The Crack-pipe in the Sinking Car
Posted by:: Phin
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:41:16 GMT
--------
Yeah I keep thinking of that news story that was big on Yahoo! maybe a
year ago.
This guy was being chased by police.
And they chased the guy's car into a lake. And it was sinking. And the
water's coming up, up, up...
And so what does the guy do?
He reaches over to get that one last hit off his crack pipe. Before he
drowned. I don't think he drowned I think they got him. But it was a
popular story, emailed around, on Yahoo! *I* think cuz.. well...
people can identify with it, it's funny cuz people can identify with
it: and because
it's like the perfect metaphor for our times.
It's like, my god, I think what are we DOING?? As humans. With our
internet PORN, and our celebrity-worship, and our liposuction and our
hooking up with people to get blowjobs over the web and in bathroom
stalls, and our "oh, we gotta get the new 'plasma screen TV'", gotta
get the new gadget to play with, gotta get the new IPOD, and oh, look
Brad Pitt is breaking up with his girlfriend and we gotta see Must-See
TV tonight...
and meanwhile the world is just going to SHIT! Totally going to SHIT!
And it's NOT FIXABLE. Jesus is not coming on a white horse to save
anybody! He's not coming! *Maybe* the X-ists are, but I'm not holding
my breath.
Between global warming, the glaciers melting, the oceans dying, the
asteroid that's gonna hit us any second, nuclear weapons all over the
place, terrorists coming out of the woodwork, war crimes, child rape,
supervolcanoes about to go off any second, Social Security a mess,
dwindling food supplies, dwindling energy supplies, overpopulation...
....we're concerned with whether we look fat in those jeans, or what
someone might think about us, or what the latest movie is, recycling
aluminum cans, or when our next favorite TV show is on...
And it all makes perfect sense.
Why NOT??
There's a level, which we can't fully quite attain as individuals with
our tiny little minds, but it's there, where it ALL makes PERFECT
SENSE. All the little pieces of the puzzle slip perfectly into place
where they're supposed to go and the picture it makes, is a messed up
nightmare, to be sure but all the pixels are right where they're
supposed to be, all the atoms are doing just what they're supposed to
do at the right time, all the snowflakes are coming down to their
appointed resting places....
And I look at this and I think:
We're ALL screwed!
We are ALL ROYALLY SCREWED! You, me, your neighbors down the street,
their dog, Dan Rather, George W. Bush, Condaleeza Rice, William
Shatner, and Bill Gates, we, they, are all royally, royally screwed.
No one's going to build bases on the MOON or on MARS for fuck's sake!
It's like your car's breaking down, steam's coming out of the
radiator, your tires are bald, the axle's bent, and there's just no
money... there's no money to fix it. Not fixable anyway. It's just a
matter of time. And entropy.
We're all SCREWED.
And there is a strange comfort in that. Cuz it gives us all something
in common when we're all fighting over differences. I know it's not
something people like to necessarily hear or talk about, but it's the
truth.
And kinda the other good part is that no one can do anything about it.
THAT comforts me. I find solace in the fact that there is no hope. And
I find it kind of grimly funny that other people cling to it.
Religiously.
BUT how ICKY of me to even think that way.
I live in a country where I have the LUXURY of not having to believe
in God. And I thank GOD that I have the luxury of not needing to
believe in Him!
Other people, out there in the world, they don't have that luxury. Cuz
God is all they have. They certainly don't have any kind of livable
lives. Let's see, this existence isn't working out THIS WEEK, bout the
only thing that keeps me going is believing that they I am going to
heaven, that there's something AFTER that's better than all THIS.
And how ARROGANT and pompous of me to SNICKER only because I am in a
position to afford to do so.
And yet, it's hard not to be resentful, or cynical. I see what it did
to my mom. She believed in God and Jesus with all her heart and she
wasn't a DUMB woman. She was smart, but she was terrified probably
because she was SMART.
She REALLY wanted to go up in that rapture man. She wanted that more
than anything. And when i saw her die, I understood why. Cuz I knew
she saw death happen to HER mother and she thought...
'...fuck THAT, I'm putting all my chips on the rapture. I'm bypassing
THAT process'.
And she clung to that all her life.
And sometimes I think "God" let her down, man.
But then I realize it's all just a perfect piece in that puzzle. It
had to be. It had to be. I might think she clung to her beliefs too
much, but who am I to judge her? I can't feel her feelings, her
heartaches, her anxieties, her fears. I don't have her memories or the
feelings associated with them.
And those beliefs, they weren't worthless... they got her through hard
times. Very hard times. They comforted her. Sure, like a drug, it all
catches up to you in the end, and you die a very hard and painful and
disillusioning death, but HEY it got her through a lot of cold dark
nights.
And that's just what all those people out there are trying to do right
now, in their homes in Moscow, New York, sleeping on a sewer grate,
living in a shotgun shack out in Bagdhad with no power or running
water, in Abu Gharib prison or San Quentin death row, or in a
cardboard box behind the local abandoned Wal-Mart... they're all just
trying to get through the night.
Cuz they know, instinctually, no matter how much this life SUCKS,
Death is Worse.
Unless you reach the moment that Hunter did. Where the scales tip the
other way. And just for a moment the exit door opens up again.
And you take it.
What a fucked situation.
What a fucked situation.
But hey, we're all addicts of one sort or another. That's what it
really comes down to. Whether it's religion, or hope, or a crack pipe
in a sinking car, or a plasma screen TV, or klonopin, or dopamine or
MEANING, or love, chocolate, or "Bob" Dobbs, or thinking about Jesus
coming to save us on a white horse, or some dream we can escape into
even for a moment.... whatever. We're all just looking for SOMETHING
to get us through the night.
Until there is nothing else.
That's what it really comes down to.
I think this life is a dream of God or "Bob" or whatever IT is, who
came here to figure out things and experience what he COULDN'T get
wherever "He" is.
And we're all "Him". All part of "His" dream. A dream within a dream.
That's all that's going on.
All that endures here, in this life, somehow, is the understandings
that takes place in it.
Everything else is just vapor, man.
Good night.
Posted by:: "Paul Casino"
Date: 12 Mar 2005 05:50:49 -0800
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That...is a damn fine rant. My moms has the same problem, she's
frickin' crazy with the Jesus, she thanks him when the toast doesn't
burn. Did yours praise Jesus when YOU did something good, too? This is
an actual conversation I had with her last week:
MOMS: "Oh, you got an 'A' on your Shakespeare mideterm? Priase Jesus, I
prayed that he would help you out because you said you were stressing
and he did. See, miracles happen."
PAUL: " Yeah, I was sitting in class and I didn't know the answer to
number seven, and there was Jesus sitting next to me, like you planned,
and he whispers into my ear "It's B, the answer's B" The professor
thought it was cheating, but I explained to him that it's divine
intervention and who the hell was he to questions God's plan?"
MOMS: "Why do you always have to make fun?"
PAUL: "Because Jesus didn't help me a lick and I passed the test
because I studdied my ass off. Me. Not him. Me. I did a good job."
MOMS: "I'm not getting into this with you again..."
(Repeat until I'm dead.)
So that hit a nerve with me and that's why I loved this rant. NIce work.
Posted by:: Phin
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:59:58 GMT
--------
Yeah exactly. My mom, more and more near the end, would always 'thank
God'.
Me: "Yeah the cab picked me up all right and I got over here on time
for once"
Her: Thank GOD.
They get to be that age, I tell ya, they start kissing God's ass a
lot, cuz they figure they're gonna be meeting him soon.
On 12 Mar 2005 05:50:49 -0800, "Paul Casino"
wrote:
>That...is a damn fine rant. My moms has the same problem, she's
>frickin' crazy with the Jesus, she thanks him when the toast doesn't
>burn. Did yours praise Jesus when YOU did something good, too? This is
>an actual conversation I had with her last week:
>
>MOMS: "Oh, you got an 'A' on your Shakespeare mideterm? Priase Jesus, I
>prayed that he would help you out because you said you were stressing
>and he did. See, miracles happen."
>
>PAUL: " Yeah, I was sitting in class and I didn't know the answer to
>number seven, and there was Jesus sitting next to me, like you planned,
>and he whispers into my ear "It's B, the answer's B" The professor
>thought it was cheating, but I explained to him that it's divine
>intervention and who the hell was he to questions God's plan?"
>
>MOMS: "Why do you always have to make fun?"
>
>PAUL: "Because Jesus didn't help me a lick and I passed the test
>because I studdied my ass off. Me. Not him. Me. I did a good job."
>
>MOMS: "I'm not getting into this with you again..."
>
>(Repeat until I'm dead.)
>
>So that hit a nerve with me and that's why I loved this rant. NIce work.
Posted by:: "Rev. Richard Skull"
Date: 12 Mar 2005 07:40:22 -0800
--------
And now for the Sports News
Posted by:: "Revi Shankar"
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:44:50 -0500
--------
"Phin" wrote
>
> All that endures here, in this life, somehow, is the understandings
> that takes place in it.
>
> Everything else is just vapor, man.
>
> Good night.
See what happens when you get enlightenment? Be careful for what you wish.
How's this different from any other time in history? People are born. They
live and die. Whoptee do. Have a sammich.
As my father used to tell me when as a child I was terrified of the mosnter
in the closet or when I just learned what death was: "Think Pleasant
Thoughts." What a master at parenting he was.
"There is more and more evidence that this thing we call reality is simply a
mental construct created by our brains."
Posted by:: Phin
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:59:50 GMT
--------
My uncle AND Dad say, in the face of my crippling clinical depression:
"Keep your chin up"
Oh yeah, my chin. THANKS. The angle of my head is important.
*sigh*
On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:44:50 -0500, "Revi Shankar"
wrote:
>"Phin" wrote
>>
>> All that endures here, in this life, somehow, is the understandings
>> that takes place in it.
>>
>> Everything else is just vapor, man.
>>
>> Good night.
>
>See what happens when you get enlightenment? Be careful for what you wish.
>
>How's this different from any other time in history? People are born. They
>live and die. Whoptee do. Have a sammich.
>
>As my father used to tell me when as a child I was terrified of the mosnter
>in the closet or when I just learned what death was: "Think Pleasant
>Thoughts." What a master at parenting he was.
>
>"There is more and more evidence that this thing we call reality is simply a
>mental construct created by our brains."
>
>
>
>
>
>
Posted by:: Frere Jean Bleu
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 07:40:59 +1100
--------
On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:41:16 GMT, Phin wrote:
>
>It's like, my god, I think what are we DOING?? As humans. With our
>internet PORN, and our celebrity-worship, and our liposuction and our
>hooking up with people to get blowjobs over the web and in bathroom
>stalls, and our "oh, we gotta get the new 'plasma screen TV'", gotta
>get the new gadget to play with, gotta get the new IPOD, and oh, look
>Brad Pitt is breaking up with his girlfriend and we gotta see Must-See
>TV tonight...
>
>and meanwhile the world is just going to SHIT! Totally going to SHIT!
See Fightclub
Fr J B
Posted by:: "nu-monet v7.0"
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 14:57:52 -0700
--------
Phin wrote:
>
> This guy was being chased by police.
>
> And they chased the guy's car into a lake. And it
> was sinking. And the water's coming up, up, up...
>
> And so what does the guy do?
>
> He reaches over to get that one last hit off his
> crack pipe.
http://www.dumbcrooks.com/August232004.htm
(2nd item)
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