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How can I best survive in today’s society?

Not by turning to religion. To all but the intellectually infantile, religion is an infrastructure that exists primarily to support itself. Given this and the prominent role religion plays today, it is clear that retarding social change is a primary objective of organized religion. Maintain the status quo. This would be fine, but the willful ignorance, gleefully urgent consumerism and apathy of the status quo is what created my ennui.

Even to turn away from organized religion, there is nothing. Faith, god, hope, prayer, all are delusions, socially constructed, existing unsupported by clergy to keep us whistling and docile until our deaths. Upon death, my estate will be divided among the living, who will value it for its illusion of authenticity, because we, as humans, know that nothing is permanent or meaningful. Unsurprisingly, permanence and meaning are what we devote our lives to.

If there is no god, no fate, no master plan for our existence, where can I turn? Art, at best, is a diversion. At worst, it is another indication of what type of consumer I am. Turning a unique expression into a tangible good with a monetary value perfectly describes the ethos of our age. Who owns the ocean floor? Which sphere of influence extends to the moon?

I despise the consumer society, but I know change will never come. So I’ll fall in line. I want what you have, or pretend to have: happiness, contentment, confidence in your place in society. I know these things are intangible, but I’ll buy their tangible manifestations in order to pretend I have these qualities, while resenting you for doing the same. I wish someone would change the world for me.

How can I best survive in today’s society?

By expressing my station in life (as determined by myself, but primarily by others) through status symbols. Society is a fractal, and with each iteration it breaks down into cultures, subcultures, cliques and social groups. Each is a new market, full of potential for profit.

How can I best express my individuality by buying goods designed for mass consumption? Which clique best describes my personality?

How can I maintain any sort of morality while I hypocritically consume? I can’t. I do drugs in a futile attempt differentiate myself from the mainstream. Yet by using drugs, I am beating my mind into submission, making life tolerable in an intolerable society. Even worse, in our society where even something so essential to our survival as food has brand names, drug users are just another subculture, a clique, yet another market to exploit. How can I hate the consumer society, when I want to be judged on what I like (buy) rather than what I’m like, while despising those that consume differently with identical motivations?

I can’t, but I can hate myself.

12 Answers

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  • Doug O
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    It's too long for my attention span.

  • 1 decade ago

    Come out of the world and put your faith and trust in the Lord. Instead of branding yourself to worldly items and things, put your hopes and dreams in the kingdom of God. The Lord is real and not a delusion. I know Him and He speaks to me. Stay away from religion, but God did inspire His book and He commands that we read it. The King James Version of the Holy Bible. This version is not bound by copyright laws and has not been tampered with like the others.

    Never in history has such doubt and confusion over the Bible existed as is today. And nothing has flamed the fire of confusion and doubt over the Bible more than the scores of different translations flooding the scene today. God is not the author of confusion therefore God has not asked for over 200 different translations. Satan is the author of confusion and he knows if he can plant the smallest seed of doubt and confusion - that the individual will not take God's word serious!

    You run around helping Satan spread his lies while you call God a delusion and God's gospel social construction by pastors, priests and rabbis.

    God told every person - don't listen to anyone but Me and here is My Word, the Holy Bible - Read It!!!

    There is an all out attack on the deity of Jesus Christ and His Word.

    As God promised, He has preserved His word for the English people in the King James Bible. Proverbs 16:10 says, "A divine sentence is in the lips of the King..." Ecclesiastes 8:4 says, "Where the word of a King is, there is power..." "James" is not an English word but a Hebrew word. Did you know the Hebrew word for James is Jacob! You'll never guess what Psalms 147:19 says, "He showeth His word unto Jacob..."

    2 Timothy 2:9 reads, "...the word of God is NOT BOUND." Anybody can freely print, distribute, and reproduce the King James Bible, but not the others.

    Over 2000 years ago God Himself wrote in His Word about the King James Bible long before the 1611 Bible ever came into existence.

    You can be unhappy with religion. You can be unhappy with the churches and the pastors, preachers, priests, etc., but don't sell Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior and God short. God is more than able to protect His Word. He spoke the worlds into existence so He can easily protect His Word as He so tells us. God says in His Word that we are without excuse not to believe in Him. God is Creator of everything. The heavens declare His glory and the Hubble Telescope proves it. God is still creating. He said that He was going to prepare a place for us. His Word says that man cannot even comprehend what glorious things that God has in store for us who love Him.

    Don't hate yourself. God says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and that He knew you before He formed you in your mother's womb. God says that He will never leave us or forsake us. If you say that you hate yourself, it is like telling God that He made a mistake in making you and God doesn't make mistakes. God's plan for your life is for His pleasure and you seem to think that it is for your pleasure. Turn your life over to the Lord and watch Him change your outlook on life. There is nothing better than Peace with God, Peace with Others and Peace with ourselves.

  • 1 decade ago

    Griffine S, This is exactly like your last question word-for-word. What are you trying to say? Who are you trying to reach. Griffine, there is a God... our magnificent creator. What's your point? Don't hate yourself. "Seek and ye shall find". We're not human beings going through spiritual experiences, we're spiritual beings going through human experiences in order to grow. Find your place in this existence, and know that you are loved.

  • 1 decade ago

    God is dead

    and the wars begun

    So many turn away

    and do not choose to understand

    Andf flick it off carelesly

    They see the "preachers"

    collecting their money

    Christians acting like devils

    And they give up.

    28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?

    Moses 7:29

    29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?

    Moses 7:30

    30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;

    Moses 7:31

    31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?

    Moses 7:32

    32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;

    Moses 7:33

    33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;

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  • Shadus
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    The author was a cynic who is probably lying about his life experience at the least.

    Source(s): Apathetic Agnostic
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I agree with the first two paragraphs but after that it sounds like Marxism.

  • 1 decade ago

    I doubt you wrote this treatise. No matter what your belief is, you are empty. I've never felt this way in my atheism nor acted out that way.

    Bottom line, are you saying anything?

  • SPAH
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    My reaction to that was, "Well, now. That is just way too long for me to read."

  • duddeeee. that is way too long and im too lazy to comprehend it. just tell us the point will ya?

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    (Read the passage) ...Oh, look a cloud. Bye, bye.

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