlessly, in full knowledge of the consequences.

 

Freud established that we act out a will to live and to be in the sun and to have fun and to love and to like goodness and health and truth. 

 

But he also saw that we have at other times an opposite feeling which causes us to want to live in the dark--to not be around people, to shy away from life and the light and being seen and recognized and even to wanting to be lonely--that causes us to not care about fun, to hate and be angry, indeed to hate everyone and even to want to lash out at them for no reason other than what might be self-labeled as spite; that causes us to hate goodness, calling things "kumbaya moments," that causes us to be jealous of others who are more giving and to hate them for that, call people "goody two-shoes" or saying something is "schmaltzy"; or saying that all that good stuff is just "drama"; and putting out terms like "bleeding heart" liberals; that causes us to beat up on our bodies and abuse them with all kinds of substances and behaviors; and that causes us to not care about the truth, but rather to say things instead to hurt, get revenge, to get back at; or to say untruths to get advantage, to disable our competitors, to hide from the evils we commit which enslave us further in the hiding of them, and so much more.

 

Pandavas versus Kauravas

Freud said we struggled between these two opposite feelings throughout our lives.  It is because of this contradiction that we carry inside that we can never be truly sure of who we are and even that we can question our motives and intentions (those more self-analytical of us).  It is because of this contradiction that we can always feel that we could have done better, that people don't know everything about us, even when they say they do, and that sometimes we fear, especially when we are younger, that if people knew what we had inside they would shy away, not like us, think us to be bad, even monstrous. 

 

By the way, about that inner monster of yours...  It is because of this contradiction that people are so terrified of revealing themselves, lest some of that not socially appropriate, socially sanctioned, socially approved part of themselves slip out.  And the fear there is that then we will be seen to have been found out; and that then we will be confirmed in our worst fears that indeed that "other" part of ourselves is--the horror that cannot even be spoken in one's mind--that dark part of ourselves is the real us; which carries with it the view that any of the "good" in us is just a cover up so that other people will not know.

 

Mask on a monster, lipstick on a pig.  But Freud took it beyond our inner struggles and talked about how the events of the world, the actions and movements of history, the dramas of all the ages, are in fact the products of this inner struggle. Therefore, that we join together with others of the same feeling; whether of lightness or of negativity; in multiple relations and groups on both sides of that struggle, and in complex ways that often represent these groups, as well as ourselves, acting out from one source, but masking itself as the other. 

 

Make it through this sentence and you're home free.  Ultimately, these groups magnify our powers, and the cumulative acts of many individuals, along with the actions of groups and their leaders, all within complex and contradictory motives at all levels and in every matter, create the complex events of all times, which at base are all the story of conflicts, complex conflicts notwithstanding, and cumulative, and over time convoluted and twisted and complicated through the actions of the myriad characters, all of whom conflicted inside, act inconsistently, and out of their own unique struggles which have all of us perceiving and interpreting things in ways totally unique to ourselves. 

These huge world events, then, Freud laid at the feet of the individual struggle.  Basically the world then becomes the acting of the Will to Life against the Will to Death, of Eros versus Thanatos.

That is why I say that this thing we will be discussing is dealing with an age-old question that has become, currently, of the most immense importance and consequence as to the winner of that inner struggle.  While we watched with paralyzed hand, on the other our lesser selves are presently taking us on a path that leads inevitably, one way or another, to total species extinction, and not just that alone, but in fact total life extinction on this planet, and possibly even to planetary annihilation--the destruction of this planet itself.

That is why the upcoming section of thirteen parts goes under the heading of "Apocalypse? Or Earth Rebirth?" That is why I will be talking about The Matrix...but not just the iconic incarnation of the Will to Death, but about its existence as an element of the current struggle between Republicans, media flunkies, huge corporations, the "filthy rich," and The Shadow Government….

As over against the Power of Truth, Love, Higher Power; God...if you will; Sathya Sai, viz., Truth Love...if you will; the Universe; or simply the Better Angels of Our Nature manifesting in increasing numbers of lives….

 

The questions we need to ask are about which side will win in the end. For certainly it will be decided one way or the other, and soon, of that we can be sure. And that is what makes this time and this question different from any other time. Because this question is not an academic one, now.  It is one whose answer will become known far sooner than we would ever wish?

So, we will continue to live, and we will become good citizens of this planet and our species will continue on?

 

True?    False?

 

That is the beginning of the discussion.

Strange Days, Indeed. "Most Peculiar, Mama!"

Beginning in the next part, "Strange Days"--which is the first chapter in "Apocalypse? Or Earth Rebirth?"--we begin discussing this question of life-death, eros-thanatos, survival-extinction. To continue to the next part: "Strange Days"

"The Will to Die, Part 2: Thanatos Walking"
by SillyMickel Adzema

For the author's reading, with elaboration, of this part, click on the link to the audio site above or click the audio player here:

The Once and Future News sound bites
 

"Thanatos Walking" is also known as,

"Will We Live, Or Die Out Like the Dinosaurs?"
-- audio by SillyMickel

 Tags: apocalypse, death wish, denial, die, ego, eros, extinction, live, matrix, pander, thanatos, untruth, war, will

Footnotes

1.  A look ahead: In the The First Prasad, the planetmates refer to this as the Unapproved and Hidden. I have written on variations of this topic on my website, Culture War; in particular, the series on "The Rise and Fall of 'Obvious Truths'" And I write about this more generally on one of my blogs, "Sillymickel's Blog of the Obvious Unspoken Things." [return to text]

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/er30Yr

The Will to Die - Zombies and Sad Prosel

Click on the audio player, above, for an audiocast rendition, by the author, of this post.

"The Will to Die, Pt. 1 Zombies
and the Sad Proselytists"

by SillyMickel Adzema sound bite  

The Once and Future News sound
bites

Zombie Apocalypse

People are
becoming zombies in the face of their death, their own
upcoming suffering, not to mention the death of all life on this
planet.

Do an internet search on apocalypse and note how little, if
anything, is posted about the urgency or emergency of our current
situation.

It comes across as a big party on a South Pacific Island in a
hotel that everyone there knows will not survive the incoming tsunami
or killer hurricane.




This is the most disturbing of any evidence I've seen supporting The
Will to Die.
[Footnote 1]

EnRaptured Reaction.
Except that of what I'm hearing is a kind of euphoria and longing
for the end of it all in evangelical groups who think of it as the
Rapture--a kind of being freed from what is seen as an onerous
Earth existence and the reward of the true life one thinks one deserves
of ease, love, and happiness in heaven.

Now, is that not the most extreme form of reaction formation you have
ever heard? These folks have developed an elaborate, comforting fantasy to escape the facts of their lives.

These "enraptured" people are the same ones who admit

/claim they were the good little God- (parent-) fearing children who
slavishly fawned upon the unreal wishes

of their authoritarian
parents--parents who themselves were real religious nutjob psychotics whose lived world was an
imaginary one of hellishness and a stern bearded father god who makes
you say, even think, that he is loving--despite being the most
horrendously mean and more than murderous mythical figure ever
concocted. [Footnote 2]

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George Carlin "Religion Is Bullshit" audio

Gotta Love 'em, He's the...Monster!  For this father "god" will not just punish by ending one's life but will
punish you in what has to be the most extreme kind of punishment ever to be
imagined--being forced to live forever but every moment of it being in
extreme pain and suffering. And these folks have to somehow twist their brains into thinking this "god," this monster, is
actually loving rather than the obvious. The parents bought that
horrific view of the ultimate reality of it all; then their kids
slavishly followed them in this insanity. Is it any wonder then that
their wish is to be dead!?
[Footnote 3]

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(Link) View more
Satire Sound Clips and
God Sound Clips

SillyMickel Adzema - "Breaking News: Hell Doesn't Exist;

God Is Really,
Really Good!!!" audio

So the reaction formation is that of creating the kind of life
where, unlike their own childhood, they would be loved, cherished,
seen, made to feel special, and so on. Most of all to be freed from the
fear of punishment of the most extreme form imaginable.



Leave it to humans to be so cut off from the reality of a
loving God as to wish to be dead instead. For they have managed, with their
imagination running loose and totally without even one lifeline to
anything loving or nice--either in their own life's experiences or in
the mythology of reality they've been forced to accept--to come up
with the most unimaginably horrible view of their lives, and its
prospects.

But They'll Give You "Breathing Holes"!   One last reversal of reality--what Freud called reaction formation--is that--getting "breathing holes" this way, "thinking they are happy"--they call
themselves "saved" and think it is their duty to go out and "save"
everyone else in the world. 

[Footnote 4, for the lyrics]

For, in the view of enraptured folks, others are suffering and
miserable. Interestingly, this is similar to the way they view the "animal" world, the World of
Nature. [Footnote 5] 



Also, others needing to be "saved" like them insinuates that their
happiness--the state of being of the "enraptured"--is eminently superior to the experienced lives of all others.

The media enables these psychotics.
Now, isn't it about time we stopped giving in to their
pestering and stopped adding media credibility to their huge denial
systems? At any rate, we have here reaction formation and then reinforcement of it by the media. [Footnote 6] 

So these sad proselytists know deep inside
how miserable they are. But they find a way to stave off the
realization of that reality and of its horrible roots in their
suffering in childhood, through denying their unhappiness. They take up arms against their misery and engage in endless battle trying
desperately to believe (and unfortunately for us, assert) that the opposite is true: i.e., that their
experience is happy.

Sad Proselytists

This sad insanity they impose on all and everyone. Of the actual pathetic nature of their lives they know intuitively but without letting themselves know it (like so much else of the facts of their reality). They also know in their muscles that saying
the lie out, and loudly, can help in reinforcing their precious untruths. For these dear fabrications, when heard coming
from the outside--even if it is simply one's own voice that one is
hearing echoed back--have greater weight and credibility to them. When experienced
existing in the outside world, they can be felt to be more real than when heard just in one's own private thoughts
alone.  [Footnote 7]

This is another reason they need to have other people, and the media, echo it: It adds to the reality of these lies...the Big Lie repeated becomes more true...and boosts their defense against, and attacks on, the truth of their reality which asserts itself over and over--"truth will out"--during their life and increasingly more as they get older. This also explains their behavior's increasing rigidity with time, as they get older.

If
YOU accept that I'm better off than you, then I must be!  But simply proclaiming their blessed savedness out loud is not enough to be truly
convincing over against
the unhappiness that they actually feel every moment. So the big guns
are brought out: Not only must they proclaim their happiness; they can
PROVE it. This leads to their fantasy of engaging with the rest of the world in convincing all others that
they are indeed less happy than they think they are and that that they need and
want the "saving" the "enraptured" ones are offering.

The underlying rationale goes like this: If you
could convince others in the world that you were happier than they are to the point
where those others would all want to give up their lives and have your life
instead, well, then that PROVES you are happy, or at least that what you
have is the happiest existence possible. For if your reality wasn't the better one, no one would choose it over their own...no one would decide to try to be like you rather than to be like themselves. Conversely, other people choosing to try to become like you, to accept your beliefs...to be "saved"...proves that your reality is the superior one (One Way!!). To such lengths do people go to deny their
sad, unfortunate lives.

Inner Lepers.  If one could not see the
tragedy of it for a moment, one would have
quite a belly laugh, at their sake: Just this vision of inner lepers,
convincing themselves that they are divinely gifted healers instead,
going out to convince as many healthy people as possible that it is
they who have leprosy and that they (the actual inner lepers
proclaiming themselves spiritual healers) can cure them (of this
disease that they don't have) by the intimate laying on of hands.

You simply have to take a look at the lives
described above and
imagine those multitudes and the incredible pain, utter lovelessness,
utterly miserable and confused minds they carry as adults. Then think beyond them to
the many-fold more of the masses who have similar but lesser versions
of lives and experiences as the "enraptured."

Add to that the incredible power of fear; not
only fear; but fear that has, well, demonically, been projected into
the biggest expanse existing in the universe--that of the imagination
and that of the knowledge of the Unknown, combined.

A mind that's squirming like a toad.  If you can get a sense of that fear, even a small part,
you will
realize the utter terror that awakens them, that is there in the middle
of the night as they approach consciousness, and which, like a
squirming frog, inhabits, nay, becomes the daytime brain and thoughts
of these people, and motivates them to do ANYTHING, anything at all,
that might promise a snippet of relief from what is the reality they
condemn others to.

You will see that they believe in hell because
they in fact live lives that are the closest things in existence to
actual hells. This is made that much worse, indeed, multiplied many-fold, by the
idea implanted with it, which is that to acknowledge that truth will actually
result in the imagined hell becoming reality...and that the only way
they can save themselves from that hell is to, somehow, not be aware of their
own reality as it is. So they must struggle mightily to not know what they indeed do know. Now, try that burden on for size. And just be
glad that you are not them. They exist within that nightmare reality; they see it portrayed before them. They have not even the respite, like watching a horror movie, of ever walking out of the theater and thinking, "Well, I'm glad that was only
a movie."

But the rest of us must confront their horribly realities as well. Sorry, you are not spared them. And you dare not take comfort in the denials of them as well. For to deny these truths is the same as
denying the events
of history that have resulted from these kinds of horrible existences: all the wars, killings, tortures, holocausts, purges, genocides, pogroms. It is no coincidence that these sorry sorts are attracted to fantasies of denial, such as denying climate change, denying the Holocaust, denying the atrocities committed by religions or their own governments. In striving to be shiny, happy people they create inner hells and outer monsters. Not only hell do they create, but all the hellacious
things on earth are the offspring of these lives. This includes the creation now of the ultimate evil that can be committed while in flesh--the
killing of the planet and of all life on it.

Thanatos Walking Your Way

For another, final, take on insane or irrational reactions to the end of time and of all life on this planet, another example of the Will to Die, continue to the next chapter, "Will to Die - Thanatos Walking."

Footnotes:

1. See the next
chapter on Freud's view of The Will to Die or Thanatos, as he also called it.  Part Five: Will to Die - Thanatos Walking

2.  See the relevant part of the movie, Zietgeist, also.

3. See Part
19, The Great Reveal's First Days, and the audios below: "Breaking News: Hell
Doesn't Exist" and the larger audiocast from which "Breaking News" is clipped, "The Great Reveal: Recalling the Riotous, Exciting First Days."

"Breaking News: Hell Doesn't Exist; God Is Really,
Really Good!!!"

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"The Great Reveal: Recalling the Riotous, Exciting First Days"

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4.  These are
the lyrics to "Sad" by Nirvana:

Rare song by nirvana titled "Sad" or "Verse Chorus Verse." Also known as "Sappy."



Lyrics:



And if you save yourself

You will
make him happy

He'll keep you in a jar

And you'll think you're
happy

He'll give you breathing holes

Then you'll think you're
happy

He'll cover you with grass

And you'll think you're happy

Now



You're really
in a laundry room,

You're really in a laundry room

Conclusion came to
you, oh



And if you cut yourself

You will think you're happy

He'll

keep you in a jar

Then you'll make him happy

He'll give you
breathing holes

Then you'll think you're happy

He'll cover you
with grass

Then you'll think you're happy

Now



You're really in a
laundry room,

You're really in a laundry room

Conclusion came to you, oh
(x2)



And if you fool yourself

You will make him happy

He'll
keep you in a jar

And you'll think you're happy

He'll give you
breathing holes

Then you will seem happy

You'll wallow in your
shit

Then you'll think you're happy

Now



You're really in a laundry
room (x3)

Conclusion came to you, oh
{Check these lyrics against those I came up with on Amplify; they might be sanitized. Link to Amplify, also.}

5.  I just
realized that I cannot call our planetmates "animals" anymore. It
strikes me as being very much like using the N-word for Blacks or the
Q-word for Gays. For we all know that the word, animal, has
connotations that are not positive, in fact they are derogatory and demeaning. The word
is used as an insult. It does not connote the noble, esteemed but
simply different, interesting nature of these conscious souls in
relation to us, in truth. Is it not time we all started referring to our
differently embodied brothers and sisters, not as "animals," but as planetmates?

6.  Cf., Fromm's The
Sane Society; Marx on religion as being the "opiate of the masses"; and Sigmund Freud's writings of the role of religion in society as a defense mechanism.

7.  It is significant that in The Lord of the Rings trilogy the power of the Ring, which signifies an all-encompassing untrue belief system that provides comfort, esteem, and well-being--thus an aspect of ego (cf., Primal Spirit article on the meaning of the ring)--the power of the ring is magnified when it is used. This is equivalent to the assertion, saying out loud of one's untruths, unrealities...the struggle to find external justification and reinforcement for one's chosen psychotic reality and thus the active enslaving or imprisoning of oneself, i.e., becoming a Gollum.

A Conversation on the Eve of Apocalypse

Pt 3: Conversation on the Eve of Destruction

Apocalypse Emergency, Part Three:  A Conversation on the Eve of Destruction

Facing Death, People Are Becoming Zombies

For the audio, click below:

(Link) View more Silly Mickel's Calling The Noble In Spirit: Wake Up Sound Clips and The Once And Future News Sound Clips

"A Conversation on the Eve of Apocalypse"

by SillyMickel Adzema. sound bite

People are becoming zombies in the face of their death, their own upcoming suffering, not to mention the death of all life on this planet. Do an internet search on apocalypse and note how little, if anything, is posted about the urgency or emergency of our current situation.

It comes across as a big party on a South Pacific Island in a hotel that everyone there knows will not survive the incoming tsunami or killer hurricane. But in the meantime they're drinking themselves silly, drugging...gonna party their way to the end. That is not a rational response to the end of all life.

Other responses on the apocalypse have machismo aspects to them. In fact, most sites about apocalypse have a macho message in common.

Macho, Macho Man

You’re not going to believe it, but check it out: The theme…now look deeply, if you’re not used to picking up on people’s motives off hand…the theme goes something like this: 

“Well, folks, we’re all gonna die. But big deal. I’m so fucking macho, I laugh at death! Here, let me prove it to you. Come here, death, right up to my face!"

"See, everybody, how I look directly into this face, this face of death! Now watch, watch as I spit, spit directly into this face. Ptoo. (spits). See that, so who cares!? Not convinced? Then watch and I’ll show you. See the face of death that I’m holding and facing. Watch as I laugh in its face, laugh directly in its face. HA! Hahahahahaha! See, told you."

Doing it, Tron style. Well, that is the way it comes across: "Apocalypse? Let me show you how tough I am." Not, "What can we do about it, to stop it?"

So, dear listeners, were you able to see the motivations beneath such efforts. Granted, that they are worthless as to either reversing apocalypse or even showing some sort of inspired vision in which it can be made acceptable or noble if not avoidable. For those who don’t see it yet, in this audio clip, I try a little fantasy dialogue to bring out what I think is going on, much of the time, and keeping us from acting rationally about this imminent emergency of all dire emergencies possible.

Witness me as I trip over in cyber land to something I call Amalgamated Macho-Apocalypto dot com. I’m about to go over to the webmaster of that site, in imagination and, well, just run a question or two past him. Tune in and catch what ensues. It should be revealing. So you click on the gadget, while I fly myself over there. See you there!

"Eve of Destruction" Barry McGuire

Spitter Dude. Ok, I’m here. “Hey, yo dude, deathface spitter and laugher!”

“You… You know me…?”

“Heck yea. You’re in Google, you know. I understand you’re surprised because, believe me, tagged with apocalypse, like you, well, let’s just say I don’t have to lock the doors either. But there’s probably more interest in you than what I do.”



“Really, more interest in me? I like that! What do you do then?”



“On my site I tell the truth: you know, tell them that it’s very very bad and looks impossible unless people wake up on a massive scale and decide unequivocally to live. Stuff like that.”



“Ha. Hahahahaaha.”



“Ok, but just no spittin. I’ve seen your routine.”

“No, no. Nothing of the sort. No, really, I thought that kind of stuff died in the Sixties with all the ‘kumbaya’ and ‘we shall overcome’ baloney."

Why’s everybody hatin on kumbaya? “Well, not that it’ll make a difference on you, but yeah, I’m that old and have had many high moments of unity in among the angels of humans coming forth to reunite—what you refer to as kumbaya—and by the way, I like the song, I like the Lord, what’s everybody pissed at? As for the other, we overcame. I’ve really dug being me because I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the things that made the world better; and I can’t imagine a better high or feeling of fulfillment.

“But I’m not here to dispute with you. I’m an old fart who got to live in rich times and participate in them. You’re a young, well, younger than me person, who was apparently born at around the time all the things my kind were working for were deemed a threat to the status quo. And so the powers that be created the misinformation, scapegoating, and slander of my generation. Then they delivered to generations following mine the machismo cynicism with its connotation that it was better to have that than feeling life. They seeded you with the idea that those who experienced life…as opposed to those who accepted their prepackaged attitudes of cynicism and mean-spiritedness…well, we were wusses, saps, effeminate, feminate, and all that.

“So, sorry, that my generation’s threat to the moneyed powers was so scary to them that they reacted with the all out effort to create a generation that would be the opposite of us, and so you were brainwashed and misinformed and lied to. So, so very sorry. I wish I could say, “my bad,” but well it was “our good” that resulted in “their bad,” and I don’t want to be like them and continue to uphold their matrix of misinformation. So, anyway, sorry.”



“Well, I shoulda Tivo’d that for later. That was waaaay too much and too many twist and turns for me to follow. But you called yourself an old fart. That part I got. So since you’ve placed yourself below me, I guess I’m at ease with your being here, whatever it is.”

Who Ya Talkin to, Dude? “Well, your Dudeness, your Fearlessness Most Strong and Mighty, I have a few humble questions to ask of you,” I say.



“Ok, old fart, go ahead.”

"I see clearly that you're showing the world you don't fear death. But how is that going to help the world any. I mean if everyone felt like you...let's say that was your aim...well then we'd all go down, patting each other on the back on how it doesn't matter, but never to be heard of again!"

"Your point?" he says, irritated.

"Are you saying my site isn't offering anything to the world? So who the hell says a site has to be doing anything for anybody or anything? Let alone this world...

"This is me! I'm expressing me! What else is there to do?"

"Ok, thank you. That explains a lot. But something comes to me. May I?"

"Sure," says he.

"You say that, 'this is me.' Number one. Right?"

"Right." Annoyed again.

"Ok. Now, you know there are not a lot of people watching. But your intention is not to influence any people. Number two, right?"

"Yep, that's right."

"But you wouldn't be putting up a website if you didn't want somebody to know who you are. I mean, you could say it in the mirror, or in your bedroom. You wouldn't be making it available unless there's somebody, persons, that you hope would hear you. Would that not be number three, right?"

"Well, you old farts really are big on this self-analytical crap, aren't you? Well, I ain't no pussy, but I am man enough to say that I couldn't escape that logic that...yea, I am, inside, wanting to share, and share myself to some, to some...well, I guess, I just wouldn't mind if, uh,really by accident of course, some people, who never got to know me this way, might see me and understand...well, uh..."

Let's play a Mind Game. "Oh, understand. Nothing wrong with that. But, uh, how 'bout you indulge an old fart and just try out something that I think will be a real gas for you, er, perhaps I should say, fat, er, uh.... Look, you can trust me to take the time to play a little, let's say, mind-game. It's lots of fun."

"Haha. Suure, ok. You crack me up, ya old fart. Gonna be a real gas. Ya can bet your damn asscrack that you'd lost me for sure until you'd made real quick to explain that one, hehe."

"Mind Games" - John Lennon

So, I say, "Yep, that's a little mind-game prank that was played on me, well, anyway, uh.... Well, uh, I just want you to allow yourself to open your mind to the greater intentions intentions you have for doing this, the greater visions. Now, don't think just yet, you'll only try to make things up. This is easier than that."

"Ok."

"Ok, now. You say that...being honest and only rational after all...that of course you wouldn't be doing this expression of yourself on the internet if you didn't have some desire to share or show this part of you with somebody or somebodies in the world...right? So far?"

"Yea, get on with it, I've already said that."

"Ok, fine. Now, here's the fun part. I want you to have that desire...to have it clearer...the clearer you can make it, y'know, the more likely it will happen. So let me help you a little here. Now just clooose your eyes. No, no, don't look that way at me, nothing fishy going on.... You just ain't going to be able to see your desires with all the distractions that the sights around us present. Give it a chance. Believe me, I'm not trying to lay any trip on you...."

"Ok, that's better."

Who's your real audience? "Now. On the internet, we never see our audience. But we all imagine and wonder who they might be and what kind of people they are. Don't you, too?"

"Yea, sure."

"Well, we're gonna try do something like that. Instead of an internet with no audience, well, imagine you're in an auditorium. It can still be an internet to you...and you're making the same points...and you're really getting into it, like: I SPIT (ptoo!) in the face of death...and I LAUGH uproariously in the face of death."

"How's it goin?"

"Yea, I'm doing it, really into it...like it!"

"Ok. How does it make you feel?"

"Strong, fucking strong, damn fucking strong."

"Greeeat. You're feeling strong, real fucking strong. Feel as fucking strong as you can!"

"Great, yea, all right, I'm so fucking strong, ain't no mother-fucking dudes as strong as me...I spit, I laugh...."

"Very, very wonderful. Enjoy, enjoy that! ... Now... add one more thing.... One more thing, make it even better.... Remember, you're in an auditorium, and here you can see your audience. Stay with that 'spittin at death' strength. You're strong! ... Now, containing all that strength...all that bigger than death power...cast your eyes down below you to the people in the audience...you're at your peak!...the people that you really wanted to show. You're strong, you're powerful, more powerful than death, right?"

"Fucking right, I am."

"Ok, now. Show them, and tell me who they are...one by one...look around...slowly...who do you really...really want to show who you really are...who couldn't see this before in you...but now, they wouldn't be able to miss it? Take your time...."

"No need to take time! Ha! I'm fucking really strong now. And there's my bitch ex-girlfriend. Ha! Now, she doesn't seem so high and mighty. She looks scared now. Ha! She left me. Took off with some some guy who did some kind of daredevil or motorcycle stunts. Sorta like saying to me, that, I wouldn't be there for you.... Well, she didn't get it then, but she's gettin' it now...how much braver it is to stare down death than to face some motorcycle risks. Ha! Yea, I'm gettin' it. This is fun. You're an old fart, but you got some tricks...good tricks...."

"Ok, now," I say. "Look around, who else?"

"Well, there's several other girlfriends. Wow! How great to see the look on their faces now." (chuckling) "And there's my two older brothers. I really wanted to be like them, and...hang out with them. But they made it like I wasn't big or tough enough. Boy, am I showing them now. How fucking glorious. Even they are scared; they are tooo chickenshit to do what I'm doing. Ha! I'm showing them...he he he....."

Those damn 'ghostly' others. "Keep looking," I say.

"Ok, well, there's...there.... No. No...what the fuck, what the fuck's he here for?"

"Who's that?"  I say.

"Why my dad...and my mother too. My dad always made me feel like I was weak just 'cause I was a kid. Why wouldn't I be weaker than a grown man!? That bastard never gave me credit for having the strength I've got. Yet how strong is he? Just because he can put down my mom and...who would never fight back...."

I say, "Look into his face. Did you show him? Does he finally see?"

"Not sure.... He's, he's kinda lookin' down...."

"Look more closely. Zoom in."

"OK.... Oh my god, that mother-fucking bastard, that prick!"

"What's going on?"

"Well, he's even angrier now. He's thinkin': 'What kinda pussy son he's got who's play-actin' all over the internet about how tough he is...but that's not bein' tough,'.he's thinkin'.... Why that fuck! He never did understand anything I did, he put down everything I did. I tried, but no matter. I could never be man enough...in his eyes...."

I say, "That's rough, dude, rough. That'd be hard for anyone to live through...."

"Yea." Beginning to choke up. "Yea..." he says...he's sobbing now.

"That mother.... All those years I had to live with that fuck! hope and try and not getting anything back....my God!...except...scorn! Gaaa! Scorn! Scorn and Hate! It's you who's face I spit in, you're the fuckin' death, I hate you!.... I'm bigger than you. I survive you. I laugh! Ooooh..." Openly crying.

And, he broke off crying.

You're never gonna win, pal, give it up already. Well. I did what I could for him...and stayed with him and hung out with him for a while.... Really not a bad guy at all. He seemed to really get it, too, that he didn't need to do things to prove to his dad anymore, because he could clearly see there was no extreme he could ever go to or ever go through that would make a dent in his father's attitude of despising him.

I explained that while it is hard to accept that his father really did despise him, that he will find it easier than most, because he at least knew it...and didn't try to pretend it wasn't true. But that he just hadn't gotten it out of his craw that even in some imaginary way he could get something that he just wasn't meant to get in this life. And I explained that, that is the way with all of us. There's always something that's not part of the perfect family portrait, or there's some elephant in the room.

I explained that, while he didn't have to prove anything anymore to his father that, while he was doing it, it led him to learn a lot about the internet and such, and he could apply that to something new.

So when I was leaving, he said something. It gave me a happy thought. He said:

"You know. Now I don't need to show anybody anything. What a waste of time that was."

What to Do, When You Don't Have to Do

And he continued, "It occurs to me, then...'What the hell to do'? Then it occurs to me, 'Well, if you got nothing to prove, and you really don't want the world to end, actually.' In fact, it is pretty scary."

"And I'm thinkin' of all the innocents...like my mom...being put down by big scary men whose only strength lies in putting down little kids, and their wives...so they can feel strong. Hmm...."

"So I think, 'No, there's no changing my dad.'"

"But the next thing I have is...while my mother isn't here anymore, 'there's lots of helpless innocents out there, like her, who aren't being helped...about what's coming down.' They're even being prevented from knowing, by other chickenshit men like my dad, who are only out for themselves and it doesn't matter who they hurt...s'long as they get their profits."

How DARE they? "So, I'm thinkin' this, and I'm real surprised because I feel myself breathing deeper. And I feel some anger coming, like, 'How DARE they?!' "

"And then some strong feelings of manliness...my heart crying out...like to my mother. Even choking up a little, thinkin' like, 'I'll take care of you, young mother, little sister, little brother, little baby child. I'm bigger, I'm stronger. I'll protect you from harm'...like no one protected me. And now I know how horrible that was. And, how I could do nothing to...and how I would do anything to stop that from happening to others. I really would. And I got all psyched! Y'know?"

Guaranteed to Bring Out the Best in You. "I'm sorry for putting you down about wanting to help the world. Cause I see that's the best place to put your strength and to be a real man.... Y'know? To have a just cause...put all your strength into it...whether you win or not. Just to be on the right side! And in the meantime to stand between any hardship and those innocents...and to comfort their sorry hearts. It seems like there's no other worthy thing to do."

Well, I expressed how that was really wonderful. And I said, to confirm for him, I said how this is the biggest struggle this planet has ever faced.

And, he's right. It is the worthiest effort that one can imagine. And guaranteed to bring out the best in us...and to make us better...as well as the worst in us...which we can at least know and struggle with to keep those things from undermining the good in us.

Freed from a prison. Well, after that we talked about how we individually and together could do things in the future, and.... It gladdened my heart to see him freed from the prison of striving forever for a love that would never be and...to be learning, already, that true love is in giving. That true love is in giving.

Finding love, in giving love. No doubt, if he continues like this, he'll soon learn that in giving love, he finds more love than his heart can contain, coming his way, without his expecting, asking, or even seeing it coming. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes over to my site to contribute, share, and even join in solidarity.

Well, that's one take on why people are not reacting to the seriousness of the end of all life on this planet. I think it's a rather pervasive one. And I'm sure there are others. And I just wish it would be that easy to turn these people around to see how they could be real men, how they could be real heroes, how they could be really strong. Instead of performing for some "ghostly" others...who aren't there, and...who aren't going to be impressed anyway.

Take my word for it or not. That's the way I see it.

(Link) View more Silly Mickel's Calling The Noble In Spirit: Wake Up Sound Clips and The Once And Future News Sound Clips

"A Conversation on the Eve of Apocalypse"

by SillyMickel Adzema. sound bite

Other Takes on This

Other irrational responses and reactions to the end of all time are discussed in the next two chapters, "The Will to Die -- Zombies and Sad Proselytists," and "The Will to Die -- Thanatos Walking."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/dR369F