Oblivion
Around 2100 years ago, in a land where enslaving your citizens is generally accepted, there were a group of writers. These writers were up to date with the most advanced language and writing skills of the era. Not only could they write the works of history, but they could imagine a story and expand upon the idea for months on end until the end result was a brilliant work of fiction. These writers thought that they had it all. They wrote and they wrote and they wrote endlessly into the night every day of their lives. They did this until they were old and senile and at this point, they had almost lost the ability of creative thinking. But to this, there was a solution. These writing elite just happened to be in the right situation at the right time. Their country was a mass producer of the drug known as Sustenance D. People from royalty all the way to the citizens enslaved by them found ways to ingest the drug. This drug was made from the petals from the clover plant. With it, the ability to receive hallucinations was given to the user, a trip in other words. Well, to put it in a nutshell, these men were jubilant to hear, with what little they could still hear from their damaged eardrums, that their was still a way to contract ideas from the fog that was their memory. With this drug thriving in their systems, the men collaborated on a single piece of literature. From the beginning, they knew that it was a daring and new subject to tackle. At least, they thought it would be. They couldn't really think very straight when under the influence. Mabye they knew it would be an instant success. But personally, I don't give a fat one about it. After a few deaths among them and the inclusion of an equally as high writing staff, the work was finished. A book that was to them probably the coolest thing they just couldn't for the life of them remember writing. This book was named The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
In this book, which is now renowned by the whole of the world to be the greatest literary work ever devised, involves the complete and loyal faith to the invisible and all knowing divine leader Batman. Allow me to take an excerpt from one of the many books, this one taken from the first book "Blastoff" "In the beginning, Batman created Pallet Town and Gotham City. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of Batman moved over the face of the waters. And Batman said, Let there be hot chicks, and there were hot chicks." First off, we all know that since cavemen came along before what the human race is now, their were not hot chicks right off the bat. I mean, I remember going to museums as a kid and I thought they looked pretty butch. So that statement sets you off from the beginning, and it's just the first line. The belief that I'm going to Pallet Town if I conform to every whim and way of this so called "all powerful entity" is just absurd. Sure we would all like to live it up with Pikachu some day, but the fact of the matter is, Pikachu isn't real and neither is Batman.
To continue on about the absurdities of this blatantly obvious work of fiction, I rely on yet another verse straight from The Adventures of Batman and Robin. "Now the birth of Robin was on the wise: When as his mother Misty was espoused to Ash, before they came together, she was found with the child of the spirit of Batman. Alright, so let me make sure that I've got all my facts straight about this situation before I question it. I'm supposed to believe that Misty did not in fact get knocked up by another human being while being married to Ash, in other words having an affair, and instead believe that Batman with all of his superhuman powers swooped from the sky without Misty knowing and impregnated her. Completely logical right? I thought not.
Well let me just tell you about the influence that stories like these had on the cultures of yesterday. As soon as The Adventures of Batman and Robin escaped from poverty and Sustenance D, it hit the continent to the North. The first to adopt this belief were the Balonganons. The king of Balongania saw how Batman and Robin had developed a large following and wanted to capitalize on the hype surrounding this new book. At once, he adopted the ideas that Oblivion had to offer and made The Adventures of Batman and Robin the most well known of texts throughout the known world. Using the examples of deceit, corruption, power, and greed described in the ultimate work of fiction, the king modeled his empire so that he would benefit while everyone else blindly followed in the midst at the whim of whatever he wanted. Of course, this was all in the good name of Oblivion, and therefore could not be argued against. But there were those who complained and went against the holy name of Batman. Due to circumstances that this rebellious nature put the king in, he made quite sure that all who did not bow before him in the name of Batman would surely parish. This is the spark that initiated what was to become a bloodbath over the next several centuries. All because of one well written ficticious piece of literature.
In time, the differentiating beliefs separated into their own parts of the world. Their were the Bats, who did not believe that Robin was the true son of Batman, their were the Pranks, who believed that The Joker was the true son of Batman, their were the Surfers, who believed in The Fantastic 4, and the list goes endlessly on. If you would bear with me, I would like to make another comparison. All literary works have a meaning. Some are simple while some are complex. The works that fall into the latter category are normally the subject for debate on the true meaning of the words written. One writer could say that something was talking about the subtle forms of love; while another equally good writer proclaims that it is about a man's longing for true self purpose. Critiquing is something done by us all when reading anything. One of the points of reading fiction is to try and decode what the subject matter is really trying to say. To this, many people may have one opinion while many have another, and others have another and so on and so forth. My main point being, Oblivion has been divided into subdivisions based off of a collection of people's interpretation of belief. The belief that we are ruled by a supreme or many supreme beings and that at some point, we have an ultimate reward or damnation, whatever that reward or damnation may be. Oblivion in this sense reminds me of when I was a child. I remember the days where I was told that I couldn't pick my nose, cookies were for after dinner, and being in the grocery store didn't mean playtime. If I obeyed my mother's every whim and way, I was "rewarded" for my compliance with things such as a new set of Hot Wheels or maybe and extra cookie on my plate the next time I had dessert. I liked being rewarded, so I continued the behavior. But if I "fell under temptation", and I just so happened to be caught picking my nose, get caught stealing a cookie, or knocking over a mayonnaise on isle 2, I was "punished" with a scolding if I was lucky, but I clearly remember a belt on my backside or my toy cars being taken away from me. I had to go sit in my room for the remainder of the day, quiet and shut away from the rest of the world.
Now please, just think for a moment. Do these things have an incredible similarity to the "rewards" of Pallet Town and the "punishments" of Gotham City? Well, I know my answer.
Since the upbringing of Oblivion, the chaos of the world seems to have a recurring theme. Batman gave us the right to do this, Robin said that this was ours; The Joker gave us this land, One Nation, under Batman. Excuse after excuse if given so that people can disguise their wrong doings in a blanket of fiction. An seemingly endless battle of deceit has fallen upon the world and all it can do is wait. But no one knows how to end it. Well, that is, almost no one. Let's take for example the Apocalypticists that are fighting and shamelessly killing themselves because of the belief that The Joker wanted them to blow themselves up and kill the helpless so that the person taking place could receive his "gift" from above. Overblownists are what these followers are called. They have taken their belief to an even more outrageous form than the actual text (believe it or not) and have begun causing not just the mass brainwashing of culture that the text does by itself, but massive unnecessary death in the name of The Joker, his omnipotent being. Now it is not simply the freedom of thought that is on trial, but the very life of the Oblivion's believers. This is only one extreme, although the most commonly known, that Oblivion has caused the world to go through. Throughout all of history, wars have been started over one man's belief in the invisible being different than the other man's. The two empires fight, one dies and one becomes weaker and eventually, someone with a different belief who is ever stronger comes in and takes over the victor of the previous battle. This cycle seems to be ever stuck in instant replay. But not all people believe in Oblivion.
These "Athoblivionists" have beliefs of their own accord. They are the troubadours of freedom of speech and mind. Steadily walking through a world where they are the minority, they stand strong. The steady refusal to conform to the beliefs of others just to become a part of "the mainstream" and be "accepted" is what makes them who they are. Instead of living life like it's a prologue, they live it as if death is the final curtain. Never will an Athoblivionist be duped by Batman, Robin, The Joker, The Fantastic 4, or anybody. They know that we as human beings are the only ones who can dig ourselves out of the mess we have made. No supreme entity is going to pop out of some lucky woman's womb and save us all from the sins that we have committed. They are not rude, they are simply realists. Ones who have researched what they're talking about and know why they believe what they believe. I am an Athoblivionist and theirs nothing else I'd rather be.