Today’s video is about a few unpleasant truths :

And so in that spirit, and to break up the soul squeezing introspection, I thought I would deal with another cold hard truths that human beings find very hard to accept.

We’re in charge.

And that’s it. There’s no higher level to appeal to, no cosmic parent taking care of things for us so we can continue in innocence, no wise alpha entity looking out for us.

It’s just us naked beach apes clinging to the skin of a dirtball called Earth as it careens through space completely outside of our control.

And we hate that idea. If it’s just us, then we are responsible for our actions and there is no cosmic purpose for our existence, no afterlife where perfect justice will be meted out, no escape clause from the truth of our mortality (and that of every person we have ever loved), no Infinite Parent offering unconditional love in infinite depth and quantity.

There is just us bunch of monkeys fucking around and trying to be human beings.

It’s an awful thought, isn’t it? That all there is to life is what we humans manage to get done? That we are naked before the Cosmos, vulnerable to forces beyond our control, trying to make the best of things in an imperfect, unjust, uncaring universe in which we are no more important than the dirt between our toes.

Our naive egotism and social species insecurities can’t stand that thought, and so we invent ways to hide the ugly cold truth and continue playing make believe that we really are important, special, loved, protected, and that the Infinite Parent will take care of everything and everything will all work out in the end.

Because if we truly are all there is… then we would seriously have to grow up and get out shit together.

And like the children we are, we really do not want to have to do that. If we grow up, we will have to face reality, behave responsibly, be good to one another without reward, and do all the things we have always known we should do but never quite seem to get around to doing.

Being crazy poo-flinging monkeys is so much easier, and way more fun.

So we use those great big brains of ours to pretend there is Someone Else In Charge. We put our faith in leaders, nations, institutions, movements, organizations, and of course, in deities which are clearly simply imaginary friends for supposed grownups.

Anything to protect us from the idea that it really is just us dirty little monkeys in charge.

But what’s that about leaders? Surely our leaders are in charge and they are looking after things for us so that we don’t have to worry about them, right?

And maybe they are.

But maybe they are just regular naked beach apes like the rest of us, no better suited for being in charge of things than you or I or that guy down the street, and what we call “leadership” is actually elaborate social theater whose true purpose is to simply fulfill the need in us to think there is Someone In Charge so we can go back to being self-absorbed and irresponsible.

And this continues even in this modern age of democracy and freedom. Politicians come and go, fulfilling their role of thinking they are in charge as we fulfill our roles of believing them, and we are happy.

We are happy even though the whole extent of our influence on our governments is one vote once every four years or so. That is just enough to give us the comforting feeling that we are in control without the very dangerous and unpleasant feeling that we are actually in charge and hence responsible for what our governments do.

Thus, modernity continues, and most of us can get away with hardly ever thinking about politics even during election periods, and we can all relax, safe and secure in the knowledge that no matter what happens, it is not our responsibility and there’s nothing we can do about it.

But it’s all a big lie we tell ourselves to avoid facing the facts.

It just us horny moody monkeys in charge of this whole big planet. We only have one life, one planet, one chance, one chip to play in the casino of life.

If there is justice, it is because we created it. If there is someone out there taking care of everything so that we don’t have to think about it, they are still us, regular people like you and me, people called “civil servants”. If there is a source of unlimited unconditional love, compassion, and understand, it is because we dreamed it up.

And if there is mercy and compassion and comfort in the world, it is because we stepped up and provided it. If a starving beggar finds earthly salvation in a bowl of soup and a kind word from a stranger, it is because one of us, a human being just like you, decided to provide that. If a battered wife finds refuge and protection in a shelter, it is because other human beings made the decision to be there for her. If a mother driven to despondency because she realizes she has destroyed her relationships with her children finds someone in the same position to talk her down from the ledge, it’s because someone made sure that someone like that would be there for someone like her.

In short, if there is good in the world, it is because we made the decision to put it there.

We. Us. We crazy big brained sex crazed monkeys did it by ourselves, for ourselves, without any Infinite Parent or Wise Old Alpha needed.

Because when you realize how alone we are, you realize how important it is for us to stick together, look out for one another, and be there for each other when we are down.

We are all we’ve got.