Salut, I haven't written here in a long time, and I think that it's about time that I make a come back on accuont of the fact that I've been slowly decreasing my writing time - whether it be by hand, on MSn or even my emails; hell, even my notes in class have become more brief. This just leads me to the conclusion that something's going awry somewhere with someone I know, to a degree higher than usual. So, if you're somebody and you're going through a hell of a time - let me know. Please? 'Cause what usually happens is that I Get into some form of self-absorbed mood and miss certain things that are happening around me when in fact, it should be so apparent that I feel like a bloody scally-wag for not picking up on said problem. But, isn't that that way it is sometimes. I mean, we get so caught up in our own little world, worried about the boy that we lke, the dance coming up, our fiancees and spouses that we miss the world. Now, it's one thing to be caught up in that whole love and thus forget the world. But what about thse people where they just seem to leave the world behind? Whereby the only seemingly productive contribution they make to socety is through the taxes they pay, which by the way, is an amount pre-determined and merely garnished from their wages without prior consent and/ or approval. So we've got people like this running around, but than we've got people like me and you; or at least who appear to be like me and you. People who want to be and claim to be a part of this madness we call the world but are really all about themselves. These people take the form of Capitalists, Medieval chuch officals and even the common joe. Sure, they donate to charity, but that's just a big tax ride-off. That plus it's good for the public image. Hell, they teach it in business class that charitable donations (AKA Philanthropic giving) is a good way to increase sales; it's only a bloody marketing ploy for christ's sake. As for the medieval church officals... well, they always went on as though they were an effin charity, so no comment there. But the you've got the common person - Joe Public. The person who "throws a non-perishabe item in the donation bin at christmas and... [is convinced] it's done something decent." That's the reality of the matter. that's the reality of the world we live in. Of course, you have the folks who, in my opinion, have removed themselves intellectually and mentally from the world, that he/she or they just disassociate themselves and ultimatly believe that it's all a conspiracy. Now, even I, in my very limited wisdom cannot escape the fact that there are conspiracies and even evil, sinister plots being developed any and everywhere all the time. I mean, look no further than any of the James Bond films and my point will have been demonstrated. But it's useless and even pointless to take the entire world as a conspiracy because not only are you denying certain truths, but than you're removing everything that we know to know. (Sure, Rene Descartes tried this with his Method of Doubt, but that can only account for so much 'cause even that had some inherent flaw in that as one can never remove presuppostions from one's mind.) And so you think it's all a big conspiracy, what do you get? A socio related neo-hinduism belief, justified by paranoia without the religious affiliation. Fun for the whole family eh? Exactly. See how absurd that is? So what happened to and where are the socially concious and aware people? It seems to me that most are in hiding, or at least that that side of everybody is in hiding, so much so, that life and society is going dowhill; hell in a handbasket kind of thing. As far as I can tell the last great people who had these types of ideals fell into some messy situations. JKF.............. Shot. Ghandi.......... Shot. M.L. King JR.. Shot. Pope JP2....... Shot. M. Luther........ Banished, but wanted dead. Robinh Hood... Outlawed, but wanted dead. Are we seeing a trend here? Sure Robin hood wasn't necessarily a real person, but I threw him in the mix for good measure to simply demonstrate my point. Of course, one can say that all were conspiring against certain governments like Hussien or Hitler... or even Stalin, but what makes these guys the good guys is that they were fighting against a bad cause... a cause that wasn't ours. They were fighting on our side; the side of our apparently perfect morality. Naturally we'd never condone the factions in which they were rising against... or would we? How many catholics would swear up and down that Luthernism is evil, sinister and down-right wrong? Of course, those are the same Catholics which seem to over-look the fact that it was Luther and his beginning of the reformation that caused the church to change from it's stupid, evil, simister ways into something more friendly. And why are did the catholic church change you ask? Simple. Because they were losing believers, attendence and thus money and consequently POWER. What a notion. The church didn't change it's ways on account of revelation, but because they wanted to maintain the strangle-hold of authority they had over Europe at the time. Of course, which Catholic would agree to that, then take that, and apply it to the current church? Probably none because they've convinced themselves that the faith has come such a long way and is now infallable. Of course, this was the thought of the people in the 1400 - 1600's, and we all know what happened back then so can we really say that we're on the right track? Hell, half the of the ideals and traditions stem from a time of treachory and coruption within the vatican and papacy. So what does that leave us? Not a hell of a lot, that's for sure. We really haven't come that far in terms of our human development so how can this religion be so far advanvced when it's being led by humans? I ask the Catholics out there, where was the hand of god for the 200/ 300 years of corruption, destruction and and counter-doctrinal practices? All we've really done within the past 100... alright, 200 years is slapped some power suits and fancy packaging on our deepest darkest instinctive desires. Or at best, banish them to a place where we don't allow ourselves to indulge in them, and when we do we turn into something we can't control. All we've really done is taken our the most destructive tendencies and hidden it with one word: infrastructure. It's a marvelous thing don't you think? And then what do we do? We reward the people who try and turn our sights to the greater good with a peice of lead... or in some cases more than just one piece. Ever wonder why children aren't the way they use to be? Why toy sales aren't what they use to be and serious youth crime seems to be rising? Maybe because you never let little timmy play with a plastic gun he's found it fitting at the age of 16 to go out and guy a glock out of the trunk of your neighbours vehicle and shoot up the local convenience store clerk. And don't you dare swear up and down that Timmy was a good boy. Why? Because he went on all the play dates you organized and he lived the most sheltered life in his area? What made Timmy a good boy? The fact that his mother won't let him be a child, because he never pulled any little pranks as a child and because he never knew the almost lethal grip of stress? Is that what made him a good boy? That's crap. We're trying to mould our children too fast into something that they're not ready to be. And so they have to revert back sometime. And if it's not when they're teens, it's when they're thirty-seven, realizing that they only have thirty-seven- at best- more years left of their life. What happens? They buy a car that they can't afford, leave their 42 year old wife (who makes as much money as them working more hours) and the three kids (aged 13, 8, and 5 because they wanted the perfect life before they had children which reverts back to the life of no struggle or sacrifices) and runs off with his 24 year old secretary who, by the way, looks better than his wife did at 20. That's the world we live in and no-one see that this is what happens when you move to the polar end of safety and organization. How did this all happen? Women's Lib. Break down of the family unit- Women's Lib. Of course, I can't deny that men have always been cheaters- but at least they always stayed within the home and supported the home. They didn't leave the home, ever pay child support and create a new identity in a hotter, sunnier climate. Never. Does this all stem from our previously mentioned lack of vision? I'd say so. We're so concerned with what we can get and how we can attain the perfect life that the only way in which we can identify with the word sacrifice and struggle is when we had to decide between which job /degree to take... or which "extra value meal" to order. Seriously, is this what we really want for future generations? One day we'll wake up and realize that we've stopped living our lives and that the things of the past have been moulded so that they will effect our future. Afterall, that is what Psychology is all about, right? Hell, I ought to know - I've been using it for years now. Something in the past, distant or near, is the reason for your actions... yadda yadda yadda. And the more we continue to find these outrageous correlations between past events and current trends the more we'll move away from the fabric of being - not just religion as we're seeing now, but we'll even lose our identity. One day we'll wake up and just be seen as a collection of previous events which will ultimately lead to certain events and so on and so forth. It's already happening, but it's so casual that none of us can identify it. Sad, we do it to ourelves and are so oblivious to it. It's the epitome of idiosyncrasy. Welcome to your world. Hypocritically yours, -Captain B. Controlled