3 Bizarre Things Humans Do to Themselves
We need to stop this now
We are unconscious. And that’s sad.
I used to want to do these things a lot. Now I don’t. I’ve looked at the evidence and it’s astonishing. Any human being can agree. We need to stop doing these things, lest they wreak more havoc on our bodies and add to the unforgiving statistics.
I think older generations can agree too. We are now caught in between a crossroads. The information we now have at our disposal is so in our face that it would hurt to look away. And even if we did, I’m sure we would scream at the frightening absurdity of it all.
I like to think that if I were an alien hovering above the Earth watching humans do these things, I would be shocked to the core.
But it’s true.
Drinking alcohol is one of them
It would be impervious for me to say this, but drinking alcohol causes so many problems. We all know by now that drinking in excess causes severe liver damage and higher alcohol consumption was associated with a higher rate of stroke, fatal aneurysms, heart failure, and death.
Need I say more?
I don’t know what it is, but alcohol tends to numb our emotions more than anything. But it comes at a cost. Alcohol is favored by people now more than ever before. It used to be where you go to a bar and if you were caught downing 3 or more beers, you were considered the town drunk. Now you’re considered a nutjob if you don’t. Especially if you’re a “closet drinker” and only have a fair share amount or a Sunday Funday wine splurge.
A lot of people think that there are secret benefits to drinking or that it can improve your life in some small measure. I think this is why it’s such an easy escape for most people. They can get away with it, without any repercussions. They justify themselves into thinking that what might kill them, may not over the short term. So they just sit back and have a few beers anyway. We hear of more alcoholics than domestic abusers, chain smokers, and gang violence to name a few. And those are probably brought on by alcohol on some level.
Alcohol may be turning us into the life of the party, but it’s also killing us slowly.
There is a sober movement going on right now that I keep seeing pop up. You will see many articles and videos about people grasping for the sober life, not taking a sip or doing Dry January, and even prolonging it for good. Then you will hear of all these stories of how it changed their life and how it improved their productivity. That’s all good. But we need to hear more about how the alcohol industry is fueled by people who live hopeless lives and are depressed. I’m not saying we go back to the Prohibition era, but at least we need to heal the trauma that alcohol so easily hides behind, and find out why our bodies crave it so much.
It’s not so much a social epidemic than a spiritual one.
Smoking cigarettes can kill you
Enough, already.
Don’t we know that smoking tobacco is just plain ignorant? Yet, we do it anyway.
We have all the facts to support the reasoning. We are living in the 21st century. Not the 60’s. Back then no one knew what cancer was. It was pretty much a mysterious thing that popped up on the radar. Our thinking was that it came from another planet, or by an act of God, or that it magically just appeared in your DNA.
Well, we were wrong.
According to the WHO, tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. And as of late, the FDA is implementing strategies to ban menthol cigarettes, which has disproportionately affected African Americans and other groups. That’s startling.
We need to squash the tobacco industry for good. It’s full of liars who are quick to profit off an addictive substance that harms more humans than any vice.
There is nothing good about cigarette smoking. Nothing.
I remember going to a Bodies: The Exhibition in my hometown when it was touring. The exhibition showcased a human lung that died from smoking and a “normal” non-smoker lung next to it.
The smoker’s lung was completely covered in black due to carcinogens and smoke that filled every alveolar sac. There was a video displaying next to it on repeat that kept stating “never smoke”. It was disgusting. I remember mentioning this to my co-worker at the time who loved to puff on stogies during his break at work. I told him about the exhibition and how appalled I was that something so blatantly true couldn’t be more obvious.
I told him I would never smoke.
He just looked at his stogie, then looked up at me and said “I can’t give up a good stogie”.
Tattoos aren’t that fashionable anymore
I know a lot of people with tattoos. My friend who used to be a youth pastor has a series of tattoos strewn down his forearm. It looks kinda creepy actually. I was thinking not too long ago what he would look like when he’s 90 with all that ink. Would it just wrinkle and fade away? Or would it be a testament to his youthful ignorance? Only time will tell. But to say the least —
Tattoos are just plain weird.
Think about it: you are literally poisoning your body from the outside slowly over time. You have ink injected into your outer epidermis — the layer of skin tissue that absorbs everything under the sun — including ink. This seeps into your innermost skin tissue eventually making its way into your bloodstream. One study done, revealed the drainage of tattoo particles in two out of four tattooed donors.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather get a fake tattoo heart on my ass than plant one on my body for good while it slowly desecrates and discolors my insides.
Tattoos are taboo, and they have been ever since the late 20th century. I remember growing up in the ’80s and 90’s when people had tattoos. They were displayed so firmly by the rejects of society — punks, goths, criminals — basically, the people you didn’t want to associate with. Now, here we are in the 21st century and everyone and their mother either has or wants a tattoo as if not having one makes you an outcast.
I will never get a tattoo.
Besides, they don’t symbolize much these days. If you ask anyone what their tattoo means, it’s usually downplayed by some fake story or a means to an end. Tattoos meant something in earlier civilizations. People were branded for having met a certain requirement in society or as a sign of fertility for women. In ancient Egypt, for example, a tattoo was a symbol of power and prestige as well as a symbol for religious worship. It went along well with their culture.
Your triangle with Grumpy Cat peeping out of it doesn’t.
We need to ponder these things for good. We need to sit down with ourselves and ask:
- Why do I want to drink?
- What will this emblem on my body show future generations about decisions I made in the past?
- How will this substance I put in my body affect future generations?
- What trauma do I carry?
We need to ask these questions. It’s imperative.
If I were an alien and I landed on Earth I would look at these things as just plain bizarre. When you put it into context, these bizarre human vices are meant to upgrade or downgrade a part of ourselves.
We need to transcend them.
