Drinking from wells..

"Don't you know what it means to be crazy?

"I'm going to tell you a story," said Zedka. "A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.
   
"The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and the inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king's decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.
   
"When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication.
   
"In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: 'Let us go and rink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.'

"And that was what they did: The king and the queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?

"The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days."

   Veronika laughed.

---

I think you can draw two conclusions of the previous excerpt from Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho ( if you read it ).

One, while I believe our current societal structure is very much like that, in some ways it is also the complete opposite. As long as all of us in our established countries have our ends more then met, our fancy cell phone covers, sleek expensive cars, trendy clothing and generally excessive materialistic desires satisfied - we tend not to give any concern about what else may be going on with others and are therefore, complacent.

In fact, we can have an insane man elected into office, 'twice', and half of us will not only continue to remain complacent, but even support the insanity and fight to ensure that it continues based on what we are told to believe. But the point is that the only real change comes about from passion, when people are moved enough and feel they are forced into situations with very few other options.

It is frustrating for me to be able to imagine so much better of a state that this world could be in (a place where everyone values peace at all costs, complete freedom for creative expression, a de-emphasis on personal profit and material property and re-emphasis placed on other human beings and our collective well-being, an ultimate respect for nature and other people and animals, a universal system of interaction with everyone else on this planet like free travel, ultimate self expression where people are not ashamed or discouraged to act as they really feel and to be trusted to act on their inner desires, I could go on all day people!!) and to know and see so very few other people who bother to care that it could be different (they seem perfectly and blindly content consuming precious fossil fuels, conserving nothing, and indulging everything that has no real merit).

To summarize, as long as we believe that we are happy and remain blind to the possibility of greatness and the sufferings of others beyond our own country - we will remain for the most part - inactive. In today's modern world, there would be no revolution if an 'insane' person were ruling it (proven by the fact that it actually happened, and it is allowed to continue).

Secondly, I think it makes an excellent correlation (albeit, it is generalizing and making an assumption about a large amount of people whom I've not all met) about how people in general act. There are so many who have chose to not wander outside their zones of comfort or to bother finding passion in life. I see it every day when I step outside. These people who live the 9-5 office or customer service / sales lifestyle: Who among them can honestly, truly honestly say they love going to an office every day? Who can say that in their later years, they are content to reminisce about how they spent 5 out of every 7 days filling out reports, helping asshole customers buy more things they don't even need and  feigning concern (a smile or a gesture should be sincere ALWAYS, purely out of the feeling to do it..not forced as when you are sold something) for their 'need' to have a more expensive and updated computer, or climbing a superficial ladder primarily for profit and power, and working not for the love of whatever you are doing - but so that you can ensure maximum profits to a company that has no regard for anything but the latter? So you continue to earn more money, to continue to be able to afford more things that you don't need, which ensures profits to those companies that you and others like you work for and they buy your time  back in the form of employment so that the cycle can continue!!@$

My friends, that is crazy.

I know you've heard it so many different ways, from so many different people that it has become redundant and cheesy. But it bears repeating none the less:

Find. Your. Passion.

We all have to do shitty things at certain points in our lives. No one wants to work as a janitor forever (although, some choose to settle with it and that is their choice), but more then likely you will have to do these things. And that's ok. But please, do not allow yourselves to be fooled by advertising, government and politics, religion or ANYONE other then your own mind and inner desires into thinking that you shouldn't be regularly striving towards doing something that makes you feel alive inside for the majority of your short time on this earth. Settle for nothing less my friends.


Well anyway, I'm going to be restricting myself for a while from this internet thing, devart, etc. for at least a month or two. I need to get back to doing some things I haven't done in a while and seeing some people who I've missed seeing..

Stay good</i>, you crazy cool people! Not sure how much I will be letting myself check email, but you can always send stuff to eric@antilimit.com and I will eventually get it