Reflections on the Elections

I realize this is primarily a food blog, but it’s my blog, and I can write what I want. Don’t worry, I will bring it around to food but bear with me.  First, I want to declare that I have never believed in the idea of progress.  Ancient cultures did not believe that mankind was conveying itself toward some type of Nirvana.  Instead, they believed that things were spiraling downward, as in the words of Yeats: “things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”  For those of you who enjoy philosophy and history, I suggest reading The Idea of Progress, by J.B. Bury.  In 1920, he wrote, “To the minds of most people the desirable outcome of human development would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly happy existence….It cannot be proved that the unknown destination towards which man is advancing is desirable. The movement may be Progress, or it may be in an undesirable direction and therefore not Progress….. The Progress of humanity belongs to the same order of ideas as Providence or personal immortality. It is true or it is false, and like them it cannot be proved either true or false. Belief in it is an act of faith.”

 Having established that I do not believe in progress, let me state that I now believe in evolution, or more accurately, devolution.  What is my evidence?  {Geek Alert}.  In the 1960’s a radical tea party activist named Gene Roddenberry dreamed up an idea for a television show about space travel. Okay, he wasn’t really a Tea Party Activist but he did hold some radical views about freedom and our love of it.  Roddenberry made a pilot episode which was deemed “too cerebral” for television audiences, so to save money he incorporated the story from the original pilot into an a two part episode called “The Menagerie”.  Before Captain Kirk takes the helm of the Enterprise, Captain Pike and the crew stumble upon the Talosians, a civilization that tore itself apart in a nuclear holocaust.  The surviving Talosians retreated underground, and became dependent on their ability to create illusions to amuse themselves.  Eventually, they began taking captives to enhance their amusement even further.  The Talosians capture Captain Pike and attempt to use him to rebuild their civilization by having him mate with another of their captives.  Their illusions place him in a Garden of Eden, with a beautiful woman as his mate. When they are unable to tempt him that way, they capture two women from the Enterprise in order to present him with a choice of mates.  Meanwhile, the crew of the Enterprise prepares to blow up the ship and the planet in order to avoid a life of captivity.  In the end, the Talosians are forced to admit their mistake.  The Keeper states:   “The customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity. Even when it’s pleasant and benevolent, you prefer death. This makes you too violent and dangerous a species for our needs.”

 Do you see where I am going here?  Apparently, 50 years after that television show was written, humans are satisfied with a pleasant and benevolent captivity.  In the show, Captain Pike offered to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the Talosians, but they refused, saying that the humans would eventually learn their talent for illusion and would destroy themselves in the process.  Very prophetic!

 Here is the part where I bring this whole rant back to food and cover it all with a giant tin foil hat.  What has happened to change our society?  How are we now so different from the founders of our great nation, who risked their property and lives to gain our freedom?  Well, what if it has to do with the wheat and sugar that we eat?  I know that sounds like crazy talk. Can wheat rob us of our free will?  We have heard people say they cannot stop eating certain foods; we have heard that some foods are addictive.  Rats are more attracted to sugar than heroin.  When I tell people how I have improved my weight and my health by dropping grains, they usually tell me they couldn’t give up bread.  What if the Talosians had given Captain Pike a table full of pasta, pizza, and donuts instead of a mate?  They could have probably left the cage door open.  Oh, he might have tried to escape but after an hour on the run, when his blood sugar plummeted and he felt hungry and shaky, he would have trotted right back into captivity looking for a snack. 

 What do you think?  Is there another explanation for the fact that over 50 percent of us will trade our freedom for the promise of a shiny, government provided health care plan?  How is it that we can’t tell the difference between freedom and free contraceptives?  Why do we expect someone else to take care of us now and in the future?  I choose to believe that wheat has done this to us rather than to believe that we have moved in this direction on our own.  I know that eating wheat sapped my energy, made me sick, made me fat, and left me feeling that I could not accomplish much on my own.

 As for myself now, I will take care of myself and avoid the poison peddled by the U.S.D.A.  Apparently I will also be forced to take care of half of you.  Good luck with that.

The Talosian Keeper