To Whom It May Concern,

The world, as you know it, is wrong.  It is a lie, a waking dream.  We are the victims of a vast, global conspiracy in the most difficult of disguises to penetrate:  hiding in plain sight.  The Consipiracy is soEvery aspect of our lives is saturated by Government and its consort, the Media. Propaganda is as old as government, and necessary tool for the success there-of. Without Media's propaganda telling us we are ignorant children, helpless and pathetic, we might realize that Government is stupid. Once necessary, but now? It is possible to connect, directly connect, every single person on the planet, each in their own home, and every single person meaningfully and productively employed in a manner especially suited to that specific individual. It's possible, and it's easy.

But first, the darkness before the dawn:

You are not happy. You are programmed not to be, from the commercials that tell you that you are too fat, too skinny, too young, too old, too plain, too pretty, have bad breath or static cling or ring around the collar or ring around the bathtub, to the faces and bodies and voices that Media sells to us, showing us what happiness and beauty is, and how we don't have it on every television show. They don't even try to lie about it:  "We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming." But the faces and the bodies are as fictional as the characters who wear them! The magazine cover is a total sham! A model, wearing body make-up to even her skin tone, strapped and taped and pushed and formed and lifted, sits in two hours of Hair, maybe three in Make-Up, and is then posed and accented and arranged and lighted and is finally shot with a digital camera a few hundred times. From all those shots they pick the "best" one and then edit that with a computer, taking off pounds, years, other "imperfections." And finally, after all those hundreds of man hours, we have a cover, one that has been okayed by probably twenty-five or more different people, from photographers, editors, graphics staff and managers, and vice-editors and owners and a whole army of lawyers, we get to see this one image that tells us, in all its perfection: That is not me.

I'm not this attractive, this rich, my teeth aren't anywhere near that white. I'm glad, in a way. What a bland and boring world it would be, full of all that sameness. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is said, and that's true, but there are colors and shapes and the interplay between them that are irresistible to the human eye, and it is the job of very highly paid people to make sure every magazine cover employs those tools to the best effect and creates a product that you simply must see! All to get your green-backed vote.

Because it is all about Money. It is the third leg of the Conspiracy, next to Government and Media, and American society is based upon it. Money is directly opposed to Progress. We do not adopt and exploit new technology because it is too expensive. We do not feed all the hungry on Earth because it is too expensive. We do not use clean fuels because retrofitting everything with an internal combustion engine is too expensive and also Big Oil would go broke. This will not happen as Big Oil has a Big Lobby. Lobbies control Government as surely as managers control teams, and a successful Lobby is a rich one. As a Capitalist society, America is run by Money. He who has the most entertains the most power and the most freedom. Only the independently wealthy are truly free. Money is the chain that binds us and weights us down. We Work to make Money to pay Bills and to buy Stuff. Stuff to distract us from our unfulfilled lives and Bills for services that should be free.

Food grows all over Earth, even in places no farmer toils. Confusing that it would not be free. More confusing is that we possess hydroponics technology that could be used to grow crops in the desert without altering its fragile ecosystem, yet we do not do this. More confusing still that the Government pays farmers to not farm, because we have a food surplus, and yet people starve to death every day in our own forgotten places. I go to the grocery store and watch people take spoiled food from the shelves and throw it away. How can people die from starvation when there is, apparently, so much food that some must be discarded?

Energy surrounds us at all times in the unceasing winds, flowing waters, and rising magma of Earth, and from the nigh-eternal Sun. Confusing that it is not harnessed, that Energy is not free. More confusing humans do not dwell in lodgings less disruptive to the environment, are more secure, and require negligible heating or cooling systems. A few feet beneath the surface, the temperature of the Earth does not change. Strange to me that humanity has known this since time immemorial when we sheltered in caves, yet we do not take advantage of this. Perhaps humans are claustrophobic. Perhaps there is a cost overrun. Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water and Humanity has possessed the technology to establish permanent, underwater settlements for decades, yet we do not do this. Indeed, as long as a person learns to live in an environment instead of trying to conquer it, one may live anywhere.

"Ethanol and detergents added for a cleaner burning fuel," the sticker on the pump tells me. Cleaner is good, less harmful to all life on Earth. But confusing that we have had knowledge of clean burning fuels, that do not require digging up, for decades and do not use them for the betterment of all life on Earth. Would not clean air be more desirable than cleaner air? Would not no emissions be more desirable than fewer emissions? The change-over must be cost-prohibitive. I am informed that ethanol is very expensive to produce and that it will make food more expensive. I am confused because oil must be drilled from the ground. I am led to belive that this is a very dangerous job. This oil must then be shipped and trucked to a refinery where it is refined and the refinery poisons the air and water and then the gas must be shipped and trucked to gas stations where it is put into the underground tanks so cars may consume and burn it and poison the air and water and land even more. I wonder which truly has a greater cost. It is yet more confusing that we have possessed alternatives to the internal combustion engine for decades, and we do not utilize them, preventing hazards associated with highly flammable materials. Well, I guess we need to keep the economy going.

I cannot believe that people die from influenza, from infections in minor wounds, from common diseases cured with penicillin. I go to the drug store and there, on the shelf, are thousands of bottles of medicine: Antibiotics, fever-reducers, anti-histamines, anti-depressants... I watch as some of them are taken away because their shelf life has expired and they must be destroyed. How can people die from easily curable diseases where there is, apparently, so much medicine that some must be discarded? How can there be incurable diseases in a world in which I may purchase a car than can park itself and, soon, drive itself? At the hospital a man says, Help me, I am dying. The doctor inquires about insurance, but the man has none. The doctor asks if the man has any money, but the man has none. The doctor apologizes and tells the man that he will die. I am confused that a nation that supposedly boasts the finest health care system on the planet has so many citizens dying of disease every day.

Every day innocent people die while trying to live in a war zone. They don't move away because they are stubborn, refusing to give the land up for lost to the violent factions of society, or because they cannot afford to leave. But how can they afford to stay? When I was a child I was taught that fighting is bad, that I should use my words, not my fists, to solve problems. I was taught that the first to resort to violence is the real loser. Have I been lied to? Bombs and guns and poison gas and thermite and napalm and depleted uranium rounds are thrown by the ton at a small, almost insignificant area of the globe because a few people tried to pick a fight with the United States. They were, apparently, successful. Was it not the responsibility of the United States to be the bigger person, as it were, and walk away? Does not the President's God teach him to turn the other cheek? To forgive and forget? To not be throwing rocks? Perhaps I misread those scriptures in Sunday School. When I was a child I was taught that killing is wrong. I see in the news that one person has killed another for love or money or love of money or, perhaps, all three and gets in very big trouble for this, sometimes even killed for it. I see in the news that thousands of people are killing each other in lands both foreign and domestic and they are heroes and get medals and rewards and parades. I am confused by all of this. If killing is wrong, why not just stop?

Why is it that a pill is worth more than a human life? Why is it oil is worth more than a human life? Why is it that a pair of shoes, a million dollars, fifty dollars, five dollars, a shiny watch, a fluffy toy, a fast car and comfortable living conditions are worth more than a human life? Is life not sacred? Is it only sacred when you can pay for it? Is health only worth preserving in the insured?

Why is it that a hamburger is worth more than a human life? Why is it that a warm coat is worth more than a human life? Is life not sacred? Is starvation only worth preventing for those who can afford it? Is death by hypothermia not a bad thing when it happens to a poor person?

Why is it that a piece of paper, or a ream there-of, is worth more than a human life? Is life not sacred? Is life only sacred when one possesses colored papers or the funds those scraps represent?

I cannot buy a human, I am told that it is wrong. I cannot pay for the medicine to save a man's life, but that is not wrong?

I do not understand!

"That is the way the world is."

But does it have to be? Can it not change? Can we not change? Can I not change?

This is madness.

There is a better way!

There is a man who likes to build, it is what he does; it defines him. He builds and builds, for anyone and everyone. But his son needs school. Education is free for the man and his, because he built the school. But his wife is sick. Healthcare is free for the man and his, because he built the hospital. But the man is hungry. Food is free for the man and his, because he built the restaurant. But the man is bored. Stuff is free for the man and his, because he built the factory. The man and his live happily ever after.

It really is that simple. For every job in the world that needs doing, there is an individual perfect for it. There are people who live to teach, to clean, to heal, to question, to protect. Many instead turn burgers or wait tables, because education is expensive. By not teaching a future doctor, you murder all the people she would have saved, possibly you or your own.

Live and let live, and serve your fellows... All humanity's great teachers (who everyone seems not to listen to, including their self-proclaimed followers) have already said all of this, and that the result would be as Heaven on Earth.

Walk away from your unhappy life and do what you love, and it will all work out in the end. However, we must all be in this together.

The problem is not you or I; it's people. A person is an intelligent, caring being, but people are ignorant and easily panicked, and they won't do anything that somebody hasn't done before because they've been taught that change is bad and different equates to enemy. Dogma plays a large role in breeding such intolerance.

I cannot understand how any sentient being would not choose to make the world a better place for everyone. How could anyone choose not to evolve?