the state of humanity address
DESCRIPTION
In this work I call for a new Age of Reason and Prosperity. I proclaim that Mankind has underwent an existential crisis and has strayed from its ideals and has forsaken the very things that made it great. I stress that the villain is not any particular ideology but the tyrant known as big and oppressive government. I proclaim that if we communicate and understand one another more rather than create deeper dichotomies, we can create a sense of unity that will see the tyrant crumble and the world started anew.TRANSCRIPT
As Thomas Paine once famously said when the American Revolution was against the ropes by
the tyranny of the English Crown, “These are the times that try men's souls.” I believe this quote
encompasses our current state of affairs perfectly. We are dealing with a government whose corruption
knows no bounds. It preaches freedom for the common man and in that same breath restricts him to a
two party system. These two parties are not Republican and Democrat but rather, a musket in the mouth
or a knife to the back. In the minds of our leaders they assert not that all men were created equal but
that some men are more equal than others. We have an economy that is in shambles because our
currency has become meaningless and would be better relegated to serve alongside firewood. Men and
women investing so many years of their livelihood for the promise of future financial security when
they would need it most now find themselves severed from that dream and have now found
companionship with uncertainty and it is a most arduous relationship. We are waging wars whose
foundation is a pipe dream. Democracy was once an idea that carried with it a great fervor of pride and
hope, it has since been reduced by our tyrants to a mere propaganda tool to send the brave and idealistic
to their grave. While they spill their blood on the soil of another here at home I see my brethren ripping
each others throats out in conflicts of ideology. The Christian burns at the stake the homosexual and the
Atheist in turn, strangles the Christian with his very entrails. Meanwhile a deeper dichotomy is being
created by the conflict of political affiliations. There are indeed those who enjoy living with the musket
in their mouth or the knife in the back unaware of their own enslavement. The worst offense these eyes
have seen however is something most detestable. The decline of our very species from a rational and
intelligent race whose faculties were capable of compassion and empathy to something on par with
beasts in the field. Our ire is raised more when a store runs out of Apple iPhones than when a bill such
as NDAA finds its way through Congress. I have seen people revert to a primitive state with great
violence trampling their brethren to acquire a pair of sneakers simply because they are Air Jordans.
Such consumerism at the price of depravity will be our undoing. Our social evolution is deteriorating
and our tyrant knows it. His is the shark that smells our blood being spilled and he grins for he never
had to lift a finger. Our nation whether the people believe it or not is going through an existential crisis.
The once proud land that made such proclamations as: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”, “Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”, and "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such Government.” We have forsaken these very sentiments and with that
came the renunciation of our very identity. I once believed that the true nature of existence was that
there was no nature to speak of. It was a state of consciousness that was utterly meaningless because no
matter the wealth one accumulated or the poverty one was stricken with, no matter the diseases one
cured or the illnesses one found themselves afflicted, that death was the common thread and equalizer
of all man. While I still echo the very last sentiment of my revelation I realize that I had made a most
egregious error. Man alone as well as the collective force of Mankind has one great destiny awaiting it.
That destiny is the very preservation and progression of our race and the land we inhabit. Right now we
are in a state of bondage not just thanks to our oppressive Masters whose greasy handshakes and shark
smiles leave us repulsed but also thanks to our ignorance of one another as well as our sense of
entitlement to be self indulgent. We no longer communicate with each other as brothers and sisters. On
this great planet of ours resides well over six billion other planets forged by the minds of Earth's
inhabitants each of which only has a population of one. That one being the planet's very creator
themselves. For a lack of poetic speech, we are a self absorbed species. When we are roaming crowded
streets and we bump into the shoulder of another, we respond with a cold indifference. Let us rewind
moments such as these and play them back and when we bump our brother's shoulder again do not
walk away from him nor let him elude you. Stop him and with a great compassion look him in the eyes
and understand him. Know that he too has a pulse that is strong with convictions and ideas and let him
know that he is not alone. For when I speak of crowded streets I mean not those of New York or
California fame. I speak of the roads of humanity and ideology. When the Atheist has a collision with
the Protestant the Protestant should not answer the Atheist with vile curses of Hell and damnation nor
should the Atheist answer the Protestant with mockery of an over inflated imagination. Such dialogues
produce no capital and the bill that gets footed from such talk is bedlam and blood. I myself am a
devout Atheist who sees God as a hindrance to any and all institutions of intellect. I see God as an
oppressor of Reason and I would not mourn the very exorcism of God from State were it to occur
tomorrow. Such sentiments do not mean however that I damn those who oppose my philosophy. My
grandmother holds fast and tight to her Blessed Mother and her and I have had many a conversation
revolving around this subject matter. The end result of these conversations has always been the same, a
deeper connection with each other about what ideas define us. There are no curses thrown one way or
another, no hands raised to suffocate one's passion, not even the slightest raise of voice occurs. Though
certainly our humble abode and what goes on within it is nothing compared to the conflicts our world
faces the idea is the moral can be magnified. Humanity is capable of cohesion and progress our
evolution both scientifically and socially speaking has not even begun. We have isolated ourselves and
have become threatened by the mere gaze of another. As John Donne once eloquently said “No man is
an island.” We saw fit to prove Donne wrong and you need only your eyes to see the sum of such
efforts. We are more than capable of governing ourselves and the island known as America.
Government has proven to be nothing but a manifestation of corruption and greed whose sustenance is
the labor and free will of its people. It upholds the Taoist idea of government that says “Keep the minds
empty and the bellies full.” In the same vein it scoffs at the Aristotelian ideal of government that the
purpose of public office should be the pursuit and cultivation of good virtues. We as a people who
though are not equal to one another by mind or muscle, or by economic or social status are equal in
something of far greater value. We are equal by our inalienable rights and by our power as an
evolutionary creature to reason. Such a power is a threat to the tyrant, they would love nothing more
than for the whole lot of us to renounce our minds, for us to just readily accept that A=A without
question. Unfortunately it has succeeded in that venture with some, for some take greater comfort in a
full belly than a sharp mind. Such individuals will smile upon the intrusion of a soldier in their quarters
so long as they have the latest advances in electronics to consume. Such realities however must not be
validated by defining our fate as a people. No matter what disparities may occur between us in regards
to religion, economic standing, education or ideologies pertaining to morality, politics, etc, I know in
my heart and in the deepest recesses of my soul that we can stand united in the face of atrocities
perpetrated unto us. Such unity was how we became emancipated from the Crown of England. Such
solidarity saw the fall of the monstrosity of Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. I am calling upon that
power again. We can restore our race to glory and start the world anew. We can stand firm in the face of
our totalitarian state and win. The common man may feel utterly powerless but what we fail to
recognize is that we hold the power our Masters fear most. We have the power to start the world over
again. I am calling for a rebirth of intellect and reason. We must all do our part to educate ourselves on
everything around us and to question everything. All our government and its companions such as
Academia have done is spoon feed us knowledge that THEY have defined as vital to survival and
success. We have become complacent feeding on the carcasses that are the philosophies of our
predecessors from the East and West. I am a proud philosopher, I fully acknowledge the contributions
and strides in the fields of knowledge from the likes of Karl Popper, to Plato, all the way to Rene
Descartes. The buck however stops at my acknowledgment, I know that while what those minds did
was great the minds of today and tomorrow can awaken philosophy as well as thought and the world
itself from its slumber. Let us stop regurgitating history and take up arms in the pursuit of making it. I
call not just for an awakening of thought and reason but also an awakening in passion and
responsibility. Look upon your Earth with open eyes and detach yourself from your consumption.
Apathy has a vice grip on our throat and its strangulation has rendered us unmoving to the crises we
face. The winds of oppression and ignorance have left the world and its spirits in shambles. Though
such a declaration be true today that does not have to be the reality of those who come after us. As I
have said the common man possesses the power which is feared most by our dictators, the ability to
create a better world and begin anew. Let it be a world forged from the brow of honest and gritty labor.
Let it be a world whose people need not be faced with a grave precipice to be united in the idea of
liberty and prosperity. Let it be a world where the mind is celebrated and not castigated. Let it be a
world where the only thing broken between Christians and Atheists, or Blacks and Whites,
Homosexuals and Heterosexuals, etc is bread. Lastly and most significantly, Let it be a world where the
only governments that exist are ones of autonomy and where a man upholds himself by his own laws
and not the laws of another. At the end of the day no matter what mask we dawn upon our faces we are
all human beings. Human beings whose greatest error was letting religion, politics, and the like go
beyond being ideologies we once held and could share to dichotomies that are tainting the fabric of our
world as we know it. I am but a simple man, a philosopher who is determined to bring about a
resurrection of intellect. I cannot achieve this world alone. To every person who is sick of waiting for
better days and brighter tomorrows, to every person who is repulsed at the sights of the world, to every
person who champions reason and communication, cohesion and compassion, let us take back the
world. This will not be a Utopia understand. Famine and disease, bloodshed and evil will never truly be
exorcised in my humble view. That being said, that does not mean we should ever rest on our laurels
when injustices run rampant. We are giving future generations two gifts far greater than a Utopia. The
first gift is a truth they will hold tight lest they repeat our missteps: Satisfaction is the end of desire.
The second gift is a weapon greater than any bomb or tank and has the potential to level nations and
their governments. That gift is the promise of tomorrow. What they do with that gift will be by their
hands and minds alone. Now I shall end this piece with an adage that is timeless and one that as the
year goes by the truth that it bears only develops a louder and louder ring: Together we stand divided
we fall.