Employment is an essential resource that provides self-sufficiency and sustainability for individuals and families. People rely on jobs to keep the lights on and the refrigerator full.
They commute anywhere from 10 to 30 miles a day to punch their time into a time clock, and shuffle paper behind a desk for eight hours a day, just to maintain a sense of independence as a responsible adult.
The majority of the population within any given country have survived off working a 9 to5 job for over a century. But now, there seems to be a paradigm shift that definitely threatens the labor force as we know it.
The 9 to 5 grind, otherwise called employment, otherwise called indentured servitude, became more organized towards the turn of the 20th century. The 19th century would see the drafting of the 13th amendment under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, that would abolish slavery for African Americans, and replace it with indentured servitude.
Under this system, immigrants, former slaves, poor whites and children alike were each paid a stipend to perform grueling physical labor. Only convicted felons were legally enslaved on American soil post abolition, a practice that continues through until this very day. Indentured servants worked anywhere from sixteen to twenty hours a day, under inhumane conditions.
This was really early in the game, and there were no laws at the time to protect employee rights and wages, so indentured servants were paid unfair and unlivable stipends. Many of them died due to overwork, dehydration and heat exhaustion.
Then came the 20th century, and with it came a paradigm shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. In this new economy, the forty hour work week was introduced, and so were minimum wage laws.
Child labor was outlawed, and it became mandatory for parents to send their children to school. Otherwise, they would be jailed for child neglect. Public schools were established for the children of the working class, paid for by their own property taxes.
John D. Rockefeller once famously said that he wanted a nation of workers, and not a nation of thinkers. Many have assumed this to mean that the children of the working class were receiving a different kind of education from that of the wealthy.
While the children of the wealthy are being privately homeschooled by a governess, who is teaching them how to invest and retain their wealth intergenerationally, the children of the working class are being forced into an indoctrination encampment where obedience and servitude is thoroughly ingrained in them, and they are exposed to a lot of bad influences from their peers.
This ensures that the cycle of poverty continues, and that the current working class will produce a working class for future generations. Only now, another paradigm shift has already begun, one that will forever change the landscape of the workforce as we know it.
With the advent of AI, tedious, repetitive tasks are delegated to the likes of Google Gemini and Chat GPT. This is especially true in manufacturing, construction and tech fields. All those jobs will be gone by 2040.
Thirty years from now, the 2020’s will be remembered as the era of the AI revolution, and it couldn’t have happened at a more convenient time. As more and more people are waking up to the ills of “Glorified Slavery,” they are turning to various forms of creativity for self-fulfillment as well as sustenance.
This would have otherwise reduced the numbers within the workforce drastically, except those numbers might have been cut regardless, as employees are made redundant in favor of AI.
As least now, former employees should have something to fall back on when the AI revolution runs its natural course. The path ahead will be a coarse one. This is due to the fact that although I believe everyone was born with natural talents, not everyone will get the memo in a timely manner.
Not only that, but there will be a lot of untapped potential that would take some soul searching, and that could take time. In the meantime, there will still be oligarchal expectations of societal consumerism, and if sales numbers should dwindle more than expected, there will be a push for people to work online so they can regain some income to spend.
It will be up to each individual to figure it out for his/herself, and decide if working online is something they want to do in the long term. Apart from that, most postmodern jobs will be in tech, whether as software programmers, or hardware engineers, but that’s only about five percent of the population.
If you are neither working online, nor indulging your own creative pursuits, you will likely fall through the cracks of society, and become a bum on the street. You will be lucky if you can find a commune who is willing to take you in.
That future status quo is not something far-fetched that might not happen for another hundred years, it’s right around the corner, and could possibly happen as soon as the end of the decade.
This is my final WordPress article for 2024. I will be going off on a two month hiatus, and will return at the beginning of February with all new articles and short stories for your reading pleasure.
In the meantime, my debut title, “The Buckinchere Collection (of short stories)” is now available for purchase in both Hardback and ebook. The Buckinchere Collection is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever you purchase books.
There are only three main types of people on earth. Sadists, masochists, and hedonists. The rat race consists of all three to varying degrees. These are their roles.
First of all, what is the rat race? “It is the fight for scarce benefits and spoils carried on by hostile tribes, who seem to be perpetually at war.” Who said those words? Pigs run the rat race, and rats run in the race.
John D. Rockefeller once famously said that he wanted a nation of workers, and not a nation of thinkers. That means that if a majority of the public were to think more objectively, they would figure out how to be truly fulfilled without needing a job. That would then cause a labor shortage which would be bad for business.
So Rockefeller sanctioned the foundation of the public education system as we now understand it, paid for courtesy of your property taxes. The public education system was designed to teach people what to think, and what to want, vs how to think.
While the children of the wealthy were privately tutored by their governess, and taught how to invest, the children of the working class were indoctrinated to want things they cannot easily afford, and to work for someone else just to be able to afford it. And all just so they could compete with the people they despise, while trying to impress the people who despise them.
They are given credit cards, and encouraged to apply for mortgages and auto loans with interest rates that would see them paying for the item at twice its cash value. First, they give you a mortgage to buy a house.
Then on that house, they charge you a property tax that they then use to fund your public schools where they plan on indoctrinating the next generation of taxpayers, and the cycle continues.
That is a very evil thing to do, and it makes you feel sorry for the working class. You almost want to feel sorry for them, without the proper context, that is. Because as we say in Jamaica, “If you feel sorry for a ‘mawga dawg’ (skinny dog), he will turn around and bite you.”
For many years, I participated in the rat race, and by participating, I thought I was a part of the group. In every instance, I was befriended by my colleagues, they all made me feel accepted.
I thought we shared common interests, and were able to resonate with each other, so I never suspected a thing. Instead, I was met with the nightmarish reality of being constantly gangstalked, and railroaded out of one job after another.
First, they would befriend me, then try to get close to me in order to spy on me. Then it wasn’t long before the inevitable happened. No, they didn’t ghost me. I wish they did. They betrayed my trust, and turned on me like the rats that they all are.
This went on for 18 years, and I could not understand why. I thought they were racist (some of them probably were) until I realized that it was mostly my fellow immigrants within the melting pots of America who were doing this to me.
This is having more to do with competition than it is having to do with racism. It was then that I finally realized why they call it the rat race. What could I possibly expect to find in the rat race, if not a bunch of hoodrats?
Your colleagues are not your friends, they are your competition. This is not limited only to the employees at your immediate job, but also your neighbors, bartender, grocer, cafe barista, your son’s teacher, and the girl who works at the Verizon store.
It includes random commuters on the subway who you will never see again, and even the very “missed connection” you saw at the mall the other day who you were hoping you would eventually end up dating, you poor schmuck.
Someone who is preoccupied with using people to get ahead is not thinking about dating you, nor being your friend. Respect this truth, or the delusion will disrespect you.
This is most unfortunate, because my thought process is that if the system is so evil, wouldn’t we all be richer for banding together to resist the powers that be? That is the most natural solution that anyone would arrive at when faced with such a dilemma.
In reality, most people only want to make easy money without having to think too much, and I become the enemy for upsetting the apple cart by thinking too much.
The rat race is filled with broken, insecure people who like their dysfunction, and want to keep it that way. That way, they are able to make excuses, and get away with carrying out acts of degeneracy. The public will just laugh it off as, “lol, she crazzzzeee!”
They would actually feel safer around the crazy, degenerate type, than the strong, silent type. They will often cut their eye at him and suck their teeth like, “he just weird!” Anyone who is that broken and insecure will always seek control over other people so they can feel more important than they really are.
They know they are powerless in the world, and they need an enemy so they can live out some kind of hero complex. If no one wants to be their enemy, they will create one. Often, it is the strong, silent type who is going his own way.
This makes them very angry, as it is a total loss of control, and you are not validating their ego, nor their fake friendship. You just don’t care. In this case, they will double down and twice as much make you their enemy, because now they want revenge for you not validating their fantasies.
You would have never chosen this for yourself. You were targeted by a narcissistic cult for a machiavellian agenda in their delusional little world. You are NOT their enemy, they are YOURS.
That is their choice because they could have fought alongside you, against the common enemy of the working class, but that requires sacrifice, and all they want is a false sense of power, and an easy buck.
So they instead chose to make you their enemy because they figured you are an easy target, and you can’t easily retaliate, nor escape their clutches. This is not just one, nor is it a handful of hoodrats who feel this way. It is literally EVERYBODY.
That is the rule, not the exception. So the way I figure it, the working class is quite content with the way things are. They get fake social validation. They get to eat, drink and fuck themselves into oblivion, and they can sleep good at nights knowing fully well that they are stepping over the graves of men like me. They are not dying of starvation, and they are NOT the victims in any of this. They are the main perpetrators.
Even if the oligarchy had an agenda, they would not be able to effectuate that agenda without the consent of the public. Especially now with the advent of the internet when everyone should know better.
The people may be willful participants, but they are not sheep. Sheep don’t know any better, hoodrats do, and are ok with it so long as they have one target who the public can all agree is their common enemy.
Thing of it is, why do the working class hate me so much? I recently realized that it is because I remind them of the wealthy elites they envy so much. But how could that be? I am a minimalist who keep to myself.
It is because my mannerisms are different from theirs. Because I don’t think with a ghetto mentality, and I carry myself with more dignity and self-respect. And in their stupid little insecure minds, that reminds them of the wealthy, and they think that I am showing off and being an “Uncle Tom.”
So now, because they have easier access to me, than they have to the wealthy, they have decided to make me their target. The fact that they all saw this, and didn’t tell me lets you know the kind of rat bastards I have been dealing with this whole time.
In fact, they told us as kids to stay in school, and get a job to stay out of trouble. And that was exactly what I did, but that’s also where I met all of my enemies. The place where I was supposed to be safer.
This is what you get when you aim for low-hanging fruit, because I truly did not belong on any of those jobs, when what I should have done was to become self-employed right from the jump.
The only thing that was stopping me at the time was an accurate working knowledge of rat race competition, or the lack thereof. And the lack of a clear sense of direction.
Now that I know what I know, make no mistake, I have no sympathy for the hoodrats. They deserve to stay trapped in the very rat race they love so much. Oh, wait! What’s that you say? It’s no longer fun being in the rat race because I left?
Sucks to be you! You had many chances to join me in building wealth and power in the world, but you would rather work against me. The long and short of it is that the rat race is a game of divide and conquer.
The elites use propaganda through church, school, and media influences to mold the general mindset of each culture. Before you know it, they have the working-class fighting amongst themselves.
This is due to the fact that they used the media to spread the idea that immigrants are coming over here to steal their jobs. Then there is the race among immigrants pertaining to who is more Americanized, or who came over here first, or who can change their accent the best.
Divide and conquer may have been an agenda of the elites, but it was the working-class hoodrats who were willful participants. The people I once believed to be my peers led me to believe that the oligarchs and the politicians are my enemies, and there is definitely some truth to that.
But they are not the ones who are gangstalking me, and looking to sabotage my life at every turn, so they are NOT an immediate threat to me. The government needs me to gain income in order to tax it, and the oligarchs need me to have income in order to spend it with them. That leaves only one class of people who could possibly benefit from sabotaging me.
That class consists of the most dangerous enemies as they are the ones I encounter on the daily, so they have easier access to get to me. Does that mean that I will join forces with the elites? No, I will form my own power circles without becoming involved with one side, or the other.
The complaints of the working-class are of no concern to me. Only crazy people continuously support the very people they are complaining about. It is the responsibility of the working-class to rise above their conditions. I am NOT their hero. I don’t have wings on my back.
Why should I sacrifice myself for a blasted bunch of ingrates when I might not even get to enjoy the fruits of my own victory? And just like that, the system will continue to thrive, indefinitely. Accepting reality for what it is, it is now for me to figure out how I am going to let the system work for me.
Do you remember when I said that there are only three types of people on earth? Sadists, masochists, and hedonists? Well, one might believe that the bankers, politicians and the media are sadists in their undying lust for power, the working class are hedonists for “turning up” every weekend.
And that I am a masochistic glutton for punishment for upholding truth despite the hefty price to pay for doing so. Just because I won’t sell out my ideals to join the herd doesn’t mean that I am a masochist.
In reality, the politicians are sadists, because they love power over pleasure. The working-class are sadists, masquerading as masochists, because they love power over pleasure, and they also get some of their power from playing the victim. I am one of very few people on earth who are truly hedonistic, because I love pleasure over power.
Of course these statements are over-generalized, but you get the picture. The people who love power, loves to victimize the people who love pleasure. That is because what better measure of power is there than to strip away the pleasure of a hedonist, and watch as he is forced into serving a masochistic role outside of his control.
Hence why they are sadists. You see, once you learn to think evil like them, they really are not that hard to figure out. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The good news is that no hedonist is going to sit there and let a sadistic bully torture them long term. For the hedonist, self-preservation is paramount. Hedonism is not just about the love of pleasure, but also the love of self.
The hedonist will always pursue pleasure, but if the pleasure comes with pain, then the hedonist will undoubtedly decide that the pleasure is not worth the pain, and peacefully move on to something else.
Forgive me if it seems like I am all over the place, but this is a complex topic. Thanks for reading.
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, history was made when the American people went to the polls. Donald J. Trump made history as the first former president to be elected president for a second non-consecutive term in office, effectively making him the 45th and the 47th president of the United States.
Not only that, but Trump also made history as the first impeached president to be elected to office, and one with pending felony charges at that. The U.S. presidency is no stranger to scandals. From the 1972 Watergate scandal under the Nixon administration, to the 1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal under the Clinton administration, scandals seem to be the White House’s middle name.
But never has there been the scandal of an impeached former president who is elected to office with pending felony charges, yet it happened two days ago at the time of me penning the initial draft of this article. What does that say about the popularity of Trump’s political opponent?
It was a close race, as Harris wasn’t that far behind Trump. With her receiving 47% of the votes, it was almost a stalemate. Even then, it wasn’t enough. Trump won the popular vote as well as the electoral votes.
Speaking of the electoral college, the GOP regained control of the senate, and they already had control of the House of Representatives from the 2022 midterm race, so Trump will have smooth sailing passing any bill he wants without opposition, all the odds are tipped in his favor.
All this is good for Trump and other wealthy Americans, but what does that mean for the average working-class American? They still have to work and pay bills. They still have to keep food on the table and send their children to school.
They voted for one presidential candidate or another, hoping for change, and they honestly believe that one of those candidates will actually improve their lot in life. Pity they fail to realize that they are two wings on the same damned bird.
It’s still the same system, but with two different faces. What would Harris have done differently that Trump wouldn’t have done, or vice versa? They are ultimately in it for themselves.
One of the primary reasons why “woke” people still vote despite knowing all this to be true is because their preferred candidate supports their political ideology, while the other candidate opposes it.
People who want to work a job indefinitely, or permanently live off free government handouts generally tend to vote democrat, while those who are more entrepreneurially inclined tend to vote republican, and rightfully so.
Because historically, left-winged candidates tend to promise to create more jobs and fund more social services, while right-winged candidates tend to support businesses. That’s why under Trump’s “America First” policy, he promises to bring all the manufacturing jobs back home from China. That is the selling point of his campaign, and one of the main reasons he was re-elected.
People with small businesses would jump at the sound of that, while large corporations who actually profit from outsourcing American jobs would weep, hence why they say that Trump is anti-establishment.
That’s why they came up with those trumped-up (pun intended) felony charges about him paying hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels, to bar him from seeking re-election, and it didn’t work even though he was found guilty.
Trump was undoubtedly saved by his connections and his billions, because we all know that if it was “Jack the plumber,” they would’ve already buried him under the jailhouse. I think Trump will probably give himself a presidential pardon after he resumes office, but in the meantime, they will not rest until he is sentenced to serve time in prison, or at the very least, impeached for a third time.
If you really think that Biden or Harris are the ones in charge, then you deserve to suffer the consequences of whatever you believe. She is nothing more than a stupid figurehead whom they installed as the face of the socialist left, and only because they know she is easy to control.
It’s the people behind her who are pulling all the strings. A small group of men who have managed to infiltrate the American system through various international connections, and will be referred to throughout this article as The Oligarchs. They are not interested in money, they already have enough of it.
They are inherently authoritarian in their approach, all they want is power. They want to run the show, to be the movers and shakers of society, and above all else, they want to decide who becomes a success, and who remains a failure.
The reason why they are oligarchs is precisely because they are of the rigid and draconian belief that only a select few people within society should become successful.
They have double standards and they play favoritism. Only those who pander to their agenda will be rewarded for it, everybody else is expected to serve their lot in life, but that should never be within a democracy such as this.
This is not Europe where you are either born a serf or a noble, and therefore doomed to your lot based on what family you are born into, or how much land they own. Nor is this badmind Jamaica where even down to your own relatives will shame and sabotage you just for being eccentric, and having the potential to improve your lot.
This is the land of opportunity, a place where dreams become a reality, and everybody wants to come here so badly, some even going so far as to risk their lives by climbing over the Mexican border fence just to improve their lot in life.
A place where despite all its troubles, it is still the best place on earth to live. Because only in America is it possible for you to have a couple thousands saved up in the bank today, be living under a damned bridge by tomorrow, yet become a billionaire by the end of next year (it’s not easy but it’s very possible).
And so, no one has the right to decide what your lot should be, except you. If they don’t like you, tell them to go fuck themselves. Any bird brain who is pompous enough to think that it’s their choice to dictate how your life should turn out is an enemy of freedom, and by default an enemy of America.
If you have natural talent, use it to pull yourself out of a rut, or do some soul searching to figure out what that talent could possibly be, because your dream of making it big in your chosen field is more likely to be possible in America than any place else on the planet.
When you vote left, you vote, not for Biden, Harris, or any other figurehead they install to distract you, but rather, for the oligarchs, and their authoritarian socialist agenda that is rooted in senseless greed and envy. The more likely you are to vote republican, the more likely you are to be patriotic, and an ally of freedom and civil liberty.
So yes, Make America Great Again. When you went to the polls on Tuesday, you chose to vote for the capitalist free market, and the great American press. You chose to vote for freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to bear arms.
You chose to vote for the idea that we the people, in order to form a more perfect union, can take our country back from the establishment, and give it back to the American people.
But ultimately, you chose to vote for yourself and the right to practice your natural talents. Because there is the left wing and the right wing, but both wings are on the same oligarchal bird, and it’s ultimately up to you to save yourself.
“The function of being left-handed is an eccentricity in and of itself.” – B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
It is commonly known that throughout all of human history, most people write with their right hands. While there are some who are ambidextrous, being able to use both hands. This is what is considered “the norm.” However, very few people are entirely left-handed, and these are the ones who are considered weird.
If you are left-handed in 2024, thank your lucky stars that you were born at a later time. Because, for much of human history, left-handed people were brutally ostracized by society. They were accused of being witches and devils. Some were even burned at the stake.
Some school teachers would even go as far as to corporally punish left-handed children by beating them in their left-hand with a ruler, until they learned to write with their right hand. This practice went on until as late as the 1990’s in some countries.
The idea being that they would be unable to write with their left hand if doing so hurts from receiving a beating in it. This is all due to the fact that a lot of people have average minds, and their fear of the unknown doesn’t help matters much.
Instead of admitting that they simply don’t know the cause of something, they try to explain it away with their limited understanding of the world around them, and their egos would not permit them to do otherwise. This is very dangerous thinking, especially when there are children who are dependent on you for safety and sustenance.
But now, we’ve got it made. Never has there been a time such as this to be alive as a left-hander. With thorough research throughout the decades, and the public being better informed, almost all of the scrutiny we face today has been switched from physical harassment to verbal criticism.
Any comment about a left-handed person being a devil has since been reduced to a mere joke. A mean joke, but a joke nonetheless. We have come a long way, but we are still not there yet.
A lot of left-handed people suffer from low self-esteem, depression and suicidal ideation due to this misunderstood quirk of theirs. Just because the ostracism we face has switched from physical to verbal harassment doesn’t mean that it’s any less painful to bear, just not life-threatening, that’s all.
If you are ambidextrous, then do whatever suits you. But if your left hand is all you’ve got to work with, then it doesn’t help to go against the grain of your nature, as you will only end up driving yourself mad.
The thing to do is to embrace who you are, then try to understand yourself better. For starters, let’s discuss what causes left-handedness in the first place. Studies have proven that left-handers are born that way due to genetic luck, coupled with brain chemistry.
If the brain chemical leans to the right, one would become left-handed, whereas if the brain chemical leans to the left, then one would become right handed. This is something that happens as the unborn embryo is developing inside its mother’s uterus. Therefore, he has no control over it.
There are even Ultrasounds of the embryo unwittingly sucking its left thumb over its right one, or vice versa. Further observations of involuntary hand preference have been noted postnatally, during infanthood.
I also think it’s worth noting that being left-handed comes with intellectual and even emotional quirks, and not just physical. Left-handers are more likely to be creators and innovators.
Think about some of the greatest minds of our time, and throughout history. Innovators such as; Einstein, Tesla, Newton, Gates, Winfrey, etc. All of them have that one eccentricity in common that gets them in the door to the club of exclusive winners.
Left-handed individuals are more likely to pursue careers in creative fields, such as music, writing, painting, sculpting, inventions, etc. Which is befitting our personalities, considering that the function of being left-handed is an eccentricity in and of itself.
This is due to the fact that our brain chemistry leans more towards our right brain, which is the creative brain. Apart from that, some left-handers tend to enter politics. Notable left-handed presidents include; Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama. All of whom have served at some point or other within the last forty years.
Today, some left-handers have taken the liberty of celebrating their left-handedness as a quirk, or an eccentricity, rather than a mark of the devil, and I am one of them. I am B. Lorenzo Buckinchere, a left-handed journalist and author, and I approve this message.
Character is everything. Learning one’s true character helps determine whether or not someone you’ve just met is compatible with you, and more importantly, how. It is pivotally essential to get to know someone’s nature, so as to avoid misunderstandings further down the road.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator consists of sixteen personality types, each of which is determined by comparing one preference to another across eight character qualities, pertaining to life choices, and how one typically makes them.
In this article, I will be comparing the two MBTI personalities who couldn’t be more opposite to each other.
The INFJ is the rarest, and most empathic of the MBTI. They are energized from being in solitude most of the time, as that is where they get their ideas. It is during times of solitude, that the INFJ receives inspiration from his own internal thoughts and imaginations, without the inconvenience of social distractions.
Once solitude is achieved, his intuition naturally kicks in, as that is when his creative juices start flowing. In fact, the precise order in which it usually works is that he taps into his feelings more during solitude, and it puts him back in his right brain that causes an intuitive creative flow.
Once he knows what to do, there is nothing to think about. He makes a snap judgment, often as soon as the following day. Judging is the only analytical trait of the INFJ, but the way in which he does it is a no brainer.
Then we have the ESTJ, the most logical and analytical of the MBTI personalities. Unlike the INFJ who has one analytical trait that adds some balance, the ESTJ has no emotional trait. The ESTJ is good for drafting military strategies, and making business decisions, but that is just about all he is good for.
The trouble with ESTJ types is that they think they can bring that rigidity with them into their interpersonal relationships, and it never ends well for them. INFJ types have a lot of eccentricities about them that the ESTJ will impatiently judge as simply being weird.
In fact, judging is the only MBTI trait they both share, and it happens to be an analytical one at that. The INFJ will judge the ESTJ in his mind, but ultimately won’t care what he does due to his nonchalant nature, unless it affects him directly.
So now, imagine a scenario where the ESTJ is annoyed by some of the INFJ’s eccentricities. Because he is stuck in his left brain, he cannot simply leave well enough alone. He has to somehow try to control what he does not understand, and if he finds that he is unable to control it, he must find a way to destroy it.
The ESTJ is also an extravert, so it doesn’t help that he heavily relies on external validation. It is impossible for the INFJ and the ESTJ to simply sit still in a room, and enjoy each other’s company in silence. The ESTJ will feel awkward about it, and eventually find a way to make some noise, just so the room can feel normal to him, hence why they call them normies.
This could take place in any setting. But for the sake of argument, let’s just assume that the INFJ is in a relationship with the ESTJ. The ESTJ will meet the INFJ for the first time, thinking she knows everything about him, based solely on what she sees, versus using her feelings to actually get to know the INFJ and appreciate where he is coming from. Decides for whatever reason that she doesn’t like him, then decides either to control or destroy him, based on her limited judgment of him.
And because she is an extravert, she cannot simply break up with him and walk away like the INFJ and INTJ are easily capable of doing, she has to fix it somehow. This is dangerous and reckless behavior on the part of the ESTJ. Hence why the ESTJ is a narcissist, and the mortal enemy of all introverted, intuitive types, especially the INFJ.
Imagine being the woman in the relationship, yet your boyfriend is more intuned with his right brain than you are. Her linear thinking, coupled with the irrationality that is an inherent trait of her gender would only further add to her solipsism.
Opposites may attract initially, but they do not sustain in the long run. ESTJ types should stick to their own kind, or at least other extraverts. The INFJ should definitely stick to other introverts, most notably the INTJ.
You can’t help who you meet at work, but you do have control over who you allow into your personal life. This is something to put into practice for your interpersonal relationships.
Have you ever been in a generally happy mood on any given day, then suddenly find yourself feeling sad when a love song comes over the radio that reminds you of someone special? Likewise, do you find that you are rudely interrupted whenever an ad cuts into your music flow, or whenever you abruptly change the genre from something as relaxing as classical music to something as loud as rock and roll?
Well that is having to do with your brain, and how it processes music. You see, there are two sides of your brain, and each side processes things differently. In this article, I will be covering the power that music has over people and their emotions, and in order to get the full picture, I am taking it back to the beginning.
July 1518, Strasbourg, France. It was an ordinary medieval day under Roman rule, when a woman named Frau Troffea suddenly ventured out into the town square, and started dancing at random. Before long, other townsfolk decided to join in on the fun.
It wasn’t until after they realized that they were unable to stop themselves from dancing that they realized that what they thought would be fun was actually a living nightmare.
Hundreds of Strasbourgers danced until their feet were sore and bloody, but it didn’t stop there. Many of them danced themselves to death, suffering from hunger, thirst and exhaustion in the process.
This event came to be known as the dancing plague, a frenzy of inexplicable dancing mania that lasted day and night from July until September. No one seemed to know what really caused it. Particularly because everyone was dancing, but where’s the music?
This only further fueled the mystery shrouding the situation that led to numerous theories throughout the centuries, ranging from demonic possession, to the use of a psychedelic wheat fungus known as Ergotamine, similar to LSD.
The dancing mania of 1518 may be the most infamous account of a dancing frenzy taking place throughout history, but not the first. A few centuries before that in 1284, there was the tale of the pied piper of Hamelin, a mysterious nomad who was offered money by Hamelin’s mayor to help remedy a rat infestation.
His solution was to play some kind of magical silent flute that only the rats could hear to help lure them out of Hamelin. After he had gotten rid of all the rats, the mayor refused to pay him for his services, citing a number of excuses.
So out of revenge, the pied piper returned to Hamelin one year later on a Sunday morning while all of the adults were in church, and used his silent flute to lure their children away, never to be seen again.
The common theme of both stories is the hypnotic power of music on the human brain. A more recent example is a season three episode of The Twilight Zone, titled, “A Piano in the House.”
In this episode, a theater critic named Fitzgerald Fortune purchased a self-playing piano for his young wife on her birthday. The titular piano in question had the supernatural ability to bring out a person’s true character by putting them in a trance, depending on what tune it was playing at the time.
All of these examples may seem like fictional accounts of the power of music, but it alludes to the fact that we don’t fully understand the human brain, we barely scratched the surface. The brain is just as strong as it is vulnerable, and what makes us can also break us.
The dancing fever of Strasbourg suggests that the residents of that town were dancing to music that only they could hear. Likewise, the pied piper of Hamelin played a tune that only the children could hear, kind of like a dog whistle.
Perhaps the pied piper is immortal, and resurfaced in Strasbourg centuries later, assuming a different form. Perhaps he cursed the unsuspecting town of Strasbourg, same as he did Hamelin, using advanced knowledge of subliminal messaging that medieval surfs could not even begin to fathom, then mentally raped them with it.
Fast-forward to the present, and the youth of today are delinquent and disrespectful, all due to that ghetto rap music. Traditional African-American culture was a prideful thing, especially in the south. Ladies were classy, the gents were well dressed, and the music was respectful and evident of creative ingenuity.
But then, something tragic happened. Their culture was infiltrated, and they were sold a lie. The new order of the day is to be a “gangsta” and a “hustla,” and to envy one’s own brother for even his very potential to be prosperous.
Something similar happened in Jamaica during the 1980’s when reggae evolved into dancehall, following the untimely death of Bob Marley. Reggae was the conscious vibrations of the nation, but dancehall is the rebellious wild child, and all about the hype.
But here is what I am really alluding to. Did you know that dancehall is recorded on a 440 hz frequency, while reggae uses a 432 hz frequency? It is not just reggae versus dancehall, but all popular music is recorded on a 440 hz frequency, while traditional music, such as jazz and classical music are 432 hertz.
Each frequency has a different effect on the listener. Particularly because 440 hertz puts you into your left brain, which is useful for analytical thinking and reasoning, while 432 hertz puts you into your right brain, which is good for love and creativity.
The left brain may be good for critical thinking, but that’s all it is good for. The problem is when you stay stuck in your left brain, and allow that linear kind of thinking to cross over into your interpersonal relationships.
But if all you listen to is 440 hertz music, then it makes you more susceptible to suggestion without you even realizing it. And what if there really was an agenda to program the masses to be more narrow-minded, therefore easier to control?
So if there is a shift in the consciousness of post-modern society, it is most likely attributed to the fact that all mainstream tracks are being recorded on a 440 hz frequency. And though there are other factors to be considered outside of music, music is the main factor.
The good news is that indie artists tend to record their work on a 432 hz frequency, so there is an alternative that you can choose to listen to. Music is more than just entertainment, it is medicine for the soul, and definitely the mind. Under the right circumstances, it can also be weaponized against you, it is not to be trifled with.
For much of human existence, it has been widely accepted that there are only two genders, male and female. However, in recent years, and with the advent of social media, there has been an influx of people coming forward who claim to be intersex.
Named after the mythological creature, Hermaphroditus, a hermaphrodite has been historically understood to be an organism that possesses both male and female genitals, and as such, are able to reproduce asexually.
It has been generally believed that only some insects are hermaphrodites, and that no human is truly a hermaphrodite in the sense where they possess the genitals of both genders.
However, that is not to say that there aren’t some humans who belong to one gender, while being internally dominant with the hormone of the opposite gender. For example, you may have a woman who produces more testosterone than estrogen. Externally, she is a woman, but internally, she is a man.
People who have this gender anomaly are called intersex, a rare minority of the global population. They have existed since time immemorial, but no one knew who they really were, because they have always had to identify as their external gender, for fear of being ostracized for it. Or worse, being labeled a witch, especially during medieval times, and risk getting burned at the stake.
An intersex person is not to be confused for a transsexual, as the intersex person was born with gene mutations, while the transsexual chose to be transformed into the opposite gender after birth.
The gene mutation in question could be caused by a number of environmental factors, such as; smoking, drug and/or alcohol abuse, asbestos particles, POW experiments gone wrong, or conceiving an offspring with a close relative.
Last week, I covered the topic of incest, and what forms of it are more acceptable. So now, let’s touch on the topic of POW experiments. The nazis were known to conduct several experiments during the second world war.
They wanted to create a superior race of men called the ubermensch, and as such, they created a drug that would cause the nazis to be bigger and taller, compared to jewish people.
Unbeknownst to them, those experiments left some of them with strange gene mutations that would cause their offsprings to be born with hormonal imbalances of varying forms.
Some of them would end up developing the hormones of the opposite gender, while others of them would not develop any hormones at all. The ones without hormones would end up being asexuals, while those with opposite hormones would be intersex. That gene mutation may even skip a generation or two, until one day, somewhere down the line, an intersex baby is born.
They would go on living normally until a trip to the ER, or a comparison of their pubescent development (usually during a shared shower after gym class) would expose their anomalies, and cause them to consider that there may be something different about them. After which they would likely try and find out what it is.
In rare cases, they wouldn’t discover their true gender until further down the road when they meet someone special, and try to conceive a child with them, only to realize that they are not getting pregnant. Then only to discover after a medical exam that they will never get pregnant.
This will cause a great deal of heartache for the intersex gendered individual, and all because they were born with the side effects of an experiment gone wrong. Of course, the nazi experiment gone wrong is just a theory of mine, and it is worth noting that most intersex persons were simply born with naturally occurring genetic mutations.
If they have a loving, supportive spouse who is mature enough to understand that being with an intersex person doesn’t mean that they’re gay, then they have all the emotional support they need to help them get through the heartache of not being able to conceive. They may even choose to adopt a child in time, but only after they have come to accept themselves for who they are.
One of the primary incentives that a straight male may have for dating an intersex female is if he is an antinatalist. The cis-gendered female could get pregnant just by them staring at each other, but the intersex female cannot.
All he has to do now is to go out and meet an intersex female who also happens to be an antinatalist. Keep in mind that the intersex gender is a rare find.
Summer is coming to an end, and although the humidity is unbearable, people are still out and about. Taking advantage of the weather by carrying out many home improvement projects while they still have time left. Now is as good a time as ever to talk about the concept of DIY, and why it is non-negotiable for me.
When I was a teenager, growing up in Jamaica, I was surrounded by overbearing women in the family of my origin. Whenever I attempted to fill out an application at the dentist, they would attempt to emasculate me in public by grabbing the pen out of my hand, and say that I “write too slow.”
Could it be that the only reason they volunteered to drive my brother and I to the dentist, is to watch how I do things, and then try to treat me as if I am supposed to be inept?
They never tried that with my brother, but they always did it to me. In fact, they actually tried to pit my brother and I against each other by saying that he is more responsible than I am, despite him being four years my junior.
My brother and I were very close during childhood. We grew up together. We used to play together. But now, he chose to become more like them. For that reason, we grew apart in adulthood.
When I later moved to Brooklyn, I realized that my father’s older daughter is the same as my mother and her sisters. Then I remembered that half the teachers at school were more or less the same way. Yet I was the one who always grabbed the toolbox whenever something needed to be repaired. Or when the door got jammed, and someone was trapped inside.
Well geez, is it any wonder that I only date women who were made in the very opposite of their image and likeness? Who the hell would want a daily reminder of it?
To make matters worse, I wasted the best two decades of my adult life working for one blasted ingrate after another. They did everything within their power to try and make me feel incompetent. In the end, I had nothing to show for it.
And so, I made up my mind, you see. I decided that I was going to take on a DIY approach to life. For the benefit of those who don’t know, DIY is an acronym for “Do It Yourself.”
So from doing my own laundry, to cooking for myself. To stove repairs, to pumping my own gas (I could never live in Jersey), to changing my own oil, to changing a flat tire.
I take pride in doing it all, and doing it by myself. If anyone tries to undermine my sense of independence, it makes me very angry, and I will physically fight them.
As such, I spend plenty of spare time on YouTube, doing research and taking notes. I research everything from home improvement, to car reviews, to medical research, to sleep study, to dietary research, to psychological research, etc.
As a journalist, my homework is always done, but never finished, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That is because it really is a game changer when you are educating yourself versus going to school, the Ultimate DIY Project.
Speaking of game changers, it truly is a breath of fresh air to not have to work for people for a living. There were challenges along the path. And yes, there are still challenges, but they are all worth it.
Self-employment is not easy. You have to be your own accountant, pay the full share of medicare and social security, and file your own taxes. But that is exactly the point.
You also have to be your own secretary and scheduler. Because managing your time effectively will be your biggest responsibility. Now, that is not to say you cannot ask for help if needed.
Rare exceptions to the rule would be, if there is an emergency that is too big for you to fix. Or if there is something that you don’t know what to do, and you just don’t have time to learn it on the spot. There is also no problem if you delegate menial, repetitive tasks to Chat GPT.
In fact, there are actually some things that you are innately good at doing. While there are other things that other people are better at doing than you are. For example; you might be great at changing the brakes, but your wife might have a green thumb that you don’t have. Let your wife beautify your backyard, while you change the brakes on her car. It’s called teamwork.
Countries understand this fact, and put it into practice. Otherwise, we would not have international trade relations. “Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” It is actually quite normal to delegate responsibilities based on people’s natural talents.
We were not meant to know everything. We should certainly learn as much as we can. But we also have to leave room for others to discover their own unique talents. That is what makes each person valuable.
Sometimes when I revise my list of accomplishments, it feels like I am reading someone else’s work. It makes me proud to know that I am capable of producing such a masterpiece, if I do say so myself. Do you know what else makes me proud?
I am proud of my driving. I am proud of my cooking. I am proud of my laundry and housekeeping as a straight male bachelor, who is often unfairly stereotyped with the expectation of being scruffy. I am proud that I never stole anything from anyone a day in my life.
I am proud that I have totally taken charge of my health, and my diet. I am proud that I have totally taken charge of my finances. I am proud of my blog, and the things that I write.
But do you know what I am not proud of? When I completed a project of some kind, only for some jackass to ask me,
“Oh wow, you made that all by yourself?”
*awkward silence*
“It’s good!”
*shrugs*
As if to suggest that it would be surprising that I could be capable of producing quality. That sort of thing stays with you long term. It’s kind of hard to believe in yourself when someone keeps on doubting you during your formative years. I could have been way ahead of where I am today, if only they didn’t put any doubt in my head.
Any positive reinforcement that I had came mostly from myself. So now, I want to do it all by myself. It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment in the end when I don’t accept any help along the way.
It gets to where, even if I end up dating a debutante heiress at some point, I will tell her not to give me any money, nor to pay off any of my debt. And I will literally break up with her if she cannot respect that. Especially if she knows where I am coming from.
Incest has a stigma attached to it that often leads to social shame and degradation. Incest is defined as having sexual relations with a blood relative, that is the simple definition. However, incest delves much deeper than meets the eye.
Just food for thought, but in this article, we will be giving some historical context on the different forms of incest, and explore what kind is more tolerable, versus what is not.
The reason why incest is not encouraged started out with concerns that are more biological in nature than it is social. Because if the blood of both parents are too similar, then their offspring would have an increased chance of developing autism, and/or sickle cell, among other diseases.
For that reason, infant mortality chances are higher. Not only that, but the expectancy for a normal quality of life diminishes if the product of incest survives infancy. It so turns out that there is an advantage to mixing one’s blood, whether racially or familially.
Because if one family has a history of cancer, and the other family’s genes are stronger, that cancer may possibly skip a generation, or be rinsed from both their bloodline all together.
Incest was not uncommon among early humans, as there is evidence of it taking place throughout medevial Europe. It only became a social stigma in recent history, and for really good reason. It served to prevent the birth of more inbred morons. But what if I told you that almost everyone on earth is somehow related?
It is no secret that the population of humans on earth has boomed over the last century. At the turn of the common era, there were only two civilizations on earth who kept census records, the Roman Empire and the Chinese silk road.
There were other tribes on earth at the time, but they were few in number, and mostly scattered across the earth. The global population was estimated to be around one hundred million people.
Most oriental people are said to be descendants of Genghis Khan, as he is believed to have fathered many children throughout his lifetime. If that claim is true, then almost all Asian people are somehow related.
In 1066 CE, the Normans invaded England during the Battle of Hastings. They conquered the anglo-saxons, and William I was crowned king. William was believed to have fathered many children, so it is commonly believed that many modern British people are descendants of King William.
With this occurrence taking place in China and England, we can assume that it is a recurring practice of Kings and Emperors throughout all civilizations.
One can only expect that the same is true of King Solomon being the common ancestor of many jews, or Julius Caesar being the common ancestor of the people living in most modern countries that are former Roman provinces.
It was widely known that Kings and Emperors had many concubines. The more vast his power, the more concubines he had. Some of those concubines were commoners who wanted to mix their blood with royalty.
And what king would refuse the advances of an attractive, voluptuous seductress? The more concubines he had, the greater his chances of spreading his seed.
Migration and settlement patterns throughout the centuries would see that king’s blood travel to all corners of the earth, and as such, the likelihood of being related to people from distant lands have increased.
Fast forward to the turn of the 20th century, and the global population has grown past one billion. This is good for trade and commerce, because the 20th century saw a paradigm shift in the west, where the economy went from being largely agricultural, to being industrial. A large population would fuel the workforce that is needed to sustain an industrialized economy.
The population further increased shortly after the second world war, as the world witnessed the largest baby boom in all the history of the world up until that point, hence how that generation got their name. The population was then around five billion strong, and would increase to seven billion over the next 60 years.
In 2024, we are 8 billion strong, and most of us are related by blood in some way, yet that hasn’t stopped the population from increasing even more. The population is estimated to reach ten billion people globally by 2050.
When you see a girl you like, and you decide to ask her out, chances are, you are asking out your cousin. But that’s ok, so long as she is not your first cousin.
Needless to say, having sexual relations with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are unacceptable. Particularly because there is a power dynamic between parent and child. Even if all parties involved are consenting adults, it leaves one to wonder why the child thinks incest is normal.
Siblings are still too close. Even though they are in the same age group, there are still too many similarities in their blood that would have a negative impact on their offsprings.
Then there are kissing cousins.
The nobility have been known to marry first cousins so as to keep the wealth within their bloodline. Working class white puritans also marry their first cousins to keep their bloodline from mixing with another race. As there is no way of them knowing whether or not a white person outside of their family is purely white.
Those two groups commit incest for a specific reason, then there are those who commit incest just because they feel like it, and they just don’t care what anyone else thinks. Or they were raised like that, and they think it is normal.
First cousins are entirely too close in blood. Third cousins, I think, are safer. But even fifth cousins are still too close for my taste. If I meet a super random stranger, and she just so happens to be related to me, she is likely to be a 10th cousin, or perhaps more distant, which is fine.
While relationships between very distant relatives may technically involve shared blood, they do not carry the same risks or social stigmas as closer relations. Therefore, such relationships are often not considered incest in the conventional sense.
It is no secret that hedonism often gets a bad rap. It is often confused with narcissism, and people who openly practice varying forms of hedonism are frequently the subject of envy and ridicule.
Perhaps hedonism receives a bad reputation because people do not fully understand it. They think they know what it is, but if that was the case, it would be clear that what they are actually alluding to is decadence. But what is the difference?
Hedonism is defined as living so as to extract the most amount of pleasure with the least amount of pain. That is not to say that they are lazy, for a hedonist will choose to make sacrifices under the right conditions, and for the right reasons. The only rule for a hedonist in order for him to willfully make a sacrifice is that it has to be worth it to him.
All hedonists have a vested interest in sustainability, some more materialistic than others. A hedonist may choose to indulge in worldly pleasures, but it is not coming from a worldly place. A true hedonist can be satisfied with less, so long as he is safe and comfortable, a decadent infidel cannot.
Decadence is defined as senseless and needless overindulgence in materialism, often at the expense of others. An infidel cannot comfortably co-exist with a hedonist, knowing that they are equally sustained. It won’t be long before the infidel tries to sabotage the hedonist, hoping it will somehow prove him to be more superior.
An infidel needs the dichotomy of winners and losers in order for his world to make sense. He thrives on sadistic chaos, while the hedonist thrives on hedonistic chaos.
By that, I mean to say that a hedonist will find order in the chaos of self-sovereignty, which is hedonistic chaos. While the decadent infidel will seek to sabotage the hedonist’s transcendence into self-sovereignty, causing sadistic chaos.
Though decadence is mostly sadistic, there is also a masochistic element to it. As there are some decadent infidels who will binge on food and wine to the point of nausea. Then they will vomit to make room so they can binge some more, as was the case during the final days of the Roman empire. But the practice of gluttony is not unique to them. Wherever there is decadence, you are sure to find gluttony.
That form of indulgence is not the hedonistic way, as there is no vomiting in our world. Sure, we may love to indulge, but not to the point of self-inflicted abuse and degradation. Overindulgence is not true pleasure, only a smoke screen to mask misery. Our mantra is pleasure and happiness all the way, but everything in moderation.
I even have a personal rule that I do not go out to indulge unless I take care of house first. That means, the bills have to be paid, the fridge has to be filled, the trash has to be emptied, the floor mopped and the bed made.
In that way, whenever I do go out, there is nothing on my mind that could steal my joy. I am also reassured that when I return home, I can step into an orderly house. If you find everything intact as you left it, you can be certain there were no intruders while you were away, an added benefit.
Sometimes when you clean, you find something under a table that you didn’t even remember owning. How can you be certain of the things you own if you won’t even clean? Those who practice decadence would never clean their own house. It is either that they choose to live in filth, or they clean their house begrudgingly if they have no one else to do it for them.
Decadence is a disease, and one of the mind. It is usually what happens whenever a civilization is on the brink of collapse, as more people tend to overindulge as a means to cope with life’s complexities. There is evidence of upheaval even in the name itself, as decadence comes from decay.
Decadence was commonly practiced towards the end of the Roman empire, and history is now repeating itself throughout the west. Hedonists indulge, while infidels overindulge, the difference lies in one’s mindset.
Vince was at the end of the road. As he laid alone in a hospital bed, he looked back on his life. He thought about all that it had encompassed. The highs and lows, all his achievements and failures, his strengths and weaknesses. The things he could have done differently. He thought about all his children, and how much he loved them.
Then he thought about his regrets. He thought about his dead wife, and the stormy night she was brutally raped and murdered by a lone madman. The thought that he wasn’t there to save her made him very angry. Yet a bittersweet smile crept across his aged face at the thought that he will finally be able to see her again. He closed his eyes, and then transcends into the vast unknown.
…
He awakens to find himself in a house somewhere. It is not his house, and he has no idea where he is. But somehow, everything feels so familiar. He climbs out of bed, puts on his robe as if it were a daily routine, and goes downstairs, where he sees a man he instantly recognizes.
“Finally awake, I see!” The man says, wearing a ‘kiss the cook’ apron. “You must be hungry, let’s get some grub in you,” he continues with a love thy neighbor smile on his face. Vince looks perplexed.
“I made bacon and hashbrowns, I hope you like it,” The man continues, pouring Vince a glass of orange juice from a glass pitcher. “They’re freshly squeezed! Handpicked them this morning from the garden. I hope you find it to your liking.” The man places a plate of bacon and hashbrowns with the glass of orange juice in front of Vince, who is now seated at the dining table.
Vince looks down at his plate, then up at the man who is smiling from ear to ear the entire time. “What’s the matter? You haven’t said a word.” “I know… I know you,” Vince says, shaking with emotions, “I know who you are.” The man continues to smile.
“What’s the matter, don’t you recognize me?” Vince asks. “I understand that you are probably confused, and that you must have a lot of questions on your…” “… why are you being so nice to me?” Vince confrontationally gets up from around the dining table. “Is this some kind of trick, or something? Don’t you remember what you did?”
Just then, a woman enters the room. “It smells mighty good in here. What are you…” Tears well up in her eyes the moment she lays eyes on Vince. “Vince!” “Claudette!” They both tearfully embrace each other rather intensely, then they both pull from each other. “Claudette, it’s you! It’s really you!” He takes her in thoroughly. They tearfully kiss and embrace yet again. The man stands there smiling the entire time.
They break from their embrace, and Vince looks at the man. “Claudette, what are you doing here with this man after all he has done?” “I don’t understand! All he has done was to help me make breakfast.” “No, that’s not all he has done. Don’t you remember?” “Vince, honey! I know you must have a lot on your…” “…why does everyone keep thinking I’m confused, or something? Did this man hurt you?”
“No, he didn’t!” “Is he holding us both here against our will?” “Vince, baby! All he has done was that he offered to come over to help me prepare for your arrival.” “My arrival?” “Yes Vince, your arrival.” “Do you know where you are man?” The man asks. “I remember waking up in this house that feels strangely familiar to me. But I’ve never been here before.”
Claudette and the man stand silently by.
“I don’t really remember much before that. But if you are both here, and I know that you are both dead, then I must also be dead. That’s got to be it. I must be dead, and this is some kind of an afterlife. An afterlife, or perhaps it is some kind of purgatory if that man is here with us after everything he has done. Claudette, we are good people, right? I mean, we worked hard all our lives, only to end up getting the crappy end of the stick. What did we do to end up in hell with this monster?”
“Does this really feel like any of us are in hell?” Claudette asks. She pulls back the drapes to reveal a man mowing their lawn. “Haiyya neighbors!” The man smiles and waves at them as she waves back. “Are you kidding me? Don’t you know who that is?” Vince asks. “That’s your brother, Steve,” Claudette replies.
“That no good brother of mine told a lie to get me in trouble back when we were kids. I ended up missing the school dance because I was grounded for a week. And as if that wasn’t enough, he stole my sports memorabilia when we were in our twenties. It was a collector’s item. I was never truly able to get over the hurt of his betrayal. If I wasn’t sure before, now I know. We are definitely in hell.”
“Vince, you’ve got it all wrong,” Claudette tries pleading with him, “Both men have been nothing but helpful in preparing for your arrival. Steve offered to help mow the lawn, and Eddy offered to help make breakfast.” “Really? Eddy? Are you going by first names now, or something?” “Vince, please!” “Do you need me to spell it out for you?”
“Eddy broke into our house one dark, stormy night. Eddy raped you at gunpoint. Eddy murdered you in cold blood as you begged for your life. Eddy had no remorse as he was pulling the trigger. All your begging and pleading probably only helped him get his rocks off like the sadistic son of a bitch he really is. Can’t you see that this is all just an act to get us to drop our guard. This food could be poisoned for all we know.”
Vince angrily smashes his uneaten breakfast plate into the wall before running out into the yard, still wearing his robe. Claudette and Eddy run out after him. They find him sitting on a tree stump in the backyard. Claudia put her arms around him from behind, stroking the side of his face.
“Don’t worry about the plate Vince, I’ll fix you another. It’s impossible to waste food in heaven, so vast is the abundance.” He gazes confusingly into her eyes.
“Look, what happened to me took place on earth a long time ago. Yes, I was hurt and confused when Eddy first arrived into heaven. It brought back a lot of bad memories about the night he killed me. But after a while, I learned to forgive. I had to learn to get those pesky little cobwebs out of my head if I wanted to be happy.”
“I just don’t understand any of this. How could he have gotten into heaven? How could you think to forgive this monster after the way he ruined our lives?”
“I don’t really know why I chose to forgive him, come to think of it. I probably just figured that only good people come to heaven. And that if he was able to make it here, then somehow he must have done something good to make up for all the bad that he has done during his life on earth.”
“But how could this low life have made it into heav…” “…I heard raised voices,” Steve says, running over to them, “Is everything ok?” “Steve, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in over 60 years. Don’t you remember what you did to me?”
“I understand that you are probably upset with me, brother, and I honestly can’t say that I blame you. But what happened on earth took place a long time ago.” “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him, Steve…” “…you stay out of this, asshole. No one’s talking to you.”
“Vince, please!” Claudette interrupts before she continues, “Eddy apologized to me over 40 years ago when he first arrived, and he would like to extend you the same courtesy, so does your brother. Look, I didn’t ask them to come over. They volunteered, knowing how difficult it would be. Your parents wanted to come too, but they couldn’t make it. They wanted to apologize for kicking you out the house when you turned 18. They were hoping they could see you tomorrow, so you all could talk about it.”
“I haven’t thought about that in such a long time,” tears welling up. “I had nowhere to go, so I ended up on the street during the worst winter of my discontent. Then my girlfriend wrote me a letter saying that she was pregnant. I didn’t want to be a deadbeat, so I had to figure it out. The fastest decision I could make at the time was to enlist in the service. Even though I really didn’t want to join, I did it anyway. I did it for my kid.”
Vince continues, “I came back home with a bunch of shell shock and recurring nightmares about my buddies getting maimed and killed in battle. Nightmares about the time I got captured by the Viet-cong. I was held and tortured as a POW for six months until I was found and rescued by allied forces. Once home, I became a violent drunk. I was of no use to myself, let alone my kid, and I didn’t want him to see me in such a despicable state. Sure enough, my first marriage didn’t last much longer.”
“I remember you telling me about it when we first got married. You were in a great deal of pain. I’m really sorry that you took that pain with you into death,” Claudette says.
Silence fills the air.
“Vince, I’m really sorry for what I put you and Claudette through,” Eddy says, “I had no right to ruin your lives like I did.” “Vince, I’m sorry for all the things I put you through, bro. You have been nothing but good to me and my wife, and I see now that my ego wasn’t worth losing a brother like you over,” Steve says.
“How come you are only sorry now? Why weren’t you sorry back on earth?” “I really don’t know what to tell you there Vince,” Steve answers. “Oh, you don’t know? Well you know what? You, Eddy and my folks can all take your fake apologies and go fuck yourselves with it.” “Vince, we’re only trying to help you for your own good. Try to understand.” Claudette pleads with him.
“To answer your initial question, Vince. The reason why I think we didn’t have an incentive to apologize back on earth is because we were living in the flesh, and the flesh is full of pride and ego.”
“Eddy is right! Once we shed our flesh, we also shed our ego, which makes it easier for things like apologies and forgiveness.” “I think the boys are on to something, Vince. But in your case, your ego must be especially strong. Because you have shed your flesh, but your ego is still intact.”
“I have never seen anything like it. Someone whose ego remains intact after dying,” Eddy says, “And I have been here 40 years already.” “Vince, you’ve always been pretty darn stubborn, ever since we were kids. But I never counted on you being able to keep your ego intact after dying. I just don’t know how you do it bro.”
“How soon after dying before most people shed their ego?” Vince asks. “Usually right at the point of death, or in the days leading up to death. Either way, they shed their ego before they are able to reach heaven,” Steve says. “Your case must be a rare exception. Truly unprecedented!” Eddy says.
“Perhaps it just takes longer for Vince to shed his ego, than it does for other folks to shed theirs. Obviously he made it into heaven somehow,” Steve says. “I’ll have you fine gentlemen know that my man is a good one, thank you kindly. He’s just a bit stubborn at times, that’s all,” Claudette says.
“Give it some time Vince, everything will be alright. I know you’ll grow to like it here in time, and you and I can make up for lost times.”
“I would love that very much.”
He ponders on that thought for a moment.
“Ok Claudette, I’ll do it. I’ll try and shed my ego for your sake.” “It’s a deal!” Eddy says as he reaches to shake Vince’s hand, who reciprocates rather reluctantly. “Well alrighty then, I guess it’s settled,” Claudette says as she embraces him. “Now let’s all get back inside the house and eat breakfast.”
As time goes by, Vince and Claudette rekindle their lives together. Vince and Eddy become really good friends and neighbors, as they work together on many community projects. From painting, to drain cleaning to barbecues to butter churning. He even manages to make amends with his parents for any unresolved feelings of betrayal and neglect that he may have been holding onto all his life.
As Vince learns to forgive, his ego starts fading away slowly but surely. He takes on a more youthful appearance, and his personality becomes more playful. Vince, Claudette and Eddy grow really close over time, and are often seen playfully running through the water sprinklers as if they were kids again. All is right with the world. Then one day, it happens.
“I can’t take another day of this.” Vince smashes his uneaten breakfast plate into the wall again. “I’ve barely spent a month living in this lousy dump, and I’m damn near out of my mind already.” “Vince honey, what’s wrong? You were doing so well.” “Yeah buddy! Tell us what’s wrong,” Eddy says. “Your dumb ass is what’s wrong, and I’m not your buddy,” he yells, pointing his finger at Eddy.
“There’s something awfully screwy about this whole operation. I tell ya, this isn’t right.” “But look how much younger you’ve gotten, and your ego is almost completely gone. Why would you want to go back to living in a way that has made you so unhappy for most of your life?” Claudette asks.
“I don’t know! Maybe it’s because it’s the only thing I’ve known all my life. Maybe it’s because this whole thing feels so unnatural to me. I don’t know! Whatever it is, I don’t like people messing with my free will.”
“But if that free will came from your ego, doesn’t that make it a bad thing?” Claudette asks. “Bad as it may be, it can’t be worse than messing with your free will,” Vince replies. “Does your free will matter more to you than your happiness?” Eddy asks. “Stay out of this asshole, I’m talking to my wife.” Vince yells, pointing his finger at Eddy.
“I don’t know how everybody else in this godforsaken shithole does it, but it is not my free will to forgive my wife’s attacker. Let alone be friends with the guy. Perhaps I was mistaken, but I see now clear as day that heaven is not paradise for me. If this place is going to manipulate me into betraying my free will, then heaven for me is actually hell.”
“Do you think you would be much happier going to the other place then?” Eddy asks. “I don’t know! Probably so!” Vince stares at Eddy rather curiously.
“You know, you still haven’t answered my question.”
“What question?”
“How did you make it into this so-called heaven after everything you have done back on earth? You’re not a true believer, or anything like that are you?”
“Do you really want the truth, man?”
“Yes, I do!”
“Do you remember my execution?”
“How could I forget, I was there. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Do you remember my final words before they pulled the lever that fried my brain?”
“You said that you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. That’s all you said.”
“That’s all I had to say. After that, it was a done deal, my salvation was secure. The moment they pulled that lever, I knew I would wake up in eternal paradise.”
“Did you really mean what you said, or were you just taking advantage of someone who died on the cross two thousand years ago?”
“Obviously I made it into heaven somehow, so you tell me.”
“I’m asking you.”
“It doesn’t really matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“What does it matter if I shed my ego at the point of death? As long as we’re all here, and I’ve made amends, that’s all that matters.”
“To you, maybe!”
Vince turns to Claudette.
“Can you believe this fucking guy? He somehow managed to make it into heaven without truly repenting. All he had to do was recite some kind of sinner’s prayer, or something. Which he waited until he was certain he would die before doing. Yet there are good people back on earth who lived their whole lives wondering if they are worthy of entering heaven. How insulting?”
“He never told me how he made it into heaven. I just assumed that he was a good person who made some mistakes, and genuinely repented,” Claudette says. “You always try to see the good in people, and it ended up being your undoing.”
He then turns to Eddy.
“It wasn’t enough that you raped her once? You had to track her down the moment you arrived in heaven to take advantage of her a second time. It’s just never enough for you, is it? What’s your problem with my wife, man? What did she ever do to you?” Vince shoves Eddy up against a wall.
“Stop it, both of you. I can’t take this anymore with the two of you always at each other’s throats. Why can’t we all just get along?” “How do you expect us to get along if there are two mortal enemies in the same room? Do you honestly still believe that this place is heaven?” “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to move on after you died? You know how much pain I went through to deny my nature just to atone for my mistakes, in hopes of having a shot of making it into heaven just so I could see you again? And all this motherfucker had to do was recite some phony sinner’s prayer. What a waste of effort on my part?”
“But your nature is still intact, so what have you really accomplished?” Eddy asks. “I don’t know! The only thing I do know is that I really don’t want to be here anymore.” “You can’t be serious!” Claudette exclaimes. “No, I’m serious. I’m done!” “Why don’t you give it some more time? Think things through?” “Because there’s really nothing to think about.”
“Would you rather risk losing eternal abundance in favor of going to the shadow realm? That, from what we heard, is far worse than the temporary readjustment period that you are going through here.” Claudette asks. “As long as there is no agenda to manipulate my free will, then it’s worth a shot. What have I got to lose?” “Everything, if you don’t come to your senses,” Claudette says.
“Vince, listen to your wife for once. Here, we have everything. We literally don’t have to work, or do anything but hang out all day.” “I really don’t need to be taking no advice from a rapist and murderer. Plus, I’m not lazy like you. I don’t mind working for it, and figuring things out on my own. So long as my free will remains intact.”
“Vince, please! Listen to reason. You don’t know what you are saying, it’s horrible down there. The fire never dies, and there is no water to quench thirst.” “Look, my mind is made up, ok. Now who can I talk to about this?”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. None can come to The Father, except through The Son.” “Jesus fucking Christ, who the hell is this dude supposed to be? “They call him, The Son.” Claudette replies. “And how did you get in here?”
“I literally manifested out of thin air just now,” The Son replies. “Whoa, that was fast. I didn’t think he’d get here so soon,” Eddy says. “Thank God you’re here. Maybe you can talk some sense into my husband. He’s been talking like a crazy person.” “And yet I’ve never felt better.”
“Ok, let me try to understand this. So you would rather spend eternity in the shadow realm because you feel like there’s some kind of conspiracy to manipulate your free will here in heaven. Right?”
“The whole thing just seems so unnatural. Ever since I got here, I have felt an unusual urge to forgive the people I despise. And it took every ounce of strength in me, just to keep a clear mind. But now, I’ve had it.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
“No, that’s not all. I also think it’s rather hypocritical of you, that there are good people in hell right now whose only crime is that they don’t believe in you. Yet a wretched despicable murderer like Eddy can make it into heaven, simply by reciting the sinner’s prayer. And you just accept it as proof that he believes in you. Has it ever occurred to you that he recited the sinner’s prayer, just as a ‘get out of hell’ free card?”
“The people in hell who you think are so good, deserve to go to hell because they are atheists.”
“Atheism is not a measure of morality, or the lack thereof. Unless you truly don’t give a damn about morality.”
“I do, but believing in me is important, too.”
“How could you be so petty? I don’t respect you, sir.”
“Why would you punish someone for choosing to use their free will to believe whatever they want? It’s their choice whether or not they want to believe in you, but they shouldn’t be punished for it. They should only be punished if they did something wrong that warrants them being punished. The first amendment of the American constitution places a much greater emphasis on freedom than you do.”
“Look, I understand that you are upset, but rules are rules, and you just have to follow them.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Look, if that’s all you have to say, then all I have left is that I just want to be free. Cost it what it will.”
“But it’s horrible down there.”
“So I keep hearing. But perhaps freedom is the sinner’s paradise. The right to choose for themselves. The right to be who they want to be.”
“You should know that once you get there, you can never come back. You will be stuck down there for eternity. Is that really what you want?” “Whatever man, I’ll take my chances.”
“I guess there’s no point in keeping you here if doing so would make you unhappy, but Claudette stays here with us.”
“Why are you so controlling? Why don’t you let the lady speak for herself?”
“Alright then, I will!”
Vince turns to Claudette, but before he could utter a word, she says, “I want to stay here in this abundant, familiar space surrounded by the people I love.”
“Even if it means being neighbors with the man who raped you?”
“Yes, but you can go if you feel it will make you truly happy. I love you, and I will miss you dearly, but if your freedom and happiness is more important to you, then I want you to be happy.”
Vince and Claudette intensely stare into each other’s eyes before tearfully embracing one last time. “Go be happy bro, you deserve it.” Eddy pats Vince on the shoulder. Vince holds Claudette by the cheeks, and wipes away her tears. “Thank you for being so understanding. I will love you till the end of time.” She cries harder upon hearing that.
They embrace, and hold each other’s hands.
“I will never forget this.”
“I love you,” she tearfully whispers softly as he pulls away from her and walks away. She runs after Vince as both he and The Son disappear together. Devastated and heartbroken, she cries really hard on Eddy’s shoulder as he consoles her.
…
At the entrance to a nightclub, the muffled sound of really fast Techno music can be heard playing from outside the venue. A horned bouncer with glowing red eyes can be seen unhooking the extension cord to let patrons inside the event. Vince, who was waiting in line, is about to be next.
When he gets to the front, the bouncer says to him in a low, coarse voice, “welcome to Club Hades. May all your dreams come true.” “Thank you!” Vince replies, “It’s an honor to be here.” The bouncer places a vip wristband around Vince’s wrist, and smiles at him as he lets him into the club.
Inside the venue, the music is much louder, and the dance floor is moderately packed. Some patrons can be seen dancing the night away, rubbing up against each other. Some are drinking at the bar, while others are passed out from having too much to drink. As Vince is walking around the venue, he notices a voluptuous seductress with demon horns and glowing red eyes seductively smirking at him.
Vince decides to order a drink. He goes over to the bar, and orders a bloody mary. The bartender checks Vince’s wristband with his flashlight, then says to him. “Oh, the man of the hour. I see that you are the owner’s special guest. He’s waiting for you over in the vip section.” As Vince goes upstairs to vip, he notices an old acquaintance waiting for him at the top.
“Well if it isn’t my man, Vince.” “Rick old friend, so good to see you again.” The two do their special handshake. Vince and Rick walk over to the lounge, where they sit in one of the booths.
“Are you comfortable?”
“Sure am!”
“When I heard that you were here, I had to come see for myself. You are the last person I would expect to find here.”
“After living a life of hell on earth, I figured the real thing couldn’t be any much worse than that. So I had to come see for myself.”
A moment of silence fills the air.
“Believe it or not, I was actually in the other place first.”
“Really!”
“Yeah! Then I found it wasn’t quite to my liking, so I asked to come here instead.”
“That’s incredible, I didn’t know you could switch sides so easily. After dying, I mean.”
“Well apparently I did.”
“Well it’s no wonder the owner wants to see you. He should be here any minute now.”
“You remember Eddy?”
“Who? You mean the maniac who killed Claudette?”
“The one and the same.”
“Yeah! What about him?”
“They wanted to erase my will, and force me to forgive him. Worse than that, they actually expected us to act like we are pals.”
“Wait, you actually saw him while you were up there?”
“Sure did!”
“How did he make it into heaven?”
“Well supposedly he repented right before he was executed.”
“And they just let him right on in there? Just like that?”
“Yup!”
“What kind of screwball place is that anyway?”
“I know, that’s what I said.”
They both laughed.
“Everybody else was under some kind of weird spell, except me. The worst part about all of that was that Claudette would rather stay up there and be friends with her rapist than to come down here with me.”
“Imagine that!”
“I know! They may have gotten to her somehow, but they didn’t get me.”
“That’s probably why they kicked you out of heaven.”
“Probably! Or it could just be that they made an exception in my case. Whatever it is, I sure am glad that’s over.”
Just then, a tall, shadowy figure with glowing red eyes approached the booth. “Vince, I’ve heard a lot of promising things about you,” he says in a low, thunderous voice. As he steps out into the light, it is revealed that he is wearing a dark suit, and has the horns of a ram goat.
He possesses a powerful aura. More powerful than anyone else in the room. Just as the two men were about to stand to shake his hand, the man insisted, “No, no, no, please don’t stand on my account.”
“My name is Natas, I’m the owner of Club Hades,” he gestures for a handshake. “Did you say your name is Nathan?” Vince asks as he reciprocates the handshake across the table while seated. “No, I said Natas, The Goat. Because I am the Greatest Of All Time.”
“That’s a peculiar name.”
“I get that a lot.”
“But a nice name, though.”
“Flattery gets you nowhere with me,” he jokes while smiling at Vince.
“You must be tired from your trip.” A waitress appears by the mere snap of Natas’ finger. “Three bloody marys if you would be so kind.” “Right away, sir!” She disappears, and reappears with the order instantaneously. She smiles at Vince before disappearing again.
“Vince, you look tired from your trip.” Vince has been wearing the same clothes he left heaven with. But by the snap of Natas’ mighty finger, he was now clean shaven with a cool new haircut, and wearing a suit. They all raise their glasses, “a toast to my new friend Vince, and his arrival at our club.” “May friendships last forever,” Vince smiles. “CHEERS!”
“Vince was just telling me that he would much rather be here if it meant having his freedom,” Rick says. “Yeah, so I heard. This place gets a pretty bad rap. So I think it’s actually really commendable that anyone would be willing to brave the trip, regardless of what they might have heard. I guess that’s why he gets the vip treatment,” Natas says. “Oh yes, well deserved,” Rick replies.
“So Vince, how does it feel to be a chartered member of Club Hades?” Natas asks. “For a place that is said to be the pit of eternal punishment, everybody here seems to be having a really great time so far,” Vince says while taking a sip of his bloody mary. “The only pit here is a barbecue pit,” Rick jokes. “Let the good times roll.” “I know that’s right.” They all drink and laugh together.
“You know, I think this booth could use a bit of a woman’s touch,” Natas says as he claps his hands twice. Almost immediately thereafter, two really hot seductresses levitated over to their table. “Slimthicc, just the way I like ‘em,” Vince says.
“Pick one!” Natas says. “It’s kinda hard to choose, they’re both really hot,” Vince replies. “Well in that case, have ‘em both,” Natas smiles. “Hey, what gives?” Rick protests, but then he cannot help but to laugh.
They both sit next to Vince, one on each arm. They introduce themselves as Mindy and Jada. Then they start rubbing down his chest while smiling seductively at him. “You are the talk of the town,” Mindy says. “Yeah! Everyone heard about the way you stood up for what you believe in,” Jada says.
“We think that men who take risks and make sacrifices for what they want are like really hot,” Mindy says. Vince and Mindy lustfully gaze into each other’s eyes before making out profusely while Jada aggressively grabs his junk.
A third girl has joined as Rick’s date, and the party of six are all laughing and drinking together. “Look at that! Everyone’s laughing and having a good time,” Rick says, drinking and smiling. “Boss man takes care of his people,” Jada says, smirking at Natas.
“Well, I try!” Natas replies while staring at Vince. “Look, I like ya, kid. It takes balls to do what you did,” He continues, staring at Vince with admiration in his eyes. “Can I ask you something?” “Sure!” “Do you think I’m a bad guy?”
“From what I’ve seen so far, you seem really chill and laid back.” “Thank you, that’s what I’ve been saying.” “Well what do you mean?” “Look, can I tell you something?” Natas asks anxiously.
“They paint the image of me like I’m this bad fucking guy, Right? Well if that was true, I’d have all of you shoveling coal into my furnace round the clock, without taking any breaks. But instead, here we are drinking and laughing and having a great fucking time.”
“Well obviously you’re cool and all, but why did they portray you in such a negative light?” “Ahh, ancient history kid. But basically what it is, is that the old man made a bunch of mistakes with the human design, and wanted me to take the rap for it. Just so that he can come out of it looking good.” “Wow, really?” “Yeah! He gave you qualities such as greed, envy and vanity. And he wanted you to convince yourself that the goat made you do it.”
“Wow dude, that’s really fucked up.” “I know!” He shrugs, “So now I gotta act like I’m supposed to be this terrible fucking guy, or something. When all I really wanted to do all along was just to kick it and chill. “You know, in all the years that I’ve known you, it’s the first I’m hearing about this,” Rick says. “What did you do about it?” Vince asks.
“After a while, I got tired of play acting. So the old man turned me into a snake as punishment for telling the woman about the tree of knowledge.” “Really?” “Yeah! I figured that anyone who can see through the great deception, and is brave enough to prioritize their own human freedom is more than deserving an eternal reward.”
“How many people throughout all of history were brave enough to risk it all for their freedom?” Vince asks. “Everyone who you met in this club tonight, including the girls who are hanging all over you guys right now.” The girls glance over at Natas and smirk as he acknowledges them.
“So are Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Tesla, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, just to name a few,” Rick says. “In time you will have a chance to meet everybody who made it,” Natas says. “I guess it’s true what they say after all. Freedom is the sinner’s paradise,” Vince says. “Welcome to the party that never ends,” Mindy says, smirking seductively at Vince.
