SWILL OF SHAME

I do not watch programs on the TV as they air.  If there is something that I want to watch I record it.  I cannot understand how people can watch programs as they air because of all the damn adverts.

It seems to me that the vast majority of adverts are giving people the message that they are not good enough as they are.  Most of these adverts lie.

It angers me when famous men and women, though mainly women, are being paid vast sums of money to lie to us.They KNOW that they do not look like they are made to look on-screen.  They only look the way they do because of clever lighting photography and make up.  Yet they seem to have no qualms in telling you, the viewer, that if you use this cream or that powder or this eyelash thingamebob, you too will look like they do. It is a lie, they know it is a lie, but as long as their bank accounts grow, they do not care.

Men do not escape the constant drip drip of inferiority complexes.  Take a look at the covers of men’s magazines, particularly those aimed at health.  The men on these covers have no body fat, are too thin, are over muscled, and have fake sixpacks.  As a doctor said on TV these sixpacks are not possible without the use of steroids and are made to look the way they do with make up and lighting.

The only equality there now seems to be between men and women is that those have been made to feel unworthy!

Take a look down any high street on any day and you will see that most of us are very ordinary looking and come in all shapes and sizes. You rarely see anybody who looks remotely like the people we see in the adverts or in the movies. Yet many of those people will be desperately trying to look like the people they see in the media, sadly not understanding that they never will because not even the people in the media look like they do!

On top of this we are constantly castigated by the medical profession for being fat.  The mean weight of people in the West has increased dramatically since the 70s.  The reason for this is not because we have become greedy and lazy.  No, it is because nutritionists have been feeding us the wrong information!  We have been told that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet is what is best.  This is why we are fat.

The human body is not made to tolerate high amounts of carbohydrate, be they whole carbohydrates or refined carbohydrates.  We did not evolve to eat this way.  In the beginning we were hunter gatherers and we ate mainly meat and fish with a few berries and fruits and vegetables.

Carbohydrate is very easily turned into fat.  Carbohydrate also makes you hungry! This is one reason why after eating a Chinese meal or a meal of pasta one is hungry soon afterwards. The body releases insulin to deal with the sudden rush of sugar and thus blood sugar level drops but it drops below normal thus triggering hunger.

I know from personal experience that until I went on a low-fat low carb way of eating, I remained overweight and in the vicious cycle of trying to lose weight whilst at the same time always feeling hungry.  Now I am not obsessed by food, I lost 100lbs, and I have kept it off.

I often have people ask me about losing weight.  When I tell them how I did it many will immediately say “ I could not do without my bread” and they do not see or hear the addict! These people would rather stay fat than give up their addiction.

However, being fat or thin has absolutely nothing to do with one’s worth as a person. I know  that I was not really able to lose the weight and keep it off until I realised that being fat was not a sin and was not a sign of my unworthiness.  I had to accept myself as I was before I could change.

I truly believe that the world would be a vastly different place if we all valued ourselves. If we respect ourselves, we are likely to respect others.  If we value ourselves we are likely to value others.  If we have compassion for ourselves we are likely to have compassion for others.

Instead children are taught that they are not good enough from the very beginning.  Even if they are not told this directly, the way that we rear children gives them this message: that they are not good enough as they are.  We fear children and so we try and control and mould them.  We force them to be how we think they ought to be and in so doing we create adults who are damaged and who behave in ways that are detrimental to themselves and to others and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. The worst results of this can lead to a lack of empathy for others. In extremis, this creates people that we label psychopaths or sociopaths.

Add to this religion, which teaches that you are not good enough unless you believe or do a particular thing. Now you have an even better recipe for discord and strife and the production of yet more evil.

The results of how we raise our children can be seen across the world today.  It has always been thus.The big difference is that to day with the advent of the Internet, and satellite media, the results are very visible.

The powerful have a vested interest in keeping the general population steeped in self-hatred.  People who hate themselves or who find themselves unacceptable will do anything to be rid of the pain that this causes.  Teach a child that it is not good enough and you will have a slave to your will.  Governments or people who seek to have power over others understand this only too well.  Without naming any specific church, churches have understood this for centuries.  This is the reason why the religious are so adamant that faith schools are a necessity or that homeschooling for religious reasons is a necessity.  The Jesuit priest who said give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man knew what he was talking about!

We cannot even age without feeling shame for ageing! We cannot be sick without being blamed for being sick.  Even when we die we are blamed! No wonder the vast majority of us live in the swill of shame.

The human body is fragile and it is not built to last.  It is built to fail.  We as human beings get sick.  Yes we can do things to ourselves that are detrimental to our health but most of these things are behaviours that come about because of shame! Once again it is a self-perpetuating cycle.

The overriding message we are all fed is “Hate Thyself”.  Whilst we do, we are slaves to the powerful, be they governments or business or religions.