A World without a Mind

A Prayer to the Media  (E) Everything seen on TV is true. #1693808 by E.T. Snyder

A World without a Mind

A specter is haunting the world, but it is not communism. It is not capitalism. It fuels our prejudice and fear. It is the utmost killer of all—ignorance. It burns the righteous and the unrighteous alike. It assists lunatics, fathers genocides, and fills us with anger and hate. Ignorance destroys the environment; it kills people for being different. The pages of history are splattered with its blood. Who is at fault for this ignorance? Who has let this killer free? 
         
It is not our president’s fault, nor any other leader in the world. It is not the fault of atheism, paganism, objectivism or any other isms. Religion, homosexuality, economy, and foreigners cannot be blamed for it. The fault does not even lie with BP. The fault lies with us; the people of the world.  We have let it grow; we have stood silently by while it kills. We hold the blame because is that not the belief of democracy; that the people should rule?
         
It was Hitler that said, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” It is the most frightening truth in history to think that Hitler was sane. He knew the people and gave them a scapegoat. He systematically killed millions of people, but his conscience was clear. How much different are we from him? Could we resist his lies today? Could we see the truth? I do not think so. All we need is turmoil, and in that chaos, a savior arises. Not one that tells us to love people, but one who tells us what we want to hear. Kill, will be his cry and our media will praise his name. 

It is distressing to think that we have media with an infinite reservoir of knowledge, but we use it to spread myths and lies. Instead of research we listen to commercial that tell us what we need. They use our ignorance to sell lies and useless things. With commercials, we can become skinny, find love, eat all we want, and there is no thinking involved. How Convenient! In fact, we do not even have to get up from our seat. We can get hours of energy that is much better than coffee, even though it has the same effect as coffee. We can even buy a bracelet, which will somehow miraculously change our life.

They sell us on a million easy ways out. We do not even think of the old sayings like “If it’s too good to be true than it probably isn’t,” or “Nothing good comes easy.”  I am sorry to say, but the rules have not changed no matter what TV tells us.  We cannot buy happiness; we must find it and it is not on the TV or internet. If we are not happy overweight, we will not be happy thin. There is no confidence gain from a whitened smile or a clear face. There is no happiness in wealth. We must throw away the ignorance and be happy with ourselves as we are. Only then, can we better ourselves. With hard work and a lot of effort and it will be we who did it, not some miracle cure. We can trust ourselves instead of sellout celebrities. 

The celebrities who have more money than most of us will ever see in our whole lifetimes. Then they get more money to stand up and deceive us. We somehow think that if we use something they use we will be better. “Of course, it was not hard work and talent that gave that sports star success, it was his shoes. That is why everyone, who has those shoes, are invited to play pro sports.” They put their names on things, so we buy them at higher prices. They get our money for letting someone use their name; they do not even have to do any work. And we could buy things cheaper, that work better.

The saddest thing is that these overpaid celebrities are our children’s role models. They have that huge responsibility, but they follow no morals. If caught with drugs, they get off. If they are unfaithful, it is a disease; they never truly have to face the consequences for their actions. This is what the new generations see, with their faces glued to the TV.  And to fix all of this the government makes more laws to save us from ourselves.

But the government cannot save us from obesity; it cannot save us from the failing education.  The consequences of it fixing anything for us are great. As Barry Goldwater said “Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” Why does the government spend so much on defense and little to nothing on education? Would not education be a greater defense? 

We have to step up, eat less, exercise more, and teach our children to do the same. We must read to our children and help them learn, the teachers cannot do everything. Education starts at home, it does not start at school. We must stop blaming teachers, in ignorance, because unless we are teachers, we have no idea what they go through. We have to be the ones to rise up and bring education back to the forefront.

I think it is about time that we all start thinking. We must stop looking for scapegoats. If the world is to survive, we cannot blame other people we must blame ourselves and try ourselves to make a difference. This world cannot afford to wait for a great person to rise and save us all. We must save ourselves. It is up to us, the people, the average, to do it, because no one is average. We can all make a difference, even if it is a small one.   

So I cry out to you “Why can’t we just get along? WHY CAN’T WE?” Why not stop killing and hating? Yes, I know the world cannot change right this second. I know that though we start thinking, other people might not. I did not say this would be easy; I did not say that in one-day we could stop all wars and pain. It will be a hard struggle, but it will be an even harder struggle if we do not start it today. We will leave this struggle to our children or our children’s children and they might not be able to win. Will you stand back as the world is destroyed by ignorance?

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Chinese Proverb). Let us take a single step today. I cannot say it is easy, but if everyone took one single step think of what the world could be like. I think if we could solve ignorance, we could solve every other problem.  Without ignorance, we could work together; apart we will only destroy ourselves. Is it worth destroying the world because of ignorance? Do we need to hate so bad?

In the end, I wonder if we will ever break the chains of our ignorance and rise above lies and myths or if we will always be remembered as A World without a Mind.