If you think my previous post about Elon, Inefficiency, & Why Babies Suck was an attack on babies you missed the plot completely. I may live on the extremes, but my love and empathy for all living creatures runs deep!
The use of playful euphemism related to a newborn’s favorite pastimes (literally sucking and defecating) are simply the trojan horse for a two-pronged assault on humanity’s most formidable enemies: religion and transhumanism.
That is, however, topic fodder for a Part 3: Alien Babies, False Religion, & Transhumanism. Plot twist! Today I’m on another path.
It makes no sense that humans are wired the way we are, if we operate from the assumption that Earth’s creator(s) is(are) benevolent.
The more I examine the source code as I’m observing a new little life downloading and installing it all, the more the red flags are popping up.
Granted, my own current worldview and understanding of life itself is in a place where I’m both highly skeptical of this planet’s dominant System™, and fervently seeking to climb the difficult path toward enlightenment – so my views may be slightly colored by this positioning. But only slightly! ;)
Humans aren’t the only life worth analyzing though, and while we’re obviously unique in our intellectual ability, we also curiously have many animalistic tendencies, which are often powerful drivers of behavior.
In addition, other mammals share similar DNA to ours, which allows for interesting comparisons when they also have the same seemingly faulty operating systems.
For example, most baby animals have the capacity to receive consolation, and to calm down, regardless of the situation. But some do not have that chip, and once their alarm is turned on, it continues unabated, until the action which flipped the switch, reverses course.
Piglets are a commonly known example. If you can catch one -an art form in itself!- they will scream bloody murder at a decibel level audible seven counties over, even if you’re simply holding them and gently scratching their ears.
Baby pigs are incapable of turning that despondent crying off, until they’re released. Despite centuries of domestication, there’s something in their base instinct which is either still completely wild, or it’s flawed.
Because other domestic animals don’t act like that. A terrified abandoned puppy will eventually shift from screaming in terror, to blissfully receiving love.
You can catch and scare a calf, or a lamb, or a kitten, and once they come to grips with your energy as peaceful and not intending harm, they’ll quite rapidly chill tf out.
Heck, when I was a kid in Ghana, I even nursed a baby chicken to moderate health despite its broken leg for several days, keeping it happy and fed, before the cat tragically ate it one night.
So if a chicken -direct descendants of some freakish reptilian avian dinosaur- has the capacity to understand when its caretaker comes in peace, and can regulate its nervous system…why do human babies and our not-so-distant swinish cousins, lack it?
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Now, a bit of a disclaimer, which bums me out that it’s necessary to explain, but it is: I am not a monster.
I have a vast capacity for empathy, and I’m simultaneously capable of nuanced objective thought.
I have my be-the-best-dad-possible side, and also my philosopher side.
It’s the philosopher side writing these posts and questioning everything in new ways, being mentally stimulated in large part by the requisite stoicism demanded by the process.
I have an incredible chance to re-learn life through a child’s eyes, which I’ve had the great privilege to do over many years with my stepkids, but not from birth.
The process of infancy is one that in many ways I am learning for the first time – and it’s absolutely chock-full of horrible realizations to the flaws in our human design, and rational questions as to why.
Yet I’ve found quite a bit of gratitude realizing that we DON’T remember the process, because holy fuck, talk about traumatic!
Needlessly so, in my view, unless…it serves a darker purpose?
From this side of the journey now as an adult, it’s obvious there is plenty to unpack and resolutely re-examine.
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Today’s twisted aspect which merits far more than a single post (and will likely get the full treatment, over time) is that one of the few things which can console a newborn is famous because of Jesus Christ – swaddling.
In the first few months of life, a newborn human still feels like it’s connected to mom and somehow in the womb – this out here is all just a dream. So when nothing else works to console them and stop the screaming, or get them to relax and sleep, swaddling often does.
If you’re not familiar with it, just think of it like a straight-jacket (albeit made from soft organic bamboo fibers!) held tightly in place by the strong arms of dad or grandma, which prevents any motion from the child as they’re rocked to sleep.
You might think that sounds nice, but look at it more deeply.
The human psyche is wired from birth to be uncomfortable when left unhindered, to feel insecure, and to be anxiously afraid of freedom.
Babies don’t handle very well being “free”, and if left to move their arms and legs around with no resistance for too long, they freak out!
They long for the feeling of confinement, that warm, firm embrace squishing them into compliance which they consider to be home.
Being limited by external means, is the trigger for maximum comfort.
And early on for a newborn human, it’s one of the only triggers which is functional.
As someone who has always questioned authority and fought to break the rules -especially arbitrary ones- understanding this about our innate homo sapien wiring pisses me off.
We’re literally designed to eschew personal liberty in exchange for desiring to be controlled, manipulated, and physically restrained!
Feeling trapped and unable to move of our own volition, and being comforted by the strength of our captors, is a pre-configured mechanism we arrive here with. WTF!
It’s literally one of the strongest signals hard-wired into our OS, a need and a desire to be externally governed in order to feel like things are ok.
I’ve never swaddled a piglet so I’m unclear on how far the analogy stretches (maybe forking a pig would be a more apt comparison), but it’s terrifying enough to realize we as humans are built to love our chains.
That we arrive seeking only the material, insatiable in our desires, inconsolable except through restraint of our ability to move and act independently.
That one of the first lessons we receive on this planet is comfort comes from the use of our voice, based not in the verbalization of rational thought but rather in our ability to turn up the volume.
Is it any wonder that western society has been driven to the edge of the abyss by a tiny minority who have figured out if they just scream loud enough, their cause will be embraced by the powers that be?
We may snicker at the memes of the blue-haired lesbian protesting capitalism while wearing Nikes and using her iPhone in Starbucks, yet that epitomizes the base architecture of our species!
Any newborn could explain, in a way that 10,000 alternative media pundits have failed to understand, that enslavement is comforting and shrill protest is the currency which pays to gently lock those chains.
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You might say that I’m being really extreme here, or that I’m a terrible human for examining the roots of the system we live within on this planet, rather than simply accepting all the other explanations and chiding about babies and lessons for the adults on patience and empathy and healing our own childhood wounds.
There’s truth to the lessons that adults learn through parenting, certainly.
I’m here to share with you one of them is that our world is built on a faulty design, on purpose (!), and if there’s any truth to THAT lesson then we owe it to ourselves, or at least to our descendants, to figure out cui bono and if there’s any way to be freed.
One thing I’m 100% sure of is coincidences do not exist in our world – when something appears as such, it’s a thread which should be pulled on and followed until discoveries are made behind the curtain.
For example, Mary wrapping the Son of God in “swaddling clothes” and laying Him in a manger, aka a wooden feeding bin for cattle. It’s the most famous instance of swaddling in history.
But could there be a more clear subconscious signpost for our desire to be held captive by forces stronger than us?
And then, once we are capable of conscious thought, it becomes a delightfully tacky story we use to illustrate the importance of humility, servitude, and acceptance of our predestination.
(Woven into ancient customs rich with child-sacrifice symbolism, of course…but none of that matters to our progressive selves this century because it’s all been purified and renewed by the Church.)
We’re so clever when it comes to 1984 references with societal norms, but completely blind to our cognitive dissonance when religion tells us “obedience is freedom, servanthood is greatness”.
No. It’s not.
Mother Teresa died nearly agnostic, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has looked at the “virtue” of altruism with a dose of skepticism.
You do not live your own unique purpose on this journey, by abandoning self.
When you chase selflessness as the prerequisite for receiving love from a deity, you’ve given up what it means -or could mean- to be you, in order to operate as a cog in someone else’s machine.
I understand that babies are born without the capacity for reasoning, choosing, or autonomy in any regard.
You and I as adults, have no such excuse.
And yet how often do we abdicate our responsibility to look at evidence and question, simply because it’s not going to be popular to do so?
I might be the only person crazy enough to look at a newborn, to treat them with all the love and care they need and yet simultaneously think, “Wait a second, there’s something fucked up here and it’s definitely not my genes, it’s the way this whole thing is designed!”
You can criticize my focus on “the negative” but the good stuff is a given – of course there’s beauty and wonder and love and joyful innocence and the bonds of family and all of it. But we don’t evolve by just talking about what everyone already knows and accepts.
Let’s be willing to rock the cradle AND the boat.
I am dedicated to re-learning life alongside my child, so they can be exponentially better than me in every aspect.
In their own form, certainly – I have zero interest in raising a clone or living vicariously through any other person, especially my kids. I’ve been on the receiving end of that.
But I do want them to be better than me, as a human. Wiser, more cautelous, more passionate about their connection to their (spiritual) creator and less dependent and enslaved by this material world.
In order to help with that guidance, I need to understand aspects of my own existence which previously I’d never seriously considered.
The more about infancy that I examine and live through with my own kid, combined with the stories I’d never heard until now about my own time as a developing pre-conscious being, the more shocking the core of this reality becomes.
I often say we are not here for vacation, we’re here to learn lessons, to learn grow and evolve as spiritual beings having this human experience.
But looking at a phase of life now which I’d never previously considered too deeply before, has been startling, to say the least.
Everything about our existence here is based in lies, and as adults with a modicum of political understanding most of us now accept that. At least insofar as pertains to The System.
But it goes far beyond mere politics, or even religion. Terms like “the matrix” have unfortunately been twisted into comical form by certain characters, and yet The Matrix film may be a more accurate documentary of our world than the sum total of what’s on the Gaia network.
I don’t have all the solutions yet, and I’m not just being critical of the helplessness, desperation, and material insatiability humans come to this planet with.
There’s something sinister about the setup, and the way it all functions.
Everything from birth to death follows consistent, predictable, and deranged patterns which we are taught to accept unquestioningly, as we’re herded from one pen to another by invisible hands.
To what end?
And why is the pursuit of knowledge so fundamental to our story as to be THE forbidden fruit?
Babies are not capable of rational thought, of conscious choice, or even of basic survival. But I am. And you, if you’re able to read this, you are as well.
So this is not a pop-therapy suggestion to go back and uncover hidden trauma and try and heal your inner child.
This is a warning that whoever designed the process your actual human self went through, purposely did so in a way that would most seamlessly trap you in the system of fear, dependence, and unthinking obedience!
I’m just asking who, why, and how to break free from it all.
The answers likely won’t be popular, and may get me ostracized even from family and friends, but if I’m going to succeed in helping my offspring to chart a healthier course for their journey, this seeking is a requirement.
Part 1 is here: ELON, INEFFICIENCY, & WHY BABIES SUCK
Part 3 is here: ALIEN BABIES, FALSE RELIGION, & TRANSHUMANISM