We’ve already discussed how this world is backwards. How everything about it is wrong, and therefore the ugly things in it tend to thrive.
For example, the best form of government in this world is democracy, a government that thrives on having its followers lead, where the leaders are just dogs begging at their feet for a scrap of votes.
In an ideal world, our leaders would lead, and they wouldn’t need to be voted in because they would be true leaders. They would tell us how to think and we would gladly follow.
The best economy in the world is capitalism, a system that is based completely on the assumption that people are greedy. And because people really are greedy, it works.
Every successful system in the world has a cynical worldview, a belief that people are dirty dogs.
And that’s great, it really is. For this world.
But the problem is when people start to idealize those things that are only created for an unideal (is that a word?) world. They think democracy is incredible. That capitalism rules (‘Murica!).
They don’t realize that they’re idealizing things that are only ideal because they’re a peel to a fruit. Things that, as soon as the world reaches its ideal state, won’t be necessary anymore.
The worst part of all this is that people then look at the people who are successful in the world, the discussions that get shared in the world, and think these are the people that I need to model my life after. These are the discussions I need to be having.
They look at cable news, and they see people arguing over gun control, and think, hey, I need to either be pro or anti! I need to be political.
And so they make themselves busy-bodies. They fight for their political beliefs, whether it be on online forums or with their families over dinner.
Or maybe they’ve heard all this rhetoric about how success means having the career you want, about finding your soul in your work. That we aren’t anything if we aren’t doing the job we want to do with the pay we want with the benefits we want.
That’s what’s considered deep in the world today.
But the only reason that happens is because we live in a system that idealizes the unideal. We live in a world where to be busy, to be productive, to be political, these things are considered qualifiers for “success” or “depth”.
And so the poor masses scurry off like rats in a maze to find their own version of truth.
The problem here is that people spend so much time following what this unideal world is telling them that they forget the only reason the world is the way it is is because it’s adjusting to how crappy it is in the first place.
A career only exists because if we didn’t have one, we would be poor and homeless. But it’s not ideal.
You know what would be ideal? Connecting to truth throughout the day. Studying Torah all the freaking time. (that one’s for the Jews out there). Noodling about and staring at a lake while you meditate on the greatness of the world, the universe, G-d. Creating something from the soul straight onto paper and sharing it with your loved ones.
But we’ve forgotten that. Somewhere along the way, people are criticized for wanting to study Torah all day. Not because they aren’t providing for their families, but because, damnit, we were put on this earth to work! Children are encouraged to stop noodling at preschool and to start preparing for the SATs ASAP.
But the truth is, we’re not wired that way. We only have to live that way because that’s the world we live in, and we have to turn it into that ideal world we should be wishing it could be.
There are a few people who truly do love this world, yes. That truly do thrive in a world of capitalism and democracy and fighting and war and death and disease and conflict. We call those people psychopaths.
The rest of us are the creative masses. The people who have been brainwashed into thinking that life is one big career move, that YOLO, that politics is deep, that gun control is important.
But really we’re all just yearning, begging, pleading, inside for our physical minds to remember what our spiritual souls need. G-dliness. Truth. Noodling about. Creative expression.
That’s life. That’s reality. All the rest is the peel on the fruit.
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