CONSPIRACY VS. ROBUST PETTINESS

Conspiracies are convenient, compelling, meaningless. They are the febrile machinations of busy brains fueled by suffocating fear and boundless confidence. The big forces that guide the hands of society are more mundane: bureaucracy, attrition, pettiness, our savage appetites. There's no master plan, no puppet strings, just chaos driven by the turbulence of everyday life. No one is out to get you; you just make things hard on yourself.

It is surmised that our escape from the primal muck into consciousness and social media was precipitated by pattern recognition. It is the genesis of intelligence. Our furry forebears who saw the tiger hidden in the grass lived longer than the others. Long enough to mash bits, calling more furry forebears into being, begetting another generation just slightly better at seeing tigers in the grass- or movements in the global markets indicating the coming apocalypse. Fear is the engine of change, even as fear of change is the death of society. Fucked either way.

Apophenia is the tendency to link together unconnected things, to see patterns where none exist. It's the codex of superstition. It's the falsework where we built religion, luck, quantum mechanics and all your weird rituals to ensure the Bruins win the Cup.

Everyone wants a guided hand: God, government, the Knights Templar. We want a reason for all this mess. Why is this happening? Who did this to me/us/that poor lady? 

If there's no one at the wheel, then we are careening out of control.

Clearly.

Volcanoes v. Virgins

Do we throw our chaste children into the cauldron to appease the belching spirits of the scorched core or are we trying to save them from the sagging depravity of our failed humanity? Are they liberated from these terrible body appetites? Or are they destroyed incomplete, souls without pleasure, simmering with disappointment?

When the young body hits the rocks below, no matter our reasons, we are more and less like God.

Cable News v. Enlightenment

The 24 hour news cycle is an attempt at enlightenment. Social media aspires to the complete picture, a total awareness of the rich tapestry of humanity’s glorious weirdness. But our 10% brains are not up to the task. We need gaps, empty openings where we can rest, short solace amongst all this chaos. There is too much to take in, to comprehend, to assimilate into a survivable, generous world view. We quickly fall down a well of worry and dismay. It is probably better that I don’t know what strange desires and foul feelings slosh around in the cesspool of your sloppy heart. Your hypocrisy is plain to see without your Twitter feed. 

Shut that shit off, my creeper. 

Spider Silk v. Taco Tuesday

Spiders have talented little assholes. They consume the liquefied guts of bugs and produce the strongest material in the world. A strand more refined and flexible and stronger than the finest steel ever forged of fire. With no training they weave together impeccable designs, gorgeous networks that act as a home as well as a trap to capture their food. Some can even fly on their silk, sailing on air currents to set up life anew. Spiders transubstantiate mosquitoes into beautiful life. 

People eat tacos and make loose shits and Facebook posts. 

Models vs. Terror

Mathematical modeling and engineering analytics are phony controls. The outcomes of simulations and the charts predicting fatalities cheapen the real and glorious fear of being alive. Science tames the world, but only in laboratories and the coded confines of a hard drive. Out here it's a mess and no actuarial table can save your dumb ass.

Some things so far resist modeling: turbulence- of air and of water, a wall stacked of stone, the desires of the human heart. Ask Gabriel Garcia-Marquez or Osama bin Laden. The power of love and the love to hate are wild and free, immune to analysis. Statistics can suggest the likely location of the next bombing, your dating app can recommend a fuck-buddy, but neither can tell you why. You cannot model the sacred passions that rule our foolish race. Mathematicians guess at certainties. Only artists can articulate the true grandeur of humankind's savagery.

Ever since we invented God we've been trying to replace Him/Her/It.

Wild Versus Tame

Research indicates that people are quite willing to follow the lead of a sociopath. While disappointing, this is not surprising. History overflows with examples of ‘sensible’ people doing senseless things under the spell of madmen. Pirates and pillagers, dictators and cult leaders, serial killers and celebrities have great sway over our attitudes and actions.
We were once wild but now we are not. We let that spirit go a long time ago, as we formed families and tribes and nations and society. It’s in the name; a sociopath has no respect for society and it’s standards and norms. And everyone has at least a small corner of their heart that longs to do and say some reckless shit. We admire that recklessness in others- and are quick to condemn it as well. The tame always have that alibi, the intoxication that comes from standing close to something wild and free. We feel it at the ocean on a stormy day. There’s a difference between being possessed by an evil spirit and being the devil himself. 
At least, we hope so.

Red Pill vs. Blue Pill

You all ought to stop taking them pills. They making you stupid.