Reflection

Humanity needs to slow the fuck down.

Literally. Lit-er-ally.

We live under rules that dictate our functional years, our yearly calendar, our cyclical schedule, our 24 hour cycle. And some of that is biological, yes. But most of it is societal and ideological, based off structures that we adhere to because they’re what’s been lording over us our entire lives. In our heads. Made up. Structures that dumb reality down and pit us against each other on these ultra-binary, ultra-lazy scales: BAD vs GOOD, MAN vs WOMAN, BLACK vs WHITE, US vs THEM.

But WHY do people fight for the archaic? WHY do we fight for nostalgia and ignore the inherent problems of our past? WHY do we set major goals based on a 365-day yearly calendar? WHY do we section off portions of ourselves into our TWENTIES, our THIRTIES, our GOLDEN AGE? WHY do we think basic education should be over at 18, or at ANY specifically general age considering the diversity of our individual psyches? WHY do we consistently act like More Right Now is better?

Human mortality is not simple; it’s something that takes place in two different spaces: our minds, and our bodies. Acknowledging and trying to understand the divide between the two is how we’ve been able to evolve as a species without going extinct. The average worldwide life expectancy in 1900 was 31-32 years old, only five years more than the average life expectancy in 10,000 BC. In 1950 it was 45. It’s currently 73. We didn’t all of a sudden become X-men in the last century.

The basic definition of science is “a systematically organized body of knowledge on a particular subject.”

I’m rewatching Westworld right now to catch up before I start the new season, which is partly where this post’s coming from. There’s a quote in one of the last episodes of season two where Anthony Hopkins’ character Robert Ford says “Humans will always choose what they understand over what they do not. The only animals that remain are the ones they’ve subjugated, who curl at their feet, or those who learn to flee at the very sound of their approach. There is no in between.”

In the show, this inclination is ultimately the reason for the human characters’ downfall. A cliché really, the basic storyline dating back to before Shakespeare.

Historically, literature is based on reality.

A mirror, as many writers way better than me have frequently called it.