when we get down to it, we are the experiencers of many thoughts or activities or feelings. many of these are disconnected little pavlovian circuits that we perform at given intervals or circumstances or stimuli- yet some are connected in intelligent, cultural or maybe spiritual ways. and in some of these matters we are given enough positive feedback to start to identify with these external things or concepts- and before you know it, we start to think we know what we're doing in this little personal, fictional, conditional, insular world.
it's a good thing to get back in touch with this experiencer, this detached witness- that will still suffer & hunger like the rest, but with less whining & self-absorption. these will be good traits to adopt because soon you're going into the first grade, and your little world is getting bigger & weirder. i made you these cliff's notes to get you up to speed:
emergency rations for wars that go nowhere in 2010: 33 billion. any rations for infrastructure, transportation, social services, green jobs, real public education: none sorry.
dead bystanders & innocents are always much cooler in video games. remember to dehumanize your enemy. keep your military milestones vague & far enough out that they never materialize.
citizen wiretaps & indefinite detention become totally necessary once one becomes the president evidently.
the posterchild of F squad performances. let the market take care of the world. outsource intelligence. let us finally become a nation of boobs.
and yet i digress again, but see i told you first grade was going to be a shocker.
please remember that even though all of this happens in our name {USA}- whether by choice, apathy, or squirming regret- even though we are the richest and we use the most- even though our democracy has 30% voter turn out when it's lucky- nobody knows what a dollar is worth or what is really in our food or recognizes our institutional racism or classism- we don't even notice our growing wealth disparity. [is it not polite to mention?]
but as we were saying earlier, even though all of this is a caricature of you [of us]- none of this is you or even comes close. this happens to be the scene you find yourself observing on the first day of first grade: and here you have some ethics choices to make- the easy path is least rewarding. remember about the whining & self-absorption. i'll be back to pick you up after-
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