I despair sometimes at my plight and that of the other human beings that share this space around me (simulation universe or no, it’s real enough to warrant an emotional response in my psyche and since I’m not outside the set of rules governing this reality, I can’t engage in any Godelian pooh-poohing of said emotional state as wholly phony). We live in a world where many of us are essentially trapped in a Skinnerian cycle of behaviorist responding to a specific set of stimuli for reinforcement. For example, every day I go to work and I must log in to my computer (thrice) before I can activate several drop down menus and click various boxes so that a word on the screen will change from “No” to “Yes”. Similar happenings occur throughout the day and, at the end of two weeks I am granted a secondary reinforcement in the shape of a paycheck which I turn into a primary reinforcer of ethanol in different forms. That primary reinforcer then gets employed daily (at the end of my Skinner box laboratory session) after I return to my cage for the day’s rest. Wake up the next morn; do it all again.
I see a similar pattern of behavior repeated in my coworkers and students and wonder if they too view themselves as trapped in this same Sisyphean labor with the same despair. Many of them seem to be happy with the way things are/have developed. Hell, I should be. I live a life of relative ease, garnering a princely sum per annum for a vast majority of the world’s population. I reside in a safe neighborhood. (I don’t even lock my doors in a Mayberry-esque throwback to a largely invented post-WWII America.) There is enough food and heat and electricity to see us through the night. My special lady is currently at home with my youngest boy, safe and sound. Likewise, my two oldest are in a similar state with their mother, albeit across the country. Why am I complaining?
There’s a phrase, “stay woke”, meaning one should remain aware of just how fucked up things are despite the general patina of “follow the authority structure’s line that everything is dandy” that is smeared over everything by various media sources. I’m going to amend this phrase in order to implore my fellow ape to “get woke” to the utter pointlessness and retardation that the modern life has inflicted upon us. We’ve been inculcated into a life dampening system designed to wholly diminish the relish of our scant years on this orb. The powers that are say, “We’ve granted you a comfy existence where you don’t have to worry so much about barbarians at the gates, but that existence comes at the price of your not only buying into but wholly believing in our contrived system of cowering docility. Surely it would be imprudent to choose another, more raucous existence, wouldn’t it?” Yes, we have a prima facie “easier” world but one that, by design, drains color from the zestiest of tableaus this existence (fake or not) has to offer. Like, right now, my students are sitting in an absolutely terrible presentation about the horrors of STIs and all of the wrongs that can be visited upon your junks should you “misuse” those organs. “Risky and thrilling sexual behavior is awful! Abstinence is the only surefire answer to not acquiring infections! Don’t go about rampantly living, whatever you do!” What’s keeping all of them in their seats, I don’t know. Perhaps they hold some misplaced sense that they are creating a better future for themselves by so doing but a non-trivial part of me wishes they’d rise, en masse, and proclaim, “We don’t have time for this fearmongering horsecockery,” and see themselves out.
The point I suppose I’m trying to make is to put your fucking boots on, get out there, and move in a forward direction, even if it is only for a blissful Saturday morning of saying yes to real, wild living.
By Castmate Ben