My last game of 'Cranium' (yes I play boardgames - blow me) ended in a re-affirmation in the nature of freinds of freinds.  Generally I have a very keen sense of the trivial - so much so that usually when a game of trivia comes about I get teamed up with the person who knows me least, as if that would be a handicap of some sort.

On the grand finale question I had to explain the famous person within 1 minute, without naming names.

I simply said:  "She's canadian and she sux."

My partner got it in one...

...and so would you.


(Yes, I know - more filler!

But you still love it.)

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression.

Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives.

        - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Our great depression is our lives.  In a film rife with personal resonance, I don't think there was another line that struck home as hard as this one.

I live with depression.  It's fucked and I hate it and I've spent a great portion of my time of late trying to learn as much as I can about the problem.  All for naught.  Knowing the nature of the downward spiral doesn't make the ride any easier... or easier to avoid.

I've come to certain conclusions though - gnostic answers rather than helpful solutions unfortunately, but conclusions none the less.

I can be happy as long as I don't stop and think about it.  About past mistakes.  About the tenuous present.  About impending doom.

About global inequities.  About social hipocrisy.  About a system that promotes selfishness and greed.  About a world that strangles the life out of beauty and art in an attempt to ring every last cent from it.

I can be happy if I remain forcibly ignorant.  If I can chain my wandering mind and just dwell in the now.  That's what the drugs used to do and that's what the alcohol still does from time to time.  People would always say that I'm a happy drunk - and that was more true than they ever knew.  I was never happier than when in the throws of a psychotropic revelation or in the sweet sweet arms of inebriation.  It's okay to be disgusted by that - hell, I'm disgusted by it.

I can guess what you're thinking - "there's so much good in the world".  But is there?  Is there really?  Can anyone tell me, without using stock answers, what's so great about life?

At times I think my depression is a personal thing.  Other times I see it as a symptom of our shittier by the minute world and I realise I'm far from alone.  Even discounting those who seem to wear it as a fashion accessory - I realise we are legion.

What's your take on the nigh-epidemic levels of depression?

- Soul

P.S.  I'm not actually depressed now.  Nor am I drunk (honest!).  I'm in one of those rare critical moments between being too depressed to bother and being too non-depressed to consider, where I actually think to ask such questions.

"For the believer - no evidence is required.
For the non-believer - no evidence will suffice."

                        - Probably someone pretty clever Grisham was quoting.


They Argue:  They only believe in God and all that crap because they were taught it from day one and made to read the Bible and go to church and stuff.  They were brainwashed!

I Refute:  How is this different from your belief in Science and "all that crap"?  You were taught it from day one and made to read textbooks and go to school and stuff.  Were you brainwashed?

It's a great title for a fantastic theory - and one day, when I have the time and focus I will share it...

...and you will shiver at the awesome majesty of it and question the very basis of your existence.

In the meantime here's a picture of the idiot in charge of the most powerful military force on the planet:

 

Huzzah!

As I've said, I usually avoid being overly political here on ModMyth.  All I can say is that I'm really glad the responsibility is not upon me.

If it was, I would want a 'negative vote' option - for when you don't sway towards any particular candidate, but you definitely don't want one particular war-mongering profit-monkey to win the presidency...

...again.

(was that obscure enough to maintain my anti-politics stance?)

Anyway, to all my freinds who will be voting:  Good luck with the whole 'deciding the fate of the entire world' thing.

(no pressure)

The world is flat - it is only the curvature of space-time that makes it 'appear' spherical.