By Anna Von Reitz
There's a famous country western song by Tom T. Hall that most of us know as "Faster Horses" -- which isn't the official name, but you know how things go in this world. People remember what they remember.
The lyrics of this song are simple and they express the Four Big Lies very succinctly, as the old cowboy opines that the meaning of life can be summed up as: "Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money".
The Four Big Lies are the foundational tenets of a religion we call "Consumerism" but which used to be recognized as the Cult of Baal.
Here are the Four Big Lies:
(1) You cease to exist and don't really matter because your body wears out and dies.
(2) Sex has no spiritual or emotional consequence.
(3) Money is something more than a value-added commodity.
(4) Time exists in some other form besides the current moment.
Once people accept these Four Big Lies and mistake them for truth, these False Presumptions govern their behavior and dictate their values and determine, if possible, the course of their lives.
The Four Big Lies put us on a treadmill, and most people never get off.
These lies foster a reckless, unaccountable, hedonistic, and alienated attitude --- a way of life based on "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die."
Life itself is reduced to a hamster wheel. We keep on keeping on, constantly busy and trying to earn or otherwise obtain something we don't have, often without even putting the "don't have" into words, questioning why we don't have it, or asking if we really need or want the "it" we are striving for.
Whatever it is, we don't have it. "It" becomes the Obscure Object of Desire.
Social standing. Security. A new Lexus. Future peace. Bigger boobs. A dirt bike. An election. A "Golden Years" retirement. Whatever "It" is, and whether or not we can buy it....we're on that treadmill.
People do bizarre things under the influence of these Big Lies.
They may fall into the trap of actually trying to figure out the faster horses and betting on them, without asking why anyone needs a faster horse?
They may discard a loyal wife for an uncaring teenager without questioning their choice.
They may pay a premium price for older whiskey, and forget about buying the school supplies.
Having amassed a huge fortune, they may go on amassing more and more and more and never ask why?
They may get so caught up in the chase after money, that they forget to live their own lives.
If we don't analyze the faulty ideas and beliefs we are picking up from the society we live in, we can easily inherit the mindset of a greyhound (or chihuahua) eternally chasing a fake rabbit.
The only ones who benefit from this are the merchants.
When we believe and act upon the Four Big Lies, the merchants among us benefit, and that, more than anything, is why the Four Big Lies exist. These Lies are good for business.
People caught up in consumerism buy all sorts of things they don't really use or want or need, and end up like Steve Jobs asking, who am I and what did I ever choose to do with my life?
People caught up in Consumerism will always want something more that the merchants can sell to them. From the merchant's point of view, that's the beauty of it.
The emptiness that Consumerism breeds never ends, because you never have enough of something. If you have the time, you don't have the money.
People look back and dimly realize that someone or something snookered them out of their own lives and filled their landfills....but they can't quite put their finger on it.
In the grip of Consumerism, people shop for mates like they are shopping for a used car. They judge their worth by their bank account and think that everyone else does the same. They give away their bodies in meaningless sex acts, then complain when they get sexually transmitted diseases and wonder why their partners disrespect them. They think they are unaccountable and, in a sense, unimportant, because life ends.
People caught up in the Four Big Lies value things because "everyone else" appears to value them, because there is competition to possess these things, and they never step back and ask--- why?
What's propelling these bizarre assumptions and behaviors?
The Four Big Lies, unexamined, unquestioned, absorbed like lead paint in the dawn of our lives.
Whatever age you are as you are reading this --- stop and consider.
Does the finite nature of life make it more or less valuable? What can you have, without it? When you are on your deathbed, what will still make you smile?
Granna
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