The novelty of a November novel: No V
A work of fiction about a world without
vampires, without victims, in a phrase: that doesn't suck.
Wait, you say. Suck is just an idiom,
an expression, that literally relates to vacuums (another v word),
but not to the world (unless gravity can be said to be “sucking”
us onto the surface of the planet), or definitely not to people
(because we only “suck” if we're 1)“sucking” breath after
hard exertion/exercise, or 2)during fellatio, which is also called by
it's opposite -“blow”, but which is really neither blowing nor
sucking, or, 3) the possibility -so rare it barely deserves mention-
after you've been bitten by a venomous snake, possibly a viper, in
which you cut open the site and suck out the venom)... But the only
time people suck, normally, is when they've got a cup of soda from a
fast food joint, with a straw. And hopefully you won't have to deal
with any sucking chest wounds. Perhaps you have a poetic sensibility
and are cynical about life, in which the process of breathing is suck
and blow, repeated ad nauseum.
Being out of breath sucks, especially
if you're asthmatic. Venomous viper bites suck. Diabetes from too
much sugary soda sucks. Being a victim of a vampire sucks. But
fellatio most definitely does NOT suck, even when it does. Okay, hit
the pause button again, you're thinking- vampires are fictional,
mythological, nonexistent, and don't belong in a factual explanation
of suckage: They only “exist” in our imagination and the
collective unconscious, expressed in movies, tv shows, books, and
plays, not reality...
But crime exists, unfortunately, and
predators suck, being criminals who violate our rights. You might
not believe in the devil, demons, sin, hell, or vampires, but these
are useful concepts, nonetheless. They're useful both in
pre-prevention of the possibility of potential perpetration, and
post-punishment of caught criminals. Children believe in monsters,
which is good, even if technically untrue, because ordinary people
can be monstrous. In the psy-war between our better and worse,
greater and lesser, selves, often conceived of as the cartoonish
conversation of our conscience between angels and devils, gods and
monsters, saints and demons, the battle for our souls, in the epic
conflict between good and evil, the light and dark sides of the
force, mythological figures and locations are forms that help us
achieve more moral behavior, in spite of the sweetness of sin, and
the tremendous temptation to turpitude. Love always wins, though,
they say.
Heaven and hell, as prospective reward or punishment, carrot or stick as it were, help society avoid
potential evil events, and also after crime, in the process of
justice. Fear of God, and his henchman's horrific hell, scare
people straight. The prospect of eternal torment causes suffering to
criminals who might otherwise have no remorse, or possibly even enjoy
prison. V and V literally look like two canines (“eye-teeth”),
and poetically conjure concepts of vicious vampires (and their
violated victims) who in reality are psychopaths or sociopaths who
might believe themselves to be vampires, and therefore become
“real”in the same way a dad believes himself to be Santa, or a
priest believes himself to be God. There's a ring of truth. The
virtual becomes real for those that believe. Operationally if not
objectively true. Victims become vampires, too, when the thirst for
justice becomes a desire for artificially created karma, in a word:
revenge. Personally, I think this just makes things worse, adding
suffering to suffering, torment to torment, potentially creating a
never-ending cycle of violence and hate. Justice must err on the
side of less net suffering. Incarceration, whether prison or jail,
should not exact more suffering than the criminals caused in the
course of their criminality. In fact, ideally, the criminal will
keep his freedom, and go forth and sin no more, as they say.
War sucks. As General Sherman said,
“war is hell.” As a former friend of mine said, “chess is
war.” Causing war is the crime of the powerful, sending armies to
kill each other in an orgy of bloodshed, for nonexistent entities
called “nations,” who fail to see the commonality, the shared
humanity, between peoples with different languages, skin colors, and
religions. Some powerful people get bored, and think war spices up
life with a little excitement, like a mma or wwf match, that cleanses
society, kills off excess population, creates an economy, reduces the
number of evil people, focuses and unites societies, improves and
tests new technology, and distracts us from other bad news, perhaps
perceived as worse than war. War can be painted in pleasing
(non-red) colors (such as self-defense, security, safety, strength,
protection, sacrifice, duty, valor, courage, honor) in the pubic
mind.
Some of the evils of the modern world
that might conceivably contribute to causing a distractive war could
be the anomie of nihilism, or the banality of evil- in such things as
the industrialized slaughter of animals, an unrecognized modern
holocaust, or the existence of more slaves in modern society than in
any other period in human history, or such extreme economic
inequality in the world that the richest 85 billionaires have as much
money as the bottom 3.5 billion people (nearly half the world's
population!) ...supposedly equal human beings, I might add, who share
the global village of this third rock from the sun, planet earth, an
island paradise of life, in an infinite and indifferent universe.
Also, we're in the midst of an extinction event, with ecosystems
screaming under the weight of climate change and habitat destruction.
People aren't surviving, either, with the tolls of natural
disasters, crime, disease, war, suicide, and poverty. Malnutrition
exists along side of obesity and food wastage. Addictions to sugar,
nicotine, heroin, or any product at all really, drain economies and
lower the quality of life. Pharmaceutical companies have a vested
interest in the maximized unhealth of the world's population, so as
to be in perpetual need of their medications, a dependency with vast
societal and personal ramifications. The “mentally ill” receive
government money, and can be trapped in unemployment, as well as
suffering from stigma and resentment. Some of us have access to
quality free healthcare, while others don't have access to either
clean water or sanitation. Global inequality is unacceptable. We
are all a part of the human community, on spaceship earth, a global
village, with equal rights, and the capacity for ALL to have our basic needs met, with minimal suffering and maximal well-being, in a world that cares.
In sum, the issues of ecology,
equality, slavery, poverty, meat, crime, and unhealth (such as obesity,
malnutrition, and mental health problems like depression, anxiety,
psychosis, suicide) for starters, add up to a need for
distractions/escape like books or vacation or tv and religion, to
make us feel better, in what can be a sick, sick world. Universal
healthcare would be a good start, in my view. Getting into nature, exercise endorphins, the occasional restaurant meal, staying informed, breaking routine, and remembering the neediest, are just a few ideas that work for me.
War is not the answer. What is?
Compassion, kindness, love, charity, service, community,
cheerfulness, humor, friendship, wealth, comfort, security, freedom,
respect, status, equality, education, recreation, entertainment, art,
literature, poetry, dance, health and fitness, work, helpfulness,
trust, truth, courtesy and respect, lawfulness, righteousness,
rectitude, thrift, bravery, cleanliness, intelligence, curiosity,
engagement, prayer and meditation, spirituality,
libraries/reading/books, discipline, strength, integrity, honor,
happiness, bliss, mental health, self-improvement.
We're all human, and we all want the
same things. We want love, pleasure, sex, respect, status, comfort,
security, money, freedom, companionship, camaraderie, friendship,
laughter, humor, entertainment... These are what I want, anyway.
Terrorism. We're terrorists, too:
Animals, babies, criminals, soldiers. We should stop killing. Thou
shalt not kill. Meat, abortion, capital punishment, and war are
stains on our collective humanity. Prisons shouldn't be hellholes of
institutional terrorism, either, where racism and rape are rampant.
Religious tolerance needs to be a global human value, recognizing
that All religions seek Goodliness as Godliness and eschew Evil as
Sin, in a universal human ethic of righteous moral love and respect.
God out. Cheers!
final thoughs
Happiness and Health in Heaven. Hatred and Horror in Hell.
Good or Bad. Suffering or Bliss. Love or Hate. Life or Death.
"He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!"
