The Dream

Wickedness is always easier than virtue;
      for it takes the short cut to everything.
             ~ Samuel Johnson


     Oh! So that's why everything has always so 
     painful and difficult for me! 

     But wickedness often ends up in jail; with a slit throat in
     a ditch; itching a bad drug habit or dead of it; traumatized
     by self-ruined marriages due to cheap affairs; as a horrific
     auto wreck on the highway with beer bottles on the floorboards; 
     on the lam in percolating paranoia; with a knife in the gut from
     a coke deal gone sour; or strung upside down on piano wire,
     battered and dead like Mussolini and his mistress...
   
     Johnson neglects to mention the high price 
     of wicked shortcuts. Johnson didn't mention the benefits
     of delayed gratification with which we were brainwashed
     as children, even when, as I have discovered, sometimes
     those supposed benefits are illusory; mere control mechanisms
     of the overlords.

     Every situation must be analyzed. Consequences of
     choices must be considered. Responsibility must  
     always reside with he who chooses. 

     There is a grand lack of reflection and thoughtfulness
      in the world today. The increased speed of the flow of
      information has degenerated the quality and quantity
      of thought and reflection devoted to the choices we make,
      and it has degenerated the tenor of public discourse. 
      The increased speed and volume flow of information
       steals the time from our lives that is required
       to process it--time which would better be devoted to
       thought and reflection. That's why so many shitty choices 
       are made. Their consequences are evident for all to
       see everywhere.    

      Technological innovation often degrades, rather than
      enhances, our lives. Unintended consequences appear
      after it's too late. 


      I often ask myself of every choice: it this good for me? 
      will this increase my happiness? will this improve the quality 
      of my life? will it give me what I want? have I seriously 
      considered what I want and why I want it?  
 
      There is an admitted lack of altruism here. Happiness
      cannot be induced into the world until the first person
      is responsible for his own happiness. Happiness then
      flows outward into the world. Altruism derived from
      social coercion repeatedly crashes as catastrophic,
      horrific, misbegotten utopias from hell. 

      Too often we assume that something is to be done
      by thoughtlessly imitating others and slavishly adopting
      the valuations of others, that damnedable mob; 
      that because THE OTHERS do something, it is sufficient
      justification for us to make similar action or a choice. 

      There exist too many shitty decisions with no thought or
      reflection behind them.  
  
      I propose escaping from the ever-frenetic flow of useless
      information. I propose grabbing back the time of one's
      life to think and reflect; also, to laugh and play as children.