A new bed

 

Sept. 26, 1980

 

I’ve inherited a bed, a warm, comfortable cocoon that sticks to my limbs and prevents me from rising this morning.

I’m not complaining, but this new bed is a mistake.

Humans should never be too comfortable. It defies nature and prevents us from actually accomplishing anything.

We need the ticking clock to remind us of our limited time and our responsibilities to the rest of humanity.

I’ve heard arguments to the contrary, about a rested spirit. But I believe them not.

The human spirit is motivated by self-interest, which, of course, is the essence of social control.

Align yourself with their self interest, make it seem you are concerned with what they’re concerned with, and they’ll buckle down and do exactly what you want them to do.

Of course, there are troublemakers in all this, some hateful and cruel characters who would bring down the whole system rather than conform, and would let a business die in order to uphold some measure of employee dignity.

Wouldn’t you think we would get our values straight?

Take my bed for instance. How would the world thrive if I decided to embrace these sweet folds the rest of my life, rolling among these soft and gentle waves, full of dreams and fantasies about a kind life, rather than the back breaking existence that waits beyond my door?

I would not be able to earn a living, of course. I would never learn the awful truth about earning my daily bread.

It would engulf me and destroy me like this world tends to destroy all that is fragile or ignorant to the reality of the world’s workings.

If every body everywhere did this, we would have no economy. No business. No struggle to gain great heights in all those amazing endeavors. There would be no more employers to hire disadvantaged employees at below minimum wage, and little use for cars or oil or all those other now-necessary elements that transport us to our degrading jobs. No more powerful people with inexhaustible wealth to influence our politicians shaping a society that keeps us all in our place, or development that builds futures in which we have no place, constructing homes we cannot afford to live in after demolishing all those like this one in which we can.

No, our society cannot afford to let people lie too long in comfortable beds – which is why we have media blaring out at us from the clock radio each morning, dragging us kicking and screaming out from under the covers, pushing cups of coffee into our hands, and then us into the shower, and finally out into the cold, cold, cruel world.

Yes, getting this bed was an awful mistake.