Strength in numbers

Primitive...we are so freaking primitive. We boast all the time of being superior to all life on this planet, of achieving thousands of amazing feats…..of being civilized and reaching a new level of intellectuality …of being sophisticated……..but are we truly?

Not long ago I had a discussion with a person. Now the topic does not matter, but what does matter was that the person I discussed with was supported by multiple people and I was not. Well let’s not dwell on the things like “did they support him just because he was their friend?” or “did they support him to get on his good side?”, “maybe they didn’t want to be ostracized from the group?” etc. 

What puzzled me was ….does the fact that multiple people agree with a theory automatically make that theory correct? Because it sure as hell looked like it. The supported person eventually got so self-confident that he didn’t even waste his time thinking on arguments to what I say that would actually be based on facts. Actually...it didn’t even look like he listened to me much in the first place, so absorbed in the mass support he was getting, eventually shouting lines that in a shortened form would mean “see? I am right and you are wrong!”

That fun debate which ended in my regrettable and crushing defeat got me thinking for a while. And I finally noticed something. It somehow reminded me of a simple example….a large pack of hyenas ganging up on a single wolf. That’s right. It reminded me of strength in numbers.

Humans since the very beginning of our time learned that to survive they need to stick together, to be in packs like those hyenas I mentioned previously. And that one of the most primitive and basic instincts actually remained to this day and on it we build upon, eventually calling ourselves sophisticated and superior to all. Does evolving the shell of that primitive instinct make us superior in some way? Civilized? Not primitive? NO is what I say to that. It’s like building a new house on an old foundation. The house might look modern and pretty, but the foundation is still the same old unstable one.

Not only that but it got me thinking some more, about our society. About how we do things…strength in numbers. Heck…we really do literally use this phrase in our living, don’t we? Votes are carried out for the benefit of the majority. Theories are agreed upon when a majority agrees. The proof given is only the tool needed to bend the majority to your cause, but eventually it all comes down to the support. In other words…you are not right if you are alone.

Everything is based on strength in numbers. Everywhere the majority is right. Only recently did the “ruling and democratic majority” decide to support the “minorities” in their countries, carrying out this ridiculous hypocrisy and charade, when in truth the minority was turning into the majority itself. Ridiculous!.

It all reminds me of 13 year old kids in my neighborhood who suddenly feel strong and brave when grouped up in at least 10 individuals. Brave enough to attack a single or two older guys - a strange and primitive feeling that humans get when they are “united” by a common goal or need. How it magnifies everything else, how it makes the people involved instantly “degrade” to animalistic actions and “search for prey”. Like hyenas who only attack weaker prey or stronger but only with numbers and an obvious advantage. 

Indeed ….strength in numbers. Such a basic instinct we still have in ourselves and yet we still cling to it so very much, building our whole world on it as well as other instincts. The whole system….our whole civilization.

Corporations that are made up out of large numbers of people and produce huge amounts of money, which equals to power and serves as a substitute for “numbers” attack weaker and smaller ones, swallowing them up and jumping on others, while rubbing the shoulder to shoulder with other giants like that and escaping even larger ones. Debates won by simple support of the masses and the moral obliteration of the victim, resulting in him being unable to continue the fight to win back the crowd and support which would prove to him that he was right and the opponent was not.

Numbers win. Mass movements prove their point by doing something in large groups. A large amount of people supporting one thing prove its’ validity when a small one would not. Indeed. Strength in numbers.

How primitive we are no matter what we do. No matter how pretty the shell is, we are still built upon our instincts that we received at the dawn of our race. 

Thus we should drop this “superiority” bullshit and realize that we are not. We are not all powerful, not yet. Since we did not properly evolve from the same instincts animals have that we shun so much. We are no different, no better. Maybe even worse, since we deny the truth and avoid it. First we need to accept the truth and only then will we have the chance to step on towards a “brighter” future, whatever that might be. Since it can be discussed quite a lot on what would be “better” in the first place...and from whose perspective would it be that way? Who knows.

Humans>all

            Humans. Such all-mighty beings we are indeed. We create, we destroy…we maintain. We can do whatever we want, can’t we? We are a gift to this planet, making it a better place to live…for us. Saving thousands of animals from extinction, keeping them safe in zoos’ so that we could look at them and know how they look, writing and drawing them down in books as to preserve the memory of those animals just in case. 

But we tried right? We care for the “lesser” organisms, the wild and pathetic animals that should be thankful that we let them exist with us. Even though we keep them only for their worth: to feed us or to entertain us. Indeed, all other life is lesser to the awesomeness that is humans. After all…we are the most complicated organism out there right? And the smartest? Of course…we even have a sub-consciousness and self-awareness. We are indeed special and magnificent.

And that is exactly what all humans are thinking deep down. We put on masks to hide our true beliefs that we are better than the rest, taking pity on animals and even releasing laws against their abuse, like their lives are in our hands. And they are, aren’t they? Since we are humans and we control the Earth with all of its’ inhabitants. We care for animals? We care for nature? BAH! Brainwashing propaganda that’s what it is. 

We only keep them for our entertainment, to have something to look at and enjoy. Not only that, but we also keep them so that we could confirm our existence as the most “advanced” species on the planet. (as they say...if there’s no evil…how can there be good?) We also like to show how much we care for our surroundings, for the suffering animals and the shrinking forests and wildlife, lifting our social status that way, while keeping the mask of a saint on and fooling others, who do the same thing and have the same truth locked away deep down.

Actually… I think that people truly believe that they are “good” …To me personally that is the most twisted thing that can exist. To some my thinking might seem like the twisted thing. But believing that you are helping animals or nature, by donating money in keeping it a little longer on this planet, and that you are a truly kind-hearted and pure person, that doesn’t care how much time he spends on such things, is the truly twisted thinking. 

Actions like that are taken not because a person is “good”. There is no such thing in reality, at least not the “good” as I imagine it. Since I’m quite naïve, when I hear “good” I imagine a pure feeling or an action, that comes with zero personal gain. But such a thing cannot exist amongst us humans.

We always do things as to gain something in return (and sometimes we don’t even have to think about it…since in the end we still gain something...ALWAYS). But the fact that people believe otherwise makes me sick to my very depths. Humans are fooling themselves with the very brainwash they created. 

Trusting and keeping to the moral ideas and standards that are a part of the “honorable and kind-hearted human” idol image, that was created to immortalize the endless struggle in trying to reach it, diving deeper and deeper into the fakeness and fooling ourselves until the ends of time. Truly an amazing feat if you think from a different angle.

But I have to admit, that sometimes it’s hard for me to take that attitude of my race. And perhaps the fact, that I myself have the same attitude? Perhaps it’s in human nature to hold himself as something above all else? To not give a shit about his surroundings and use it as a tool for our own survival and well-being?

We consume the nature, cutting down forests and hunting down animals just to make our living apartments and our lives more comfortable. We furnish our homes, after making the necessary items from the trees we cut, we put pelts of the animals we hunt down on the floor, so that our feet would be comfortable. Or we just use the trees to keep the fires going at home, so that we wouldn’t get cold? Life feeds on life indeed. And we are invincible in this league.

And I don‘t even know which humans are worse…the ones who just consume without a care in the world (except the care for their own lives and if they’ll have enough money to continue consuming) or the eco-geeks who try to “save” nature and “fight” for it? I’d say the second is worse, since the though makes me more sick then the first choice. 

Some kind of complete hypocrites and fakes, who carry themselves as someone even above humans, who think that they are doing the right thing, “protecting” the nature, as if they are something with such power and knowledge as to be so much far above the rest of the world, including the very nature they try to protect. Nature does not need protecting, it needs respect. And a fearful distance to be kept from, as to let it prosper on its’ own, because that’s what it DOES. 

Those pathetic and fake “nature protectors” are even worse than the simple consumers in my opinion and their epitome if self-fooling is something that almost scares me.

And another thing – I keep hearing the complaints of my fellow race, for the “wrongs” that nature has done to us. The cunamies, earthquakes and other catastrophes carries out by nature are truly an evil and unjust thing. I mean how does nature dare to harm and destroy the lives of us simple, hardworking humans, who have done nothing wrong? Bah.

 The very earth that we so thoroughly take for ourselves and take care as our own property doesn’t even belong to us in the first place. The earth belongs….to Earth itself, and not humans. And we should feel lucky that the ground we stand upon doesn’t open up and swallow us all (even though things like that happen from time to time). And we dare complain after what we’ve been doing on Earth? The things we’ve done? Every single human being (including me)  is to blame, and getting to the point….we can’t complain for the catastrophes that happen, by the hand of nature because it’s exactly what we deserve.

We truly like to show our superiority and power, even making animals as our pets. Experimenting with them, creating new types just for the fun of it(and not only that). Trying to create something superior or prettier to look at. Even testing medicine on them and using them as lab rats (….and even literally…the saying “lab rats” didn’t appear out of nowhere obviously). 

I mean…animals are lesser beings then us, so why not use them as experiment objects, while trying to create medicine for humans. I mean…there’s nothing wrong with abusing some inferior creature. But it’s obviously wrong to do the same thing to a human. After all…humans have feelings. ………………….

The very pets symbolize our superiority. Cuddling them, playing with them. Enjoying the fact that these pets we created cannot survive without us. I couldn’t say that they belong in nature anymore. So twisted and corrupted these pets we have tamed are that I doubt they could survive in nature if released. Since nature would correct the wrong done and perhaps only a very small percent of these “pets” would manage to adapt back into nature, from which they were once taken from as a sacrifice, to keep the rest safe...in a way.

Truly…horrible. We humans are indeed ugly creatures. Ugly and cruel beyond belief. All we care about is ourselves, our very core contains only selfishness. But in human standards that’s not bad is it now? As long as it’s for the well-being of the human race.

Since our very nature is so twisted and ugly, I just don’t imagine a way for us to peacefully co-exist with the planet and its’ inhabitants. There is just no way for that to happen, without us harming everything around us. After all...life feeds on life, and humans just feed too much, pulling everything out of balance. Unless you believe that humans themselves are a part of nature and that everything is the way it should be. Survival of the fittest and all that.

The only solution to this planets problem I can think of is….for the human race to disappear. That’s right. I do not think that we humans have a place here, or that we have the right to exist at all. We are like a plague. A self-absorbed and an ego-centric plague (which almost sounds awesome). Thus I believe that we shouldn’t exist at all….I say it’s not humans>all, but the opposite…all>humans. Nature should be respected and feared, it keeps its’ own balance.

The creatures inhabiting it are simple and to the point. They follow their instincts and co-exist with each other, they do not betray their feelings and keep to them, expressing them in an obvious way (I’m not talking about the animals that have been corrupted by human influence to the point where they express similar things as humans, be it betrayal or anything else).

Those creatures and their very essence should be held in higher regard, then us humans who have no way to co-exist with even each other, let alone the rest of the planet. The ability to think is a horrible ability we have. (So that’s what they meant, when writing in the bible, that god didn’t want Adam and Even to become self-aware etc. Good going you two! Way to go and ruin everything)

Then again…if it’s not humans…then perhaps after a few million years some other race will emerge and do the same thing we are doing now? Perhaps that’s also a certain balance and a circle of life and death. Maybe they’ll do the same...or perhaps they will be the ones’ to find a solution to this emerging and obvious problem? 

Or is my solution not the only option? Perhaps there actually is a way for us humans to co-exist...with each other…and the planet. Perhaps…after all...I’m not that smart to think of something like that, since wiping humanity out is much easier (even though to accomplish that without harming the planet even more…might be kindda hard. Since human existence has rooted very deeply into the earth, and taking aout the whole tree together with the roots might damage the earth quite a bit) Perhaps. I am an open-minded person after all. 

Thus for now…we humans will continue with our egotistical ways, by torturing and consuming every living thing around us. But hey…maybe there will come a time, when a choice will be made and I hope that it will be in the favor of the planet. Until then….I’ll wait.

All humans are lonely

Now, today is one of those days (Monday) …when at night I’m suddenly caught by a major flow of thoughts and I accidently tumbled on a few more interesting ones. One of them being about myself (to which I found an answer actually (one that satisfied me at least) ) and the other one being ….written here right now. The first one we’ll go around like nothing was mentioned (obviously). Now….we humans are all alone from birth to death aren’t we? We are truly forever lonely, indeed we are. What do I mean by that statement?

What I’m trying to say here is that….universally, we are all lonely. As in, no one will fully understand us...individuals. Not fully…ever. You can understand a person in a way. Know his hobbies, his character more or less. His likes and dislikes, sometimes even more. Sometimes people know each other so well, that they can predict each others future actions. But even then, we are still not fully understood.

A full and complete understanding. Isn’t that what a lot of people are trying to achieve in reality? All that spiritual mumbo-jumbo is about “being one with the universe” and shit like that (“shit” in a non-offensive way of course. Just a figure of speech). We want to be fully and completely understood, to our very core and essence whatever it may be. Be it the subconscious or the spirit. Whatever you believe in.

The very act of sexual intercourse can sometimes (or a lot of times…even most of the times!)  be interpreted like an attempt to be one with the other. To achieve such a high level closeness, that they become one and can fully understand each other. (Why do you think people use such phrases like “enter me!” “Come inside me!” or whatever. Each has a hint of what I’m trying to say here) (or it could be just plain dirty talk)

Now…our desperate need to be understood and the attempt to escape loneliness could be seen in many parts of our life. Actually…it could be seen in life…generally speaking or in society to be more precise. Why do you think todays’ society formed in the first place? Why are we people called “social creatures”?  The answers are in the first sentence.

We run from loneliness by interacting with other individuals, forming bonds, communities and social relationships, constantly looking for someone to fully understand us and even if we don’t, most of us settle with the closest thing possible. That’s the “second half” myth. Or perhaps the truth. Who knows…there are too many opinions and experiences to say.

(Please do have in mind that this is only one of the reasons why we create such a thing as “society” etc. As there isn’t just one reason behind all of it)

Villages, towns, cities ...countries and the world as we know it formed because we need each other, even though in reality we’re probably even better without each other. Because then we could live without realizing that the thing we need most… can’t be fully reached. If there would be no society, perhaps we would live alone in some cave up in the mountains and live until we die with the thought that “perhaps” or even “I could have found that, which I crave so much”. But now…we die after finding out that it’s impossible to achieve or thinking that we failed. The feeling of helplessness and hopelessness is truly dreadful.

Well ok, those two options are a little too narrow, because not a lot of people die thinking like that ( probably). Since there are a few other options’ that make living in society worthwhile. The first one is when we live and die without realizing that we can’t reach that, which we desperately try to. As in…for all of our life we search - break up relationships and make new ones, divorce and marry again. Always on the move, always in search. And the second one is that we live with the illusion that we indeed have reached that complete mutual understanding (sorry if I just destroyed that…welcome to the club of the previously mentioned option). Now both of them sound quite harsh, but hey….as someone quite smart once said “ignorance is bliss”. And so it is sometimes. Or at least…in this situation.

Now to wrap everything up, I’d like to use a very used up phrase, which has been run down by millions and will be by another one (person...not million). And that phrase is “We live together, die alone”. Now there are a LOT of interpretations of this phrase, some of them non-official, a few or even a single one agreed upon by most. But let’s try to interpret it again.

Now, I read it and what do I see? What do I understand? If being straightforward, I’d say that it’s all wrong, and it should sound like this “We live alone and die alone”. Because that reflects reality a lot better, from my perspective at least. Since we never live “together”. We are always lonely, forever until the end, even though we try to change that.

But. When I look at the phrase again, I start to see it from a different angle and adapt it to everything I wrote right here. We indeed live together, or try to at least. We live together with each other, sharing a common thing in every single individual – loneliness. And we all try to escape from it, using each other to cover up the holes. Every single person guided by their own selfishness, to try and help himself and in turn, help the other. An equal exchange if you ask me. It might come from an instinct that people are not that fond off, but it gives results sometimes.

Too bad, but eventually we die without reaching our promised land, as lonely as we were born we leave this world and go to a better place I guess. Whatever it may or may not be. Now religion helps here a little bit. That’s why the idea of going to heaven after death is so alluring to most. The meaning behind the word “heaven” is very wide indeed and there are a lot of interpretations, opinions about it. The general idea is that you will be happy there. And thus a lot of us are probably lured to it, since they hope to escape that inborn loneliness once on the other side. And that is why we try to grab that last visible thread at the end of our lives, hoping to get that, which we didn’t have through-out the journey we call living.

But since I’m feeling quite generous today…

Everyone, together with everyone we die alone. Together with everyone we live alone.

See where I’m trying to go with that? That perhaps, we are never really lonely. By sharing a common goal and living, while desperately clinging to any possibility visible in our sights, just to fill up that large hole in ourselves, we actually live “together”. As in we are not lonely as long, as we’re not the only ones’ being lonely. As they say…two minuses make a plus. And so in this case…more or less. Just a thought.

I’ll end it with this and as a finishing touch add the phrase that gives so many perspectives, and so many thoughts. Good night or good morning. ( or have a pleasant day…)

We live together, die alone.