INTO ABSURDITY

The world seems blind to what its facing: either come together in love or die in fear. Come together in unity or continue to waste, pollute, and destroy. Everyone thinks that their part in all this is very small, but the fact is, we all share a part and thus we all share a part of the responsibility for making this change happen. And this is why the world has plunged into absurdity. We are facing something so monumentally challenging and pressing; of such great import and concern, and we are simply ignoring it. And that is absurd. So this absurdity plays out in multiple dimensions of manifestation and we can see it's signs everywhere. The well over 100 million deaths attributed to war and genocide in the 20th century. The 800 million cars on our planet all contributing to the general decay and entropy. And just the fact that we think all of this is necessary and that it glorifies us and it glorifies God. This is truly a mind boggling, mind blowing, ABSURDITY.

Pinpointing when this absurdity began requires more than a bit of historical perspective, and it is surely worth noting that as long as man has been engaged in a power and control dynamic, there was bound to be ongoing absurdity. More recently in history, the 17th and 18th centuries saw minor power struggles between British and French Imperialism playing out over areas such as who had the best navy and biggest ships. Totally absurd and childish. Isn't it time to grow up? With all of our advancements in "technology" and "industry" and "economy," it seems that we are still the same childish species that engaged in these juvenile games of who has the bigger stick. Oh but we're all grown up now. In fact we have plasma TVs and cell phones. We can hop from one side of the planet to the other in mere hours. Our buildings are less likely to crumble in the event of an earthquake. But then again while we can fill a baseball, football or soccer stadiums to capacity any given weekend and our wealth flows towards these trivialities, all the entertainment, convenience and war, we boldly declare that clean energy is decades away. Too inefficient. Not cost-effective. Simply not enough money. It seems as though bullshit has clogged the pathways of the brain and our politicians and spokespeople vomit this nonsense absurdity and furthermore that they actually believe it. As thought this leech of a system has burrowed and dug in so deep that its melted into them and they have become the ugly face of everything that's been taken away from the human spirit.

I'm going to vomit the next time I hear the words "war on drugs." This has become the political scapegoat of America for too long as if we can divert attention from anything and just blame it on drugs. Oh its the people doing drugs or its the people in South America manufacturing the drugs. No no no. Drugs are not destroying our planet. Its the steady stream of lies and hypocrisy perpetrated by those in power. The politicians, the movie stars, the ceos and the real drug villains at the drug companies. We don't need a cure for cancer. People are going to die anyway so why are we so selfish? We need to make sure our children and their children and their children's children have a clean planet to call home. We need to make sure that the values we teach them we don't find ourselves abandoning. How many Disney movies have I watched with my little son and lamented that the values and morals which we put in these movies for them are so quickly abandoned by adults as they enter "the real world." Like love and tolerance and compassion all too quickly given up when not expedient; when the dollar takes priority. This is absurdity.

Now it seems it could be too late for anything short of a total meltdown, total system collapse to pull us out of this. We aren't going to bring down the system. Dream on Idealists and crusaders. You aren't going to feed Africa until they learn how to feed themselves. You aren't going to pull the thorn of fear and ignorance out of the heart of politicians. Wake up they're are politicians for one and only one reason. They don't want to make the world a better place. They don't want to solve you're problems. They just want the image and the appearance. You aren't going to Greenpeace the oceans to a cleaner tomorrow. No, the wave is too big and its so blind that it doesn't even see you're efforts. This shit will just bring itself down because it is that blind. It has become too absurd, too enormous, too staggeringly purposeless to do anything but destroy itself.

So if you don't think that the world has become absolutely positively absurd then think about this: How many times have you seen an actor or actress on TV accepting an award or walking down a red carpet? Do you have any Idea how much money we give them to play make believe? Have you ever seen American Idol? Have you ever heard of The Bachelor? Have you ever seen one of these Brad Pitt, Eminem, Jay Z, Matt Damon clowns acting as if they are the spokespeople of humanity? And lastly have you ever seen Keanu Reeves? Enough said. The world is truly absurd.

Tags: absurdity, love, unity

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Comment by Theresa on January 4, 2011 at 9:39pm: Hi David

did read your blog on absurdity

Firstly the swear words pertained in such ....not cool

secondy the political party to which i belong in south africa, actually this very day a bit later i am joining

the party to hand out gifts to street children - to brighten the hearts of those who have possibly not even eaten much over the festivities

focus is needed on helping each other

in action

we all know the crappy things that have happened & which still continue

but you & i & all whose paths shall cross ours, just help & make things better in any little way

help each other

regards

Comment by David Wilson Siegert on September 2, 2010 at 10:12am: The comment about Keanu was a joke. I should have clarified, I have nothing against him. It was actually a joke directed at one of my friends. She is totally in love with him and I don't get it. Anyway I've never seen him on TV accepting any awards so he's pretty cool in my book. And he did A Scanner Darkly, so I think I've some new found respect for him. And also the Matrix. I think I took the red pill and the rabbit hole has no end. When you get to the bottom, it always drops away into a new manifold of hidden and underlying dimensions. Such is the depth of life. And also I recognize that I do create my own reality and to this point terrifyingly complex. Also I still stand by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and the rest being clowns. I live in La, less than 10 miles from Hollywood and I can hear the circus music through my window.

Comment by Carl Carpenter on September 1, 2010 at 11:32pm: Provocative post. I agree, humanity is absurd. I lived in the absurd, inside the bell jar of that oppressive awareness, for much of my teens and twenties, the unbearable nausea of existential being.

Now at my ripe old age, looking back, I see my encounter with the absurd as one of the critical stages in the development of personal consciousness. When you first confront the reality of it -- that is, when you become fully conscious of the human situation, that Agent Smith is right, we are behaving like a virus, unconsciously devouring our own home -- the absurdity is truly stunning. You see it everywhere you look, at all levels. Fortunately, it's not the end of the line, although it seems like it is.

So what's beyond the oppression of the absurd and how does one get there? The truth is, that must be entirely up to you. It is precisely here where you define yourself, where you choose, even if you choose not to choose.

Here's the bottom line. You can do something to help, you see the magnitude of the problem (rare), and you know something has got to be done (rarer). So what is that thing that most needs done that you might be able to do? You've got to find out what that is and make it your mission. You've got to find the way you're going to be effective here on Earth, despite the absurdity.

Oddly enough, just before I came here to post the amazing TED talk by Johan Rockstrom, I also happened to watch -- have no idea why unless it was to prompt me to write this comment -- George Clooney accept the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. I didn't see George as a clown, and neither do I see any of the people you mention as clowns. We shouldn't condemn those who are actually doing something, should we? Is that not itself absurd? George seemed genuine to me. He's found his mission and he's been effective in fulfilling it. Admire the man's grace, his sense of humor standing there in front of the world. Perhaps he could have sacrificed more for Sudan or Haiti, but what does holding that view accomplish? Nothing. We must learn to appreciate the good wherever we find it, tolerate the absurd, move with the flow of life around us, and do it all with a singular determination regarding our own purpose.

What do you want to do here on Earth at this critical time? Something has to be done, you know that. And you know about love, that it's the key... The way beyond the absurd is to become relevant and stay relevant, if only to yourself. Forge your own unique path. You know the way. It won't be easy, it never is, but you'll find it if you give it your all.

Not as sure about humanity as a whole, but we can't let that get us down, can we? Far too much work to do...

Comment by Doreen A Agostino on September 1, 2010 at 11:26am: Happy Planet Index ... received a 'TED' video today. Our generation, is writing a new story about life WITH Earth.

The more we consciously focus on new possibilities, where a burdened past cannot follow, the sooner we cleanse within ourselves, which transforms our outer reality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1o3FS0awtk

Comment by David Wilson Siegert on September 1, 2010 at 10:03am: I must assert that the world is far more absurd regarding the human element than at any time in the past. There are simply more humans now than ever before. Cummulatively this amounts to more absurdity. And the 20th century saw more death attributed to war than any period before it. As for politicians, I don't believe they are making a stab at anything. They are caught up a negative cycle and perhaps they do think that they are doing some good but then they are just deceiving themselves. Their's is a petty divisive path. It has always been so. Full of back stabbing, deceit and generally unethical behavior. The whole arena of politics is generally unethical.

Comment by James Baring on September 1, 2010 at 9:48am: I don't think the world is any more, or less absurd that it has been in the past. Well, yes, it is true that absurdity can only start with human type consciousness. What is new is the level of consequence and humanity's control or the lack of it. I agree wholly with you about the drug industry and modern medicine but, on the whole, I think politicians are representative of individuals who make a better stab at trying to get us to live together than those who deal in or abuse drugs that are traded illegally and designed to build an addicted market worse than our addiction to technology. I think the Hollywood period will decline, so it is not a real worry and even the worst can be turned to good in surprising ways. No doubt we face a sort of meltdown, but I see our mistakes as part of the building blocks. While in no way underestimating the problems you accurately point out, I am not as pessimistic. If our current behaviour led in our time to a more promising outcome, then I would be really worried!