July. 2022; Quality of life, cost of life, value of life, worthless life

One of the many aspects of human society that’s fascinated me for decades, is religion. I find it both wondrous and ridiculous. Some religions/faiths/followings are more bizarre or extreme than others, but nearly all, to me, are based purely on mythology and superstition, smoke and mirrors. “If you do this, you’ll have a good life, and when you snuff it you’ll be laughing it up in the afterlife. But, if you do this, you’re buggered for eternity, mate.” Some faiths are seemingly based more on love and acceptance, equilibrium, the yin and the yang. And some are based near solely on fear, control, and damning threats that make people live their lives miserably, to please an invisible man who apparently lives in sky and watches us 24/7. I think people find religion, rather than the other way round. Oftentimes people just can’t make sense of life, the world, and our place in it, so they turn to religion as a pacifier teet, to suck on and fill their heads with the answers they seek (which, of course, actually come from themselves.)

In my own city of London, we are surrounded by every faith and belief system you can imagine. Synagogues share the same streets as churches and kingdom halls. Christians and Catholics live as neighbours and don’t wish death upon the other (not outwardly, anyway.) In such a melting pot of nationalities and ethnicities, we’re all forced to get along, and get along we do. The seemingly never ending topic of racism appears to be on the lips of every US news report interview, but I swear in London I’ve rarely heard of it. People may think it, but they don’t blurt it out for all to be forced to hear. But last week something happened that made it frighteningly clear that not all people have the self control to do such.

If the news were to broadcast about how a 67 year old Chinese man was shot dead in the street in a western country, you can only imagine the sheer uproar that would sweep across the nation. The simple minded netizens would be crazily smashing away on their keyboards leaving hate messages until the fingers were worn down to the knuckles. But, when Shinzo Abe, the 67 year old Japanese politician was gunned down, it seemed like it was time for a street party. I cannot express just how shamefully embarrassed I was at reading the reactions and comments on the internet about his assissination.I even saw a video where people were replaying the shooting at a nightclub as party revellers yelled and screamed in admiration for the murderer. This is nothing less than purely shameful.

Shinzo Abe was often criticized for his nationalistic stance on how Japan should be moving forward, which enraged several countries, and also many Japanese citizens. But let me ask you this; How many countries leaders act in a way that aims to move their country forward progressively, at the expense of others? Every. Single. One. Every country wants to move forward, strengthen their economy, increase the quality of life for their people, and most couldn’t really give much of a shit about peoples lives or opinions in other countries. That’s the same the world over. It’s the world we live in. But this weeks Sunday Scribble isn’t gonna be me harping on about the disgustingly vile and racist comments people spewed out about his death. Nope, that’s too easy. It’s about something that many, if not all, of us suffer from in one way or another at times in our lives. Some more than others. Some try to educate themselves and elevate their intellect and knowledge of the world, and some just wallow in it as happy as a pig in shit. And it’s another “I” word that means the exact opposite of intelligence; Ignorance.

As the wise American author and business tycoon so rightly put it, “In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.” But, is that rightly so? Some people are born to this world and from the get-go, they want facts. They seek information. They study and read and learn, not to pass a test or impress their parents, but purely because they have an insaciable thirst for knowledge. A few months ago I went on a road trip with a dear friend of mine to the beach, and throughout the journey he absolutely astounded me with his massive understanding of history. Not just of his own country of South Africa, but world history, and centuries of it. He enlightened me about things of my own countries history, to which I had no previous idea of. He told me about aspects of the history of China, Asia, Europe, Russia and more, and the things I found perhaps a little hard to swallow I Googled the next day, and damn it, he was absolutely right. But why would anyone actually care to know so much about a subject? Is it even all that relevant in todays society? Well, actually, yes, it is. In an ideal world, history would teach us to be mindful of our planets past mistakes, and to hopefully not repeat them like morons. But to me, it mostly feels that the only thing history teaches us is the fact that we don’t learn anything from history. And why? Ignorance.

In the last Sunday Scribble I wrote about how, as an artist, what you create actually says a lot more about you, per se, than the artistic piece itself. As the artist, you can look at the piece as a way to look in the mirror. And as a viewer of the piece, you can look at the work created as more of an insight into the artist who created it. Well, I think you can do exactly the same with how people conduct themselves in the world, especially in their opinions that they just have to share with everyone and anyone. Back in 1992, the superb band The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy penned the classic “Television, the Drug of the Nation.” You see, to me, back then was the time people were really starting to open their eyes and realize that “hey, the news and opinions on TV is all just total horseshit.” And it is. One sided, mostly factless, politically and self servingly one sided horseshit. But in humankinds infinite wisdom, we weren’t just happy with television the warm diarhea it plopped into our brain through our ears and eyes. Oh no. We had to go one step further, to truly make ourselves even dumber, and Bingo! The internet was made accessible to all. You thought television was hurting the minds of our children? Haha, have I got news for you! If television was the proverbial cannabis of the nations’ minds, then the internet is the proverbial uncut crack.

The internet is surely the inventon that has changed human society more than any other has, for the past several hundred years. Fire. The wheel. Cumbustion engines. Electricity. Internet. Forget about paper and gunpowder and microwave meals, the internet is the big badboy that patrols the schoolyard, eager to stupify any casual onlooker. If we could imagine, 100 years ago being able to tell professors and doctors and scientists, that we will literally have the entire worlds knowledge and information, in our pocket, ready for anyone ato access, 24 hours a day, they would never believe us. And if they did, they would marvelling at how amazing our societies were bound to evolve. They might muse how every human being would have the IQ of 200, how all desease would be eradicated, how we would all live happy and meaningful lives, free of pain and war and suffering, and brimming with joy and serenity. And guess what? We have it! We have all the answers to every question we could ever think of, scientific facts, not the opinions of idiots, and it’s right there in our pocket. And are we all 200-IQ megabrains? No we are not! Are we living joyous and meaningdul existences? No we are not! We are getting stupider by the minute! Haha what a joke! And it’s on us! We’re dumb as rocks and somehow managing to get dumber! Humans are amazing!!

We cannot ever blame such inventions as television or the internet for making us all devolve to such cro-magnon levels of intellect, anymore than we can blame books. But it’s startling to me how our species learned so much from books, how we studied, the importance of stuudy in itself, and yet how we choose to use the internet to not only make ourselves even more unintelligent, but to openly broadcast our ignorace and idiocy to others. We aren’t just happy with using wechat as our sole source of personal “news” and worldly knowledge, oh no. We feel we have to broadcast our factless stupidity for all to see and read. I’m not shy in saying I judge people. Oh absolutely, damned right I do. Because I believe that I do not want people in my life, in any way, be they close to me or further away, that are bloody stupid. I have a phobia of idiots. When the news of Shinzo Abe’s assassination was made public, and people true colours were painted all over social media, I had a great old time deleting and blocking people. Celebrating because a senior citizen was gunned down? Bye moron! I do not need anyone in my life who is so mentally incapable of rational thought. I heartily recommend deleting morons from your life, it’s really quite theraputic.

But the big question is, why. Why do people so simple mindedly take opinions of morons as fact. Why. Why do so many people stop seeking factual truths, and just swallow whatever watery-shit is fed to them. As it’s been said, “facts are like arseholes. Everyone has one, and most of them stink.” But how can anyone be so brain dead as to accept opinions as facts? I write this blog mostly as a way to just get it out, to throw my own two-cents opinion out there, for anyone who chooses to read it. Or not. But in no way would I dare say that much of this is facts. It’s just my opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree, take something away from it or just think it’s a load of crap. An opinion is subjective. It’s not facts. Science is facts. Maths is facts. Wechat articles are not facts. Repeat until you understand.

To finally circle back on myself, religion. And ignorance. Millions of people like to give the appearance of spiritual and/or religious, but behave in a manner that couldn’t be further from it. “Ooh I wear beads around my wrist and I’m a Buddhist” but then heartily enjoy eating meat 3 times a day and treating people like shit. “Oh I’m a Christian and I love god. I love all mankind. And I also love guns! Lots of guns! And I have the right to own as many damn guns as I want!” Can someone tell me why are so many US “Christians” also the ones that have closets full of firearms? I don’t remember a single entry about “Thou shalt be so mentally paranoid that thou shalt carry automatic weapons” anywhere in the new testament. Are we so ignorant that we actually lie to ourselves, and believe it?! Do we have such a complete lack of self perception that we actually believe that we are intelligent and kind souls, just because we say we are? I can say I’m a pineapple, but it don’t make it so. A pig can wear a white dress and pearls, but it ain’t Marilyn Monroe. Who you portray is not neccessarily who you actually are. But we are ignorant. And we love it. Because ignorance truly is bliss.

There is a terrifying, unjustified war still raging in the Ukraine. People, babies, are still losing their lives every day. Hospitals and schools are being destroyed. But how many people do I see doing anything at all to help them? How many wechat contacts do I see posting anti-war messages, or highlighting the terrible suffering these people are still facing? Next to zero. Shameful. We clearly just don’t care about anyone other than ourselves. But, on the assissination of Shinzo Abe, how many message of pure hatred did I see? Too many. Peoples total ignorance far outweighs any empathy or compassion we should be feeling. So for those brain dead bottom feeders who took pleasure in the death of Shinzo Abe, I truly hope you feel the same joy when your husband or wife dies, which they will. Because he was a husband to someone who loved him. And when you see the disgusting reports of “Asian hate” crimes and attacks happening over the world, I hope you smile and agree with them. Because those attackers are thinking in exactly the same way are. Ignorantly. You have more in common with them than you think.