Blue Blood and Red Crosses

Don't say anything, but the lunatics are running the asylum. And none of them are taking their meds.

Make sure to speak with hushed voices in shadowed places about the way they fight and murder one another over religious beliefs and crusade for the spread of democracy.

Democracy. That pretty word they like to use as if it means something to them.

But whatever you do, don't call them on it. They'll label you a nonconformist. A malcontent. A counter-culture rebel. A terrorist even. After that they'll whip the masses up into a paranoid frenzy and have them lynch you as if you deserve it. As if you're a liar. As if you had it coming.

After all, you should be happy drowning in this sea of mediocrity like the rest of humanity. Ecstatic for simply being alive and struggling against this bureaucratic machine that sputters and kicks, that consumes and farts out life as if it were meaningless. We should be satisfied being good little sheep and grateful for our regular intellectual fleecing.

There is no questioning their authority. They've created perfectly good myths for us to believe in and fight for, so we should be satisfied. It only stands to reason. It goes without saying that, when they tell us they need our children to sacrifice their lives for their agendas, we offer up our sons and daughters like sacrificial lambs.

And for Christs sake, whatever you do, don't mention that you notice they have an agenda.

Don't speak up. Keep your head down. Play dumb. Stay under the radar. Pretend you don't notice their lies and manipulations. Otherwise you'll become a target for open ridicule. They'll make an example out of you. You'll find yourself swinging from their hypocritical gallows.

Pretend you share their spiritual faith and their hysterical sense of justice. Make like you believe they care, that you trust them and that everything is fine with their gods. Mouth the archaic dogmatic mantras of their prophets like you mean it. Like its engraved in your heart and ingrained in your psyche. Wear a cross around your neck and keep a bible in your pocket. Be sure to thank god publicly for all the things you've accomplished for yourself.

If you seek their approval act as if you feel noble living a life of impoverishment and selflessness. Make like you require their guidance and leadership, as if it's so much more than anything you could ever begin to understand. Stroke their fragile egos. And be sure to regurgitate their mantras of faith and politics. Use their vernacular like it's your own.

If you have no desire to be punished don't let them know you can think for yourself. Or that you've realized that they've made god in their own image.

Know your rights, but for your own sake don't try to exercise them.