So I turned on A&E and they were doing this promo for a biography they were going to show about Pablo Escobar. I’m not really sure who this guy is, I haven’t watched the biography, but from what I gathered he was a big time drug czar down in Columbia. I think he’s also the main cocaine supplier for Johnny Depp’s character in the movie “Blow” (an adequate movie, but if you are in the mood for a good flick about crime, go with “Goodfellas” then “Casino” and then maybe “Blow.”)

Anyway, the promo made the statement that Pablo Escobar was the most evil, brilliant criminal mind of modern times. This statement rather irritated me on several levels. First of all, it was just typical media overstatement because they want you to watch the show. But just because I understand it, doesn’t mean that they’re still not saying something that is more or less untrue just to make money. God that pisses me off, and it has become so common that nobody even points it out anymore. When are people going to start holding the media accountable and force them to actually present things that are indisputably true or false? Sure that will dramatically reduce the number of things that will be allowed to appear in newspapers and television, BUT THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT! Maybe if we hold ourselves to this doctrine, at some point in the future we’ll develop a reasonable society that bothers to gather all the facts about an issue before madly flying off on some self-righteous opinionated tirade that has no basis in physical reality.

But on another level, I thought it was rather hypocritical that the TV show was so willing to judge Pablo Escobar. I mean, at the heart of it wasn’t he just a guy who saw that there was a market and a way to make a quick buck? Didn’t he just take advantage of what was right there in front of him? Guys that have done this in the US are put up on a pedestal and revered, why should Pablo Escobar be treated any differently (is it racist, can America just not stand to see a Hispanic doing well---no, I don’t actually think this, it just struck me as funny to throw the racist card in there to defend a drug dealer, I hate the whole racist card argument and I like to discredit it).

Was what Pablo Escobar did any more immoral than waging an illegal war in order to take over an oil rich country so that you could turn the developmental contract over to an old Texas buddy and his oil company? It’s all about profit and in America, the rich just laugh at people who say they aren’t playing fair. Their standpoint is that anybody who doesn’t have money in America is “lazy” or “undeserving,” and they absolutely refuse to believe that the field has been unfairly tilted in their favor. When you accuse them of failing to follow the rules of fair play, they scoff at you as being naive and claim that all’s fair in war and the quest for profit.

But, when somebody like Pablo Escobar comes along and refuses to play by the rules that they have long ago established in their own favor and promptly forgotten about, all hell breaks loose. All of a sudden this guy is the devil incarnate, and they use their vast, personally controlled media conglomerates to make sure everybody knows it. But the fact is that Pablo Escobar wasn’t any more ruthless than any other rich person. I just don’t believe that kind, compassionate people with a genuine interest in making the world a better place rise to positions of great power. The only people that rise up are people like George W. Bush and Pablo Escobar, people who are too stupid to see the long term negative consequences of their actions.

I suppose most oil barons and shit would argue that selling cocaine is immoral and selling oil is not and therefore the oil barons are morally better. In my opinion it’s not the product that is evil but the mindset of utterly dominating your fellow man. But what is or is not immoral is not something that is indisputably known. Of course, as a society we are working to get closer to knowledge of what is “right” or “true” or whatever word you want to use, but you have to accept that at any given moment there is the potential for a huge number of flaws within our thinking and our ideology. You simply can’t trust what the majority believes. The response to this argument would be that in the absence of true knowledge, you must go with what the majority thinks. We need something to keep us more or less civilized despite the fact that we can accept we are only on the path to enlightenment and have not yet achieved it. I suppose this is something I can agree on, provided the majority never forgets that the philosophy they are championing is nothing more than a stop-gap until they figure out the true answer.

This is exactly where the problem comes in as people start committing themselves more and more fully to the flawed and temporary system. Just the natural way things play out guarantees that a system filled with errors will be accepted as the true and absolute foundation to culture. Inherent to the beliefs of the chosen system will be flaws of just as great an evil as that to which this system stands in conflict. This will always be the case, for the entirety of the evolution of humankind until we reach whatever philosophical destiny fate has in store for us. The only thing that you can truly believe absolutely is that the loud-spoken majority is the only voice you can be SURE ISN’T RIGHT!

It is conceivably possible that somebody will figure out the true answer we’re looking for, but it will happen on the fringes of the mainstream and not in the heart of it. Furthermore, a good idea that goes drifting into the mainstream must be considered corrupted.

So, if you’re really looking for answers, the place to look is not with any accepted authority. Browse the fringes, listen to those that aren’t caught up in the whirlwind of corruption. The small voices working in isolation who haven’t been tempted by the luxuries of civilization and who are still actually motivated by a quest for what is real.

But be careful, because along with those that really have their shit together, the fringes is also where the true wackos hang out. But any rich guy like George W. Bush or Pablo Escobar will tell you, to get the big pay day, you’ve got to be willing to take the big risk.

The End