Is This Your Life?(Charles E.J. Moulton) Is This Your Life?

By Charles E.J. Moulton

One should think that the modern world would be an open place where tolerance thrives, people understand each other, and opinions are openly respected. After all, social media and the world wide web has seen to the fact that we are more connected than ever. We can reach Hong Kong or Zimbabwe in the blink of an eye.
If, back in 1991, there was more information in one Sunday issue of The New York Times than a 14th century farmer knew in his entire lifetime, what does that tell us about what we have today? Then we have to ask ourselves if what we have today is information. Back when I was 13, in Sweden, 1982, news was news. News came on at 7:30 p.m. on one of the two existing TV-channels. The evening news was read by neutral newscasters who never ever brought in any opinions about what had happened.
Fast forward 40 years later.
Objective reporting? What is that? Even if we do believe the official newscasting, every single news programme is steeped in personal beliefs. The big channels sell world events like an episode of “Dallas”: “Tune in next time when you will hear the president say: no more Broccoli!” Most people don’t even watch the daily news because news flashes on every time we turn on our Smartphones.
Artist Andy Warhol’s quote from 1968, “In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes”, was prophetic to say the least. I don’t know how he knew, but he did. Modern internet has created a world where everyone can create a website for free that will market them like absolute superstars. Today, we cannot see the forest for the trees.

The film “WALL-E” is spiritual apocalypse. Author Andrew Stanton must have had a hunch where the modern world is heading. It is one where everything is fed to everyone. It has gotten to the point where no one has to think for themselves. We are bombarded with commercials, informercials, ideas and influence from the moment we get out of bed until the very last minutes of waking time. The brain can only process information in the time when it does not have to process information. If you want to teach the brain to learn from something, you have to give it a break. But when does our brain really get a break? No wonder we make so many wrong decisions.
No one has to think for themselves because all we do is network. We spend our whole day networking on social media to feed the idea that we might get lucky and become one of the famous fellahs and stop working altogether. But ask what Lady Gaga, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Elton John or Jim Carrey had to say about fame and it ain’t really up to scratch. Walk into any supermarket and you will find more stuff there than any 18th century French aristocrat could ever eat in his entire lifetime. If you really want to know what would set the Sans-Culotte-revolutionaries ablaze, it would be strolling through Walmart. On the other hand, Robespierre and Danton would have loved the BBQ-section with the butchered animals. Being given everything ruins your moral standing.

I am a diabetic with an insulin pump. I have a transmitter, a sensor battery that needs to be reloaded every week and hooked on to a sensor on my stomach. That way, my pump shows me my sugar levels continuously. The problem here, again, is that I do not need to think for myself. I can eat myself silly, drink as much alcohol as I want and get away with it. Why? Well, my pump and my sensor will tell me when I get high or low.
That sounds good at first but hold on for a moment. I never need to take responsibility for my actions. A few days ago, my transmitter battery accidentally dropped into the toilet, gone forever. Since then, I eat nothing after 8 p.m. and I have let go of my evening wine. The result is splendid sugar levels. Ergo: taking responsibility for my actions has brought me far more than being safely lulled into false security that encourages my bad habits.

The whole world is being lulled into thinking we don’t have to become responsible. We have instead grown even more narrow minded, because we only communicate within our chosen groups that agree with us already. So, in actual fact, what in many ways has the potential of being a huge chance to build bridges has become a festering hole of more bigotry and intolerance. The modern world has only strengthened what was there before, anyway: us vs. them. We are great because we are in this group. The other people are stupid because they are in that other group.
The funny thing is that both groups think the same thing about each other.

Let go of some of your habits. Take responsibility for your own actions and watch your health get better, your head become clear and your life change. “The Secret” only works if you roll up your sleeves. Even Tony Robbins said that. Sitting back in your chair and telling the universe to give you a million dollars is a waste of time.
This is only an opinion, mine, you are encouraged to contradict it. Yes, please contradict me. Question this. You are entitled to your opinion. No, your own opinion counts. Maybe you agree with me. In that case, that’s great. If not, that is fine, too.
Just sit down for a moment and be still. View the world in your inner eye for a moment. What assumptions do you take for granted? What assumptions are in your inner matrix that you have never questioned? It doesn’t have to be dramatic, like the origin of life or the home of your soul. It can be totally simple, like the origin of your breakfast or why the mailman comes late every day or if your neighbour dislikes your face or not.
Question the world.
Every person has opinions, likes, dislikes. The chances that these likes and dislikes have formed through the passing of time is probable. His or her parents told that person that this or that is right and nothing has happened to contradict that reality. Consequently, it is completely natural for that person to be racist, left-wing, right-wing, arrogant, trustworthy, friendly, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, lazy, hardworking, critical or whatever that person is. Most people who have an opinion also make the grave mistake of saying that anyone else with a contradicting opinion is an idiot.
“He’s an idiot,” Lorraine Baines’ father spurts out in “Back to the Future” when Marty leaves the house after acting strangely. “His parents are probably idiots, too. If you marry someone like that, Lorraine, I’ll disown you.”
What Lorraine’s Dad doesn’t know is that he is speaking about his own grandchild that is accidentally stuck back in time. Marty is acting strangely because he just prevented his own parents from meeting, so he has accidentally endangered his own existence.
No, Marty is not an idiot. He is scared shitless, which makes him actually act strangely, which seems weird to his unknowing grandpa. So what’s the problem? Lack of knowledge. Preconceived conceptions, the greatest enemy of mankind. No, the enemy is not the Yankee or the Confederate, the aristocrat or the revolutionary, the Nazi or the Communist. The greatest enemy is inside you. He is called fear.

Let’s go elsewhere.
This is a true story. Let’s see if you guess who the girl is.
A 14-year-old girl is chosen by her royal mother to become the Queen of another country. It’s all about politics. Nobody cares what the girl thinks. The strange guy in the other country, whom she is marrying, is shy, overweight and hates people. His grandfather literally drove the country to the ground and now dying, the old king is giving these two overburdened virgin teenagers the assignment to take over the country. The new king, the girl’s future husband, was chosen as future king out of a whim and his brother Stanislaus hates his guts because of it. Stanislaus ridicules his brother every time he gets the chance.
The young girl is eager at first (“Mother, I will become a Queen!”) but sees how her new countrymen hate her guts just simply by being a foreigner. The court stands around her and her new husband at night, watching the royal couple trying to make love in the bed chamber, waiting eagerly for them to produce a son, forcing the teenage girl to wear extremely uncomfortable corsets to hide the fact that she is a woman. The court is friendly to her face but speak badly about her behind her back. She is never ever alone.
To top things off, her impotent husband is shy around women and won’t sleep with her, ever. He turns his back toward her in bed. The people of her new country blame her for the lack of children, asking themselves why no son has arrived.
What happens next is called a burn-out in modern terms.
The girl rebels, casting away her corset (“I am a person! Not an animal in a cage!”) and decides to refurbish a summerhouse for herself on the palace grounds just to get away from the pain. Nobody bothers to ask why she is doing this. The failing economy is blamed on the foreign girl for building the summerhouse and the lack of children is blamed on the fact that the girl has sought lady-friends she can talk with about her problems (“Is she a lesbian?”). When a child comes, it is a disabled girl. Her countrymen are outraged.
Her enemies won’t believe none of it is her own fault, so they conjure up half researched facts that aim to prove that – Hah! – they were never wrong in the first place. They take quotes from books she is reading and put them in her mouth. They forge transactions of never purchased jewellery because they do not dare admit they were wrong.
But the girl even sells jewellery to help the poor. The king helps the farmers and feeds the hungry. The girl is an excellent advisor to her husband, the king. But when the workers blame the couple, attacking a public place, the shy husband is scared shitless. He has often failed to communicate with the people. Now, he withdraws his troops. He is failing to communicate once again, and a revolution erupts.
There has never been any communication and most of it is because of fear.
The leaders of the revolution have parties in the same palaces where the king and queen used to party. They drink the same wine and are even waited by the same waiters. They even wear the same clothes and are equally rich. There is no change. Just a change of leadership.
An execution machine is invented with which 90,000 people are executed, even the inventor and the leaders of the revolution are killed. The revolution literally eats itself. Ten years later, there is a new emperor that creates more havoc than anything the old family ever did, killing millions in the process. The hatred kickstarts two more revolutions and many more wars.
Unfortunately, some history books still blame the foreign queen for it all.
As you might gather, I am speaking of the French Revolution and the young girl was Marie Antoinette. It just goes to show that a failure to talk with each other and see what really goes on can lead to disaster.

History repeated itself over and over in the Soviet revolution and in the fascist regime in Germany. But Hitler, as strangely as that seems, was also a victim of his own disability to let go of people who ridiculed him in Vienna.
Treating each other well has become more important than ever.
It is a complex problem that basically has a few people conjuring up bad feelings so that they can be leaders and not the other guys. If you think that kind of situation is only present in Banana Republics, think again. The difference is subtle. In the west, no guerrilla soldiers will storm the parliament. They call it a restructuring of the infrastructure.
But, then again, do not take my word for it. Please contradict me. This is not about me getting my opinion across. This is about you digging down to find yours.
Why do you think what you think?
Rich and powerful people always tend to be the ones most of the people blame. It does not mean that they are innocent and perfect. It just means that conflicts are a two-way-street. Is that rich dude really responsible for that global conspiracy? It does not mean that he isn’t, but is he really? Are the chemtrails really there to kill us? It does not mean that they aren’t, but are they? Is there a plan to turn the world into a New World Order? It doesn’t mean that this isn’t true, but is that really true? If all that is really true and still we know that our emotional energy attracts attention, then we are totally missing the point. If every one of the conspiracy theories are true, are you dependent on that if your soul is eternal anyway? Do you really need the politicians to survive? You live your life. Do they control it? No?
The Muslim hates the Hindu because he does not believe in Allah. The Hindu hates the Muslim because he does not believe in Karma, Shiva and Brahman.

Now, the French Revolution was a historical event that influenced millions of lives.
But let’s inspect other things we believe that influence us on a day-to-day basis.
We live with valuation and assumptions. Our perspective dominates our life. How we see things will determinate everything. Not just the big stuff. No, especially the small stuff.
We believe our neighbours will think badly of us if we don’t do things like them. In actual fact, they don’t much care because they are thinking the same thing. Do they care if you wear a pink shirt? And who says that is wrong? Who made that rule? No pink shirts in heaven? Only wear grey?
Modern man believes he needs smartphones, jeans, cars, chewing gum and pizza. He thinks social media will make him successful when many successful people do not socially network at all. Fame is regarded as the utmost goal when many people who reach fame actually start hating it once they are there.
Consequently, what we regard as truths are actually lies or what could be regarded as lies. But then again, what are lies? What is truth? To one person, Jesus is the only answer to every problem. To others, Allah is the answer. Or music or love or Buddha or cooking. Tell a person who really truly believes something that he is wrong. He will tell you to screw yourself. If you call him an idiot, he will go to even further lengths to prove you wrong.
War is totally pointless. If you hurt someone to prove yourself right, you are collecting so much bad emotion that your victory will eat itself. Look at Vietnam.
Now we are arriving at our own lives.
Every single thing we think is influenced by other people.
It doesn’t mean we are not involved. It does mean, however, that our opinions are highly influenced by where we come from. A conservative Christian with domineering parents will either become a total rebel or a total puritan. Either one is relatively closed to change. An open-minded family that lets the child make up his own mind will create an open-minded person.
“Young man,” the father maybe signalled. “I never made it as an actor. You go out and become famous. That way, I will not have to feel bad about not having made it.”
That is just as bad as:
“Young man,” the mother might signal, “I never made it as an actress. I forbid you to try.”
Or: “Sex is a sin, even if it is a way for us to show affection, get closer and create children. If you speak to people how much you enjoy making love to your boyfriend, I will give you house-arrest.”
Know the analogy with the cookie jar on the top shelf? It is just as impossible as the secret and forbidden door to the ominous room in horror movies.
You really want to make someone do something? Tell them what not to do. That will attract their attention. Do not think about the blue elephant! What will you think about?
Michelle Pfeiffer worked with director Stephen Sommers. In a sad scene, Sommers asked Pfeiffer to laugh. She contradicted Sommers, claiming the character never ever would laugh in such a situation. Sommers nodded, leaving the decision to the actress. Surprisingly, Pfeiffer laughed exactly on the proposed spot anyway. Why? Sommers left it up to Pfeiffer.
If we suggest something to someone, the idea is there, but leave it up to the other guy. We don’t need to do more than give the other dude or chick an idea. If we scream and yell, the other guy will go out and tell people what assholes we are. If we are nice about it, we will become so popular so quickly that success is the smallest of our victories.
Norman Vincent Peale, author of “The Power if Positive Thinking”, tells us about people he had conversations with who told him they had the best chats of their lives with him. He only listened during those chats.
If you listen and ask questions, you will get friends very quickly.

When we speak of the matrix of society, we are not only speaking of the infrastructures of the world. We are actually speaking of what we believe on a miniscule level. This is not religion. This is what we truly believe. What do we have to be afraid of? Are others afraid of us? Are we trustworthy? Are we clowns? Do we have to sacrifice ourselves in order to be successful? Can we be tolerant, or do we have to go up on the barricades and fight in order to succeed? Our assumptions and perspectives are the groundwork of our lives.
Most of all, it is the thoughts we think and asking ourselves if those thoughts are genuinely our own. If a thought pops up in your head, is it your own or did your mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, teacher or revered buddy tell you to think it. Are you agreeing with that thought to be loyal to that person? Are these thoughts really your own?
Even if that is true, questioning that will only strengthen your convictions.
Take a break from the hullaballoo. Put away your smartphones. Give your brain a rest. Watch the world go by. The thoughts that pop into your head after fifteen minutes of silence will truly be your own.
That is your life.

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