Control is an illusion.
OK, I posted something like this a long time ago in a community far, far away.
However you look at it, regardless of how you read this, no matter your beliefs and values…control is an illusion. There is often an assumption that some controls are absolute, others are more relative. This is an error in logic. The perception of an absolute control is the only thing remotely absolute.
For example, consider your typical locking doorknob. Yes, it locks, and yes, it is a form of control – controlling access to your home, office or whatever. Now, with a simple pair of channel-lock pliers (aka, water-pump pliers), simply adjust to the size of the cylinder and turn. The lock breaks, the control is rendered ridiculously ineffective. Or, the stand of the Catholic Church on birth control – specifically condoms. Refusing to allow condom machines in Catholic high-school bathrooms only prevents the purchase of condoms in Catholic high-school bathrooms. It doesn’t keep Catholics from using them, and it sure as hell doesn’t deter Catholic high-school kids from having sex. But, as most controls do, they make the controller feel better.
Those who believe they have control do not actually control anyone, they sell the weak-minded on their ability to control. This goes for anyone who applies any type of control, at any time, anywhere. Control is not something that can be taken, it is only something that is given.
Oh, I know, I know …
“Chuck, what about my TV, my remote control controls my TV!”
Really? What happens when the power goes out? Still got that control? Here are a few examples of some of the things that just make me go … hmmm.
SPEED LIMIT: Simple control. And expectation that you will obey. People drive too fast all the time. Get caught? Speeding ticket. Spend some money. Hey, if it is going to cost $200 to gas up, what’s another $150 for doing 25 km/h over? Get caught again? Ticket, and perhaps you lose your license. Oh … woe is me … I have become completely stupid and inept because I don’t have a piece of laminated paper. I can tell you right now no GOOD person, with BILLS to pay, is going to NOT go to work because they lost their license. Thirty days of driving extra-carefully is not hard to do. Now, if you have someone who just likes to drive like an idiot … tickets and suspensions won’t do shit. So, the next control? Impound the car. Meh … you only need to borrow your sibling’s MR2 … and guess what? Or, hell, I hear that people are STEALING cars these days. You don’t even need a license in the first place, because you can go 0.5 of light speed, and they will only charge you with theft … not speeding.
ESRB: Now here is something that everyone thought would work. The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a system set up by the people who make and distribute video games (Entertainment Software) that rates games (Rating), based on a random trio of reviewers (Board) who do the rating with no bias but their own sensibilities. It makes sense that “Teen” is a rating in which the reviewers felt that people playing the game should be between 13 and 17 (or older, of course). Retailers are not required to honour the system, but some voluntarily do. “Mature” (when games are rated for 17 and older) titles are just as available as Teen, Everyone, Child. Again, it is an ‘honour system’ that doesn’t require retailers to abide by the ratings. The really, IMHO, stupid control in all this is the “AO” or “Adults Only” rating. Not only are AO-rated games unsaleable in any country that uses the ESRB but also are any games that are deemed “AO” are retooled ad minimum in order to slip into the “M” rating. The process is so subjective that once the report is given, sometimes re-submitting the software title without change might actually become “M” rated. Do not misunderstand the contempt for control to mean that the ESRB is not effective as an information source, as their ratings are a good way for responsible parents to have some idea of what their children are doing.
So, when you think about different types of “control”, actually think about what that control actually is. Why give that control of your actions or thoughts to someone else?
Why does this bother me so much? Because scapegoating is so prevalent.
Why were you street racing?
Because I saw it in a video game.
Why did you rape that woman?
Because I watched a pornographic movie.
Why did you kill all those people?
Because God told me to.
All of these are simply saying, “I was controlled by someone/something else”. I don’t know if society has decided that with all of the neuroses and psychoses that are around [making medical practioners and pharmaceutical companies rich] that there is some ‘need’ to ‘blame’. So many people do not realize how much they weaken their positions blaming things that really have none. Lawyers and politicians shouting about videogames and pornography and how those have been hurting us.
I am standing up and saying, “I am responsible for myself”.
London Speak