Revelations (The Universe Inside You) (787 hits)
Category: Science & EnvironmentalLabels: ETS_Essays
Rating: 1.36 on 26 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (View user info) at 2004-09-01 12:37:55 EDT
The inherent irrationality of humanity has never suprised me. As we grow older, we tend to numb ourselves to the catastophic, the tragic - the sensational, viewing them more as a source of entertainment than a malaise to be remedied.
Nothing seems to spurn us anymore, as the wonder that was our childhood becomes an evaporated, spectral memory.
As a defense mechanism we avert our eyes from those who are starving, downtrodden, lonely, and forgotten toward the impersonal, massaging comfort that is our television screen.
Without thinking we continue to purchase and ride in vehicles that burn fossil fuels, pumping tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so we can save the automobile manufacturers the trouble and expense of implementing the alternative technologies they already have available.
With mindless fervor, we all help propel this train of mankind toward the inevitable derailment that awaits us in the end, if but to make our own lives more comfortable in the meantime. Like drones, we perpetuate the cycle of greed and selfishness that drives us onward into the nuclear sunset of our species.
Like so many tapeworms we continually infest our host planet - sucking its natural resources and upsetting the delicate balance that sustains us. As a testament to our intelligence we are able to conquer the constraints of gravity and explore the depths of space in peace as one people. As a testament to our malice we use this ability as a means of intimidating our enemies, spying on them with satellites, and orchestrating our warfare with each other.
In our personal lives we race toward some imaginary goal line, all the while ignoring the fact that by starting the race in the first place, we've already lost. As a rule, we focus on the trasient and illusory details, meticulously fretting over them as if they would love us as our children, whose love we generally take for granted, love us.
We subscribe to ready-made, easily digestable religions and philosophies, bickering over their differences, instead of accepting the simple fact that we are all but a droplet in the endless ocean, a single synapse in the eternal mind of God. Then, many years later, in a blink of the cosmic eye, as we lay dying - thinking of all these things - the pilot light of the life that had sustained us gently flickers out...and it is all beautiful.
User Reviews
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-02-11 01:59:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by eIectrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-10-23 18:45:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I like you. People say I've got no taste, but I like you.
Submitted by equaIizer (user info) at 2004-10-21 00:53:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-10-18 21:20:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
man, was I depressed!
Submitted by Fake_BargIed (user info) at 2004-10-17 14:01:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by equalizer (user info) at 2004-09-14 03:43:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Equalized.
Submitted by tuesdaydelay (user info) at 2004-09-07 19:05:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Fake Bargled, I'm going to use those very numbers on the Lottery tomorrow. If I win over a million, you can have one thousand dollars.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/44257
Submitted by fake_bargled (user info) at 2004-09-07 18:58:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I got this fortune cookie today that said "You are careful and systematic" and that your lucky numbers are 11, 18, 22, 32, 40, 8. I just thought I'd inform you of this.
Submitted by DyingBreed (user info) at 2004-09-03 07:43:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
naw, dont worry about it
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-02 09:18:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by DyingBreed (user info) at 2004-09-02 07:34:54 (#)
Ranking: 0
hey dickface....you still have that copy of geometrical chaos on vhs? i think i saw it at your house when i visited this summer, but im not sure. also, does that tape include the ones i did when i first discovered you could do that? you know, the ones with leonard cohen and leo kotke in the background? i need a copy if you would be so kind as to record it for me if you have the means.
oh, pretty shitty writing....you need to get your skills back! :)
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Yea, I have a copy of it, but with a review like that, I don't much feel like copying the fucker. I mean, you call me dickface, then ask me for a favor. If I put my video capture card back in my PC I can burn you a DVD instead.
Motivation will be a huge factor in this. Perhaps +2s for life would convince me to get off my ass and do it...
Submitted by DyingBreed (user info) at 2004-09-02 07:34:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
hey dickface....you still have that copy of geometrical chaos on vhs? i think i saw it at your house when i visited this summer, but im not sure. also, does that tape include the ones i did when i first discovered you could do that? you know, the ones with leonard cohen and leo kotke in the background? i need a copy if you would be so kind as to record it for me if you have the means.
oh, pretty shitty writing....you need to get your skills back! :)
Submitted by Mr_Asshat (user info) at 2004-09-01 19:27:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Boo
Wait for it...
Hoo.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 19:15:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by SilvrWolf (user info) at 2004-09-01 16:30:27 (#)
Ranking: 2
Thought-provoking and astute, if not a little dark.
I'll have what you're having.
Sidenote: Where the hell are my reviews for "Deep Water Dreams"? You're three chapters behind!
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Fuck Silvr, sorry dude! I had no idea you'd continued it yet. I usually keep continuing posts in my favorites list if they're any good, but my favorites are spread out over about 4 different computers. I'll check them out posthaste!
Submitted by I_Have_a_Kristen_Fetish (user info) at 2004-09-01 18:23:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
How about "The -2 inside me?"
Submitted by SilvrWolf (user info) at 2004-09-01 16:30:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thought-provoking and astute, if not a little dark.
I'll have what you're having.
Sidenote: Where the hell are my reviews for "Deep Water Dreams"? You're three chapters behind!
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 14:05:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Filthy: What I was driving at was that just because it's inherent doesn't mean we always view it as so, or recognize that inherent nature. For instance, aliens may very well be an inherent part of our universe, but some might be suprised if they one day showed up, trumpets blaring....(if they use trumpets, that is.)
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 14:01:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Filthy: no I meant "spur". Thanks for clearing that up.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:59:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Interchange: I am not intending to offer any answers. I am merely observing and admiring the futility and, at the same time, the beauty of our existence, that is all. I am not a utilitarian, and my views on the state of our existence are purely for my own amuzement. I have no illusions that anything I say will change a damned thing, so I won't even attempt to offer alternatives...besides, everything is already as nature intended, and who am I to want to thwart that?
Submitted by vodka7tall (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:53:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:05:40 (#)
Ranking: 0
The cryptic nature of this response is bugging the shit out of me.
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The Matrix.
Nice post.
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:52:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Did you really mean 'spurn'? Doesn't make any sense to me in that context. And why would an inherent characteristic suprise you anyway? If it's inherent then it's like an essential characteristic - not something that would ordinarily seem out of sync.
+2 because I really like some of the phrases, but remember that simple can be beautiful. The more ornate you make it, the more you obfuscate your point.
And yes, that 'obfuscate' is dripping with irony. Much like me.
Submitted by interchange (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:20:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Using words that are not commonly in the vocabulary of your compatriots is a sure-fire way to get a good rating, especially when you put two or three of them in the same sentence. Empirically, it leads to comments like "there is no spoon" and "my head hurts now". Unfortunately, properties garnering their respect are not intrinsic to your message but rather side-effects of its composition.
I cannot figure out if you intend a fatalist message with this post. You use hedonism as a direct example of the futility of this world, yet you don't provide any options for those of us who might recognize the peril humanity is destined to. If contrast to today's downward slope is hopeless, then what point is there in anything other than hedonism? At least you have a biological imperative for that.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:05:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by potatomanjack (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:00:09 (#)
Ranking: 2
Whoa... There is no spoon.
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The cryptic nature of this response is bugging the shit out of me.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:01:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Submitted by potatomanjack (user info) at 2004-09-01 13:00:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Whoa... There is no spoon.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-09-01 12:48:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
my head hurts now
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-09-01 12:41:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Pretty.... I want to touch it...
Yes, I'm tired. Blah.