Suppose that one day you found out that you were totally controlled by a bunch of dumb compulsions and that you just did stuff that you had no control over and that you had absolutely no clue about why you were doing this stuff? Suppose that one day you discovered that you were doing stupid shit for no reason. What then, huh? How would that make you feel? Well I’ve only got one thing to say to you on that score buddy – welcome to the real world. Welcome to reality buddy! I hope you like it because I know you won’t. Nobody ever does, right? You bet your ass they don’t.
People love to think that they’re free, don’t they? It’s a real big deal for us; it’s what you might call ‘a bit of a sticking point’. It’s important that we have this perception of ourselves as being autonomous, as being independent, as not being some kind of mindless stooge. That’s really quite important for us. It stings when someone comes along and reminds us of the truth, doesn’t it? That really smarts – just like dripping lemon juice into a fresh paper cut. Ouch! It’s enough to make you wince in sympathy just to think about it. Oh boy has that got to sting! Nothing like the truth for cutting us to the quick, is there? Nothing like the truth, nothing like the truth….
It’s no wonder we live in a world where the truth is banned, is it? Not that there’s any actual tangible legislation outlawing the truth, of course. That would be too truthful. To actually admit that we have outlawed the truth would be far too honest and so we’ll never see that happening. Never in a million years will we see that happening! We live in a world where truth is a stranger – an illegal alien. When the authorities catch up with you then they’ll pull you up and show you their badges. ‘Hey dude,’ they’ll say, ‘do you realise that you’re an illegal fucking alien in this country?’ Then they will read you your rights, which won’t take very long because you haven’t got any.
‘You are vermin, buddy,’ they’ll say to you, ‘why don’t you go back to Mars or wherever you’re from? Why don’t you fuck off back to Uranus?’ They’ll laugh then because they think that they’re so damn funny. Also because they know that they have all the power in this situation. They’re holding all the cards and you’re holding nothing. They got all the aces and you got a crumpled two of hearts and a few jokers. You’re the joker in the pack and the joke’s on you. Have you ever noticed that – have you ever noticed that when the other guys have got all the power and you’ve got none then everything they say – no matter how lame – gets to be funny? They can say any kind of dumb, lame-ass shit and get to laugh about it, just as if they said something Oscar Wilde would have been envious of. They can do that because they have all the power and if they want something to be funny then it will be.
Did you ever notice that, did you ever notice that? Did you ever notice, did you ever notice? It’s because we live in a world where lies are valued and the truth is despised that the really good liars rise to the top like cream and the merely average liars get to be the butt of every joke going. The merely average liars – because of their mediocrity – get to carry the can. They get to be the stooges. Hitler knew that of course – he knew it well. I imagine that this used to make him laugh. He wouldn’t have been able to take anyone honest for a ride but that didn’t matter because they weren’t any honest people around. Not enough to make it count anyway, isn’t that right? Not enough to make it count…
That’s why power is such an important thing for us human beings. I don’t think we really understand this point. I know that we don’t really understand this point. We think that power is such a coveted thing because if you have power then you can get away with shit, because you can do whatever the hell you want and no one can do anything about it. Pretty appealing, huh? That’s not really it, though. We want to get away with something alright but it’s not that. It’s not just some run-of-the-mill, sordidly immoral behaviour that we’re talking about here. We’re aiming way beyond that. We want to get away with making anything to be true that we want to be true. We want power because when we have that power then we get to say that our lies are true and everyone will have to believe us…
