The Fall of Man

Humans nowadays are wasteful creatures. We work for money so that we can buy things we don't need, eat when we're not hungry, rest when we're not tired. We waste everything from nature to time, for little or no reason. We are becoming a decadent civilization, at least here in the west. We expect comfort, and are baffled when we do not have it; I sleep badly because of cold yukon nights, and I complain, and am pitied by others who think that my right to comfort has been violated. I buy food at the grocery store; I heat up the water before taking a shower. I am angered because I had to pay to use the dryer, because my computer does not connect to the internet, angry at the toaster and the frying pan for burning my breakfast.

We rely on things - clothing, to keep us warm, houses, to protection from the elements, grocery stores, to have all the food we need to eat, on washing machines and computers and microwaves and remote controlled televisions and memory foam beds and countless other things... And when they have expired, we throw them away; the milk, on april 7th, instantly turns sour, because the carton says so. Things said by milk cartons, or politicians, or t.v. advertisement have become the truth; because we are no longer inquisitive enough to want more than what is out there. We are conditioned - from birth - to believe in others, in ideas and thoughts that come from others, in plenty of things which we have no knowledge of, just because everyone else believes, or because it seems as everyday as gravity.

You see, we are giving up our ability to reason. We are becoming slaves - to information, to technology, to our own belief that comfort breeds happiness. We are vaguely aware of the lie, but we are comfortable, so it can't be true. And we are addicted to it, so that even if we did know the truth, we would not walk towards it. It is because we are bred to think that there is no life if it is without comfort.

There was, long ago I believe, another civilization that spread through the world, infecting the upper class and the aristocrats - they lazed about, feasted, partied, ejoyed themselves while their vaults filled with money others slaved for, like dogs, and each expected nothing less from the other. Foolish and ignorant, satisfied with what they had and believing that it was enough, they symbolized the decadence of man. Was this the pride of the roman empire, the french aristocracies, the british admiralties, the chinese monarchies, one after the other? It doesn't matter.

Rome burned, and so did London. Revolution spread throughout nations and across continents. The french courts were executed, of course. So I must wonder... Am I high enough on society's scale to be fated to fall, a slave, really, to my perception of my needs, my vanity, my distorted sense of self, of comfort? I pursue art, after all, so I must have too much time on my hands. Am I thus condemned to fall at the hands of those I tread upon?  And if I am not, then I am most certainly an executioner, one who has suffered at the hands of civilization, of "democracy" of advancement", a debris, a piece of shit, once condemned to work like a dog, and now, free to exact vengeance on those who called themselves the masters?

Which one are you?  - Or better still, which one would you rather be?