The Seven Deadly Sins (27 page)

Torture, our next newbie on my list, has become quite the buzzword these days. Who would have thought it would become so tied to America, a country that uses freedom as its greatest attraction? Torture is a fine choice for this list because it can be as subtle as psychological warfare and as demonstrative as waterboarding or a taste of a bullwhip. Torture is used to extract information, to justify the means and to accomplish “victory.” I am not saying there are not people out there who deserve to be tortured. I think I established some wonderful candidates in my prior paragraphs. I am saying that not everyone deserves to be tortured. But innocent people are tortured every day, with little evidence and no thought to the lasting impressions. From police brutality to certain military investigators, torture has been a deadly method as far back as the Spanish Inquisition and beyond. The witches of Salem, Massachusetts, were tortured into admitting to supposed alliances with Satan and sorcery. American slaves were tortured when they did not obey or when they were hiding information on other slaves who had escaped to the North. German and Japanese Americans were tortured and herded into camps at the outset of our involvement in
World War II for fear they were spies or sympathizers. Fuck man, the more I think about it, I guess torture has been a part of American history since the inception of our country. How ironic that our founding fathers could not see that freedom would become instilled with a propensity for violent discovery.

A person who tortures lets a little bit of their soul die with every strike and every blow. This desensitizing can make us all embattled and embittered, distrustful and disruptive. Is torture the last resort of a mind that cannot let go of a preconceived notion of guilt? Are we so stubborn that we cannot accept a person's innocence? Has cynicism combined with zeal to make us suspicious enough to hurt one another? Is everyone a suspect? Is everyone's involvement just assumed so we can “prove” it through brute force and thoughtless cruelty? Sure, I have made a great case for a certain amount of universal guilt in the world, but even I am pragmatic to know that not every Muslim is a terrorist. Not every German is a Nazi. Not every banker is embezzling our money. Not every criminal is a killer. Someone who tortures is pushing us all into the meat grinder, making our entrance into deadly sin a little easier by making us all seem guilty when that is simply not the case. I would like to see how they would like it if someone hooked jumper cables up to their most tender extremities in order to extract a bit of information. I can only hope they do find out some time. The indecencies that were committed against the prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay military base are really just the tip of the iceberg. Never mind if some of those “detainees” are guilty or not—is this the face and heart of America? I shudder to wonder.

Theft almost did not make my new list. Stealing has kept me alive longer than I can remember. There really was no profit in it for me; it was just a way to eat and to impress my friends. Well, shit, I guess I profited with acceptance from my friends, but that
is not the point I am going to make here. Theft has brought the world to the brink of destruction. I am talking about the highoctane, absolutely corrupted misappropriation of public and private funds that has driven us very nearly over the edge, spinning into oblivion. When the Republicans rose back to power, they began to deregulate every little piece of legislature that kept the giant greedy corporations in check. All of a sudden, monstrous debts started to accumulate throughout our cities and states. A trillion-dollar surplus was depleted at an exponential rate, leaving us with a deficit that we are still trying to recover from. Why is it that every fucking time the Republicans take power, they leave the Democrats a mess that takes years to repair? And the conservatives continue to be indignant, as though it was the Democrats' fucking faults! They let the dogs off the chain to rip our infrastructure to shreds like a chew toy in August. Then they fight every way the liberals can think of to fix the situation. It makes me so fucking angry that I cannot breathe. It is unbelievable.

The theft that has been perpetrated in this county has been felt in the farthest reaches of the earth. The fact that most of these white-collar bastards have largely gotten off unscathed and unpunished is a moral offense to everyone who believes in this country and its justice system. They should be hung above Wall Street by their scrotums while bamboo shoots are shoved into several orifices, displaying the accused and guilty in the market square as a deterrent to the rest of our people. Best keep your dishonest ways in check: The wicked will be brought to pay for their crimes, better in this world than the next. No one should get off scot-free. There is no guarantee that your “god” gives a shit and will take hostile action. Better to make it happen here so we know it gets done right.

Lying is really just part of being human. We all lie like crazy hoping we will get away with whatever it is we are trying to talk our way out of. I do not like to lie, I do not condone it with my friends, and I certainly do not tolerate it from my kids. Lies have covered up the dirty parts of the carpet in our little freedom temple here in this country. We lie to ourselves, we lie to each other, and we lie to the world. But the same defenses I have used to excuse the original sins will not do in this case. I cannot say that lying is okay. It is the tiny leak in our gas tanks, making us slow to develop and realize our true potentials. I know it is just one idiosyncrasy we all have in common. But that does not make it okay. It does not make it commonplace. It does not mean we should. Most of us cheat on our wives and husbands. That does not make it okay. Adultery is the ultimate lie because your life is false, your love is false, and you wind up with too many faces to keep up with. You cannot be a total person if you divide against yourself. I made a commitment to never lie again. I have slipped a few times since then, but for the most part, I am keeping my word.

A liar cannot be trusted, so he or she will not trust in return. That notion spreads like spores on the wind, planting and taking root across land and fruited plain. Lies create rifts in relationships, whether they be romantic, diplomatic, or otherwise. If the truth will set you free, then the lies will keep you locked in the bottom of bullshit for the rest of your life. You have to live with the results. You have to deal with the derisive nature of the people who just assume you are going to lie to them for the duration of the time they have to deal with you. You have to work harder to earn back trust than to continue it. We can all become a fragment of our own delusions if we do not maintain our words. A life is only as decent as the testimonials left behind when it is
over. Your reality is never your own; it is kept by the people who talk about you when you are gone. A liar's legacy is laced with untruths. An honest man will have the good and the bad, but the truth, nonetheless, will shine on long after that person has been given back to nature.

Finally we come to the odd man out: bad music. I know there are those among you who will think I am losing possession of my faculties, but let me fill in some of these blanks for you people with blank stares. Bad music is a form of murder to the true art of music in general. Bad music forced on a child is abuse because it invariably forms that child's taste in music. Bad music has raped an industry that was held up strongly by great expression for decades but now finds itself floundering, giving in to the lowest common denominator of music just to keep its panties around its waist. Bad music tortures the eardrums and kills little bits of your senses through prolonged exposure. Bad music steals money from shallow pockets, steals airtime from more deserving bands and songwriters, and steals the spotlight from undiscovered geniuses who have all but given up on a dream because of the mediocrity of popular radio. Bad music is a lie, and yet it is foisted on the public in an attempt to turn melodies and songs into hamburgers and fries. Bad music is truly a sin because you do not have to be exceptional to make it in the music industry anymore. You just have to be good enough to stick around and be tolerated. I understand that bad music is a matter of opinion. I know that. But I am fairly confident that more people agree with me than you suspect.

Bad music is just fucking
bad
. It has infiltrated every genre. It has invaded every market. It is not delegated to any one form or type. There are glorious songs in every genre. There are
many geniuses who know that money does not represent success. The lasting legacy you leave behind is what defines you. There is too much disposable music in the world today, and it is a black eye on the memories of those who dedicated their lives to making the form better. Music is not a fucking soda. It is not a fucking insurance rate. It is not a fucking T-shirt. It is the only real religion that is worth devoting your soul to. It is the last remnant of the primal scream, the funeral dirge, and the wedding march. It is the light that keeps me out of the shadows, and it is the reason my immortal soul is not in dire straits. Bad music sets forth the idea that anyone can make popular music. That is a fucking lie. It takes talent to be a true artist. Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking liar and a cheat. Plastic music melts when held up to the flames of honesty. Real music does not have to worry about the heat because it is already on fire with heart and soul. I can only hope that it goes away. I doubt it, but I can hope.

Then again, what would I have to crusade against if bad music went away? What would I ever do if douche bags like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan did not get record deals based solely on their notoriety? Who would I goof on if bands like Owl City and Tokio Hotel were not smeared all over the sonic landscape? You know me—I do not like to name names. But every hero needs a villain and vice versa. Every Batman needs his rogue gallery. Mine just happens to surround me like a germ-free unit to fight off contagions. Everywhere I listen, there is some terrible hook leading to some god-awful racket. The auto-tuning is really the final nail in a coffin I would very much like to kick into the river. From Cher to T-Pain, this disgusting trend makes the human voice sound more like a keyboard caricature than any
form of “singing.” Now if you want to sing, all you have to do is talk into a microphone—your engineer or your producer will do the rest for you. Maybe that is the burden of sloth: Do not even give talent a thought because somebody else will do your work for you. It makes me sick.

I can make a few jokes at the expense of bad music, but there is nothing funny about the other members of my new Seven Deadly Sins. There is nothing funny about murder. There is nothing funny about child abuse. There is nothing funny about rape or torture. Stealing should be taken more seriously than it is and lying is only as funny as the context it comes in. This new list is at deadly as it gets; I am certain it has a higher body count than the previous seven. I do not care about the reasons for murder or rape or the rest of their ilk. That is a fucking cop out, a weapon in the arsenal of every shady defense attorney known to man. It is the
act
that is the sin. There are people who come equipped with the same traits from that original list and they do not kill or rape or torture or otherwise. So again, I say the
act
is the sin. Look at it from a criminal standpoint. Gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, rage, lust, and vanity are not technically against the law. You can make the argument that they can lead to crime, but now you are just fighting with semantics. In fact, the original Seven Deadly Sins are not illegal. Why? Because not everyone turns into a criminal when they feel these whims.

My new Seven Deadly Sins are (mostly) illegal. Murder, child abuse, rape, torture, and theft are crimes. Lying is a crime when impeding an investigation or if you are under oath. Even though bad music is not illegal, it has led to crime. People steal music on the Internet because they do not want to risk their hardearned money on bad music. So these new sins are truly deadly
and more sinful. These are the true rings of hell, the slippery slope leading to eternal damnation of heart and soul. They are also illegal by the very standards of modern law. It is simple common sense. These offenses truly go against the global herd. The real sins are prevalent around the world in every sense of civilized society. But law enforcement keeps them at bay. People who succumb to their deadly ways are usually held as examples. Their accountability is obvious. As technology advances, the shadows of doubt that once fell across the face of Lady Justice are lifting to prove the wrongly accused innocent and the usual suspects guilty. We are winning the fight for true judgment. But we are losing our way when it comes to the punishment.

Maybe if we elevate these crimes to the level of “Deadly Sins,” we will be more prone to do what must be done. I understand that people have rights and I understand that there are circumstances beyond the control of total definition. But when someone is so heinous that they have to be locked away forever, why fucking bother? Putting someone to death who has personally revoked his or her humanity is not a crime in itself: It is reciprocity. It is the face of total consequence. It is something we need to do to get the chaos under control. I am not a champion for the New World Order. I am saying there is right and wrong, and people need to remember they are responsible for their own actions, no matter how severe the penalties in the end. For every action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. If we do not procure a strong sense of justice now, who knows how far out of control the future will become? There should be no reward for negative behavior. There should be no gasp of consolation for the guilty. There should be clarity and calm. There should be a just response to the wrong approach.

That is my argument. That is really where I am in the world. People deserve to know that they can rest easy. They deserve to feel like those who are supposed to know the score actually do. There is reassurance in the feeling that someone has our backs. All the anxiety and distrust ebbs away until we stand together as a community, as a nation, and as a world that does not tolerate misdeeds and crime. There has to be a line. There has to be penalty when that line is crossed. I may be a man who has a strange relationship with anarchy, but I am also a soul who wants no harm to befall anyone. That being said, I think if you treat people like shit, you deserve to be treated like shit. Karma should be visited upon every person who spits in its face. You are playing with energies that always make their way back to the perpetrator.