And yes, I'm referring to you reading this. Of course, I'm also referring to myself, writing this. We're all turkeys--assholes, fools, idiots, selfish bastards, pretending to be oblivious or actually being oblivious to our dying world.
One of the big dangers I think religion brings to the table is the idea that there is a god with a plan and everything is cool because He is in charge and He knows what he's doing.
The things is, there is no god--upper case or lower case "G," there is no plan. Yes, this is all random--we exist because of a cosmic accident.
See? Now, didn't the universe, this planet, and your life just become way more amazing and valuable?
If you picked up a deck of cards and threw them across the room, they'd just fall to the floor, making a mess. Well, what if you threw them across the room and they all landed in such a way as to create a house of cards? Wouldn't you just about shit yourself with awe? I would.
But another thing I would do is protect that damn house of cards with my life. What an amazing thing to have a house of cards fall into place by pure accident!
Well, guess what, folks. Yep, our world, our existence is a house of cards. It wasn't built by someone--it just came into being. How do I know this? Because there is precisely NO evidence of a god, but there's is PLENTY of evidence that the universe is made up of swirling balls that can sometimes (at least once) provide the randomly right combination of crap to, quite accidentally, create life.
Enter human religion and it's urge to put all the responsibility on God and His Plan. This gives permission to millions of people throughout history to do unspeakably horrible things to other people. This also gives permission to humans in the twentieth century to just "trust" in "God" that everything will be cool. It'll all just work out. It's on our fucking money for Christ's sake! "In God We Trust."
Yeah, great idea, folks. Well, guess what, there is no God to trust. So if we trust God, we trust no one. If we trust God's plan we trust nothing at all.
Enter the industrial age and the age of fossil fuels. Oil gives us gasoline, chemicals, plastic and cheap EVERYTHING. Oil is so fricken' cool that the US government convinces the biggest oil-producing countries in the world to only trade oil in US dollars, thus locking the very life of the US economy into the oil machine. Oil gives America everything it has. Everything.
Oil also gives the air and water an absurd amount of toxins. The toxins in the air create a blanket for our planet, warming the Earth unevenly, causing a disruption in weather patterns that we are already seeing the results of. The toxins in the water are now poisoning nearly every fish on the planet. It turns out that the oceans have absorbed something like 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which actually helped thin out that blanket mentioned earlier for a time. Soon, the ocean will stop accepting the CO2, and as sea life (not just fish) dies thanks to all of these poisons, they will release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thus creating a spike in that blanket making it worse than it's ever been.
Our planet is dying.
We've all been willingly ignorant. Why read up on this stuff when Paris Hilton is going to jail? Why read about how our economy is built on the trade of oil in the form of petrodollars when the Xbox 360 is so much fun to play? Why come up with solutions for the planet or even ways to get off of this planet when the latest episode of Lost is on TV?
I blame myself as much as I blame you and everyone else in our stupid, fat, lazy, scared, irresponsible culture. I can only imagine how many people died in Iraq so that I can have my Nintendo DS that is made of plastic made from oil. I don't want to think about the crap inside the laptop I'm using to type this incredibly heavy-handed post, because I know some of it fueled a horrible civil war in some African country.
We go about our lives in the United States (and other Western countries) with this feeling of entitlement. We have RIGHTS. We have things we DESERVE.
No.
We don't.
All we have is luck.
We were born and we were born where we were born.
We have so very much to be thankful for.
So, enjoy your turkey. Be thankful for it, your days off from work, your DVD recorder, your home, your significant other, your car (if you have one), your kids (if you have any), your job, your money, your supermarket, your Netflix account, your Best Buy, and, of course, be thankful for your very life.
Thank me for writing this post because you know god damn well that no one else is saying this shit and you know it's true. Why soft-pedal this reality?
Is it hopeless? Futile? Is there even any point, at this point?
The system was made to be virtually impossible to tear down.
For 200,000 years humans have existed in their current biological form. The Industrial Revolution has only occurred in the last hundred years.
Of course there's hope...but not for our way of life.
So, be thankful for that, too, while it lasts.
Oh and turkey skin. Be thankful for that, too. It's the best part of Thanksgiving, IMHO.
Orignal From: HAPPY THANKSGIVING, YOU TURKEYS
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