Taxing The Taxed Taxidermy Taxi Driver

When we're fully fed, with a roof over our heads, not far from our comfortable beds, we...

Do we...

Are we...

How big is your zoo enclosure?

To devote myself to this space, I believe I participate in an activity called meditating.  I let my thoughts wander for a while, listen for echoes with strong emotional meanings to more than one person, look for nonrecurring patterns or trends, and start writing.

The narrative of y/our lives.

Tiresome, at times, because of personal lack of sleep or general cultural malaise.

Blended into the background of the edge of the forest.

How much space do you need for the words "freedom," "happiness," and "personal destiny" to lose significance?

Do you know or care about how to deprogram yourself out of your current lifestyle?

Do you feel ownership of or indebted to your current lifestyle?

Do you need the feeling of a virtual or real solid floor under your feet?

I care about me but I don't care just about me.  The "me" that exists in this body that writes this blog is a result of inner/interspecies breeding/training.

Thus, to care about me means to care about my subculture/culture/planet.

When all my needs are met, in a general cultural sense (meaning all our basic needs are met as a species), I know I/we will suddenly become aware of the bars/fence/barrier of the zoo in which I/we live I/we call this planet.

The older I age, the smaller this planet shrinks.  I am me but I am also my civilisation and the network of civilisations on this planet.

Life finds a way to adopt/adapt mutations to local situations.

Language is part of the environment around me.

Thus, the problems of the people world are manifest in the sunlight, trees, birds, insects and air around me.

How we model in our thoughts the universe around us affects our momentary decisionmaking.

The trees in front of me have flourished as individuals and species because they've never been overconsumed/overwhelmed by other species and/or the accidents/ravages of nature such as fires, droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, etc.

Life is happenchance in the moment.

Many people are happy to let themselves be entertained in one moment, and from moment to moment, with no thoughts about life outside the borders of their lives.  They may choose the form of entertainment that pleases them or let others herd them toward pleasing entertainment - either way is just as satisfying as the other.

Who chooses/creates the entertainment?  What do we do with a society/civilisation that has met its basic needs and has few strong desires beyond staying in a cycle of filling those needs over and over, with distractions/entertainment to make the basic-needs fulfillment feel fresh and new?

Language and technology constantly change.  We adapt to the changes or adopt the changes for our local situations, no two situations being exactly the same.

Thus, I ask myself, as our local civilisations continue to converge into one megacivilisation, if one goal for our species will suffice as we meet the basic needs for more and more of our population.

For instance, when the United States of America no longer exists as the superpower to hate, what becomes of the subcultures whose sole purpose is to attack the symbols the United States represents?  What happens to their idealistic training?  How do we repurpose subcultures like that?

In other words, where there are pockets of resistance to meeting the basic needs of local populations (I'll let your imaginations fill in the reasons for the resistance), how do we overcome the resistance?

I don't dream of being an astro/cosmo/taikonaut (although I know we need them to accomplish my dream).  I dream of normal life beyond this planet, normality being a condition where we meet our basic needs on places other than Earth, further pushing out the walls of our virtual/real zoo.  How do we package and repackage such a dream, keeping it fresh for those who've met their basic needs and satisfy themselves with various forms of entertainment while living from moment to moment?

Do we?

Are we?