"Paradise" is a State of Mind

The problem with being Paradise is that people assume that nothing could be better -- which is the familiar Island mentality of complacency and indifference -- that because things have always been done that way, they must go on that way forever, even if it makes no sense at all, and eventually, gives no meaning to anything we do. We simply go through the motions, repeating every day like every other before it, and the editors of the newspapers, and other transmitters of conventional wisdom, will knowingly proclaim as though upholding the gods, “History always, and only repeats itself” -- as the self-fulfilling prophecy.

When every appeal to truth and justice is met with that unfailing “wisdom,” it can drive many people crazy -- and particularly those most steadfast in maintaining their own sanity. The cultural institutions will embody denial -- “No, everything your senses tell you is wrong; you must believe us.” In an earlier time, these were called shamans, but these days, are likely to be called “experts” -- the many priests of secret knowledge, the general public was forbidden to. But such ignorance was bliss, and why this place was paradise. The people were all freed from having to think for themselves. They only need follow the directives of the self-appointed royalty, to ensure their good standing.

Then came the age of awakening -- in which many more people decided they wanted to think for themselves, but they were beaten down mercilessly -- by the powers-that-be, who always wished to remain so. And so there came the Great Directive, “Everybody stay in their place! When we die, you can have it all.” But until then, they will have it all -- in custodianship for all the others who would not know what to do with the power of freedom and choice. They, God forbid, might make a mistake -- and then, this would not be paradise anymore. Anything could happen. So the world of possibilities had to be sacrificed to the certainty that things could never change -- even if it were for the better, because we didn’t know for sure if they really might be better, because it was not guaranteed, like trusting the experts.

A certain fate was to be preferred -- over that of any uncertainty, no matter how great. Finding out anything that was not officially certified and taught, was the Great Prohibition; all other intoxicants were tolerable, as long as in their inebriation, they did not upset any apple carts.

People were warned that even if this was not paradise, there was no other place to go; at the horizon, people who ventured beyond, simply dropped off the face of the earth -- never to be heard from again. They were convinced that anywhere else in the world was worse, if not unlivable -- and never the possibility, that life elsewhere might actually be better, beyond one’s wildest imagination.

Paradise is knowing that there are unlimited choices that haven’t been considered beyond the few choices that have been imposed upon us -- as the only possibilities of what life must be.