Street Sermon

by DirtyEssence

I’d like to begin with thanking you for taking this step, it means a lot to me to know that there are other people out there who look for the strange, the new. It seems in this day and age people seek the comfort of their own value system. But it is here where I’m afraid we both have a problem.

It works like this. Look, you don’t own your own car. I know you paid for it and all, changed the oil every 3,000 miles and unfailingly paid the tolls, if you decide that you want to scratch off the VIN number the local man in blue can impound your car. That’s terrible, but unfortunately not the end of the story.

Nowadays you don’t own your house. Look, let’s say you own a house built by your father’s own two hands, and the house is built on land that was tamed by your great-great grandparents a few centuries ago. Even if you have the deed in your hand, and even if you have not taken out any mortgages on the house, both house and land will be taken away from you if you fail to pay the property tax.

I’m sorry to break it to you friend, but you do not own your own body. I know you feed it regularly and exercise here and there to keep it looking nice, but if you decide to go without immunizations you will be denied access to our society’s resources—resources you have paid into through your property tax. Look, if you decided you wanted to put a little stimulant in your body, and if Uncle Sam decided to test you, you will have no legal recourse to keep your job or benefits. If you decide you want to sell the use of your sexual organs you simply must keep quiet, because that is a severe legal offence.

This is what I’m getting at friend. I believe that neither of us own our minds. See, what we call our ideas are mostly experiences we have had bubbling through our 5 senses or an expression of some relation between these experiences. But apart from mandatory government education, they simply cannot own this, unless you decide to give it to them. It is our last bastion of freedom, and certainly the most powerful tool we could ever possess. Look, I choose to believe that liberty is of nearly inexpressible value. This is certainly something that the powers that be want to portray. But when they use the term to what definition are they referring: the liberty of the individual or the liberty of the People? There is a difference. Everybody knows what it is like to experience something meaningful, everybody knows what it is like to have a happy experience. When an object comes on the market it will certainly try to sell you on one or both of these aspects. Will it really be meaningful for you? Certainly owning a car does wonders for one’s liberty in some ways, but in other ways it limits one’s choices. A car is a sufficient way to gain liberty, but certainly not necessary.

This is where it all comes together dear reader. Comfort is easy. It is easy to lie in one’s bathtub after a long day, it is easy to finish off the beer, it is easy to go with the flow. But the flow is not an organic process, it is directed by people who want you—people who want you to live for their products, to die for their causes. You have already taken the first step in the process by picking this up, it would have been far easier to just ignore this paper and move on. I have not told you anything you did not already know, except this: there are people out there who truly want to you think critically not because they want to you follow their agenda or buy their product. If you did think critically what could we possibly convince you to do? You can find us if you are interested. Hail Eris.