a breed without soul

In a recent post concerning overpopulation, I mentioned the lack of identity among purchasing dependent overpopulators:

."..The next time you find yourself sitting in traffic, take a good look at your surroundings, take note of the decals emblazoned in obese fonts with neon hues on westerners' windsheilds, "American Patriot",  "I'm not a bitch, I'm THE Bitch" or the rednecks' fave, bin Laden pissing.  These indicate a desperation to stand out among the writhing masses, wouldn't you say, a loneliness so severe that attention is drawn by means of annoying hapless passersby?   You might also say its obvious they have no identity anymore (if they ever had any to begin with) and obscene decals are the best they could scrabble together in saying "I am alive, look at me, I count dammit!" ..."

... Overpopulators who in elbowing their ways through the journey atop Nascar rated tires or encased in overpriced lookalike cages behind gated walls,  the cabs and carriers of which include amenities such as surrogate identity where none actually exists, rooms and inhabitants displaying various cult features such as fashion. style, cosmetic surgery, meaningless logos and rude decals, never used tourbus campers, accessorized show pets, sculpture for the stupid tipped over on the tiny lawns and so forth which when distilled are banners hovering above their bodies as cartoon thought bubbles since the verbal skills of these cage dwellers are limited to uninspired overused phrases meted out under stress with matching facial expression instead of the age old middle finger hand signal which could, if employed outside the safety of shatterproof glass, bring on drastically unintended consequences.  For example, our mridang master met up with one of these PDO cultists last week, here is his description of the experience:

"On the 20th, in town, I was flipped off, cut off and almost rammed by a woman tearing in the exit to get in front of me at the gas pump. As she calmly got out I asked what the problem was. My eyes met the most icy cold, nobody-home, face I've seen in a long time. I was told to 'have a nice day'. Maybe I just don't get out much, and this is the new normal? Heavily meded-up was my take, and too close to the edge for me to pursue it further, as it was already disturbing enough...."

Hey, good move my man!  Too close to the edge indeed.  Call in the Astrologers or perhaps this event was yet another training exercise...
Shall we translate his tongue-tied  aggressor's meaning behind "Have a nice day", under those circumstances?  How about heated guilt?  Guilt so pure and intensely felt inside it burned in a wildfire of panic.  Caught, the pretender of rights to the pump was instantly reduced to a cheesy four words - words only used in that particular way by all the other countless guilty who know perfectly well they have destroyed your peace of mind by initiating deliberately violent and dangerous action proving for all who happen to be passing by, whatever they are doing is of more importance than whatever you could possibly be doing and are rendered speechless when the unexpected and unknown consequences of their reprehensible behavior suddenly confronts them face to face.   "Have a nice day" means Go away. I have no explanation for my actions, I don't even  know why I did what I did.  I can't apologize because that would give you (and me) living proof I was wrong.   Had it been anyone other than our musician confronting her, you can be certain she was aware her behavior was setting the stage for violence.  She took a wild gamble there and lucky for her, walked away to continue ruining the days of whomever else was so unfortunate as to be in her path.  I'm sure you've met plenty of these kinds of people, we all have, it is unavoidable, especially now as many of them have been born into a world ripped asunder, minus any comprehension of what exists inside themselves and others or even a shred of vague curiosity why the world is what it is today.  To question is to risk exposure.  They run the gauntlet and take their gambles and often lose, the losses piling high in their wake.  And when they don't lose, they still lose, because living a life in this manner makes them no friends.  There is something about being behind the wheel or any imaginary shield that ignites these wannabeWetikos like nothing else because out in the open they become sniveling cowards either looking for the nearest escape or threatening with a show of imaginary protections referring to friends in high places, but when you're looking at them, they are accompanied by no one.  Who could stand them?  They don't even like each other and are so worried their children won't turn out exactly like themselves, the kids are forced to stay indoors, losing their own curiosity and adding pounds watching candy bars broken in half and magically sealed back together on the wide screen.

Sad to say, I've been coming across this kind of thing too much. I try to stay apart, while being there with others, but alert, you never know what triggers another person's unsuspected anger.  Of course, this is not always the case, but it has happened enough in these times to be a recurrent phenomena.  However long and however well you think you might know someone, there is still a hidden, rather low level potential, you could, completely accidentally, set them off.  When that happens, you never forget, whatever you thought you had previous to that moment is gone, the trust betrayed.  The trust I am speaking about is a trust that we accept the totality of others, their baggage, their flaws, their bond with us until it is exposed as one sided, which isn't a bond at all.  Regardless of how fully we might join in smothering the outburst and make a long drawn-out show of loyalty, in your own mind and memory, the scene lives on.  You may think others have long overlooked your lapses too, but from your own experience, you know it is impossible and you can only hope the passage of time brings opportunities where you or she/he show themselves a better man than that deep, dark, secret memory you have of a seemingly out of character event.   Note it works not only both ways, but from an intermingling of angles. If you notice it happening repeatedly, you will eventually be forced to confront yourself, asking what are you in it for anyway?  Some know exactly why they engineer face to face crisis.   The Wetikos and their vain admirers play us like pianos, confident that following a successful guilt-inducing punishment, if you are still present, still forgiving, you are no threat to their existence. One might think they take it for granted no one is paying attention to the dynamic or how it charts itself in the memory-bank.  Over and over I see it going down, day after day, night after night, the same scenes enacted by countless human beings refusing to see the reality of what is happening, what they are doing, stumbling over the damage left in the wake of continuing crisis, poisoned to the gills from a steady diet of pesticides, loaded on mind glazing drugs, oblivious to the tortures they inflict and are being inflicted upon them. They are far beyond caring. What's more, they do not want you to point it out to them either, they already know they are in so deep there can be no escape during their lifetime.

I cannot imagine a life spent like that, can you?  They might as well just be lifers on the chain gang cultivating your crops.  We like to think somewhere down the road the human underneath will show up, but there is no evidence such a folly ever takes place.  That would be like hoping Jerry Sandusky mends his ways or George Zimmerman feels remorse.  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a breed out there that has no humanity and has laid claim to entire lifetimes without sensitivity, sorrow, suffering, love or compassion.  They have learned to blend in order to thrive and thrive at your expense they will.  This breed is one of the worst effects of overpopulation because you cannot avoid meeting up with them in crowds.  Avoid crowds.  Stay aware of your surroundings and keep a low profile. This breed thrives in a pampered and corrupt culture based on worship of the self.  In this way, you could call them vampires - energized by the blood of innocents.

We can also say Great Fortune shined upon our beloved musician while being shown the existence of this breed.  The fact the remainder of his day turned out so well, not to mention void of conflict escalation, speaks highly of his self-control.  That is a self-control we would all be wise to emulate.  Considering the bigger picture, with all its extending pressures and disappointments, the undeniable angst of a planet under siege, the refusal to address responsibility for extinction events immediately under way is leading westerners from denial and refusal into violence as if civility no longer matters.  To say civility has no place, is saying there is no love.  There will always be love, my friends.  No matter how unwieldy it gets, how freaky, how strange, how cruel, humiliating, devastating and physically painful, the one thing we can always count on is Love.  Love always wins. 

I  leave you with a link to an alarming report, Global Warming's Terrifying New Math, written by Bill McKibben and published for the August 2012 edition of Rolling Stone. I am sure some of you have seen it already. The fact that this piece was made available in that publication tells us citizens are meant to see it, share it and lose their cool over it.  Isn't that what Wetikos really want?  Ah, but I've got news for them, the majority of readers will be concerned only until the next personalized blinking ad grabs their eyes.

"... This record of failure means we know a lot about what strategies don't work. Green groups, for instance, have spent a lot of time trying to change individual lifestyles: the iconic twisty light bulb has been installed by the millions, but so have a new generation of energy-sucking flatscreen TVs. Most of us are fundamentally ambivalent about going green: We like cheap flights to warm places, and we're certainly not going to give them up if everyone else is still taking them. Since all of us are in some way the beneficiaries of cheap fossil fuel, tackling climate change has been like trying to build a movement against yourself – it's as if the gay-rights movement had to be constructed entirely from evangelical preachers, or the abolition movement from slaveholders. ..."