Opinion/Editorial

THE AIR THAT I BREATHE

by James Strauss

“…and to love you”.
I didn’t write the lyrics to that old song. Those come from a Hollies song of the same name, but as is many times the case with musical lyrics, if you listen closely there’s a depth of emotion and meaning that simply seeps into every particle of your being. What is the meaning of life? Whether you go to Shakespeare, Kant, or Monty Python it’s always the same in expression, but totally fragmented and blown apart in practice. It’s all about love.

Hollywood’s inability to maintain the development of story lines dealing with this one significant, foundational element of all human life has caused it to crater into tiny pieces. The literary world in almost every area of fiction, non-fiction, and even the written news, has gone the same way. The advent of high technology has created something more insidious than robots. It’s created robotic life. The drive to create artificial intelligence is going on in every electronics lab in the world, and that drive could potentially be the most damaging pursuit in mankind’s history. Artificial intelligence is coming in without emotion. Remember Spock from the first Star Trek series? Was it his robotic portrayal that attracted so many people to him or was it his infrequent surrenders to emotional need and display? There is little question that it was the latter. Humans do not fall in love with anvils, hammers, desks or rugs. They fall for cars all the time, but as with some pet relationships, humans tend to anthropomorphically make the car human by giving it a name and acting like it has human characteristics.

“All I need is the air that I breathe” simply means that all I have without you in my life is simple existence. The rest is meaningless. In point of fact, the air is meaningless, too, but it makes a great illustrative point. And what is it about love that makes it so special? Even if the only definition you accept for this complex word is “intense need,” the exceptional nature of love starts to be revealed. Love has literally changed the world. This deep-seated feeling of love has allowed, and driven, humans to take over the world, reach out to the planets and begin seeking to go out to the stars. The power of this force cannot be minimized, and yet it is minimized all the time. It’s minimized by large corporations that have organized themselves to avoid having any “love” in their operations, and to deny that it really exists. These giant companies, like Wells Fargo, Enron, Maytag, United, Mobil and even Apple use the word “business” to justify doing bad things to other humans (in order to make the maximum amount of money that they can).

These companies are not inherently evil, they are merely the antithesis of love. If you don’t believe that then go to any of these companies when you are in need and see how you do. Can humans live in a world having already created huge robots without knowing the entities are robots? Large corporations have become robots, and only robotic humans are allowed in any leadership positions that might influence the direction (i.e. profits) of the “business”. Again, business is the word used by business people to justify sub-human behavior, much as adjustment, control, denial of sleep, water-boarding and more inhuman treatments were used (and still may be, since secrecy of conduct has become the code of the United States) to describe what everyone knows is torture.

Business is not torture. But it can have the same effect when love and deep emotional needs are absent from the leadership, and disregarded by almost everyone who is engaged in business pursuits. What kind of business allows for the poisoning of most of America by using lead water pipes, even after everyone knows lead in their water is what destroyed the Roman empire by rendering them infertile; poisoning them outright, or making them so brain damaged that they allowed one complete whacko after another to lead their nation? Sound familiar? What kind of business continues to reap and sow the seeds of eventual death and destruction upon all future human generations by refusing to acknowledge that the planet is warming and ‘business as usual’ operations are instrumental in causing this to occur? What kind of business is conducted, without any emotion, that supports the incarceration of millions of Americans privately, for profit, and then keeps them inside once they get there as clients, instead of inmates, so they can make even more profits? What kind of business makes more and more guns, and then works diligently to make sure laws are weakened to allow the shooting of others in bars, churches, schools, theaters and more? No matter what the statistics are, year after year, these businesses are allowed to continue operating their cold, inhuman and emotionally void “business” without restrictions. Why?

The human race did not raise itself up based upon business decisions. It rose up, and is still here, because of love. Because of a recognition of our deep emotional needs; of the importance of family; of friends; of fellow travelers; and of fellow believers.

It’s about damned time that America, a nation that says it is Christian, takes up the New Testament of the Bible and begins reading and living what is written there. The New Testament says that business will be allowed, but not at the expense of the care and keeping of the human flock. It says that the business of usury will not be tolerated. It says that we must visit prisoners. It says that we must feed the poor. It says that we must love one another like we love ourselves. When in hell did America drop this book on its proverbial head, allowing ‘business’ robots to replace the human beings who built all this?

Who run all this?

We are not the children of Apple, Wells Fargo or General Motors. We are supposed to be the children of God, and that God made us in “His own image” for a damned good reason. So we could become more like Him. He gave us the air that we breathe, and its time that those of us who believe in living that testament of leading a meaningful and blissful life get cracking. Without love there is no story. Without the story there is no bliss. Without bliss there is no life. Remember the written lyrical refrain as you finish reading this: “and to love you.”
~ James Strauss

The Hollies