by alan watts' wisdom & skillful, simple use of language
we are endowed with knowledge that is both challenging and practical.
…our age is one of frustration, anxiety, agitation, and addiction to “dope.”
Somehow we must grab what we can while we can,
and drown out the realization that the whole thing is futile and meaningless.
This "dope" we call our high standard of living,
a violent and complex stimulation of the senses...
We crave distraction -- a panorama of sights, sounds, thrills,
and titillations into which as much as possible must be crowded
in the shortest possible time.
To keep up this "standard"
most of us are willing to put up with lives that consist largely
in doing jobs that are a bore,
earning the means to seek relief from the tedium
by intervals of hectic and expensive pleasure.
These intervals are supposed to be the real living,
the real purpose served by the necessary evil of work.
(this gets tough... or tougher)
Or we imagine that the justification
of such work is the rearing of a family to go on doing the same kind of thing,
in order to rear another family . . . and so ad infinitum.
This is no caricature.
It is the simple reality of millions of lives,
so commonplace that we need hardly dwell upon the details,
save to note the anxiety and frustration of those who put up with it,
not knowing what else to do...
It's pretty fucked-up if you know what i mean. Yet, Mr. Watts is also an entertainer. Himself claims...
(to continue....)
