Hello Bloggers, it's Ed. I'm here at Write Makes Might to, mostly, write. Snippets from my novel, photos, an occasional video, a rare limerick, various witticisms, very short essays and stories, TRANCE TUESDAYS, assorted letters to my kids when they were young, and a lot of cynical social and political commentary, not necessarily in that order.
I'm very pleased that the people in Egypt are rallying for political change. (If you think voting feels good, try protesting)! It's long overdue. But I question whether the political changes will trickle down to social progress?
Laws don't change men. To wit: civil rights in America. The law's on the books but . . .
Egyptian men, of all political persuasions, are among the most macho monsters around.
Safer to be a cat than a woman in Egypt.
I don't mean to portray Egypt as the poster country for idiotic men. Anyone who breathes can't avoid the stench of asshole males that permeates throughout every culture, including ours.
Ah men!!
I'm reminded of a time, a few decades ago, when a guy was killed in a wreck and was subsequently revived by a crack EMT. The New York Times wrote, "EMERGENCY MEDICAL TEAM SAVES MAN."
The Enquirer stated, "MAN RETURNS FROM THE DEAD, SEES GOD," and went on to elaborate, in great detail, the man's trip to heaven and his alleged chat with his god while he was dead. One thing led to another. Soon, the man appeared on all the talk shows, and a revitalized interest in god and heaven blossomed. The media ran with it.
"God Exists" rallies spontaneously combusted in every city, and Sunday church attendance swelled for a few weeks. Even the likes of Bubba "Tennis" Streamer swore off beer for the month of February, although he didn't stop abusing his wife and children.
There were anti-god lectures and rallies as well. My favorite one was delivered at Columbia University by a prominent, albeit kinky, professor of psychology named E. Gordon Riddle who penned, "Dat Ain't God, Dat's You, Jack," in 1976. This is what he said:
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"I am pleased, no delighted, to inform all of you here today, that in spite of the 'Return From The Gates' episode that occurred here in January, and the massive popular support the concluding assumptions have received, they are exactly that: false assumptions--wishful thinking."
"The proportion of human beings who have an infantile wish for an omnipotent presence is revealed here on a national scale. It is unbelievable. It is staggering.
What a condemnation of society and parenthood. What a shitload of people who never successfully resolved earlier developmental tasks."
"These are people whose lives are shaped by fear and mistrust, people who never successfully resolved the Symbiotic (second) and thus the Separation-Individuation (third) stage sufficiently, because they brought a psyche in a permanently defensive posture even to the Autistic (first) stage of psychological development."
"In my opinion, this is likely a result of a separation, however brief, from their mothers, during the first few days of life, a syndrome a colleague of mine calls PIST, for Pre-Initial-Stage-Trauma. PIST infants will rarely place trust or hope in people, as they received much of their comfort, early on, from a blanket in a nursery. So they have a propensity for materialism and piousness later on, and it's driven home by parents."
"And the AMA and organized religion laugh all the way to the bank. I wonder if it's a conspiracy."
"To potentially avoid PIST, have your babies at home, or at a progressive birthing center, and don't separate infants from their mothers, even for a brief moment (i.e. to weigh or measure them), for at least a few days. And then, of course, don't indoctrinate infants, or young children, with religious dogma. They'll be quite capable of making those sorts of life-altering decisions themselves as adults."
"This is what happened to that fortunate, resuscitated man in January."
"When your brain is about to cease functioning and is just running on residual electrical impulses, following death, it automatically shifts into what I call 6th Gear which is an hallucinatory mode. This is, no doubt, a coping mechanism -- a psychological reaction used to struggle with a distressing traumatic situation -- somewhat akin to how our brain imprisons less traumatic, but nevertheless distressing experiences. Also, it is a state of mind quite similar to LSD induced, altered states of consciousness."
"In laymen's terms, a depersonalization occurs: it's not really me this is happening to. In professional terms, one becomes egoless: it doesn't matter that it is me this is happening to."
"For a short period of time, even after official medical death, your awareness is still operational in 6th gear. Along with that residual awareness is the knowledge that you've just died or are about to die, and so, naturally, you shift into an "I have just died" type hallucination rather than, say, a sexual one."
"Your particular visions are selective bits of your inner perceptions, fears, and desires, as pertains to death. The show is shaped, completely, by what you have seen, heard, and been taught in your lifetime, and is viewed, often in technicolor, through your mind's eye."
"If you are a religious person, or a person who has some fear of not having been a religious person, you, in your "I have just died" hallucination, might watch yourself approaching what the traditional interpretation of heaven or hell is, for example: fire and brimstone, or clouds, angels, gates, and so on. You may see what you believe your god looks like, and you may even have a conversation with that entity. You are the producer, director, writer, crew, costume designer, and star."
"If you are a person who is unaware of the human capability to hallucinate -- 6th gear -- you are especially vulnerable to believing you actually traveled to the gates and spoke with god. Hallucinations are that real. If you don't believe me, LSD Airlines can fly you there in 30 minutes, and if you're not dead or dying, there's no telling what your hallucinations might be."
"In those rare instances when, through modern medical technology or spontaneous medical occurrence, a dead person, having no prior experience with altered consciousness, is revived, and he says, 'I spoke with god, he really exists!' it is only a lucky, foolish man sharing his hallucinatory infantile wishes with the rest of us."
Dr. Riddle received a standing ovation.
An interesting thought to ponder:
If all children were raised sans any religious teachings until they were adults, which, if any, of the 100's of possibilities, do you think they might choose?
My hunch is: most people would choose none of the above. More significantly, if, after studying the dogma of many groups, a person chose one, I'm betting he wouldn't have quite the need to defend it. And the state of the human condition would be vastly improved.
