[WARNING: This devolves into a rant about humanity, religion and strange, far out theories and very morbid stuff. Do not read if this is likely to offend you.]
Translation: The Green Fairy.
Also known as: Absinthe.
This drink is... amazing. It's the kind of thing I drink in one of three circumstances.
Very powerful concoction. Stuff I have is 55% when pure. Normally diluted. Tonight, for the first time ever, I'm actually sipping a (small!) amount of pure Absinthe, and for the first time the taste is not overpowering.
Now, some interesting facts.
Many people tend to trip out when drinking this stuff. I normally just get really mellow - and I know I'm not the only person to do so. No hallucinations or crap like that.
Though I do tend to end up thinking about things in a fairly dark or bleak way. End up listening to some weirder music. Like now.
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VNV Nation - Descent. Would post lyrics, but really, there is no point. You can hear them just fine. It's... not really even a song. It's an auditory experience.
I've been listening to it on repeat for some time, drinking absinthe - started with properly diluted, can't be bothered to go downstairs and make more - and bloody hell is my mind working.
That's the other thing about absinthe.
You end up clear-headed. And drunk.
And when coupled with the dark/bleak worldview I tend to get when I drink this stuff, this is... interesting. I'm mostly writing this so I have something to look at tomorrow. While I normally have some bloody groundbreaking thoughts, I rarely remember in the morning.
As an aside, it may end up giving some people some insight into me as a person. Well. Sort of. I usually keep this crap to an absolute minimum.
Anyway, I was reading Watchmen a while back, and have thought back to it. Yes, it's a fiction. But there's some truth in its fiction, and some fiction in our truth. Not sure where that quote is from. Two seconds, going to Google.
Bugger, can't find.
Anyway. One of the points of Watchmen is that it's a look into the human state of existence. Suddenly, a man is... transformed. God exists, and He's American. He can literally do anything. He knows everything that will happen, he knows everything that has happened.
Right now, I'm finishing up this blog entry in an hour.
Right now, I'm also making my first drink of absinthe, an hour and a half ago.
A dead body and a live person have no structural difference, they have the exact same atomic structure.
What happens when you introduce a physical God to the human race? And not a vaguely discernible ominopotent being that will not interfere with our lives, but an actual physical being you can look at, touch, fuck, punch, insult? Talk to?
Persuade into furthering your plans?
One that still posesses the desires it had as a human?
One that can be used?
As I said. God exists, and He's American. Direct quote from the book.
Emphasis mine.
What would happen if one country was gifted with one Godlike being? If they successfully persuaded Him - using the gender for stylistic and simplism purposes only - to further their "needs?"
Would they, in fact, be docile, or would they proceed to try and lead a crusade to burn all the nonbelievers - in this case, those not willing to submit to their rule - forcing their agenda across the globe? Hell, for the sake of argument, let's say the Godlike figure decided to do this.
The results seem painfully clear. One of three things would happen.
One. Success. The country in question would become the world in question. Continuing with the God thing, this would be the only option avoiding "damnation."
Two. Failure. Other countries would unite to destroy said country. The Godlike figure would, however, likely be unkillable by any mortal means. What then? See: Option One.
Three. Nuclear war. Everything would - quite literally - go to Hell with the Godlike figure possibly among the only beings left. See: Option One. In that circumstance, it would not make sense to do anything but submit.
Now, assume this. Your average person is granted Godlike powers and abilities. He makes the damn rules. He does whatever he wants. Hell with the consequences.
So... what would you do?
That was a rhetorical question. Due to the nature of humanity, the need to be better than the rest of the species that so many of us experience, we would inevitably go for the "burning crusade" option. What else is there? What else could possibly fulfill our warlike nature? What the fuck else would we do for millenia, for eternity?
And who can honestly say - after maybe a few thousand years, who would not succumb to the power inherent in their very being and proceed to fuck around with the world?
Now...
What if this happened to two people, in different countries?
You have all-out war on your hands.
And it won't ever stop.
Due to what I perceive as human nature - the need to believe in something, to blame our failures upon and to act as an overall answer to the eternal question of "Why?" - we would be forever at war.
How can I be certain this would happen?
I can't. But I can make an educated guess based on a few facts and opinions I have come to harbour over the past few years.
Look at us. Throughout history, what has brought war and suffering about? Religion. Suddenly, two Godlike figures appear, we're inevitably going to follow them. Obey them.
Look at us and then strip away any vestige of civilisation or order.
What are we?
We're animals, you and me. We exist purely to further our species. We're herd or pack animals. More likely to be the latter, to be honest. As such there's typically an alpha male. This is what gives men the whole "I'm bigger" complex, this is what gives society its male-dominated aspect, this is a lot of the reason behind war, religion and government. We want to lead. We want to be on top. We want to be better than everyone else. Competition. Note, I'm not saying this is purely limited to men. Through the period of evolution, it seems that women may have got this as well.
And nobody fucking realises.
We are nothing more than the animals we keep as pets, eat, or laugh at in zoos.
We've just been blessed. We were the first species to evolve intelligence, and as such we've assumed dominance over others.
What the fuck?
What gives us the right to be better than everything? What is so amazing about the human bloody species that gives it the right to pollute the planet we share with millions of other forms of live - from the killer whale in the sea to the algae on the pond in the garden? To the midge you just slapped from your arm to the bear in the forest? We've fucked the place up singlehandedly, we can't blame anyone else.
A while back, someone was blaming fucking cows for the greenhouse effect.
Jesus fucking Christ.
What is your problem?
It's not their fault at all. They EVOLVED to do this.
"While people are being asked to reduce the amounts of flights they take and make their homes more energy efficient, what they put on their plates could be having as big an impact on climate change. Gas-guzzling SUVs and badly insulated buildings are partly to blame for the earth's greenhouse gas emissions, but it seems the humble grass-munching cow is also a major culprit."
So, we should have comforts such as cars and aircraft fucking the planet as a whole over. But no. The humble cow - provider of steak - farts too fucking much. So clearly, we should blame that over ourselves.
What are they going to do, cork the bloody things?!?
That's humanity though.
We assume dominance, responsibility over the planet. But we strive to blame something else for everything that goes wrong.
The example is right above you.
The methane those cows produce could, quite possibly, dissipate at about the same rate it was produced. But no, we have to drive all over the place.
What happened to us?
Seriously?
Intelligence, that's the answer. We made fire, crude tools. We covered our bodies. We evolved... morals. Morals, meant to keep us on the right, have done nothing but destroy us as a species.
So, back to the Watchmen thing. Every character in that - save two - has some ideology and moral spectrum. From Nite Owl, he wants to protect humanity but lacks confidence when the ban on costumed vigilantes is put in place, to Rorscharch who will do whatever the fuck he can to stamp out crime and wrongdoers. He's like Lawful Good gone wrong. He'll kill someone for something simple - and will never falter, not even in the face of Armageddon - but he does it for a reason. He has absolute faith in the Government.
But the two characters who seem to lack morals as such. Dr Manhattan, obviously. He's looking in at the human race, with all its faults, from an outsider perspective. He's also the God I mentioned earlier, but looking out for the best interests of humanity.
Then the Comedian.
He's also looking in from an outsider perspective.
He lacks morality.
But does he?
He's described as someone else who's seen the face of humanity, but he's laughed in the face of it. He doesn't give a shit about anything. That is the point. Humanity is the joke. He's just looking for the punchline.
Even then, he works for the Government. Totally loyal.
So even those two can be seen to have morals to some extent.
What do you get when you take these away?
Dr Manhattan would probably leave sooner. He'd go off and create life somewhere else before the book even began.
And the Comedian? He'd just be your average serial killer. Think Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers. Unstoppable. Primal force of fucking nature.
So, in the real world... what would a being like that do?
Someone who just doesn't care?
Intelligent enough to escape police forces?
I don't even want to think of what would happen.
Except at some point, it's an inevitability.
We're all fucked, sooner or later.
All this crap we go through first? Waiting period.
So, you just died? Cool. What did that multi million pound house, the Porsche for every day of the week, the oil empire ever do for you? What does it matter now?
Except, there won't be anyone to ask those questions. Ever.
Brings me back to a previous point, about religion.
It's another method of control. Nothing more.
See, when you bring intelligence into the equation across an entire species? It trumps strength and fury.
Alpha males were suddenly selected based on mental attributes as opposed to physical, and this brought the downfall into civilisation.
I'll say now; no, I wouldn't want to live as a basic primate. But then again, my feelings on this matter are influenced by a life with the assisstance of technology. Civilisation. Education. I function in society. In the wild, I may have survived. Wouldn't be Mr Important, though.
But in all honesty, I believe that we should still be primates. Some bug gave us what we call intelligence. I disagree. I believe that our concept of intelligence is quite possibly the seed of the end of the world. We're going to kill ourselves off if we keep progressing. Either someone will use this God-given intelligence to craft a bomb so destructive we die from the test run, or we'll advance so far that we realise how fucked up we truly are.
I'll say now, though you may have realised. I'm totally anti-religion. I see it as possibly the biggest error in the entirety of human evolution. That step when those people who were so incredibly clever realised - the rest of the species are fucking sheep. We can control them. We are the new Alpha Male. We... are God.
That, THAT is where we went wrong. When religion came into our lives, brought morals and ideals and fucking rules. Brought fear of a higher being condemning our souls to burn for eternity, brought "We're different to you" to a new level. Gave us a reason to kill each other.
Listen to the song I posted earlier. Here it is again.
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The last words.
That line... may be wrong.
In us once lay the capacity to transcend everything.
We failed. So badly.
Congratulations. Those people who realised they could control others through belief in a God who would judge everyone upon death? You have done more for this race than anyone ever before.
You've set us along a path that can only end in one way. The scene described in the song. Vast lines, billions strong, across bleak hills and plains. Waiting to draw arms, to clash in open combat. The final case of "we're better than you." The one that will leave so few of us alive we won't even be a species anymore.
There is something so basically, so obviously wrong with our entire species.
Why am I the only one who sees it?
I'm going to stop writing now.
This is why I shouldn't be allowed absinthe and the Internet.
Translation: The Green Fairy.
Also known as: Absinthe.
This drink is... amazing. It's the kind of thing I drink in one of three circumstances.
- I intend to think a lot about something
- I really, really want some Absinthe
- I want to get really pissed really fast
Very powerful concoction. Stuff I have is 55% when pure. Normally diluted. Tonight, for the first time ever, I'm actually sipping a (small!) amount of pure Absinthe, and for the first time the taste is not overpowering.
Now, some interesting facts.
Many people tend to trip out when drinking this stuff. I normally just get really mellow - and I know I'm not the only person to do so. No hallucinations or crap like that.
Though I do tend to end up thinking about things in a fairly dark or bleak way. End up listening to some weirder music. Like now.
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VNV Nation - Descent. Would post lyrics, but really, there is no point. You can hear them just fine. It's... not really even a song. It's an auditory experience.
I've been listening to it on repeat for some time, drinking absinthe - started with properly diluted, can't be bothered to go downstairs and make more - and bloody hell is my mind working.
That's the other thing about absinthe.
You end up clear-headed. And drunk.
And when coupled with the dark/bleak worldview I tend to get when I drink this stuff, this is... interesting. I'm mostly writing this so I have something to look at tomorrow. While I normally have some bloody groundbreaking thoughts, I rarely remember in the morning.
As an aside, it may end up giving some people some insight into me as a person. Well. Sort of. I usually keep this crap to an absolute minimum.
Anyway, I was reading Watchmen a while back, and have thought back to it. Yes, it's a fiction. But there's some truth in its fiction, and some fiction in our truth. Not sure where that quote is from. Two seconds, going to Google.
Bugger, can't find.
Anyway. One of the points of Watchmen is that it's a look into the human state of existence. Suddenly, a man is... transformed. God exists, and He's American. He can literally do anything. He knows everything that will happen, he knows everything that has happened.
Right now, I'm finishing up this blog entry in an hour.
Right now, I'm also making my first drink of absinthe, an hour and a half ago.
A dead body and a live person have no structural difference, they have the exact same atomic structure.
What happens when you introduce a physical God to the human race? And not a vaguely discernible ominopotent being that will not interfere with our lives, but an actual physical being you can look at, touch, fuck, punch, insult? Talk to?
Persuade into furthering your plans?
One that still posesses the desires it had as a human?
One that can be used?
As I said. God exists, and He's American. Direct quote from the book.
Emphasis mine.
What would happen if one country was gifted with one Godlike being? If they successfully persuaded Him - using the gender for stylistic and simplism purposes only - to further their "needs?"
Would they, in fact, be docile, or would they proceed to try and lead a crusade to burn all the nonbelievers - in this case, those not willing to submit to their rule - forcing their agenda across the globe? Hell, for the sake of argument, let's say the Godlike figure decided to do this.
The results seem painfully clear. One of three things would happen.
One. Success. The country in question would become the world in question. Continuing with the God thing, this would be the only option avoiding "damnation."
Two. Failure. Other countries would unite to destroy said country. The Godlike figure would, however, likely be unkillable by any mortal means. What then? See: Option One.
Three. Nuclear war. Everything would - quite literally - go to Hell with the Godlike figure possibly among the only beings left. See: Option One. In that circumstance, it would not make sense to do anything but submit.
Now, assume this. Your average person is granted Godlike powers and abilities. He makes the damn rules. He does whatever he wants. Hell with the consequences.
So... what would you do?
That was a rhetorical question. Due to the nature of humanity, the need to be better than the rest of the species that so many of us experience, we would inevitably go for the "burning crusade" option. What else is there? What else could possibly fulfill our warlike nature? What the fuck else would we do for millenia, for eternity?
And who can honestly say - after maybe a few thousand years, who would not succumb to the power inherent in their very being and proceed to fuck around with the world?
Now...
What if this happened to two people, in different countries?
You have all-out war on your hands.
And it won't ever stop.
Due to what I perceive as human nature - the need to believe in something, to blame our failures upon and to act as an overall answer to the eternal question of "Why?" - we would be forever at war.
How can I be certain this would happen?
I can't. But I can make an educated guess based on a few facts and opinions I have come to harbour over the past few years.
Look at us. Throughout history, what has brought war and suffering about? Religion. Suddenly, two Godlike figures appear, we're inevitably going to follow them. Obey them.
Look at us and then strip away any vestige of civilisation or order.
What are we?
We're animals, you and me. We exist purely to further our species. We're herd or pack animals. More likely to be the latter, to be honest. As such there's typically an alpha male. This is what gives men the whole "I'm bigger" complex, this is what gives society its male-dominated aspect, this is a lot of the reason behind war, religion and government. We want to lead. We want to be on top. We want to be better than everyone else. Competition. Note, I'm not saying this is purely limited to men. Through the period of evolution, it seems that women may have got this as well.
And nobody fucking realises.
We are nothing more than the animals we keep as pets, eat, or laugh at in zoos.
We've just been blessed. We were the first species to evolve intelligence, and as such we've assumed dominance over others.
What the fuck?
What gives us the right to be better than everything? What is so amazing about the human bloody species that gives it the right to pollute the planet we share with millions of other forms of live - from the killer whale in the sea to the algae on the pond in the garden? To the midge you just slapped from your arm to the bear in the forest? We've fucked the place up singlehandedly, we can't blame anyone else.
A while back, someone was blaming fucking cows for the greenhouse effect.
Jesus fucking Christ.
What is your problem?
It's not their fault at all. They EVOLVED to do this.
"While people are being asked to reduce the amounts of flights they take and make their homes more energy efficient, what they put on their plates could be having as big an impact on climate change. Gas-guzzling SUVs and badly insulated buildings are partly to blame for the earth's greenhouse gas emissions, but it seems the humble grass-munching cow is also a major culprit."
So, we should have comforts such as cars and aircraft fucking the planet as a whole over. But no. The humble cow - provider of steak - farts too fucking much. So clearly, we should blame that over ourselves.
What are they going to do, cork the bloody things?!?
That's humanity though.
We assume dominance, responsibility over the planet. But we strive to blame something else for everything that goes wrong.
The example is right above you.
The methane those cows produce could, quite possibly, dissipate at about the same rate it was produced. But no, we have to drive all over the place.
What happened to us?
Seriously?
Intelligence, that's the answer. We made fire, crude tools. We covered our bodies. We evolved... morals. Morals, meant to keep us on the right, have done nothing but destroy us as a species.
So, back to the Watchmen thing. Every character in that - save two - has some ideology and moral spectrum. From Nite Owl, he wants to protect humanity but lacks confidence when the ban on costumed vigilantes is put in place, to Rorscharch who will do whatever the fuck he can to stamp out crime and wrongdoers. He's like Lawful Good gone wrong. He'll kill someone for something simple - and will never falter, not even in the face of Armageddon - but he does it for a reason. He has absolute faith in the Government.
But the two characters who seem to lack morals as such. Dr Manhattan, obviously. He's looking in at the human race, with all its faults, from an outsider perspective. He's also the God I mentioned earlier, but looking out for the best interests of humanity.
Then the Comedian.
He's also looking in from an outsider perspective.
He lacks morality.
But does he?
He's described as someone else who's seen the face of humanity, but he's laughed in the face of it. He doesn't give a shit about anything. That is the point. Humanity is the joke. He's just looking for the punchline.
Even then, he works for the Government. Totally loyal.
So even those two can be seen to have morals to some extent.
What do you get when you take these away?
Dr Manhattan would probably leave sooner. He'd go off and create life somewhere else before the book even began.
And the Comedian? He'd just be your average serial killer. Think Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers. Unstoppable. Primal force of fucking nature.
So, in the real world... what would a being like that do?
Someone who just doesn't care?
Intelligent enough to escape police forces?
I don't even want to think of what would happen.
Except at some point, it's an inevitability.
We're all fucked, sooner or later.
All this crap we go through first? Waiting period.
So, you just died? Cool. What did that multi million pound house, the Porsche for every day of the week, the oil empire ever do for you? What does it matter now?
Except, there won't be anyone to ask those questions. Ever.
Brings me back to a previous point, about religion.
It's another method of control. Nothing more.
See, when you bring intelligence into the equation across an entire species? It trumps strength and fury.
Alpha males were suddenly selected based on mental attributes as opposed to physical, and this brought the downfall into civilisation.
I'll say now; no, I wouldn't want to live as a basic primate. But then again, my feelings on this matter are influenced by a life with the assisstance of technology. Civilisation. Education. I function in society. In the wild, I may have survived. Wouldn't be Mr Important, though.
But in all honesty, I believe that we should still be primates. Some bug gave us what we call intelligence. I disagree. I believe that our concept of intelligence is quite possibly the seed of the end of the world. We're going to kill ourselves off if we keep progressing. Either someone will use this God-given intelligence to craft a bomb so destructive we die from the test run, or we'll advance so far that we realise how fucked up we truly are.
Mickey said:
I'll say now, though you may have realised. I'm totally anti-religion. I see it as possibly the biggest error in the entirety of human evolution. That step when those people who were so incredibly clever realised - the rest of the species are fucking sheep. We can control them. We are the new Alpha Male. We... are God.
That, THAT is where we went wrong. When religion came into our lives, brought morals and ideals and fucking rules. Brought fear of a higher being condemning our souls to burn for eternity, brought "We're different to you" to a new level. Gave us a reason to kill each other.
Listen to the song I posted earlier. Here it is again.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rgPGuDq-cJU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rgPGuDq-cJU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
The last words.
VNV Nation - Descent said:
That line... may be wrong.
In us once lay the capacity to transcend everything.
We failed. So badly.
Congratulations. Those people who realised they could control others through belief in a God who would judge everyone upon death? You have done more for this race than anyone ever before.
You've set us along a path that can only end in one way. The scene described in the song. Vast lines, billions strong, across bleak hills and plains. Waiting to draw arms, to clash in open combat. The final case of "we're better than you." The one that will leave so few of us alive we won't even be a species anymore.
There is something so basically, so obviously wrong with our entire species.
Why am I the only one who sees it?
I'm going to stop writing now.
This is why I shouldn't be allowed absinthe and the Internet.
