children_of_a_lesser_god dafremen We're all, along with the rest of the universe, involved in a process of development which started with photons and has gone through long stages that saw it form atoms, inanimate matter, then there was life. After that, we saw all sorts of characteristics develop: primarily survival-related at first (this is probably where the first immune systems were developed), then mobility, then strength or speed..physical development became crucial in the early hunger games of this evolutionary process..our creator process. Then..lo and behold the direction of development takes up a DIFFERENT priority..a different contest emerges: the intellect must be developed. It didn't take but the evolutionary blink of an eye for us to come on the scene and assume we were the center of the universe. But this thing never stopped..slowly it's been moulding us, changing us over the centuries..until we are (hopefully) less brutal beings than our earliest homo sapien ancestors were. But are we as compassionate as our more RECENT ancestors? When we began to forgo our close families, tight knit communities and common courtesy, to become a part of this.."smarter" "more sophisticated world" of Big Bang insults and snarky, Seinfeldian shallowness..didn't we realize that the process had been developing us SPIRITUALLY/EMOTIONALY for all of these millennia? And as the beneficiaries of this GRAND movement over BILLIONS of years, didn't it occur to us that we have something of a responsibility to that process which comes with our advantage? We can't just pretend like every other thing the evolutionary process values is now worthless because we're here. These systems and processes are our foundation. (Including our immune systems.) ALL spiritual or even simple emotional progress, feeds off of the grass, and lives on the land of these more primitive stepping stones: Without light there is no matter. Without matter there is no strength. Without strength, there is little to support intelligence. Without intellect, there is little to support spiritual development. This is our heritage, our roots..the sacred path we emerged from and are meant to continue walking. Who tf talked the human race into believing we should walk off that path?? "Ingrates" is a word one might use to describe the perpetrators of such a traitorous act. "Richies" or "elitists" is what I've been calling them. Go get your bugs, everyone. It's a sacred rite of passage. 201204 ... dafremen SCIENCE: My esteemed colleagues! As you all know, the number one problem facing the human race today is overpopulation and the harm it's causing the planet; through pollution and ecosystem disruption. GOVERNMENT: Well, let's pass more laws to reduce risk, then! That should help! (Plus we can rake in more $$! Get it?) Yea! Preventative laws! Don't you think? SCIENCE: Well, er..not exac.. MEDICINE: Ok, so check this out: If we lock this down, mask it up, divide by 328,000,000, carry the one and wait for a vaccine we can probably save millions of lives! We should do that, am I right? SCIENCE: Umm..no see, helping with overpopulation would be sort of the opposite of that. Anyone else have ideas? TECHNOLOGY: Oooo! What if we could make transportation and every day life safer by computerizing everything with AI! You see where I'm going with this? 😎 SCIENCE: Yes, but unfortunately, it's in the wrong direction. TECHNOLOGY: Ok, ok! How about this: We forget about THIS planet and just try to get to another planet! That way, we can stop trashing THIS planet..and trash THAT planet instead?! C'mon! You gotta admit..that's a pretty good one. MEDICINE & GOVERNMENT: *nod heads in agreement* SCIENCE: *forehead slap* 201206 ... dafremen HUMANITY: Hey, Science. Could you maybe figure out what causes human greed and develop an injection we could use on anyone we detect with the "greedy sociopath" gene? SCIENCE: Yea..no I'm busy. We just came up with a new disorder caused by bored people staring at the screens we invented. It seems that sitting around doing fuck all with your life causes this thing called "restless leg syndrome." Gotta develop a drug. Now if you don't mind, we're real busy here. (Right boss?) BIG MONEY: Absolutely. Run along Humanity..big people doing big people stuff. *pats Humanity on the ass* Later on.. HUMANITY: Umm..hate to bother you, Science. But overpopulation is really starting to mess with the planet and the other critters. It's sort of getting to the time critical stage. Think we could really focus ALL of our resources on that..one of these days? SCIENCE: Look, kid. You see that HUGE ring cutting across the landscape for miles? That's the Large Hadron Collider. It cost $5.5 billion to make and over a billion dollars a year to operate. HUMANITY: *whistles* That'd buy a whole lot of research into environmentally friendly building materials. So what's it do? Something bad ass, I bet. SCIENCE: With this thing..we are going to find even SMALLER particles than the ones we've already found. We KNOW they're in there..we just have to smash stuff together a lot to get one to pop out. HUMANITY: And what will happen when it pops out? SCIENCE: Then we will know.. HUMANITY: *getting really excited to hear the major breakthrough* Yes? SCIENCE: That we were RIGHT. *smiles* HUMANITY: Oh. SCIENCE: Now if you don't mind, we've got little teeny particles to smash. It's very important. Bye bye! Good luck with that, eco-whatever thingy. Even later on.. HUMANITY: Hey again, science. Really hate to bug you, man. SCIENCE: *snaps* What is it THIS time? I'm REALLY busy. HUMANITY: Well, it's about that pollution thing we're all worried about. SCIENCE: Yea? What about it? I already made you some plastic out of plants and stuff. We're figuring out new products to make with it right now. HUMANITY: Well, it's just that well, nobody uses the stuff that breaks down easily..and umm..the plant plastic is just as bad as the other stuff. SCIENCE: Jesus! It never ends with you, does it? I'm over here coming up with all of these amazing new ways of improving your life and all you can do is complain about the garbage it causes. HUMANITY: Yea. I'm really sorry! It's just that everything's falling apart and the beaches are a mess. SCIENCE: So go clean it UP! Can't you see we've got important work to do here? BIG MONEY: Exactly. We've got very profitable..er I mean..very important work to do here. Now scoot along, Humanity. *sniffs Humanity's hair* 201220 ... dafremen SCIENCE: Hey Humanity, I just wanted to apologize for snapping at you earlier. I'm just under a lot of stress. HUMANITY: That's ok I know you mean well. SCIENCE: I really do. And don't I show it? How about that time I invented that new life saving technology. Remember? HUMANITY: Oh yea. I mean that was really nice..even with the overpopulation and everything. SCIENCE: Yea never mind that..what about that time I came up with a whole new technology to make everyone's lives easier? People are still using it today! Helpful..that's me. It's a gift. HUMANITY: Definitely. I mean it's been real nice having all of that technology take away our need for self reliance. The whole corporate control thing is probably just me being paranoid, that's all. You know me. SCIENCE: Exactly. And what about how I lifted us up out of the mud of the Dark Ages? Now we get to live these clean, hygenically-safe lives. Isn't it nice? HUMANITY: For sure, man. I mean the soda cup lids and trash are starting to pile up, and immune systems are weaker than ever..but at least we didn't get anything icky on our fingers. So that's nice. SCIENCE: I know right? I'm really just trying to help..you know that, right? HUMANITY: Oh I know. I get it. SCIENCE: Good. Now if you can just close the door on your way out. I'm real busy. We're working on this new vaccine.. BIG MONEY: Hold on Humanity! Not so fast. *grabs Humanity by the crotch* Mind rolling up your sleeve real quick? 201220 ... dafremen SCIENCE: There's a new bug coming around. It's very dangerous. HUMANITY: Oh wow. Thanks for the warning. Appreciate it. SCIENCE: No, see..you don't understand. I'm telling you this is VERY dangerous. You should probably listen to me from now on. HUMANITY: Oh I get it. I'm listening. Thank you. Can I go now? SCIENCE: Sure. But put this mask on first and DON'T get CLOSE TO ANYONE. BIG MONEY: Absolutely. Don't want workers getting to close to one another. Bad for business. Very bad. HUMANITY: No thanks. I'm good on the mask. I have an immune system. SCIENCE: Seriously? You're going to trust that old, outdated technology? We've advanced virology and immunology to the point that we can make your cells perform microbiological kung fu on protein spikes using messenger RNA. HUMANITY: Wow. That sounds really complicated and fascinating. You guys are sure clever. Reminds me of that time we all made marshmallow, peanut butter and Trix cereal sandwiches one summer just to see what it would be like and make each other happy. Remember? SCIENCE: No. It's nothing like that. It's very important. HUMANITY: Experimenting to make people happy isn't important? Man, I'm not sure how to take that. So when are you going to tell your boss? SCIENCE: Tell him what? HUMANITY: Tell him that you're quitting because experimenting to make people happy isn't important enough work for you. SCIENCE: That's ridiculous. Of course it is. I enjoy my work very much. HUMANITY: And I enjoyed those sandwiches very much. (Not sure how well they'd go down these days.) SCIENCE: You're impossible. HUMANITY: You're adorable..with your cute, little puffed-up sense of self importance. BIG MONEY: Get your asses back to work, or I'm raising your rent AND your utilities! 201226 what's it to you? who go blather from