March 29, 2003

Smiles Are Free

by ;;;



  Smiles are free. And that may be the exact root of the problem. Happiness has become a worthless thing, a false emotion
that can be obtained with no cause or reason other than a forced requirement of pseudo-joviality. In actuality it
seems almost as if smiles are free only to the customer, the employees giving out the smiles are paid for their emotional
whoring, but also they pay for the mental stress of dealing with wretched humanity for hours on end, while still having to
grin and bear it. But the mentality of the catch phrase prevails and people expect to have their asses wiped with bright
clean teeth while they scream and bitch about their shit. And this is why happiness is becoming a thing of little or no
value. Its free, it costs nothing, and therefor is worth nothing.



  Love thy neighbor, even if their morals and personality conflicts with everything you hold true in your life. Love them. How
wasteful a thing must love become in our lives? Love a most precious emotion must be wasted on some of the most vile creatures
in this world because we feel obligated by a system of respect for those which deserve none. The animals of destruction must
love each other, in all of the terrible things that they do. Its no wonder that love and happiness are empty and shallow in
this day, that we feel a general lacking in the supposed fulfillment of our energies when filled with love.



  Still there is something missing. And it develops this way, and has been for quite sometime. It seems, as observed by many
that there are more and more depressed people in the world today, more diagnosis of depression, and bipolar disorder. Could
be something so simple as a boom in the market of career psychologists, and their need to make a living, but it could also be
something far more inherently problematic with society. What if happiness is a dying emotion, breathing its last breaths in
the synthetic television oxygen tent that sustains its lies as long as it can? With family programming, and laugh track humor
designed to keep within us the belief that there still is reason to smile; and that it has some value beyond a signature of
customer service, we are losing reasons.



  When will things have gone too far? When will smiles be fully automated masks on our faces, like tiny metal hooks grafted to
our skin which raise our lips on each side when greeting a friend, or secretly loathed aquaintence? One might wonder whether
we have already reached this point. Your parents are busy screaming at you for not having done this or that; while when their
dinner guests are over they can only be pleasant towards you. Introducing their friends to the trophy you, their little angel,
then hurriedly shoving you out of sight before you can embarrass them with your socially inappropriate comments or piercings or
whatnot.



  Feigning happiness and perceived perfection is not a new concept, but only recently has it taken hold of nearly every social
class down to the lowest common fast food dirt baby spawning troglodytes. The need to appear happy, to put on a show of
perfection all the while greiving for your own social, mental, and emotional misfortunes. It truly will not be long before you
can buy happiness marketed in shiny little packages at your local neighhood multiplex corporate shopping centre (that cares
about you so dearly.)

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