THE BIG LIE!

This topic has been running through my head for a few years now, and trying to find the right words to express it has taken me some time. My experience is like what many others have; it comes from the family you come into, the friends you make, the society you live in, the people you meet and more importantly, the organization and its people you rely on to feed your life. These experiences shape one's life and views of the world. The many challenges one encounters and the support one gets in overcoming those challenges add a layer to the view above. In living such a life, what is it that one gives up regarding independent thoughts and individual opinions? Truth!

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As we step into the world, we are immediately taught what is right and wrong, what is acceptable, and what is not. These lessons continue as we navigate life's journey, absorbing some, rejecting others, and deflecting some as our individual selves dictate our daily existence. The overarching purpose, it seems, remains constant. In the 21st century, it's the pursuit of comfort, often equated with material wealth, with a sprinkle of conscience for societal welfare when it's convenient. The pressure to conform to these societal norms is palpable and often overwhelming.

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Education is the path to attaining the material comforts society offers, saving the few who pursue it to accumulate knowledge and become the ones to change our world and society as we know it. Of course, only a tiny portion of the population attains education quickly, and knowledge is even more so. Three significant factors drive modern education - politics, religion and privilege. The first two are readily understood and moulded to suit any "ism" based on one's affiliation. The third factor is more nuanced, for the very word has an exclusive connotation to it, which prevents a large portion of society from being able to afford it in the first place. Once they break through, the privilege of belonging gets dictated by various other factors like the institution, individual performance, and network to growth that it provides. The signboards that litter this pathway are nothing but peer pressure boards and, inevitably, the "first set of lies" one encounters in life. Like most religions, each signboard promises salvation only if you follow and adhere to their rules. There are no guarantees in life or the afterlife, so one tends to listen to what is convenient for oneself and take that path, not of free will. Human beings have not only domesticated most animals, but those in privileged positions have domesticated, read subjugated, most other humans as well. So, the formative years of a human being are spent learning the dogma that material wealth is paramount, and not achieving it is considered a failure. Of course, wealth is relative to one's desire and proportional to one's abilities. But the lie has been sold and embedded. Job done!

Past the mind-boggling maze of education alleyways comes the money-making tryst humans get subjected to. It's a romance without an end date for most, and some take it to their grave. In history, we have read about the barbarians at the gates of civilized cities and countries; the modern equivalent would be the corporations waiting to pounce on the privileged graduates who have been "educated" enough to join the pursuits of making the select few (shareholders) richer. In the process, the graduates turned employees, deemed corporate enslaved people, are thrown crumbs and made to believe they have made it. The wealth they accumulate by merely being at the right place at the right time does wonders for the egos of their individual selves. Wealth is the manna from heaven that the religions have been promising, but only the "corporate" religion has helped them realize it in their current lives. Of course, the manna is relative to the position of the self on the totem pole. Any attempt to go outside the norms effectively stops the flow and discards the individual to infamy. Everyday work life, while fulfilling for the ignorant masses that seek to justify their worth, is nothing more than a druggie on a high. The drug runners (masters) keep the weeds flowing, intoxicating their workers with platonic platitudes and few silvers as a token of appreciation for the servitude offered with immense gratitude. Before long, life intervenes, and families happen; children and grandchildren come along to tie the individual to the corporates, and that is the hook. The reality of a life wasted in a meaningless pursuit devoid of passion or, worse, imagined passion bereft of meaningful goals is the truth that dawns at the onset of retirement age. Some are so addicted to the magic drug that they continue to work past retirement but in pursuit of what is the question.

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Having lived through the promise of education (knowledge) and refusing to use it to ask questions and suss out the truth, one falls into the well-laid trap of 21st-century slavery, and the meat grinder goes to work unrelentingly until the self is a shell of the youth with promise. Reflecting on a life spent bending to the pressures of society is the sad ending for most people, at least for those who have realized their folly.

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The big lie lies in the path paved, the journey promised, and, unfortunately for most, in the destination sought. Going back to the three factors -

1.????????? Politics is shaped by the few and driven by the many, which means the individual's dreams and realities are out of their control

2.????????? Religion is a dogma, and the metaphysical aspects are beyond an average human being's understanding, for the more potent drug of material wealth is easily and readily available than the promised salvation

3.????????? Privilege is mostly by birth, partly by education, partly by association and majorly by humongous material wealth

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In the above three, one can find truth, absolute truth, and variations of truth. As one philosopher said, once you find it, try to organize it. For the truth is peppered with lies, and sifting through them is a life's work.

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