Monsters of the ID

In the news everybody blames everybody else for what is wrong with this world. The real culprit is mankind's subconscious, the Id. There are monsters that bypass the conscious mind where most people have learned to deal with injustice, racism, and prejudice -- or at least that is what we tell ourselves. We are horrified by the savage and brutal treatment of women and children -- out loud and in public -- but revert to our pernicious and un-enlightened roots of ourselves where we push women and children aside as we, the males of the species, stride to the forefront to be tended to. After all, women and children being kicked and pushed aside as we trample on them and shove them aside is the way the world works. The strongest publicly claim that we stoop down and help the weaker to safer and more stable/secure positions. The strongest publicly claim they would take a bullet for a loved one, throw themselves in front of danger, and would lay down their lives, sacrifice a limb, give up their place in line so that women and children can be saved even if it means the strongest take the fall or give up their lives to make the future safe for women and children. Isn't that why women and children get the seats in rescue vehicles first? Isn't that what men tell themselves when asked for a poll or hold up their hands to be counted for their contribution to the future?

It's a lie.

In the secret recesses of the human heart -- or in the midst of the worst danger -- the truth comes out. Men shove women and children aside as they make a bee line for the safest and best seats in the rescue vehicles. They will not be left behind. As long as they survive, all is well with the world -- and with them. If the women and children die, so what? After all, they say when it is all over, at this point what does it matter? The women and children are dead and nothing these strong and virile men can do will ever bring them back. Dead is dead. At least when the cameras are rolling and their perfidious actions are done. If you don't see it on the news or in some edited footage that fits on the 11 PM news, you believe what you see. Their crocodile tears are real and the mangled, bloody, and dead bodies remain while they weep an ocean of tears and claim, "If only I could have saved them," or maybe, "Why God? They were so innocent, so precious. Why not take me instead?"

No one saw them as they shoved the weaker innocents aside. All that is left is the record of their tears and remorse and their dumbfounded shock at the injustice of it all. Oscar winners all.

As long as they survived, all that matters is the record. No one needs to know the truth as it is only the truth as they tell it while talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Somewhere inside their minds they may even believe their distress is real. The Id, the subconscious part of their minds, is silent, has submerged once again to the depths of the mind and has been replaced by that anguished cry, "Why God?" 

I recently saw a news report where a liberal woman talked about how her husband, one of the first volunteers going to the aid of Syrian refugees in Greece had changed when he came back from refugees. He spoke about how strong, virile young men shoved injured and drowning women and children aside while these young men surged to the front of the line, ignoring the calls for help and the drowning innocents as they helped themselves first. After all, to their minds, if not to the liberal volunteers' minds, women and children were expendable. They were not.

Here in the western world, we abhor and condemn such blatant disregard for the innocent and we say so loudly and often -- in public or in front of our friends and neighbors. Who knows what we really feel when everyone is gone and we are left alone or when we fall asleep and the subconscious takes the stage? Do all of our prejudices and indiscreet opinions surge forth as we imagine the worst? Do the monsters inside of all of us take over and revel in the deaths, blood, and savagery that take center stage? Do the monsters hidden in our subconscious gibber with unholy glee once the lights are off and the stage is open and waiting?

I was reminded of what lies inside of the most generous and helpful of us hidden in the deepest recesses of the subconscious mind as I watched an old favorite science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet,  with Walter Pigeon, Anne Frances, and Leslie Nielsen. Doctor Morbius warned the rescue ship not to land as he would not be responsible for their safety. Morbius did not need their assistance and would not welcome them if the crew refused to heed his warnings.

Morbius had been alone on Altair IV for 20 years with only his work and his daughter for company. He remember what had happened to the rest of the crew of the Bellerophon. They had died at the hands of some unknown and immensely powerful force that resided on Altair IV.

The crew landed and the powerful invisible monster killed some of the crew when it became apparent that the captain, Leslie Nielsen, was determined to take Morbius back to Earth to inform the authorities what had happened to the crew of the Bellerophon and what he had learned of the original inhabitants, the Krell. Morbius refused to share his findings and was adamantly opposed to returning to Earth. That is when the attacks began.

Not even the immense power at the crew's disposal could stop the invisible monster stalking and killing them. Morbius urged the captain and his crew to take off and avoid further blood shed. The captain refused. Worst of all, Morbius's daughter, Altaira, was determined to go to Earth with the crew, sealing her fate and putting her in serious danger. Morbius begged his daughter to change her mind, but her fate was sealed.

The powerful invisible monster attacked Morbius, the captain, and Altaira at Morbius's home. When Morbius ordered Robby the robot to stop the monster, even after the ship's doctor told Morbius that he, Morbius, was the source of the danger, Robby the robot shut down, caught in a logic conflict programmed into him not to harm people. Even with further proof that the monster was a product of Morbius's subconscious, the same fate that the Krell discovered when they built the pinnacle of their science and technology and programmed a computer that work with the power of the mind, ending their technologically marvelous achievements in a day and a night, leaving on the products of their genius in the form of the machine encompassing more than a 40-mile square and plunging to the very depths of the core of the planet behind as evidence of their achievement.

The primitive subconscious mind teemed with their prejudices, fears, and imagination was unleashed by the power of their machines and spelled the end of their existence 200,000 years before the Bellerophon landed and Morbius discovered the power, boosted his IQ, and learned to access their machines. Morbius's subconscious mind was unleashed, given ultimate power, and murdered all who opposed him. Unstoppable and relentless in his pursuit of knowledge, the monsters of Morbius's Id were unleashed and he was left alone with his innocent daughter to live a life free of other people until Nielsen's crew landed on Altair IV and urged the monsters in Morbius's subconscious mind to life.

The only way to stop the slaughter and devastation was to blow up the planet and thus the Krell technology left behind.

The monsters of the Id are powerful and frightening and so much easier to see when we are faced with them in fictions and a lot less visible when they are too close to us. We see the same monsters when Babylon 5 was on TV when a university professor turned archaeologist enlists Dr. Steven Franklin's assistance in helping him to figure out what he found on Ikarra VII. It was organic technology, far advanced compared to what the Earth had, mirroring the technological advances of the Vorlon's that would propel Earth technology ahead -- far ahead.

The problem was that the technology bonded with the professor's assistant, who was willing to murder to further the advance of knowledge and science, setting loose the Ikarrans' doomsday weapon and endangering all life on Babylon 5 because the inhabitants of hundreds of worlds and civilizations were not pure Ikarran as determined thousands of years ago by Ikarran priests and politicians. The monsters of the Ikarran Id embodied in the organic technology and originating with the scientist who built the doomsday weapon were incompatible with the millions of aliens living on Babylon 5. After all, the Ikarrans died out a million years ago so pure Ikarran blood no longer existed and therefore all life was to be destroyed.

This scenario of perfection and purity has been the central theme of literature for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts for a very long time and the ideal of purity is being played out before us right now in Europe and the Western world, and in fact all over the planet, today, right now. The measurement is determined by religion and inadequately  protected by law. Religion has done a very poor job of protecting and creating peace because the rules set for by different religions are wholly incompatible with peace as long as the monsters of the Id remain inside us and unknown to the more enlightened wisdom of the evolution of humanity. Muslims are stuck in the 7th century. Christians are stuck in an ever changing kaleidoscope of values and ethics that seldom keeps pace with modern sensibilities. The Jews do a better job of matching intent with power and generosity towards others. Buddhists with their long history of anti-violence and peaceful enlightenment lag are overturned by the origins of the people who have converted or lived their whole lives with the Buddhist teachings and succumb inevitably to the monsters of the Id. No religion currently practiced on this planet at this point in time is without its flaws and all are moot in the face of the subconscious where the monsters of the Id dwell and flourish hidden in the darkness.

Blacks blame whites and whites blame blacks. Browns blame browns and everybody blames everybody else. We try our best to live good lives keeping the touchstone of religion in the forefront, but religions made by man are also corrupted by man depending on who has the most power, the most insight, the most control and all religions made by man and purportedly based on the word of god or Allah or Jehovah, Jesus Christ, or Buddha are still the work of man and thus subject to revision and interpretation. There are moderate Muslims and there are extremist Muslims. The same is true of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, native Americans, and every version of religion that begin and end with man. The stories abound about the origins of religion, but ultimately it is mankind writing the words down and mankind following the dictates with less and greater success. Miracles happen and are reportedly of the deity [insert name here] and thus sacrosanct . . . as long as the deity conforms with your personal views . . . and is untouched by the most basic of human emotions or view or mind or thoughts or dreams or imagination. The only thing left is LOVE.

LOVE is at the heart of all mankind and trumps everything else. Wherever you begin, if the answer is not LOVE then the answer is wrong and will end in tears and often death.

Look at a situation where you and your opponent disagree. Whatever your position, the moment you offer violence instead of listening and working together, you have failed. Even if it is an idea you disagree about or a possession you both contend over, the moment you refuse the option of sharing or using the possession or looking at the idea from each other's viewpoint, you have failed. It may seem successful if you end up with the item or the idea in contention, but you are not successful. If you win by resorting to struggling over possession or having the upper hand -- or the moral high ground -- you lose. You have failed.

The moment you lie or obfuscate or keep things to yourself, you lose. You have failed.

The moment you default to quoting chapter and verse from your religious book of choice to prove you are right and they are wrong, you lose. You have failed.

Whatever triumph you feel is fleeting. You have already lost. You have failed.

If the end result deviates by an amoeba's cell, you have failed. You lost.

LOVE is the only answer, the only law, and the only success in life.

There is no first in LOVE.  There is no choice if LOVE is at the heart. There is no wrong if there is LOVE. Ultimately, LOVE is the only answer, the only response, the only success. There are no winners and no losers when LOVE is at the heart and soul.

The rest is Ego and the broad road to allow the monsters of the Id to take control and destroy everything.

LOVE is the only answer.

Whatever deviates from LOVE is failure and you have lost. 

We cannot afford purity. The only thing we can afford is LOVE.

That is all. Disperse.