Mental Insurrection

This post is NOT silly. I don't care what the tags above stipulate; this is a SERIOUS entry. I'm dead serious. That "silly" tag is lying to you, okay? It's lying! This is a very serious matter I'm dealing with here! So serious, in fact, that it's frakking silly! =P





CURRENT MUSIC:
Bear McCreary - "Storming New Caprica"
Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 Original Soundtrack

Are you fed up with how things are going? Ready to start some kind of insurrection against your oppressors that have been making your life hell for months or years? Feel like it's time to put a bunch of your bosses, skin job toasters, Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht, the Holy Britannian Empire, Galactic Empire personnel, or Redcoats in their places by whatever methods you can resort to?

If you answered "yes" to any one of the above questions, then allow me (and by extension, Bear McCreary) to supply you with music to amplify the effect of your rebellion. "Storming New Caprica" is a battle piece that screams bloody insurrection and uprising throughout the almost-eight minutes it plays for. A percussion-heavy piece (God, those taiko drums are amazing!) backed occasionally by bagpipes and strings, this track will definitely get your pulse pumping as you lead your personal uprising against... well, whatever force it is that previously had you on the defensive.

Of course, with the description I used (and more notably: with the title of this piece), this is bound to be a spoiler to anyone who has yet to see Battlestar Galactica. However, I can't help it - this is such an awesome track to work and drive to. The next time you have to resort to fisticuffs or rebellions to solve your problems, consider having this play in the background. I'm sure the several thousand humans who died while under the leadership of President Gaius Baltar and the Cylon overseers would appreciate it.



"The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy – the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops."
- William Saroyan

Yes; quite. This could allude to why I'm such an asshole at times - because I both agree and disagree with everything everyone does. I fight for what I want, for what I believe to be right and just and awesome.





Good afternoon, my faithful readers "conscripted" soldiers! Today marks a new and (not-so-) important day in our lives. I say this because... well, I don't know why, really. I just felt like holding a personal uprising against something, and I want you all to join me as we fight for whatever it is that has been snuffing us out for so long! It is time to rise up, my brothers and sisters! Rise up and take on the world that has subjugated you unfairly for so long!

*cricket chirp*

...is... is no one rising up to heed the call?




*sigh* Fine. Cards on the table: I wanted to make a dramatic entry about uprisings only because I wanted an entry that was (somewhat) centered around "Storming New Caprica." I know, I know - there's no need for me to start a revolution or anything around here or anything like that. We'll just blame my hyperactive imagination.

However, here's the questions I have to ask you: are you sure we're in no need of some kind of revolt? Are you sure you're not being oppressed by someone - or worse: something - you're powerless against? Can you be certain that you're living life the way you want to live life and not how someone else dictates? Are you able to say "yes" to all of the above questions with unwavering confidence?

Well, if you did, then I have news for you: you've been lied to. You're being subjugated to some kind of unlawful and unjust servitude that is neither voluntary or forgivable. If you find yourself in denial about this and don't believe a crazy word I'm saying, then I hate to say it, but... you've had your mind altered. You're being watched, governed, controlled by a force you've never seen before.

When the toasters have control over your water supply, it's probably too late.

That force? The Cylons. God. Self-doubt. The Nazis. Ourselves. Rather, our shadows.

For years now we've lived our not-so-merry lives in our not-so-merry homes, learning at not-so-merry schools and working at not-so-merry jobs. We've eaten bland food, drank bland alcohol, watched bland television and movies, attended bland social events - and some of us (myself included) have written bland rants about all these things and slapped them on bland blogs.

The truth behind this is that we've been living petty lives, working on petty projects, earning petty paychecks, waging petty wars, holding petty arguments - all for the sake of upholding a sense of "duty" and "honor" and "righteousness." The thing is, we've allowed ourselves to doom and endanger our species by twisting the very ideals we once held so dear so we could obtain petty achievements. It is because of this pettiness - and the petty opinions we have of ourselves - that we've been overtaken and consumed by the shadows we've formed.

For the sake of metaphors, we'll be using the current model of Cylon Centurions (as seen on Battlestar Galactica) to visually represent the shadowy constructs we've forged for ourselves.

Very few of us out there lack a shadowy construct, but for the majority of us out there, we have one, and only a handful know of their existence. In a way, this darker half of us can't be seen and interpreted by normal means. Think of Morpheus' metaphorical explanation of the Matrix in The Matrix:

"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us - even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work; when you go to church; when you pay your taxes. [...] ...a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind."

Unlike The Matrix, however, the machines did not imprison us in this state of being... we did. As life became increasingly difficult and complicated, so did our means of coping with all of the stress that was included. Little by little we began to wall ourselves off from the rest of the world and replaced ourselves with a replicated, automated doppelgänger that began to manipulate and twist the fabric of life we've woven for ourselves. Over time, this veil became so twisted and marred that we ended up casting it away completely, replacing it with another that hardly warrants the term "proper substitute."

Replacing old things for new ones that are supposedly better? Sounds like something the machines would do...

In the name of survival, we laid ourselves off our jobs of life, cast away the old, honorable selves we built for ourselves, and became victims in crimes we've committed against ourselves. It's become common action for us to just waste ourselves away to the point where we're just clunkering husks of matter that once resembled us. We don't look the same anymore. We don't look real anymore. We don't even recognize ourselves anymore. We've doomed ourselves, and we didn't even know it.





We need to stop this injustice we've subjected upon ourselves and rise up against the lackluster lives we've been living out! For far too long have we sat here and done nothing with ourselves! Far too long have we struck down the dreams and hopes we've birthed! Far too long have we replaced our happiness and our lives with an automated, machine-like sense of "survival" and "self-preservation!" Far too long have we been chained and tethered down, restricted by the very corruption we've created and let loose upon ourselves!

Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon => ==> Centurion SJ-009XT "Steve"

I say we rise up and kill these shadow doppelgängers we've spawned! Judge them, execute them, burn their existence away, and put ourselves back on the thrones we unwittingly built for them! For justice! For glory! For Sparta! For the lives we deserve, and the future we wish to see through!


SO SAY WE ALL!





(Author's Note: Well... this was certainly a fun post to write. In actual honesty: this post was indeed silly, just like the tags indicated. And this post was full of Battlestar Galactica references, just like the tags indicated. I just wanted to stoke the bonfire that my imagination created this morning when I woke up.

"Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt. And my momma didn’t raise herself no dirty boy."
- Franko Tildon (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Yeah. That bonfire. Anyway, this was just a test of sorts. I tested myself and how far I could extend my imagination and the boundaries of "crazy" I have within myself. The writing tests my ability to see if I could pull sense out of an otherwise nonsensical topic. You reading this entry tests how far you're willing to go to endure my eccentricity and outlandish metaphors. But as a whole, this entire entry is a test we've placed upon ourselves... one that tests if we can identify the meaning behind the metaphors and do something about it.)





So, until the 'morrow, ladies and gentlemen. I'll see you with a special entry tomorrow!