The plague of collective sloth.

Never in my life have I been blindly obedient to anyone or anything. Never have I given blind allegiance to an outside perceived authority. Not once have I offered someone my respect until it has been earned. In no case did I consider someone an authority simply because they said they were or because they were appointed to a so-called position of authority.

Throughout my entire life, I have used the brain I was given to reason and discern what was true and question that which felt suspect. I have always been one to question the “hows” of things, but more importantly the “whys.” For example: Why would an unconditionally loving “God” cast anyone into hell?  Why would an unconditionally loving “God” who made us have need or use of a hell? How is it that Jesus had to “die for our sins?” What kind of God murders his own son whom he loves? (These are just the religious questions!)

As you can imagine, adults (still today) either love me for demonstrating intelligence and reasoning through my questioning or despise me for pointing out the obvious lack of reasoning in some of humanity’s most cherished beliefs. I have always been like the little boy who cried, “The Emperor has no clothes,” much to the chagrin of “the emperors” among us and those who benefit from the perceived authority’s authority.

My natural ability to see through bullshit is both a gift and a curse. I would not, however, have it any other way. Having this ability has kept me (mostly) safe from those who might seek to harm and has kept me on the path of truth – both my own, and that of the bigger T Truth.

Having personal experience of the benefits of critical thinking, reasoning, and discernment, I find myself continually befuddled by those who choose none of these while allowing some outside perceived (often self-appointed) authority to think for them – telling them what to believe and how to live. I can understand this in people who were never given a chance to learn or who were never empowered in their own abilities to reason. I do not understand it is people who have been given every opportunity to cultivate critical thinking skills and choose not to use them.

It’s bad enough which it’s a stranger, your employer, your teacher, or pastor, it’s even worse when it’s someone you know personally and who you might otherwise respect were it not for their refusing to see what is right in front of their face for they have buried their head in the sand and given away their own personal power and executive functioning to a cult of manipulation and lies. When inviting an honest inquiry – seeking to understand why they believe as they do and their answer is “I support everything ____________does and says,” with no explanation, you know they’re done for. They have chosen the plague of collective sloth and from this there is no return.

I don’t get it!  Why would anyone give up their own power of critical thinking? Why would someone give their power over to another? How can someone not see the corruption or lies staring them in the face?

Because they don’t want to. It is easier to look the other way, allowing someone else to think and make decisions for you than to reason for yourself. It is easier to let someone tell you what to believe than uncover your own beliefs. Life is easier when we take the blue pill and its illusions than to step into the illusion-shattering world of the red. With the blue pill, we don’t have to think, or even act, we just do what we’re told, buying into the system built by the illusions, allowing ourselves to be sheep who would walk off the edge of a cliff if we were told to do so by our own appointed “Messiahs.” The blue pill allows us to continue to believe in the so-called “American Dream” while liberties, freedoms, safety, and protection are being hastily torn from our grasp. (If you think it’s only immigrants or transgender people who are losing freedoms, you aren’t paying attention – the freedom-robbers are coming for you next!)

Collective sloth allows us to remain within the dream of belonging to the privileged group even as the privileged group looks down their nose at us. More than anything, however, collective sloth allows us to remain in the place of blamelessness. Even when it all goes to hell, those suffering from sloth will never recognize their culpability in the collapse. Instead, they will simply say, “I was only doing what I was told.” 

Those of us who have not lived with our heads in the sand will know better. The collapse of an empire and the end of freedoms will ultimately impact all but the very few. And we will all know who is to blame – those who chose to look away, those who chose to ignore the obvious, those who supported and then defended the deceivers, and those who to this day are keeping their heads in the sand because they would rather hang on to their illusion of privilege than see that the emperor and his entire staff has no clothes.