Being Much Better Than Real
The major event of our era is our belief that we have discovered a new world, much better than anything that had existed previously. So much better, it doesn’t even exist in the real world – but in a world of its own.
Mankind has always wanted to be better than real, this is what religion is all about: a super-reality somewhere in the sky where the gods lived. And in communicating with these gods in various ways. For my family, this consisted on a new prophet of god, who revealed Him to us. We were Mormons (Missouri Mormons, not the Utah kind).
The followers of this prophet (Joseph Smith) wanted to be better than real themselves – an attitude which their neighbors did not appreciate – so much so they murdered their prophet. However, since all Americans now consider themselves better than real, this attitude does not seem so strange, but quite acceptable. The small matter of Joseph Smith himself can be easily overlooked.
Reality has always been a problem for us, because it was always telling us what we could do and couldn’t do – what we could be and what we couldn’t be. Very inconvenient – and not only that, but disrespectful of our exalted status as special beings. We resolved to get rid of it – and we did. We can now do whatever we want and be whatever we want; there is nothing to stop us.
Of course there is always some spoil-sport around (such as myself) who objects that reality is reality, and it cannot be circumvented. But we can be safely ignored. People will believe whatever they want to believe, and if everybody believes something, it is a good as real – or super-real, in this case. Why mess around with anything less?
I am tempted at this point to describe the process of how we got here – or at least my theory of how we got here. But I will save that for future postings – or perhaps for a book. Actually, it should be good for several books.
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