The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Orion's picture

    The World As It Is

    A couple months ago, in the midst of personal chaos, I went for a job interview. I was a nervous wreck and the interviewer could tell. She told me to "not be nervous." I painted a picture of myself and my situation that was much rosier than the reality - I didn't tell her I'd experienced a nervous breakdown, that I was without a home, any of that.

    It was a painful wreck during much of it but a connection was built. Towards the end of it, I was in her car and we started discussing the world. "It's a very strange place. The world we live in."

    "I sometimes wonder if it's real," I replied.

    "Oh, it's real all right but it doesn't feel like it sometimes."

    The world is obviously changing really, really fast - faster than most people likely know how to respond to it. All sorts of things that we assumed were just the way things are have been turned upside down. (Remember a world where the president was always a distant, out of touch white man and "violent crime" was synonymous with the inner city?)

    It doesn't make much sense but, when you settle yourself down and really look at it - it makes perfect sense.

    We are seeing the world as it really is.

    There was a book that was published for children several years ago called Who Was That Masked Man Anyway? The main character is fascinated by the war that's going on and when a soldier comes to town, he explodes with excitement. It soon becomes obvious that the soldier doesn't want to talk about the war with him. The kid can't understand this - he's a war hero, he's fought the Nazis, and so on. Why wouldn't he want to talk about something so awesome?

    Well, the soldier had seen what war really is. He saw his friend's bodies torn apart by gunfire, he'd seen bodies stacked high in concentration camps, he'd felt what it felt like to really think one was about to leave this world.

    A lot of people have a lot of fantasies in their head and it may be that recent events are just making those fantasies burst in to flames. The Second Amendment is based on a fantasy world of being a soldier/cowboy/etc. defending one self against crooks on the street or in the government. The real world has shown that real people have caused real bloodshed with real guns that were really obtained legally.

    Likewise, most of these shooters have some sort of silly psychological diagnosis - usually based on zero evidence besides the parent thinking that some of their child's behavior is strange. These evidence free diagnosis are then treated with medication which doctors admit they have no idea the properties of.

    We play Russian Roulette with fantasy and appear surprised at the end result.

    On his show, David Letterman said something to the effect of, "I don't know who in this day and age would enjoy watching violence." It may be that in previous days and ages, many were so immersed in a fantasy world that they didn't recognize what violence really is.

    The real world is scary and the real world may actually kill you, rob you or all of the above. The real world may actually be insane, to be honest, and action and precautions have to be taken in order to survive in it.

    Comments

    Is there a definable 'world as it is' or is this plane of existence entirely experiential and dependent on how one reacts to specific circumstances and learned input?  

    To say the world is 'scary' is a statement of one's experience; it may be your reality, but it is not everyone's, so therefore how can it be real?  

    We share a physical plane of existence, but not a reality.  Reality is created by each individual's thoughts which, in turn, are based on each individual's circumstances and past experiences.  All we share is a common location that we call the world, the rest is of our own making ... isn't it?

    Anyway ... that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.  hahaha

     

     

     

     

     

     


    Robert Anton Wilson used to write about "Reality Tunnels."  Fnord.


    Are you sure that's your story? How do you know when someone else's story could be so different? smiley


    Cuz I made it up. Just like everyone else.  cheeky


    cheeky


    Going up in the  lift you saw there'd  been an ice storm . The branches on the hard wood trees - before you got to the evergreens- were coated with ice. Thousands and thousands, all of them.Millions , maybe.

    Whatever it had been , the  weather was now completely dry and  clear. Cold . With bursts of  snow materializing  in the air ahead of my chair.I suppose as the temperature dropped sufficiently below the dew point.

    Around 3 when  the sun was  just above the  horizon it reached a point where you looked right at it from the lift , through hundreds of yards of icy twigs that seemed to be  colored a slightly pale yellow. ..

    "all prospects please...and only man is vile"  according to a depressive victorian parson. But there are plenty of men who aren't . Including you Orion. Hang in there. .


    Orion: I'd take Flavius' advice if I were you; I happen to know from stuff he's said in the past here and at TPMCafe that he's got way more experience seeing the world change than most of the rest of us here.

    Flavius: Speaking about depressive Victorian parsons, begging perchance whenever you feel inspired,  would look forward to a word of wisdom along the lines of "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." (Pre-emptive: I do realize you're not old enough to give us an idea of how awful going through the Industrial Revolution was. cheeky)


    Bah, humbug!


    Will do. I value this site and its readers very much by the way. Y'all are better than any therapy! wink