Paradise Lost

One would think that if it was truly paradise, there’d be nothing, or very little to complain about, rather than a litany of grumbles to begin every day. Obviously, it is not paradise -- but a very troubled place, and expensive for that privilege. That just doesn’t make sense anymore.

The truth of the matter is that there is nothing about Hawaii justifying paying 3-4 times as much as one would pay in the rest of the states -- for much better quality, because they actually produce it, rather than importing everything.

Places are paradise when everything seems cheap or free -- but when you have to pay twice as much for “amenities” that one seldom uses, people really need to look for a higher quality of life at a lower cost -- that makes it seem like they are really living in paradise, and not just having to pay for it, and getting substandard facilities and little in return.

Nobody should have to pay anything to live in a prison cell -- yet that is what a lot of people do, convinced as they are, that that is paradise, and the best of all worlds. Yet they complain mightily and incessantly -- but are uncertain if it can be better anywhere else.

They’ve also been convinced that everywhere else is far worse -- and they should not even bother considering elsewhere, or any other changes in their lives. What they have, is what they must continue to have -- without any choice or exploration of any alternatives than the one way they must accept. That is their fate, for life is not freedom but the sentence handed down from higher authorities, and who those higher authorities are, should not be questioned.

Countless many will speak as though for those authorities, “the will of the people,” God Himself, etc. Eventually, everyone becomes such a deluded person, claiming theirs alone is the true voice of God. Obviously, the regard such people have for their fellow citizens, is disdain and contempt for their ability to think for themselves. Instead, they must be tricked, deceived, manipulated, coerced to achieve one’s ends.

A few operating in that manner can be identified and isolated; when everyone operates that way, that society must end because it does not convey any survival value -- as the destruction of all others, become the imperative.

Thus in reading the local newspapers, one gets the distinct impression that hate, bias, prejudice, are the only experiences that culture has to offer anymore -- and what has one got to lose finding out what life can be elsewhere, otherwise, or even seen from a different perspective -- as the one handed down that must be obeyed?

Paradise is the freedom from that tyranny.