The Exploitation of Fantastical Desire

Exactly how much of our external pain do we cause ourselves? Some philosophers say pretty much all of it, and that we can remove ourselves from any situation we don’t really want to be in at any time, if we are actually free people; which makes all pain an actually free person receives from the exterior self-inflicted. After all, if we could have avoided the pain by freely leaving the situation prior to giving an abuser the opportunity to inflict it, it is (at least) dishonest to neglect our own accountability and the fact that we obviously made a wrong choice back there – and that perhaps our ability of judgment in who to trust might be off just a tad. But what if we didn’t? What if instead of reflecting on the bad choice, instead we reflected on the good choice? Well first, we’ll actually have to make one – right?

There’s an instinctual human wisdom to seeing and analyzing potential outcomes ahead of time, and also a real potential for it’s polar counterpart (intelligent conniving). Of course, the deceiver is already well aware that he can’t touch actual human wisdom, any more than a fish can touch a cloud. In fact, it’s more of an open secret that only a completely oblivious imbecile that asks no questioning thought of skepticism whatsoever can possibly be deceived. It is the legitimate duty of integrity and wisdom to ask the honest and tough questions that actually get to the truth of an affair; and the duty of ignorance and bigotry to sweep any evidence or information under the rug because we don’t like it, or because it shows this thing we wanted to be true to actually be false.

What’s interesting about this, is that I could write a hundred more pages on this phenomenon without even mentioning a single example. You know just as well as I do, just about everything that comes out of anyone’s mouth or fingertips these days is the example. They aren’t speaking what’s actually and factually true. They’re speaking what they want to be true. With absolutely no scrutinizing thought of critical analysis whatsoever, just blindly believing and parroting obviously false ideas singularly due to how it makes them feel, satisfying some demand of desire for it to be true in their brains. It’s very akin to children playing Santa Claus.

How many things can you think of that relate? Could you think of a new one? Let me assure you, a propagandist has already thought of it and is making a living on it. Perhaps not as much as they’re making off of the Santa lie, but the principle is the same. The child fell in love with the Santa lie, and finding out the truth is heartbreaking because they really really really wanted it to be true. Many other deceptions exist of this emotionally manipulative type, and people believe and parrot them based purely on their desire for the illusion to be true, and not because they actually performed any honest thought of skeptical analysis or critique on the idea.

The exploiting deceiver is already quite well aware that the truth is pretty boring, it’s not likely to bedazzle or fascinate, and leaves nothing to wonder or believe. The truth is, your parents are Santa Claus, bro. They wait until you are asleep to set up your Christmas, and they lied about it. The hard part isn’t accepting the obvious truth though, is it? The hard part is accepting that the illusion we fell in love with and really wanted to be true, is not actually real. The hard part is accepting that those we trusted to tell us the truth would lie to us. The hard part is not having our deep seeded immaturely childish demand for the truth to be some kind of fantastical bedazzling spectacle of ew’s and ah’s be satisfied.

Entire industries exist in the human economies specifically geared at making these hard parts easier for us. And by “easier” I mean, putting authentically questioning individuals on the cusps of enlightenment back to metaphorical sleep. In fact, the more we just kind of take a step back and look at it all, overwhelmingly fantastical propaganda easily accounts for well over 98% of all information even available to obtain. There is quite obviously a heavy human demand going on around here, to be provided much more than any truth can possibly satisfy.

For every bias or bigotry that exists among human beings, at least ten propagandists exist to exploit it. And, not only are they going to satisfy the demand of accommodating the bias, but they are going to go above and beyond the call of confirmation, entering the realms of bedazzling fascination, with NEW information that confirms the bias was correct the whole time and “we were right all along!” These are mostly opportunists filling in gaps where the stories before them left holes. Unfortunately for a deceiver tho, their stories can only possibly have their own holes; and it’s not going to be much longer now and another deceiver is going to fill in your gap. Deception for money is quite obviously a “ride it til the wheels fall off” kind of profession.

Persuasion is not required of the truth. Santa Claus doesn’t magically become real again because we aren’t persuaded that mom and dad would ever lie to us. The truth of anything is always going to be that thing that it actually is, no matter what we want it to be, or what anyone else persuades us of (or fails to). Falsities however, have an inherent need of persuasion – and so much so, that they cannot possibly exist without it. Even the children didn’t believe in Santa Claus, until they were persuaded.

Of course, by now you’ve probably figured out that I brought up the Santa Claus lie on purpose. It’s true, and the reason is so obviously simple. In our society, this lie is the ground zero for the general acceptance of deception and artificial adoption of it’s validity. Just think about it, and back when you were a kid and found out it was a lie, what was demanded of you? “Don’t tell the others”. Congratulations, you’re a deceiver now.

By requiring the children newly enlightened to the truth to “keep the secret”, this artificially creates a society of dishonesty. Parents think they’re doing their children a favor by lying to them but the exact opposite is the case, and actually teaching them that lying is okay – that lying can be “fun”. I’ve even seen parents get mad and punish their child for telling the truth. What a backwards society that’s been built for us.

These are pivotal moments in brain development when a child needs wise guidance and instruction, taught the true human values of integrity and honesty – and instead they’re being lied to, being required to lie, and instead taught by example that it might “sometimes” be okay to deceive others. And on top of that, they’re never really taught to do anything different, either. It’s like the Santa lie is a blueprint for a much larger scheme.

It’s even more confusing when we consider how completely unnecessary it is to knowingly and willingly lie about who actually left the presents under the tree. Why is the accountability of the deed shifted to a fictional entity, artificially causing mistrust between the parent and child when it’s discovered to be a lie; when it’s demonstrably more likely to bring the child closer to the parent, and establish an even deeper emotional connection and bond of trust with the child to tell them the truth? “It’s for our religion and the presents are from us!” How is this harmful to tell the truth? There isn’t any legitimate reason. They’ll say things like “it’s for the imagination”, and yet it does not require to believe Neverland is real, for a child to exercise imagination playing pretend. The difference is that they know they’re pretending. Believing our imaginations are real is an actual psychiatric mental condition, so why is their child’s delusional psychosis rendered in such a high regard?

The answer is pretty clear, although the dishonest will likely make considerable use of their thinking brains trying to figure out how to avoid it, and their own accountability in it’s enabling. It’s done to create a dishonest society of people lying to each other, and that’s the only reason. That’s the reason the Santa lie is so highly propagandized by Hollywood and the churches and media outlets, even the news anchors on television participate in the Santa deception. Deceivers know that they cannot survive without believers just as dishonest as themselves. Powerful deceivers know human beings cannot be fooled by their propaganda deceptions unless they are dishonest themselves, so the focused effort at artificially creating the dishonesty in the society is, in fact, a survival mechanic for any who would wish to use deception as a mechanic of social control.

It seems that many people, instead of honestly seeking the truth no matter how hard or tough it might be, never really do intellectually grow up; and live their entire lives chasing that childish desire for something fantastical to be the truth. That streak of light across the sky must have been Santa’s sleigh! The truth is actually much more boring though, it was just an airplane. The point is that dishonest people disregard and ignore the truth simply because it’s not fantastical enough for them to accept it, they need bedazzling – which the truth rarely does. These people not only invite the exploiting deceiver into their lives, but set up a billboard in their front yard using a red carpet for a welcome mat.

Practically everything that exists in the human society of a market economy are the result of suppliers meeting a demand of human desire, and not need. In fact, when we authentically consider what we could actually do without, and still survive just fine, the truth is painfully obvious – far more resources are spent (by those with the resources to spend) on the satisfaction of desires than needs. In fact, it’s quite often observed that even people with limited access to resources will ignore and neglect their actual needs, to focus most of the resources they do have on desires.

The weakness of human desire is a milking cow. The intelligent connivers are well aware. Even many of the weak themselves are aware, and just too coward to do anything about it, and too comfortable to risk change. Anxiety, depression, existential dread, but still comfortable enough to not care? You may be a slave of your desires neglecting your real needs. You may be a slave, to those satisfying your narcissistic demands in exchange for your money, your time, and your work. It’s kind of an interesting thing to think about, and how many complete industries would actually go bankrupt overnight, if the phenomenon of human desire were magically turned off like a light switch.

YEAH, good luck with that one, right? I used to think so too, until I honestly challenged myself. It requires a great self discipline to say no to ourselves to things that we actually want – and a completely new wisdom to not want them. But consider this: how many things can you look at over the history of your life, that you wanted and received, and were not actually satisfied with at the end of it? How much time, effort, and (often) pain were wasted, that could have legitimately been prevented by not wanting those things in the first place?

That is not to say that I’m in the “want and desire is immoral” camp or anything, because that’s hardly the case. In fact, I’m simply pointing out the human nature of ourselves, and that being conscious of how desire effects our decision making is required to avoid being manipulated by it from the exterior.

The ignorant are those whose desires are controlled from the exterior, rather than the interior. Exploiting, enslaving deceivers who corral the ignorant, feed their desires as a rancher gives his cows a salt lick. We each have a real duty to our own integrity to make the focused effort at critiquing ourselves first in a system self-check, to ourselves that we aren’t contributors (on either side) to the ignorance problem going on around here. And we can start by asking ourselves “Is this thing that I want, or want to believe, actually necessary? Or are my desires being artificially manufactured, taken advantage of, and exploited?”