Page 6 - Newsletter 2014 Winter Web Final

TWO WORLDS - PART I

of what’s good. Well, I don’t think there’s anybody in here that could fit all the standards of good there is running
around. I know some groups that set up a standard that it’s good to dance. Others set up, “Oh, how horrible that is,”
that’s bad. I know some that set up it’s about as horrible a thing as could be in the world if you drink a cup of coffee
and smoked a cigarette. Even if you did either one, much less both. And so then, most people are bad. And if you are
bad you feel guilty. Right? And, so that can go on and on and on as to what’s good. Even the day of the week that you
pretend to be holy that day.

Power Policies
Then we have power policies. That’s politics, I think they call that, but we’ll call it power policies. Now they tell you
what’s "in." A few years ago, back about nineteen and the forties, it was in to love the Russians and hate the
Japanese. And then almost overnight, we switched it. You love the Japanese and hate the Russians. And it was there,
some people couldn’t switch that fast. So, they weren’t in anymore, they were out. And so then you have an “out”
feeling.

Big Business
And then comes along another one here, Big Business. It’s in a good deal, that’s a big one. We said big business, not
just little things that most of us get involved in. ... has the newest thing that is pretty, your car’s two years old, it’s not
pretty any more. Your furniture that’s three years old is not pretty anymore unless it’s a hundred years old. Then it
begins to get pretty again. (laughter) By the same token, a suit you bought four or five years ago, even though it’s
perfectly good, you haven’t worn it hardly at all, the lapels are too wide, or the tie's too narrow or too wide, the shirt
collar is too short, or too long, the lady’s dress is too short, too long, wrong shape, the whole bit. So pretty soon you
are no longer beautiful and pretty, your house is all out of style and everything, you’re ugly. And all the things you have
are ugly and unless you go buy some new ones this week, you’ve had it!

Standards Get Changed
Not long ago, I don’t know whether many of you noticed it or not, the change in how much you should weigh got
changed suddenly. Ten pounds, overnight. If you didn’t get the ten pounds on you was too skinny. Or, if you was up a
little bit you was only three pounds overweight, where the week before you were thirteen. So all this got changed
suddenly.

What Happens When You Compare Yourself to Standards
So now, if you’re supposed to be, according to all "authorities," you’re supposed to be normal, good, in and beautiful,
and when you compare yourself to the standards, as though you were a machine, you will come up bad, ugly,
abnormal and out! (laughter) Is that correct? Does everybody here work on that, just a little bit? Don’t kid me! You’re
down buying things so that the other things you have are out, aren’t they? They’re not pretty anymore, they’re ugly!
Are you always working on yourself to get made over? Don’t you make a pretty good piece of cash every week making
people over? [Yeah… ] Fix them up, so they’re pretty. Before they were ugly, when they came in, they’re pretty
when they leave. But you know, no telling what happens later.

Little Joke
I was in a place to get a haircut the other day and there was a sign on the man’s mirror in front of the chair I was sitting
on getting a haircut that said “I’m a beautician, not a magician.” (laughter) So, you can have one of those if you want
to. Beautician, not a magician.

To Compare Yourself to Standards Is to Be Manipulated
So you see we live with these things as though we were mere machines. And we never stop to think that all these
difficulties that we’re spending on are purely made for us. You know. If I set up a standard and you don’t fit this
standard, what’s wrong with you? You’re bad, ugly, abnormal or out, is that right? Huh? (laughter) So, there’s a story
told about a man who fell in with a bunch of thieves somewhere and they beat him up and left him in a ditch for dead.
And a doctor came by and he looked over there and he said he’s already dead, no patient any more, and he went on
his way. A lawyer came by and said he’s in bad shape, he’s probably drunk, so he didn’t bother with him. And an
official come down the road and he looked at him and sheriff said he’s just an old drunk so he left him alone. But one
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