The Great Illusion: A Story of Self-Revolution

Preface I originally wanted to write a children’s book to help counter all the lies that the kids are fed by their parents, the teachers, the religious leaders, the corporations, and the politicians. Then, I realized that most parents wouldn’t let their kids read this book due to the cognitive dissonance and defense mechanisms that most people have to the truth and what is really going on around them and within them. After you read this book, you will probably agree that the book is more for adults. It may be the profanity and the progressiveness, but I believe that so many people are so brainwashed, so programmed, and so closed-minded that they would rather keep living their miserable and pointless lives than take some time to understand that they are not free and that they are living someone else’s life. Unfortunately, they would rather their kids live an awful life like they do rather than change. It’s sad but true. Instead of taking a few moments to accept that they are wrong and see the truth in what they are being told, people get offended and upset by what they hear or see that is different than the way they were raised and what they believe. Well, I got news for these people. The truth hurts, and we were all lied to by so many people, who may or may not know that they were telling us lies. If you are a parent, I implore you to let your child read this book and let them decide on what the truth is, so they don’t end up being a slave, being sick their whole life, dying an early death, living as a slave and doing things they would rather not be doing, killing helpless and defenseless animals, destroying the earth and its environment, and creating more misery and sickness for future generations. Even if you aren’t a parent or don’t want your kids to read this book, I still hope you read it, learn something, and start changing for the better. We must get out of the cave, bubble, or prison that has surrounded us and trapped us by our family, friends, education, society, consumerism, entertainment, drugs and alcohol, other addictions, religion, and politics. Life is about experiencing things, learning things, creating things, having fun, and deciding what is best for us. You can’t do that if you stay closed-minded and just believe what you were told and hold onto those beliefs in a stubborn and incorrigible way. That is a dangerous and futile way to live. You must accept the fact that you may be wrong, especially if haven’t questioned why you believe in what you believe in or do what you do. How do you know that your religion is correct? How do you know that your politics are correct? How do you know that your parents, religious leaders, and politicians are correct? Have you heard the other side? Have you spent years listening to the other side like you have your side? Why do you have to have a religion or political position anyway? Humans make the huge mistake of only seeking out information that supports what they already know. In addition, humans hate to change and admit that they are wrong. Denial and irresponsibility are diseases of the human species. A lot of people would rather die than take responsibility and/or admit that they were wrong. Unfortunately, so many people and animals have died because of this stubbornness and idiocy. Since I didn’t want to mess with getting this book listed as a children’s book, my hope is that the adults, young adults, and maybe even some teenagers will read it and learn a few things. As much as this book is a fictional book due to the story telling that I created with the characters and some of the events, it is mostly a non-fictional book based on actual things that have happened within my life. It is mostly auto-biographical due to the ideas, the dreams, events, attitudes, behaviors, the daily routines, and songs of the main character. Unfortunately, it’s sad that a lot of people, who write biased and dishonest non-fiction or opinionated books, get to have their books categorized as non-fiction, but these so-called non-fiction books mostly consist of their distorted and erroneous thoughts that have no basis in reality or fact. Then, they have companies or organizations buy up all these fake non-fictional books, so it can be listed as the best-selling book on a disingenuous rating scale. To me and even though I have to categorize my book as fiction, I consider it a philosophy and self-help book. I have spent most of my career in human services and helping people overcome many different problems. In addition, I have spent almost three decades reading and studying philosophy. With this understanding of philosophy, I have become pretty good at debating and logical thinking while identifying fallacious arguments, excuses, and irrational thinking. Therefore, I made this book very dialogue heavy with many conversations between the different characters and with the internal thinking sequences of the main character. It was more important to me to tell you what I think rather than spend time describing the environment of the characters. I would rather the reader use their imagination in creating the environment from their own experiences and creativity, so I can tell you what is going on in my head, which would have been more challenging for you to figure out. From my human services experience, it’s important to me that people are healthy and feel good. However, a lot of people don’t understand the importance of not doing harm, so they find vices, such as d**g and alcohol addictions, to try and make themselves feel better. Others may a***e themselves and others or focus on consumerism and materialism. There are also many other addictions, such as gambling, that people try to use to cope with their emptiness and trauma. Unfortunately, these vices provide a short-term fix, but they are riddled with many more consequences that definitely overshadow and negate any illusory benefit that they may provide. Therefore, it is important for us to be healthy, exercise, eat healthy, meditate, enjoy and be out in nature, and have healthy and clean fun. Moreover, I have been a vegan for almost 25 years. This lifestyle has brought me so much joy over the years. I am a better human and being by being vegan. It makes me proud of myself and happy to not hurt another being just because others hurt and kill them, they taste good, I’m stronger than the animals, or I can’t communicate with the animals. However, it has also caused me a lot of pain due to the horrible realities of the animal agriculture industry and watching people blindly do what the majority does. I hope that people will one day see the horrors for what they are, understand that they don’t have to keep doing the evil deeds that the majority keeps doing or they were raised to do, and wake up and change for the better by realizing that they are the key to their happiness. The animals were not put here for us to exploit, a***e, and murder like we have done to other humans. They were here before us and will probably be here after we kill ourselves and make ourselves go extinct. For the purpose of my goal to enlighten and free people with this book, I wanted to recognize and support the many oppressed groups in the world within this book. I feel extremely sorry and upset for the oppressed, the neglected, and the abused, especially women, the indigenous people who had their land stolen from them while being abused and murdered in the process, the gays and lesbians and all the LGBTQIA persons, minorities, immigrants and refugees, the vegans, the animals, and the earth. This book is my appreciation and love for all these groups. It’s important that we promote and practice acceptance and equality through ahimsa, veganism, progressivism, environmentalism, sustainability, and renewable energies. All this division, separateness, judgment, hate, discrimination, and a***e need to stop. We will never know peace while we continue to engage in discrimination, inequality, and a***e. I wrote this book to focus on the real societal issues and problems that we are facing today. I also wanted to provide some solutions too. The reality is that what we are mostly doing is failing. We are allowing the rich, the politicians, the government, and the companies to control us, manipulate and lie to us, and a***e us. It’s a huge illusion. As long as people are taking on more debt and staying in debt, working most of the week, not taking care of themselves, eating unhealthy and processed foods, taking drugs and drinking alcohol, killing billions of animals a week, polluting and destroying the earth and its environment, engaging in pointless and destructive consumerism, focusing on mindless and trivial entertainment, avoiding responsibility, fighting pointless wars, and choosing to remain apathetic and ignorant, there is little hope for us now and in the future. We, and I mean you and me, have to change. We have to wake up and do better. We have to be smarter and see what is really going on with ourselves and the world. We are insane to think that we can keep doing what we are doing without any consequences. If you can’t already see the consequences, you are a part of the problem and definitely need to wake up. It doesn’t seem like the politicians and the governments are going to change and deny the requests of and the money from the greedy corporations and the rich. The politicians and the governments are too corrupt at this point. They have been bribed and lobbied so much that they only work for the rich and the corporations. They have failed us. The rich and the corporations have failed us. The use of fossil fuels and all the pollution have failed us. The consumerism and capitalism have failed us. The classism and inequality have failed us. The animal agriculture industry has failed us. It’s not okay that the people continue to allow the government, the politicians, the rich, and the companies to destroy everything in their paths. We must stop them before it’s too late, and it may already be too late. My hope is that this book will add to the revolution that is starting to happen and needs to happen. I started out writing this book after a tyrant and dictator was fraudulently, undemocratically, illegally, and illegitimately elected to be the President of the United States of America. Even though I was upset about many things before this incident happened, I needed to express myself to cope with the anger and hurt that I was feeling. After several months of writing, I ended up writing over a thousand pages. Therefore, I wrote three books from an idea to try and help wake people up from the lies and deceit. This first book is the first few chapters, or what I call episodes, of this story. For this book, I try to tackle certain issues surrounding cooperation versus competition, freedom and contemporary s*****y, religion, politics, capitalism and the corporatocracy, and the separateness or division that so many people have that leads to a***e and discrimination of others, the animals, and the earth. I hope this book wakes up a lot of people and helps them at least question what is happening to their poor lives, the poor animals, the poor earth, and the poor future generations. We must take a stand and start a revolution. We must change to succeed because what we are currently doing is not working. Things are getting worse, and we have to first accept that sad fact. I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading this book and the ones that follow. I hope we all find peace and love during this trying time. Please always question what you have been told and seek out the truth with facts and evidence before blindly believing it. Furthermore, it’s always okay to say, “I don’t know,” “I’m not for sure,” or “Let me check on that, and I’ll get back with you.” I need to thank my beautiful, amazing, and intelligent wife, April, who has been extremely supportive of my creations and goals. She was instrumental in debating with me most of the ideas and concepts in this book. Her insights into her own psychology and why people continue to act like fools was very beneficial to me understanding why so many people would rather choose ignorance and apathy over progressiveness, evolution, compassion, and betterment. She helped me dig a little deeper into some of these controversial and provocative topics, so I could make a better argument for or against them and the alternatives and solutions that need to happen. More importantly, she has also been a great inspiration for my poetry and music. Thank you so much my love. You are my wife, my best friend, my lover, paramour, soul mate, and my confidant. I have always loved you and will always love you forever and ever. I owe you my life and all that I am. You are truly a special being in all this craziness. This acknowledgement is the least I could do for all that you have done for me.