This is where we are right now, as a whole. No one is left out of the loop. We are experiencing a reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. A world where greed is our god and wisdom is sin; where division is key and unity is fantasy; where the ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the intelligence of the heart.

- Bill Hicks

In our society, we're forced to pay, in order to survive. If we don't pay, we die. Even so, we still believe we're free!

Our departure from reality is so vast here, we'll have to dig deeper than the Mariana Trench, in order to convince ourselves such isn't insane.

The very nature of paying means something isn't free! Thus, how can you experience freedom, if others are violently coercing you to constantly pay them? How can you be free, if you're annihilated, should you refuse to pay?

You can't.

And if you don't find bills and taxes to be violent, try not paying them. You'll be rendered homeless. Existing on the street - scrounging for food, water and shelter - equates to suffering, and a rapid death. If you don't feel such is violent, then you should fabricate your own definition of this term, since defines violence as:

caused by injurious or destructive force.

You're forced from your home. You're forced onto the street. You're forced to beg for food. All three are destructive to your survival, so what isn't violent about bills and taxes?!

As previously proven in my other works, both are nothing more than threats:

"If you don't pay us this money, we'll shut off your heat in the middle of winter. We don't care if you're 97 years old, and residing in Minnesota."

"Pay us this amount, or we'll steal your car, as well as your home, and refer to it as remuneration for 'back taxes.' "

More sick than a stage four cancer patient in the throes of a massive coronary, isn't it?

You build a house with your own hands, and when you're finished, you're elated. You've just created - or made - something, thanks to your own perseverance and talents.

You compose a concerto that took you three years to complete, and countless hours spent mastering on the classical guitar. You're ecstatic! Again, you've experienced the rush of creation, and made something.

I write and publish articles, blogs and books. In order to do so, I research - reading thousands of tomes, and countless documents. When I'm finished, I'm euphoric, as I've just made something.

When you cash your paycheck, or store money in the bank, you haven't made anything. Yet, you're brainwashed into believing that's exactly what you've done.

"Last year, I made $300,000."

"I made so much money this month, I don't have to work for the rest of the summer."

"I'm not making as much as I used to."

Since making is creation, and you're not making anything - you're simply accumulating cash - have you ever stopped to consider such terminology may have been intentionally employed to brainwash you into believing you're actually doing something productive?

Retarded folks all the time thrill to "making $500 in tips" or "making more than my dad ever made," even though they've never made any money at all. Neither has daddy-o, nor his dad before him.

If you still erroneously believe you've made money, show me your printing press, your master dies, your engraving tools, your ruling machine, your pantograph and your geometric lathe.

No, you haven't made any money, have you? But you sure have been trained - like some performing monkey - to believe you have. And since you equate exhilaration with the process of creation, you feel this sense of euphoria every time you "make" money, don't you? Even though, you're not doing anything but acquiring worthless pieces of paper.

This is what we're all brainwashed into accepting, when we squander our existences in a blind quest for cash. Back in reality, we've made nothing, and are wasting precious moments we could be using to figure out what this Universe is; who we are; how to escape this planet, should we be forced to evacuate it, etc., etc., etc.

Humanity on Earth can be summed up by the original Twilight Zone installment Five Characters in Search of an Exit - otherwise known as season three, episode 14.

In this classic of critical cogitation, five people - a bagpipe player, a ballerina, a clown, a hobo and a soldier - awaken, confused, inside a massive cylinder. Even though the top of this structure is open to the sky, the walls comprising it are too high and sheer to climb. Thus, the players in this drama are unable to determine where they are, or what resides beyond their confines.

"Where are we? What are we?! Who are we?!?" the soldier shouts.

In the macrocosmic scheme of this Universe - let alone a possible Multiverse - none of us knows where we are. None of us knows what resides beyond this prison we call Earth.

None of us knows who we are. We've been informed we're humans, but what does that mean? Moreover, those who've promulgated we're Homo sapiens have also lied to us we're free, while clandestinely enslaving us.

To the best of our knowledge, we - as a species - are atop a microscopic sphere, enveloped by monumental darkness that's cold and inhospitable. Sounds eerily similar to the situation the characters from the aforementioned Twilight Zone episode find themselves in. Most of us haven't begun to awaken yet, but for those who have, we're asking the same questions as the soldier:

"Where are we? What are we?! Who are we?!?"

We can't escape our confines - planet Earth - and the five characters in search of an exit can't leave their environment. Unable to scale the steep wall surrounding them, they're trapped. Not capable of venturing off this celestial body, and making a new home, we also find ourselves imprisoned.

"We don't know who we are," the ballet dancer replies. "We don't know where we are. Maybe we're on a spaceship. [...] Maybe we're all insane, or maybe this is a mirage; an illusion."

As previously proposed in my earlier articles - and originally broached by R. Buckminster Fuller in Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth - this planet appears to be a massive spacecraft.

It's easily provable the majority of our population is insane, since we capitulate to the decrees of psychopaths - who've order us nuked - and continue electing them as our "leaders." Hint: Well over 1,000 nuclear "tests" conducted on you, the populace - all ordered by your own government - and we can't figure out why we're dropping dead from cancers?!

As far as an illusion is concerned, how much more delusional a scenario do you want than one in which we kill ourselves for meaningless pieces of paper - known as cash? Again, can't eat 'em, drink 'em, nor inhale 'em. Fuckin' useless!

The ballerina continues: "Each of us woke up one moment, and here we were in the darkness. [...] We're nameless things with no memory, no knowledge of what went before; no understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be."

Each of us simply was one day, and as we gazed at what surrounded us, off this planet, there was blackness.

Look at the characters, themselves, in this Twilight Zone episode. All are varied in appearance, origin and nature, in the same fashion our species is diverse. Moreover, like the players in this installment, we're all thrown together in our drama. We don't know how we got to this place, and neither do they. All we comprehend is each of us woke up one day, and found ourselves here...wherever here is.

Akin to those in Five Characters in Search of an Exit, we're confused, frightened and lonely. We're confused because we don't know who we are. We're frightened, since we reside in this horrific paradigm in which we can be rendered homeless, starving or dead at any moment. We're lonely because we realize we're born alone, and each of us dies that way.

Would it surprise anyone if whatever created this Universe is Rod Serling? You perish, and there's 5 foot 4 1/2 inches of The Twilight Zone creator, chain-smoking and tellin' you what's what.

It's into this backdrop Hugh finds himself deposited. I understand we're all slaves; I comprehend those who "lead" us are, in reality, our mortal enemies; I realize things like "countries," government and politics don't exist. When I attempt to show people such, I'm ostracized, ignored or attacked.

I wonder if any of the cows awaken to their situation - whilst grazing in the field, prior to slaughter - and try to warn the other cattle.