The Dying Insane
M Alan Roberts

Everything is changing again; things are always changing. When you finally feel your efforts are beginning to pay off, when you're just about to get that long-overdue breath of saving air, something else comes along, changes, leaves your mind twisted and your emotions heaved, and makes you wonder if anything will ever really be as you want it to be. You're gut punched.

Modern people are living in a world that denies and attempts to hide all that is decent. The Holy Dollar rules everybody's minds. Blinded by the perceived need to constantly generate revenue, and fit into accepted roles, men and women living in "advanced" societies across the planet trod through their days with few memories of the plights of past wisdom masters; stripped of belief systems that have sustained humanity for many thousands of years. As their minds weakened, they continued to bathe in daily misinformation and the human race moves closer to total governmental servitude.

You see, governments cannot encourage personal development in people. In fact, they must actually try to dissuade it. When people take the time to smell roses, meditate, exercise, eat properly and otherwise enhance their lives, they don't have enough time to produce. Governments need for the governed to work diligently, as dogs, in fact, remain focused, robotically show up each day - and most importantly, stop being concerned for themselves! This is a society and there's no longer any time or room for individualistic expansion.

For thousands of years, long before the 20^th century, the words of benevolent teachers, such as Buddha, Mohammad and Christ, taught searchers how to prosper from the inside out; that is, to rely less on external criticism and more on self-awareness and self-confidence. Their emphasis was on developing the mind, body and spirit in order to accommodate the naturally associated development of compassion, empathy and enlightenment. Attention focused on the breath, as it entered and flowed from the body. All those years ago, some women and men knew how to manage stress. Today, stress is the top killer, destroying us silently, if not softly.

In times and places past, men and women would wake up with the rising of the sun and quickly begin scanning around, searching for ways to assist their neighbors. Of course, their neighbors were doing the same. Those needing help were sure other community members would be coming along to lend a hand. Their challenges conquered, efficiently and happily, they were free to return the favor by helping others. Production maximized, people were content and children flourished, filling their days by modeling adults that inspired them to learn good lessons, getting plenty of fresh air and exercise, unraveling the mysteries of life with innocent awe and anticipation.

Peaceful, contented students of life treated one another with respect and consideration. Sure, there were assholes, running around, corrupting the goodness, but not as today. Some women and men think that people have always been as they are today, at least for the most part. 10 or 15 years ago, that may have been true. Now, amazing technologies and astronomic levels of human competition make us battle, consistently and on all fronts. People are afraid to trust others. There is no waking up early to serve your fellow goal-seekers, no compassion, no empathy, just self-serving efforts to increase balances on bank account statements.

Money gives people the power to enjoy expensive material possessions. Bills are paid. Kids are spoiled. Good food is always in the fridge. We buy exotic vacations, beautiful homes, luxury vehicles and other amenities. Such stuff is nice. What it takes, however, to develop and sustain that kind of lifestyle often eliminates any remnants of the traditional lessons that used to make life so good. Developing and sustaining that level of bloated existence takes away from the foundational integrity of individuals.

It makes them lose their minds.

According the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, all types of counselors, psychologists and other mental health care professionals can expect up to a 24% increase in employability throughout the 2009-to-2018 decade. That's the fastest growing employment category. It's a good thing too because the government continues to force the masses into perpetual states of service, while simultaneously creating double-digit unemployment rates. College graduates fight for gas station jobs with no benefits. That leaves those who are less employable to wander around, get progressively more pissed as they watch others rise, and ultimately begin committing crimes in order to eat.

The governments of the richest countries are wiping out the middle class, collapsing it into the proletariat. In the developed countries, 5% lead 95%. This is absolute power and it corrupts.

Old, rich men start wars where young, mentally undeveloped men die. Political corruption is an expected, repetitive, almost-laughable act. More than a quarter of the US population continues to waste away in jails and prisons or in the millions and millions of open cages of probation and parole. It seems that there's no point in continuing to live the madness for millions of the hopeless.

It's time to remember the lessons of those masters of wisdom before each is gone for good. It's time to slow down and return to a more natural, wholesome state of living.