Monday, April 13, 2009

Sometimes it's best to just live your life


I have a friend who sees conspiracies in everything.

He called me today with some new ones about 9/11, going all the way back to the Federal Reserve and the beginning of the federal income tax. He threw in another one about the electorate was manipulated in 2008 to see that Barack Obama was elected president.

He always assures me that the people who tell him these stories are reasonable -- "middle of the road," he calls them -- and that they have plenty of evidence supporting them.

When I listen, I always listen with one ear.

You see, there's something my friend doesn't understand.

It doesn't matter.

Not one bit.

Whether there are seven bearded Jews in Switzerland running the world, or the Trilateral Commission pulling the strings, or my personal favorite, shape-shifting lizards behind it all, it literally does not matter.

Anyone powerful enough to control the world -- assuming that such a thing is true -- is powerful enough to deal with any little uprising, assuming most people truly don't care and would rather watch "American Idol."

In fact, if anyone were to become a real threat to the way things are, they are certainly powerful enough to take care of them.

That's why so much of our news is anything but news, why people are stirred up by so many false issues, why our education system is designed more to create obedient citizens than real thinkers.

Very few of us have the opportunity to change the world or even to shift the paradigm in which we live. It's best to just affect what we can, to live our lives as honorably as possible.

It's best to leave the conspiracies for the movies.

allvoices

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that I'm a conspiracy theorist at all, but if I were to take your position, why should I care about anything?

If history has demonstrated one thing -- it's that the little guy (or God or the Fates) finally wins, be it David v Goliath or the people v Kennth Lay.


Remember, both giants -- Goliath and Lay -- were doomed.

Maybe a little wake-up call isn't so bad.

PAM IN POMONA

Mike Rappaport said...

You should care about what you have some control over -- your own life, your children, your happiness.

Do you really think Ken Lay was the big guy? Put it this way, some folks got rich off that Enron debacle.

I refuse to spend what's left of my life worrying about things that are far beyond my control.

Anonymous said...

Good for you, Mike.

Anonymous said...

Well ...

I was the friend Mike referred to, and all I can say is that sometimes Mike reminds me of that old vaudeville routine:

Q: What's the difference between Ignorance and Apathy?
A: I don't know, and I don't care.