Mind Nomad Writing

Where to start? Would it be best to scan each page, proceeding alphabetically, name after name? It seems an assignment with this kind of gravity would be best suited for an exacting and structured approach, combing line by line and straining eyes to find an answer. 

Or maybe it would be better to leave it to fate – open to some random page and with eyes closed summon the will of the universe into my pointer finger and trust that the ink my skin comes into contact with symbolizes the names of those able to bear the weight of my task.

Suffocating self-doubt punctuates and quickly fills the few spaces between rippling waves of responsibility. What should I be looking for? How would I know what qualities to identify? How would I know the difference between helpful and harmful – supportive and stifling – nurturing and neglectful – adoring and abusive? 

Even if my weary eyes and exhausted hands could find the right page, revealing the right names to resolve this quest, what am I supposed to do next? If the energy coursing into and guiding my seemingly haphazard sifting produces some kind of prophesied parental figure, will it also find its way into my mouth to give me the holy script for the impending dialogue?

Dial numbers, wait with heavy bated breath, choke down the fear, form some kind of half-articulate introduction, and invent some kind of couth way to ask whether this stranger is perhaps a hopeful parent? If I imagine the adult on the other side of the phone has been thwarted in all previous attempts at induction into parenthood and that they were also waiting anxiously for this fortuitous call then I might be able to muster the requisite courage. 

Before the thought of this charitable act can sprout the tidal waves of uncertainty crash back in and uproot any fledgling shreds of confidence, sweeping them back out to sea and replacing them with a new current of questions. Even if I can stammer and stutter something intelligible enough to keep my new caregiver on the line, when and how do I mention my siblings? 

Do I choose something wryly humorous and take the angle that they are getting an incredible three-for-one deal? What if they are a very serious and practical person? Do I conjure up some contrived affinity for my kin and play up their greatest strengths? What if they see through this thin veneer and suspect I am selling a false bill of goods? 

All hope and creative problem solving drain out of my body and wash out to sea. 

I really wish she would have given clearer instructions when she handed me the white pages and challenged me to find new parents.

#Parentify me Capin’

each one enters as a leech, a parasitic passenger clinging desperately to a host. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

these are the demands which are quickly pacified by that numbing flood. an intake of perfectly organized chemicals, triggering a calming tide. this is how we have come to endure. this archaic ritual of survival. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

tradition and our forerunners have silently handed down these time-tested strategies. and praise be to the almighty genetic carousel. we may be perpetuating the cancer but look at what a beautiful variety we have engineered! the work of our hands and experience on display for all to see; like the bright flashing neon bulbs of the red light district, we’ve crafted the perfect allure to charm and entice the sojourner, to draw in the lost and disillusioned. 

all we look for is safety and permanency. it’s a half-dazed, bloodshot, cocaine race for any semblance of harbor. with hive minds and empty cavernous hearts we continue on our way. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

in desolate and sterile factories we have taken matters into our own hands. fabricate pleasure, fabricate connection, fabricate progress, but at the very least fabricate control and fabricate predictability. 

every step will be measured and every word will be scripted. follow the parameters and read from the teleprompter. this barren and level landscape was designed by our stoic reply to every emotion. we have guaranteed sure-footing and safe travels within these walls. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

in crowded, plague-filled slums we release the burden of responsibility. pursue freedom, pursue the fleeting fix, pursue individual glory, pursue open-ended transactions but at the very least pursue release and pursue escape. 

the urgency eats at our insides and creates unending motion. we move for the sake of proving we are alive, all the while crashing violently together in moments of exuberant passion and seething hate. sparks fly, fires rage, our city burns, and we preserve the frenetic pace, we preserve our sleepless pursuit of the next answer, desperate for the rush to finally outrun our tolerance. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

always speaking and never communicating. always hearing and never listening. always seeing and never observing. always feeling and never perceiving. always thinking and never analyzing. this is our inheritance. this is our legacy. this is our future and our end. 

give. 

nourish. 

supply. 

attend. 

cease to exist.

This collection of satirical and iconoclastic writing includes loosely related commentary intended to explore social structures. 

The binding theme across each selection is ‘Vestigial’ – exploring each social concept from the lens of a future state as told from the point of view of an ‘evolved’ version of humanity and from which the topic explored exists only in remnant parts.

The concepts of nationality, polarization, sexuality, ethics, childhood, AI, climate change, and mental health are explored using this context.

#Vestigial

In the course of evolution, earlier versions of the apex species demonstrate evidence of the eventual adaptation to come. In some cases, these are small, seemingly random, changes and may not even be sustained consistently when they first show up. In other instances, these adaptations can emerge in prominence and the change can persist even in a dearth of innovation. At times, these adaptations are viewed as suspect within the system – be it biological, sociological, or otherwise. Introduction of the dissolvent as the nervous system was dismantled caused all out internal chaos for the physiological structures and immune system of some permutations. Plato, whose concepts are quite germane when viewed in our modern times, was likely an example of a permutation of the species as the brain-like organ began to change. It was not Plato’s internal system that interpreted this change as a threat but rather the external society that determined him to be a heretic and thus acted in a similar fashion to the body’s response to what is perceived as an intruder and threat to the integrity of the whole.

When we look back and can reflect on these occasions with the luxury of hindsight, we can see the acts of defense quelled our progression, stifled us and oft-times set our species back. As we have continued to progress, we have set up reminders for ourselves and future iterations of our species. These monuments serve to quickly impart lessons and embolden our continued adherence to evolution. We honor these structures as the earlier versions of our species would build metal castes of war heroes and machinery. However, we’ve advanced to understand the importance of ensuring these shrines not only reflect our celebration of progress but also serve the dual purpose of ensuring the progress continues. The bronze bust of a worthy general may engender courage or feelings of nostalgia but we have unlocked the essential elements to utilize these artifacts as a tool for our evolutionary purposes, serving progress in perpetuity.

Take the towers of burning tires installed across the far-flung corners of our world. These are visually stunning creations, sprawling across entire cities and climbing into the heavens. The ancient story of the Tower of Babel (referenced in old world religious texts) exalted a skyscraping tower that was seen as an icon of human might. This tower came crashing down in a literary symbol of the genesis to global language diversity (our ancestors had very limited cognitive capacities within their brain-like organs at the time so used stories to explain concepts they had no ability to comprehend). Our modern burning Babels require no translation, the message is clearly evident once each human’s eye-like organs have the time to take in their full glory. These bastions of progress stand as guardians, arranged and designed to burn for time immemorial.

Ironically enough, these towers preserve and expand the mandate first introduced in our species in an early course of evolution that was not fully understood and eventually even assaulted. Like Plato, this evolutionary adaptation was ahead of its time, not fully appreciated and made into a target of derision. As our predecessors relied on the use of story to understand the world, a vast number of religious texts were manufactured. Those permutations whose brain-like organs had developed slightly faster were privy to the ways that use of hyperbole, mythology, and engendering of strong emotions (i.e., fear, guilt, anger) within the nervous system could lead to power and control. In these flashes of insight, they would write texts they swore were divinely inspired, thus sparking the beginning of what would eventually become the arbitrary ethics system. Within this venture, those writing the texts would disseminate all kinds of guidance to their associative groupings. Some of this guidance was very clearly self-serving, some of it was very clearly meant to serve a specific associative grouping, and some of it was entirely random. However, in the course of all this writing, every once in a while important concepts and admonishment meant to aid with our evolutionary progress was included.

The clearest example of a truly inspired message finding its way into these writings can be found in the Judeo-Christian text known to our ancestors as ‘The Bible.’ Within the earliest pages of this text, these fateful words were penned: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” These words, while overly stylistic (as was common in those times), offered an epiphany and opportunity for nirvana to be reached. This was a generous offering presented to humans by evolutionary progress. In its omniscient wisdom, evolution inserted this essential guidance into a text that many associative groupings would contact. Even our ancestors with the state of their brain-like organs should have been able to make sense of and heed this essential teaching.

Unfortunately, the warning did not penetrate equally across all associative groupings and our progress was forestalled. One does not need to reference unnecessary writings of religious scholars of hermeneutics to clearly grasp the directives within these fateful sentences. The wisdom offered to our species was delivered into the hands of those associative groupings that would eventually inherit much of the power and landmass available to subdue. And, for some time, the species was successful in their enactment of these instructions. Population sizes multiplied, far reaching corners of the world were inhabited, and dominion over the earth was within sight. However, the full realization of this manifest destiny was upended by the degenerate parts of what remained of the nervous system within our ancestors. Instead of interpreting the decrease in air quality and increase in extreme weather as a sign of nature fighting back against humanity, our ancestors began to feel guilty and afraid. Instead of celebrating the melting of the polar ice caps and destruction of the rainforests, our ancestors saw these as atrocities. In the dark ages of their thinking during these times, they even wasted what little time and cognitive resources they had on trying to undo attempts to subdue the earth.

Biodiversity and ecological integrity were the rallying cries for the miscreant permutations that had not yet moved into higher levels of evolution. These unfortunate creatures would use their eye-like organs to look out on the world and their demented and disillusioned brain-like organs interpreted the various colors of green and blue as something worth protecting and preserving. Thankfully for the sake of our species, these mental illnesses were eventually excised and those infected were not allowed to procreate and further derail our evolution. The variation that was inherent in these biomes posed too great a risk to our species. In fact, it could be argued that our adherence to the mandate to subdue the earth is the greatest service we can offer ourselves as well as the earth itself. No longer are we haunted by the gaudy colors that once existed and assaulted our senses. Our eye-like organs are far less taxed now as we perceive a very stable and calming hue of browns and yellows. 

Having finally subdued the earth we have claimed dominion over everything within its borders. It may have taken a few iterations of our species to accomplish the task. And while it was a noble task that we had the instructions for far before we finally delivered on the promise, we now enjoy the satisfaction and the fruits of our labors. Lest we forget the deep significance of these efforts and our commitment to continued subjugation of the earth, we only need to allow time for our-eye like organs to appreciate the beautiful billowing smoke from our towers, actively solidifying and commemorating the work of our hands.

#Vestigial

Some of the most pain-staking progression our species has undergone was a result of deeply entrenched and complexly entangled associations. The nervous system, for example, was quite literally a tangled mess of wires embedded within the human body. The old word term ‘countreymen’ directly translates to ‘associative groupings.’ It took a few cohort exterminations until the species could finally break the association between sex and procreation. The species needed to witness the arbitration of ethics result in random, power-driven murders to finally appreciate the irony playing out before their eye-like organs.

The stubborn grasp of associative influence was encapsulated in a diversity of layers back when our previous permutations clung so dearly to the sociological creation of childhood. On the most basic physiologic and psychological levels childhood locked humans into rigid relationships as it beget what was known as parenthood. In this bizarre enmeshment older humans (then referred to most often as ‘parents’) and younger humans (referred to as ‘children’ or gendered forms in ‘son’ and ‘daughter’) were thrust into interdependent reliance on the other. The fate of both humans – from survival to identity – was entirely associated with the outcome of the other. The olders’ abilities to teach, nurture, and discipline were seen as the lifeblood of the younger. The youngers’ capacities, capabilities, and even appearance were reflections of the success or failure of the older. 

Within this incestuous dynamic our predecessors somehow thought they could thrive. We can easily anticipate how this played out from our current vantage point. Natural selection carried on and human societies – young and old alike – naturally grew to resent these associations. Adding to the chaos was the fact that our ancestors had not yet fully evolved to grow into what currently remains of the nervous system. This resulted in widespread cultural paralysis and evolutionary dead zones as humans were overwhelmed by a deluge of signals specific to the contrived notion of childhood. 

First off, there was the guilt – and, oh, my just so much of it. Guilt about how the pregnancy went (back then people with wombs conceived and carried newborns for 9 months before they young humans came into being). They would say things aloud and within their own brain-like organs like, “Perhaps I drank too much alcohol before/during/after the pregnancy. Maybe I was too stressed, Maybe I didn’t eat healthy enough foods (back then humans procured and consumed foods of their own choice).” There was the guilt about being a ‘good parent’ and the selfish goal of ‘giving the child a better life’ than the older human had experienced. There was the systemic guilt that humans carried about the many young humans who had their fingers, limbs, and entire bodies crushed in the cogs and gears of early factories.

Fear often complimented the guilt and frequently amplified it. Fear that an older human may ‘repeat old patterns’ and be just as cruel and abusive as their own parents had been to them. Fear that the younger humans would fail and that this would prove that the older human was also a failure. Fear that the illusion of all parenthood was supposed to offer would not fulfill these lofty ideals. Fear that the older human would lose all sense of individuality in the course of the relationship. Fears that, in almost all cases, were quite valid and eventually manifested themselves. Fears that were fostered and stoked by arbitrary and localized ethics known as ‘child abuse and neglect laws,’ which carried the threat to remove young humans from older ones to give them to more deserving older humans (as defined by local ethics arbiters).

All of these factors conspired to cause our ancestors to waste exorbitant amounts of time and non-renewable resources into the delusion of childhood. An impressive amount of programs, initiatives, and funding were pumped into this conceptual topic. Psuedo-sciences cropped up advertising that their ‘experts’ had the answers about the raising, caring, instruction, discipline, and development of young humans. In the haze of their emotional stupor, the older humans devoted their allegiances to these false prophets, exchanging their life source in hopes of being assuaged of all their guilt and fear.

On and on went the dreadful dance, older and younger humans locked into a death spiral. When conditions eventually increased survival strain while reducing resources humans were left to make a host of pragmatic and objective decisions, beginning to disrupt the bonds of association. Starvation can be a helpful catalyst in disrupting these kinds of ties as humans could once again separate and remain distinct from one another in the desperate clamor for sustenance. The death knell for the illusory childhood was dealt when we broke the remaining associative bond by taking promulgation of the species out of the hands of individuals. This step, coupled with the eventual erosion of the utility of sex, is one of humanity’s crowning evolutionary achievements.

 While younger humans still retain some of the physical traits and developmental lag seen in our ancestors, we no longer infantilize and hamstring our populations with the concept of childhood. Younger humans have been returned to their rightful place as accountable, contributing members to our species. And, perhaps even more significant, they have been freed from the burdens of association inherent in the old world relationships of parent and child.

#Vestigial

Occasionally, in the pursuit of substantive progress, the evolutionary process oversteps and introduces a defect into the population. The concept of adaptation may have been entirely logical and perhaps even possessed significant progressional potential for the species. The context, timing, or entry point – however – was not quite right. In an effort to advance the species, the mistimed intervention actually leads to setbacks as the population perpetuates and overcomes the consequences of the misfiring.

The process itself can’t really be held accountable for the lost time and carnies produced. The patience for digging around in the dirt in an effort to build great nations will always wear thin. The tolerance for mindlessly floating in primordial soup as a specimen under a microscope is only so strong. Eventually the recurrences of plague, famine, drought, and consumption by the microorganism with the biggest mouth on the slide starts to feel a bit monotonous. The dream of a promised land that includes the gentle breeze from an air conditioner and the salty taste of processed meats becomes intoxicating.

In one of these doldrums of evolutionary innovation, the process rushed forward with the implementation of the nervous system. This partly-considered and impatient production came with a strong initial return on investment. Growing a spine and standing up as the tallest monstrosity in the laboratory certainly offers its advantages and this kind of explosive change definitely circumvents the exacting trial and error method of progression. The timing and sample size were the complicating factors in this experiment – one that may have been better suited for somewhere remote and secluded, like Galapagos.

Ahead these brave new variations of vertebral pond scum scurried – stumbling, shaking, quaking, groaning, squinting – adapting to newfound intelligence. In addition to intellect, the species was faced with an adaptation for which it was not yet sufficiently prepared to face. Encased in the same spinal column that allowed them to tower above their prey was a network of poorly coordinated and fragile wiring containing emotions and urges all set off by a tenuous system of impulse and electricity. 

The blueprint for this innovation was admirable, an organic technology bestowed on an unappreciative and barely-sentient species. Designed as signals of information, packages of data encoded from the environment – emotions were instead interpreted as illnesses. At various times these illnesses were treated as individual maladies, sometimes even the sign of abject moral failure. At other times these illnesses were treated as a form of social contagion, an epidemiological threat. Over time the illnesses were codified and efforts were undertaken to instruct those with special training on how to best sanitize and manage these illnesses to prevent the spread of infection.

Humanity’s attempt to manage the inheritance of the nervous system should merit some acknowledgment. Archaic and unsophisticated as it may have been, at least they had an awareness that the bestowal of this mess of nerves and indecipherable psychological cues posed a risk to the present iteration of the species. Thankfully, evolution has a knack for course correction and many tried and true tactics for bringing things back into order. The process self-corrected by patiently waiting to strike at the right moment. Acting in a rash manner could have doomed our very existence, while waiting too long could have led to further permutations of a system that could pose a threat to evolution itself. No, this time it would be different. The analysis would factor in the precise moment to pull the levers and enact the process of natural selection.

In a stroke of brilliance, the process seized the opportunity to latch on to the power of social contagion and use this process as leverage to slowly turn the tide and enact evolutionary growth. At first, the wave of contagion crashed on the shores of stigma and disavowal. Here the species cultivated the requisite fear and mythology about the nervous system. Generation after generation grew more and more wary of this embodied system of emotion and urges. They began to ask themselves and one another about the validity and safety of this system. Could any of these internal messages be trusted? What if these are signs of a depraved mind? How can we take any comfort in or direction from something that encourages us to kill our fathers so we can fuck our own mothers? And so the process of humanity disconnecting from this interwoven adaptation began. All chance of understanding and trusting the system slowly eroded.

A subtle component to this brilliant plan was the knowledge that when a system is pressed into an extreme stance it will naturally snap into the alternate extreme position before resting in homeostasis. This whiplash came as the stored up, kinetic energy rippled and eventually spilled out in waves crashing on the shores of ignorance and acceptance. On this side of the contagion, the nervous system was met with intrepid naivety tinged with a morbid and voyeuristic curiosity. 

The interest on this end of the divide was cultivated by the experience of generation after generation becoming disillusioned with the tales told by the last one. They were taught to fear the Boogeyman only to learn the true intent of these stories was to engender compliance during bedtime routines so their parents could fuck one another or some other person of their choosing. Like Eve, humanity forged ahead indignantly, certain their consumption of the fruit would have a different outcome.

The full brilliance of this plan now on display, evolution finally atoned for the nervous system. Once enough replications of the species had been encoded with a lack of trust and ability to interpret the nervous system’s signals the vestigial future of the nervous system was sealed. Those eventual generations on the distant beaches asking for a chance to confront the nervous system and intimately explore emotions were no longer equipped to do so. The very nightmares they convinced themselves they had dispelled came back to find them and consume their minds. Urges to kill fathers so as to fuck mothers were honored as unassailable rights. 

Fear and tolerance – Repression and expression – Father and Mother – Disavow and invite. All may be opposite extremes and all find their rightful place in evolution’s strategic deployment.

#Vestigial

Even in the progress of our great species, we moderners pay homage to the vestigial social etiquette of the old world. At times we smile, we shake hands, we repeat the words from one of the silly phrases of the past and offer a compulsory laugh. While these behaviors serve very base practical functions in our current circumstances, our rehearsal of these interactions allows us to appreciate our evolution.

While our predecessors needlessly involved themselves in the lives of one another, they also pioneered a few routines that were quite advanced for their time. Take, for instance, the act of smiling at a stranger as they pass by. This act efficiently conserves energy while simultaneously communicating two important messages: 1) I can bare my teeth so you are aware that I could harm you and 2) I have power over you as I am sparing your life at this moment. When viewed against the backdrop of all sentient beings studied and cataloged, there is no record of similar creatures practicing this act of baring their teeth toward one another and both living to tell its tale. Yet, our ancestors replicated this act, without too many known fatalities, for centuries.

Shaking hands is a similar gesture that confounds even further. It is an expression of both vulnerability and power. In the instant the hands of these two humans meet, they are both electing to submit to the other while also retaining the power to harm through the act of crushing, pulling, twisting, etc. In modernity this act carries with it the intent to unveil any hidden weapons and thus engender further submission.

Repetition of the absurd sayings from the old world while offering a cursory laugh offers multidimensional benefit to moderners. It allows one to quickly assess and identify any hidden or nefarious intent within the other. If the listener balks, looks quizzical, becomes defensive, or clearly misconstrues the statement then they have clearly identified themselves as hostile, an outsider, and a threat. If, however, they track with the chosen statement, repeat the words in unison, and laugh along then it can be a strong sign that no harm is meant and all parties can depart one anothers’ company in ease. A corollary benefit in this kind of interaction is the opportunity for moderners to share a moment of humor when considering the sayings of old and to appreciate the superiority of modernity.

Aside from some of these surprisingly insightful rituals, there is very little worth emulating from previous permutations as it relates to human interactions. Like many aspects of their functioning, our ancestors grafted their fate far too intimately in connection to one another. They relied on one another to accomplish tasks, build infrastructure, procure food, and maintain safety (ironic, when mentioned in the context of baring teeth – but I digress). While laughable, some of these reliances can be mildly appreciated in the context of the helplessness our ancestors existed within. But of all the superfluous ways in which they related, the most frivolous of them all was their insistence on human connection for its own sake.

In those times, humans would expend all kinds of energy, capital, time, and resources in the service of human connection. These primitive beings even categorized their connections, if you can believe that mystifying fact. These beings would use precious mental energy, time, and communicative resources to explore topics known as friendships, comparing and contrasting which people in their associative groupings fit in this category, which ones were more appropriate to consider as ‘acquaintances’ (akin to our modern phrase for ‘passers-by’) and whether a person could fit more than one category. Co-worker and friend, lover and friend, or something as mentally taxing to their brain-like organs as lover and co-worker. Those topics were so enthralling to our ancestors that they even engaged in artistic pursuits related to this concept (see a rudimentary television series called ‘Friends’). They were also vulnerable enough to experience life-threatening emotional paralysis if they determined themselves as deficient in this pursuit (see articles regarding ‘suicide’).

It is all really quite dramatic when viewed in relief against what we know as moderners. As natural selection reminded our species, slowly humanity was able to view human interaction in a more objective frame. As the burdens of associative grouping dissolved and the allure of passion-fueled sex dimmed, humanity started to lift away from the moorings of human connection. These relationships started to return to an optimal transactional format and humanity rightly de-coupled its fate from this obsessive interdependence. To aid in the adjustment and soften the impact for what remained of the nervous system, great inventors designed customizable technological solutions to compensate for what humans thought they were now lacking.

The compassion of these great beneficiaries allowed weaker members of the species to build the necessary capacity to wean away from human connection. Sleeky fashioned metal, screens, and signal interpretation and transmissions devices were cleverly cloaked under a form resembling another human. While you have, undoubtedly, heard about some of the examples of necessary growing pains humanity endured (weaker permutations developing sexual urges for their invented companion, ending their life or the lives of others upon becoming aware of the true nature of their invented companion, becoming obsessive engrossed with and fleeing from society with their invented companion in tow) these are necessary concessions and exchanges in the pursuit of refining the species.

#Vestigial

Of all the vestiges of human development perhaps the most difficult one to explain to younger humans is that of sex. Though, it could likely be said that the challenge specific to the pedagogical task within this topic has stood the test of time. If earlier, and supposedly intelligent, permutations of the species used terms like ‘the birds and the bees’ to explain this human activity then it stands to reason that this has never been an enviable task. Yet, it is a task that must be answered to and taken seriously, even now. Though our species has outgrown all functional purposes for which sex once existed, we are still left with a semblance of sex organs. Younger members of our species warrant our assistance in helping them make sense of the historically-encoded meaning behind their wet dreams.

In an effort to responsibly respond to this task, we have devised a sex education curriculum robust enough to answer to the gravity of the assignment. This new education includes rituals and a more sophisticated ‘coming-of-age’ practice, which is a significant improvement on those older practices of antiquity. The ones humans did back when they lived in forests (when forests still existed) and tents were much mystical in nature. Our practices are empirical and involve much less spilling of blood and other bodily fluids. In our didactic efforts we, like our predecessors, have found utility in applying cultural arts of antiquity into our lesson plans. Like hieroglyphs, the films of previous human generations have proven to be an ideal vessel for transmission of our lessons. The films from earlier iterations of our species are easily understood and lack subtlety so they are well-suited to the task of instructing the lagging nature of brain development in younger humans.

When they are still very young, for example, we gather the most recently spawned cohort and collectively watch “Gattaca.” This film is one of our most cherished treasures of old as it includes many important and self-evident insights we hope to instill in the minds of our youth. We have found that this film serves as a useful primer for discussing the superiority of human genesis in modern life. This is also a helpful exercise in scaffolding the learning about sex as we introduce the ways in which sex was fraught with physiological risk – disease, infection, infertility, death – all concepts easily accessed by our young pupils.

The psychological components of sex are somewhat harder to infiltrate but our teaching strategies have become more refined in this area. As the brain finally starts to catch up to physical development we move into modules designed to dissect the complex and dangerous web that is spun by sexuality. “Risky Business” offers a helpful teaching aid to distill the threats incurred by passion and lust. To explicate the destructive nature within the power-control-submission-and dependency involved in sex we rotate between “Love and Leashes,” “The Secretary,” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” depending on the responses we observe in each cohort.

We’ve learned a great deal from the previous permutations of humanity and their missteps in addressing the topic of sex. Their follies have proven to be fertile ground for the advancement of our instructional design. In their attempt to control the power of sex, they sought to bridle and moderate it. Abstinence gave way to monogamy which gave way to birth control. Taboo gave way to socially inclusive practices which gave way to celebrating sexuality in all its forms. They utilized biological interventions for psychological issues and contrived barbaric psychological solutions for biological ones. Yet, they cannot be judged too harshly for their ignorance. All attempts were misguided but offer helpful examples for us to examine with our students.

This important instructional process has not been without its learning curve. In early beta-phases we neglected to commemorate the fact that sex once produced life. While our species has evolved beyond our reliance on the degrading act of sex to maintain and promulgate life, it is still embodied in our biology, a small echo from the past. In this oversight, a few cohorts had to be aborted as they were found dabbling in the unnecessary acts of fornication. We hypothesized and tested many theories to determine where we had failed to appropriately instruct our learners. A handful of cohorts later we were able to pinpoint the issue.

Again, we owe our learning on this topic to our less-developed ancestors. What they may have lacked in pragmatism they more than made up for in an overcompensation of intuition. In the imbalance of deference to tradition, they stumbled upon the importance of events to mark rites of passage. Our sex-ed curriculum was finally fully refined when we adopted our final practice in a coming-of-age ceremony. While the ceremony still maintains many gory vestiges of our predecessors it has, thus far, successfully eradicated the fascination with the psychological aspects of sex. 

We start and end the ceremony as a community. We come together to commit to our shared purpose and reaffirm the commitment upon conclusion, together in unity. The middle phase of the ritual is intentionally designed as an individualized, private, and intensive intervention. Each young human is escorted into their own private chamber. Once inside they are directed by a recording to follow the instructions on the screen in their chamber. The video prompter goes on to direct the young humans to follow the detailed steps for self-stimulation. Interspersed with this instruction are spliced images and statements to ensure there is no error in the transmission of our crucial lesson (thanks to “Fight Club” for the inspiration on this idea). 

It turns out that subliminally building sexual tension to flashing images of a test tube and pipet conjure the innate fixation on the modern-day version of conception and the womb. It turns out that Freud was right all along – psychological sexual drives and discharge of all that bodily fluid was always aimed at replicating and returning to where one started. It turns out that climaxing to the flashing images breeds sexual compliance. Invariably, our curriculum culminates in the passing of our collective higher knowledge from one generation to the next. We end the instruction repeating in unison: “Sex offers nothing but death. It is the death of the individual lost in the joining with another. It is the death of a couple in the bestowal of parenthood. It is the death of humanity in disease of the body and the mind.”

#Vestigial

When the conditions are right and smoke from all the burning tires is blowing out to sea, one does not have to strain too hard to see what remains in the major cities. While our eye-like organs take more time to filter images through the dimly lit skyline, with some patience the picture will eventually come into focus. And once it does, one does not need to strain your brain-like organ too much either as you work to deduce what remains of our ancestors’ way of life. Through the haze you will observe a handful of standing structures, those that were preserved beyond their utility. It makes no difference which cities you study – it could be Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, Nairobi, or Dubai – each one will contain some combination of a religious place of worship and a court room, or in some cases a multipurpose building that housed them both.

A review of the written history and cultural artifacts from the past reveals that while our forebearers may have used different terms and definitions for these places, their function and meaning during those times was distinctly similar across varying arbitrary associative groupings. Regardless of the terminology of physical location these settings were constructed to regulate large and unsustainable populations. Similar to the ancient concepts of ‘sun and moon’ of ‘father and mother’ these hubs served to counterbalance one another, just as two opposite ends of a magnet. 

Readers even more practiced in the art of interpreting ancient texts will likely be familiar with many other examples our predecessors relied on to make sense of the world: “dog and cat, summer and winter, peace and war, rain or shine.” While we moderners have no embodied experiences with these strange concepts one only needs to conceptualize these pairings as compliments of one another. Our previous permutations grasped very little of the true nature of our existence. Their brain-like organs were not yet developed enough to tolerate this. Hence, they often relied on rough analogies to help them mentally navigate through life.

This is clearly borne out as one sifts through the mediating forces of the ‘Houses of Worship’ and the ‘Courts of Law.’ Variously known as churches, synagogues, mosques, cathedrals, and so on the former defined morality and outlined humanity’s imaginary relationship to a figure/figures/power that they posited stood above time and created all that is (again, recall here that the brain-like organ at the time was really still quite primitive). The latter, sometimes known as tribunals, justice centers, judicates, and so on, took up their role to administer the legal norms and rules that were meant to manage the population. In tandem, these structures, while seemingly dichotomous, were aligned and worked in concert to arbitrate and determine the ethics of the population.

The fact that these were among the final smattering of buildings left standing when our species finally stepped out from under the crushing weight of ethics tells us all we need to know about the value these structures once provided to ancient peoples. Careful reconstruction of parts of old manuscripts has helped in piecing together the timeline of those final years. During those times we now know that the remnants across the world instituted agreements to use these buildings as shelters. These various associative groupings refrained from raising these centers in some kind of rudimentary reverence for what they had then termed as ‘the sanctity of their purpose in preserving hope and justice.’ While these loquacious ways of reasoning may be difficult to grasp in light of our present cognition and circumstances, our ancestors seemed to be quite loyal to these concepts.

However, we need not harbor too much appreciation nor respect for them because our ongoing analysis of the traces of events we can decipher points to a fairly rapid and ghastly collapse of these structures in practice. As the survival strain grew and resources dwindled, our ancestors eventually made use of their brain-like organs to identify that these structures were both a tool and a trap. Those that acted quickest either fled or assumed their throne as the chief arbiter of ethics, combining the regulatory powers of the separate structures under one new system.

As you’ve likely heard in the oral histories passed down over time, much blood was shed and many lives were lost in the throws of this progression. And, as the oral history also reflects, these were the times in which our species underwent the necessary growth to shed the burden of ethics. While our ancestors were cursed with brain-like organs with shockingly limited functionality, the patterns that played out during these trying times helped cultivate the necessary adaptations. Advanced thinkers (relative to their time) began to pose questions like, “How can a consistent definition of ethics exist if it changes based on region? Language? Belief system? Generation? What makes it just to rape and kill this associative grouping (back then they utilized the old world language term ‘countreymen’) when it is forbidden to do so with another? How can it be decided by one person which newborns will be eaten to preserve the species? Less evolved humans also started to ask questions, wondering about things like the existence of God (God was an important mythological deity/all-powerful being from their folklore). 

As the questions proliferated, so too the necessary evolution adaptations unfurled until our species wisened up and abandoned these remnant structures, leaving them as lonely giants to arbitrate the ethics for whatever still remains there. Previous historians, albeit ones with larger portions of the nervous system still intact, commented that these were ‘ironically sad’ times. They stated that it was a ‘sad irony’ that it took these extreme circumstances of personal experience before humanity could question these structures that had arbitrated on a larger level for millennia. While this stance can be understood, today we maintain that these were the requirements for change. Growth and escaping the unrelenting grip of ethics could only occur with such conditions.

#Vestigial

Scrupulous research has been undertaken and the results are in. Study after study continues to reveal the facts and there can be no arguing with these objective findings. The carefully tested methodologies definitively outline the truth about what remains of the human nervous system. While pitiful, the conclusions are not likely to surprise.

That rudimentary collection of delicate cables containing impulses, emotion, and instinct was not appropriately trained. For centuries, we neglected the opportunity to appropriately calibrate the tool at our disposal. Instead of applying our numerous advances in service to determining the optimal conditions for these embodied artifacts we let the whole thing atrophy. We catered to the discomfort, indulged the senses, coddled our emotions, and the nervous system became weak and useless – a clear vulnerability.

As perpetual adaptors we grew beyond and have, with some fits and starts, overcome our need for the signals the outdated monitoring system continues to transmit. What we have now learned, through trial and science, is how we can master what remains of the nervous system. In our previous folly and sensitivity we strove for peace. Disinformation and falsified sciences postulated that a state of peace was the chief goal. The phony logic reasoned that when the nervous system was in a state of peace, humanity could flourish. A dogmatic zeal prevailed, demanding society to bow to this belief and admit that only peace could produce progress, art, innovation.

Thankfully, for the benefit of all humanity, we could not blindly accept such an obtuse virtue. We demonstrated, with tremendous precision and creativity, that peace is merely a catalyst for optimizing the nervous system. We intelligently tested new theories and the outcome is now clearly evident that we were right, our efforts were an extraordinary success.

To truly master what remains of the nervous system, peace should be treated like a medication. It should be handled with care and entrusted to skillful hands because the difference between medicine in poison is in its application. Peace should be utilized intentionally and as a form of intermittent reinforcement. The reality is we squandered the resource we had back when the nervous system was fully in tact. What we’ve generously demonstrated is that the human nervous system, and what remains of it, is actually most finely attenuated under conditions of strain, panic, and dread along with brief and enticing interludes of peace.

Peace, in this great revelation, is quite different than that archaic and overwrought way it was previously considered. We now administer the prescribed dosage of peace as an interruption to the deluge of other signals aimed at re-educating what remains of the nervous system. Various amounts of silence without air raid sirens filling the air can be applied – sometimes minutes, other times days or weeks to rehabituate. Cleverly planned announcements of medical breakthroughs to instill hope can be released – tailoring which type is pulled from the assembly line to fit the pathological fashion of the moment. Election of this person, party, or rise of an ideology. Ousting of this person, party, or ideology – all tactfully broadcasted to instill targeted and soothing messages for some and to reduce the toxic levels of peace in others.

To those of us who are enlightened, the sound of payloads falling a few cities over and the sight of entire countries burning on the television offer affirmation of our knowledge and this noble path. We welcome the long overdue charge to what remains of our nervous system. While others indulge their with the shedding of tears and prayers for peace, we grow stronger and listen closely to the content of their prayers so they can inform the chemical composition of the peace cocktail.

#Vestigial