Stay Human: Poetry and Prose

In this material world in which we live, what part does the human being play in his or her own existence? Is perception reality? And if it is not reality, who controls perception, and how? Considering what the world is now, with all of the conflicts and misery, the destructive brutality, and violence, man is still as he has always been. He remains callously competitive, acquisitive, and a narcissist; so, of course, the system which he has built around him is as he is. And what he is, I am, or certainly have been, a creature of materialism and mindless consumption, too well-adjusted to a sick society. Acculturated into a series of institutions, be they political, legal, religious, monetary; to institutions of familial values, social class, and occupational specialty. These are the places and structures that influence and shape understanding and create the perspective in which reality is interpreted. Incrementally, society has been formulated to control thinking. Nothing is natural, and the so-called citizen knows not self-reliance, but only conformity. The government is God, and money is The Lord.