The dark side of the human psyche

By Johnny D. Symon

I've had so much workload thrust on me the past two weeks that I've felt like a 100-year old grizzly with an aching head. As one project neared completion yet another slid itself into overlap, and on it flew, day in day out. Maybe it's just as well that I missed last Friday's deadline, for truth be known I'd, for a short spell, misplaced my dubious sense of humor, and the space it'd left behind was filled with a strange bedfellow growling at each and every human being crossing my path.

Yet it wasn't people per se that I threw my negative energies at, it was the world in general. One thing in particular set the big bad ball rolling, then off I flew, for yet again the world contracted another empty and irrational fear. This time round it was swine fever. When I first heard about it I thought swine fever would make a great substitute to the lyrics of that famous song by the Bee Gees ... Night Fever. Thankfully, for all you good readers out there, I was too busy to rewrite the song, though I still think that my reworked idea, albeit in poor taste, would nevertheless have been mighty funny. Perhaps any humor is better than none, I thought, then my workload made the better of it.

Nonetheless, even with my powerful work schedule, two nights back I still dropped tools to watch a Spanish comedy show called "Muchachada Nui." I haven't worked out what the show's title means, anymore than I can fathom what my mountainous work schedule's all about, but unlike my two weeks of scant humor, Muchachada was one long unbroken laugh session. I reckon the show can be likened in a remote sense to the old "Monty Python's Flying Circus" series. It's intelligent humor with a crazy edge. And while they do poke fun at celebrities, film and TV stars, musicians and such like, just twice have I seen them poking fun at politicians. Apolitical for a show of this type is a sound idea I believe.

Well this time one of the team impersonated the actor Bud Spencer, and had him teach kids at Hooligan High School. A clear spoof on the "To Sir With Love" movie. At one point a cartoon Bic pen spoke into his ear recommending that he exact extreme violence on his students.

In another sketch, entitled "Elephant Man 2," (aptly presented as a film sequel to that long forgotten classic about some poor dude born with protuberances on his head and body that everyone likened to an elephant, while his memory failed to follow suit,) this Elephant Man in particular had been invited to a restaurant by several of his male colleague friends in order to celebrate his birthday. When it was time to hand over presents, one by one he asked each giver the same question, "Where's the receipt? Hand it over!" And although each present was carefully gift wrapped, he began to unwrap just one of them, then realized that he'd have to summon up help to do it because his hands were too fat and clumsy, he did tell the guy though to unwrap it carefully and not tear the paper. One dude he asked concerning the receipt, believed that he no longer had it. "Look," he said, "I bought it just this morning, but I have no idea where the receipt is. Okay? I'm sorry but that's it." Elephant Man sat back a little, then said, "Hmmm, why don't you look in that little pocket in your jeans?" And sure enough when the guy looked, there it was. Now you can't beat elephant wisdom. Later on the bill arrived and Elephant Man said, "I note that we're all to pay 35 euros each. Well look here, I only drank water from the faucet, so my share's 30!"

Possibly there lies the undercurrent of a telling message. Elephant Man's friends were there because they felt sorry for him, I mean he was real ugly, and they wanted to pamper the ugly guy, yet sadly they discovered that the ugly guy was even uglier inside than out. He didn't care about what they gave or why they gave it, he only cared about the taking, he wanted the money not the thought, and he was as tight as a drum with it. The guy was nothing less than a lowdown higgling huckster, possibly because he'd let his ugliness get the better of him. Therefore this week's little telling message, I suppose, goes as follows; Beauty and ugliness may or may not be skin deep.

For some reason I began to think of Mahmoud Abbas as Elephant Man 2, because I wrote something in "Israel: Right Off the Map!" back in 2005, by way of a recommendation. I wanted G W Bush to ask The Arab League if they accepted Israel's right to exist as a nation, as part of G W's bombed out fools-errand of a peace process. This question has always been avoided, and for me was the most vital element in any talks involving Israel and Palestine. Finally, last week, Benjamin Netanyahu, the only man honest and spiritually sound enough to ask that star question received his fat answer from Abbas, who said, "No. We do not recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation."

The Palestinians for many years have been creaming off Western taxpayers' money, given in the hope that eventually they'd peacefully settle alongside their neighbor. I've always regarded the giving of this money as firmly in the realm of bribery, the type condemned in the Bible. Therefore last week's little revelation by Palestine's Elephant Man 2 should be regarded as that's all she wrote on this situation. But political swine fever must have it's way; Politics over Prophesy. A denial of the efficacy of scriptural augur, and a promotion of every evil imagining of man's heart as a replacement.

There once lived a wise Rabbi in Italy way back in the early 18th Century named Moshe Chayim Luzzatto, who wrote a book entitled "Derech haShem," (The Way of God.) In one section of this book he outlines some of the main reasons why the world is not as it should be; The rejection of wisdom, lack of true devotion. Truth is then ignored, wickedness is upheld and predominates. Resultantly tranquility diminishes, as does security. The world is then abandoned to the much perceived laws of nature. The wicked become strong and the relatively good are dispatched to the bottom of the heap.

And I reckon this scenario aptly describes the present-day; Worldwide panic over a little pig flu, and over a little "climate change," over the perceived possibility of a meteor hitting earth and wiping us out. The fear of terrorism, and of terror prevailing, rising sea levels and of humanity baking the world to death, and so on and so forth. I suspect that fear is as addictive as any drug, maybe more, and it sure is contagious. But unlike other addictive drugs, this one is mentioned in the Bible as having just one enemy, one cure, for it says "perfect love casts out fear." Yet perfect fear can indeed cast out less than perfect love, which is why swine fever is today all the rage.

"And as we look upon the Uncharted Forest far in the night,
we think of the secrets of the Unmentionable Times.
And we wonder how it came to pass that these secrets were lost to the world. We have heard the legends of the great fighting, in which many men fought on one side and only a few on the other. These few were the Evil Ones and they were conquered. Then great fires raged over the land. And in these fires the Evil Ones were burned. And the fire which is called the Dawn of the Great Rebirth, was the Script Fire where all the scripts of the Evil Ones were burned, and with them all the words of the Evil Ones. Great mountains of flame stood in the squares of the Cities for three months. Then came the Great Rebirth."
— From Anthem, by Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand painted a picture representing a world where people were simply numbers and categories, everyone had their place and their function, in a society far removed from Biblical truth. The dark side of the human psyche paved and led the way.

Strangely enough Rand's vision is fast becoming a reality today, a false reality fueled and funded by fear, not fear of the unknown but the dread of drawing closer to an understanding, yet again, of an undying truth the ancients gained knowledge of that later generations then roundly rejected.

"I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress:
my God; in Him will I trust.
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings
shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;
nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;
nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
— Psalm 91:2-6

I slammed this section of Psalm 91 down on y'all because not only does it outline a good few things the righteous should not be afraid of, it in effect alludes to include many other things that present-day earth dwellers should not be afraid of either. Global warming, global cooling, rising sea levels, or even drought, and pestilence comes in many forms, especially in the 21st Century; the United Nations is a prime example.

Two years or so back many world dwellers grew scared over a little bird flu, and now it's history, near forgotten. Swine fever will go down the same road as every other threat and fear, leaving those doomsayers further space to dream up the next knee-shaking episode for our ongoing 21st Century masquerade.

But I for one refuse to bow the knee to fear and trepidation, and intend to reinforce my own sense of humor in this world, even if more than often it's in bad taste, for in effect most humor has it's dark side, necessarily so, because it's our way to laugh in the face of adversity, and it's proof that what we believe in cancels out and rejects the ways of the world.

I once heard a story about some guy who walked into a bar one night and ordered three beers. Then one after the other he drank them down, paid, then walked out. The following night he was back. Three more beers he ordered and drank, paid, then walked out. Night after night for about three weeks he followed the same routine, until one night the barman could contain his curiosity no longer, and he asked the guy why he always ordered three beers and drank all of them in succession. "Well," he replied, "It's like this. I have two brothers. One lives in Berlin and the other in Australia. When we were younger, and still together, we'd enjoy a beer together after work, now we can't, so it's my way of reliving the experience."

Well the bar guy was satisfied with the man's story. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, three beers a night in an unbroken order. Until one night the guy walked into the bar and ordered just two beers. With this the barman, who had taken a liking to the guy over the months, began to worry, and he said to him, "Has one of your brothers passed away?" "No," he replied, "Why do you ask?" "Well you only ordered two beers this time, so I assumed you'd had a bereavement." "Why no. It's just that I've given up drinking, so from now on I drink on my brothers' behalf!"

The thing about this joke is that, like all jokes, it has a dark side and a parallel truth. I reckon the guy drank three beers a night for himself, then later on as our so-called world financial crisis bit, the boy could only afford two beers instead of three, but his pride would not have him admit it. But whatever truth lies behind that joke, I find it funny all the same, and glad that someone dreamed it up, or even lived it, who knows?

© Johnny D. Symon