Hello, it's me, Ernest Mann, and today I want to share some thoughts about a tradition that's deeply ingrained in American culture - the Fourth of July. Now, I'm not what you'd call patriotic, but I'm not anti-American either. What I am, however, is anti-ritual.

I've seen over 50 cycles of this holiday in my lifetime. As a kid, it was all about the fireworks, the excitement, the thrill. But as I grew older, I began to question the meaning behind this celebration. I realized that bombs and fireworks are only cool depending on your point of view. If you're the one doing the bombing, it's exciting. But if you're on the receiving end, it's a nightmare.

This realization made me think about the rituals we follow. We celebrate our independence from Britain, but it's been almost 250 years since then. The ritual has lost its meaning, its relevance. It's become a spectacle, a caricature of itself. We need to get rid of these ritualistic practices.

I've been around for over five decades, and I've seen the same old tired ritual play out year after year. It's time we question the harmfulness of these rituals. Why do some rituals prevail while others die out? It's because these rituals fall under certain economic and social rules. They're profitable to keep going.

But just like Hollywood has destroyed its dignity by squeezing every last bit of substance out of its blockbusters, so too have we destroyed the meaning of our rituals. We've become so mindless in our participation that we can't even see the contradiction in our actions.

We're too afraid to freely exchange ideas or criticize our government, yet we engage in this ritual of celebrating our freedom and liberty. It's a contradiction that we need to address.

So, as we approach the Fourth of July, I urge you to give some thought to the rituals you follow. Are they meaningful, or are they just empty slogans? Remember, there are no bad words, just bad actions.

That's all for now. This is Ernest Mann, reminding you to question everything and live authentically. Until next time.

Please go to my website - https://theearnestmannshow.com - to listen to this, or any of my many other episodes. You can engage by leaving a comment, or you can reach out to me personally, via my contact page. You will find other interesting things on my website as well, but the main thing, is you will be supporting the show, not some mega corporation. Perhaps most importantly, by leaving a comment, your opinion or advice may help another person in this world more than you know!

© 2023 The Earnest Mann Show

I wanted to do I wanted to do something really unexpected and something for the Fourth of July so I put this together so that um maybe we can give things a little bit of thought before Tuesday this Fourth of July um this is one of the big holidays here in America obviously and make no doubt about it there certainly are those folks out there who one might call patriotic I am not one of them so if by now you have not turned off the broadcast or turned the channel good you brave soul you I assure you that I am not the Antichrist and I am not even hell for that matter anti-American but what I am is anti-ritual and I'm going to get that to that in a moment now going way back for myself I can say that I have witnessed um more than 50 of these in my lifetime 50 of these Cycles when it starts out when you're a kid I didn't really know even though you're taught this stuff in school and what it represents and all of that um you know it's really drummed into you but when you're a kid you know when you're a 10 12 14 year old all you want are the things that blow up man because it's cool yeah yeah we know about all the other stuff but it's the stuff that blows up the stuff that's exciting when you're a 10 12 14 year old kid when you're a boy and as they say boys will be boys now back then I don't know about now probably not um you know you could still get for instance um you know you got all the usual stuff that we have the roaming candles the sparklers and cherry bombs and you know that kind of thing but the big deal was getting the m80sand the m80s were really serious around the corner of a stick of dynamite these things were really serious they were really expensive too but we're kids we got them and you know what Nationwide I say Nationwide uh I don't know um I don't have the exact numbers but a lot of kids were grossly injured you know missing fingers and whatnot because well boys will be boys and at the time we didn't have policies we didn't have this Draconian shit that just because that this kind of thing occurred that we that we allowed ourselves to be again to be um sterilized to the point to be neutered and sterilized so that you know well you can't have these anymore or you're you know make it a make it a federal crime for kids to get a hold of m80s it is just in my mind it is spiraled out of the point it's it is just beyond comp fucking comprehension Where We Are so I mean you know for kids they can't have any fun not really because we have to be submissive and that is what we are trained to be but this is not about that specifically nor is it a history lesson on the pros or cons of the uh Independence Day celebration because when you're a kid it's important just like your birthday is important when you're a young kid and then you make up all kinds of excuses as you get older and older to do all these adult things and then one day for your celebration for your birthday you start noticing some gray hairs appearing in your forehead on top of your head rather hopefully not on your forehead and then it's like okay then you want to slow down the birthdays you want to slow this thing down most people do yeah it's the flip side of not being a kid anymore and so yeah with all the fireworks and all the stuff that we did well of course we grow up then we learn all the real reality and nasty truth that is associated with this holiday here in America because well assuming we have any semblance of a functioning brain um we are curious we want to know we want to know something we want to know above and beyond what necessarily we learn in grade school and um one of the things that I learned um as I was getting older is you see actually bombs are only cool in a relative manner that means of course it all depends on your point of view if you are the person doing the bombing versus the one on the fucking other end of the stick who is receiving the bombing and you know when you're writing if you think about this um Star-Spangled Banner that was written and it's singing about the bombs bursting in air um yeah in the 19 40sin Germany when just for one example um when we were bobbing the hell when I say we meaning not just the us but the Axis powers the U.S and Britain um yeah we bombed uh the one of the most famous ones was the city of Dresden and um of course there is the uh legendary story of the fire the fire bomb that occurred the city was just a gigantic fire bomb and it also described women running everyone of course running but um you know would the bombs impacting this isn't even necessarily the flame that's occurring these are not necessarily the incendiary bombs just the regular concussion run-of-the-mill you know blow the fuck out of buildings and structures bombs and women running who were with child and [Music] um you know miscarriage right there out on the street and dying hundreds of them now I'm telling you all this because when you're my age and you see this Mass hypnosis here and of course there's a million billion of those people and you're waving their little flags and the fireworks and all these are symbolic of of course what happened with our the birth of our nation and all that but you're seeing you're seeing the songs you're going through this ritual remember that they pale in comparison to being bombed and unless you are a veteran that has fought in one or possibly more of what seems to be our Perpetual Indulgence in war that's a hell of a lot of people and when these things start happening and the flashbacks start occurring for them it's not so pleasant if you are a regular citizen or by now very young people and if you ever had to live through you know eight months a year two years maybe what you know what's going on with the battle with Ukraine right now of never knowing when your home or your city or your or your block or your neighborhood is going to be bombed is it going to be bombed like it was bombed a night before or two nights of before if you've never been through that and I'm not saying I have because I've been damn fortunate in my life that I have that's one of the things I have not been through thankfully and it's also one of the things I sure as hell hope I don't have to go through I don't want to wish it on anyone but my point is that you know if you went through that if we won through that collectively of just endless you know bombing like you've never experienced in your life and experience it for months or years you know what when the date comes around for something you might not be waving your own flags and wanting to have fireworks my point of this was that we're celebrating our independence or what would be our eventual independence from Britain or England as it were um and it's almost been 250 years and there's just so much that's gone down since then but you know what it doesn't take away from the fact that it's a ritual and you know something else by and large 99 of the time in my book um rituals are a bad idea we need to get rid of all ritualistic practices and that's what this is now I realize anyone that's hearing this I realize perhaps what I'm not a drop in the bucket but if there is at least one person that would give this some consideration to the utter endless fucking stupidity of this ritual in my opinion there is a time for a uh a legitimate time for celebration when you have conquered something which was let's say commonly perceived as evil so yeah you know VE day being one of them but okay but passed a certain point just because of the age and how time moves on it loses its relevancy now once again I know there are people because of here we go it's not only virtue to just Proclaim your virtue and then the I am a naysayer to them and so maybe it means nothing to you but I'm an American and I will never forget we shall never God what horse shit this we're farting I'd say Take It Outside here's the deal pipe it down okay all things change all things move on that includes all of the wars everything and yes that includes 911 does that mean it wasn't horrible no it does not mean that you know there were it was what it was at its time witnessed I witnessed absolutely horrible breath uh breathtakingly horrible things that happened but will it be around and the Consciousness keywords forever or live in infinite no it won't nothing does you give it enough time and it simply doesn't every single thing that has occurred like that it moves on the only thing until the point where it is unrecognizable to the masses the only thing that remains are the rituals until the rituals in and of itself become a mockery become an if we're a person I'd say basically becoming it's like becoming a caricature to yourself because it is nothing more than the spectacle that I have watched in my life for five decades Plus you know I mean bear in mind keep this in mind that I um have been around watching this for over five decades and the nation is only about 14 plus Generations as a nation so that means I've been around for almost a third of that time in other words I have seen and witnessed the same old tired ritual and I don't know maybe there's tons of folks out there my age that don't understand the harmfulness of a tired old ritual no one for instance wants to see groups and masses of people gathering around for the solstice or to thank Zeus for a blessing of this no one does that why you might ask why aren't we doing that why aren't we watching huge massive get-togethers of witches and that they can perform you know a great uh spring blessing or a spring or a sorry winter curse or whatever on Mass why in other words why do some rituals prevail apparently in especially in the west they Prevail and others just disappear they just die because these rituals fall under certain economic social rules in other words it is actually profitable still to keep these things propped up to keep them going but here's the thing just like woke has destroyed Hollywood and it has you know but they've taken you know they've taken as much as I think he's a was a wonderful actor great person every Everything great in my childhood everything I could say about him is good about um Harrison Ford you know and of course all of his work that he's done in so many movies and especially in the Indiana Jones um series sequels but they had no it was a travesty to do this last movie simply because he's too fucking old I know they've done it it's over with I know that but the truth be said there really is a meaning to do not doing something you know past your Prime and bowing out and getting out gracefully undefeated I believe that would have been um certain you know certain professional boxers have done that as they say going out on top with dignity but Hollywood has no dignity and so they'll take anything and everything I don't care if it was Star Wars or you know any of these Blockbusters and they'll just continue to just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until they are just utterly devoid of any fucking substance left whatsoever and why is that because of ritual we can't seem to get enough of the ritual and in America you have a ritual within another ritual then and yet another ritual kind of like uh you know the Russian egg carton thing one one big one and a whole bunch of small ones wrapped inside and stacked in there same concept they will unabashedly unashamedly go on with this because now as horrific even as far as the education level is concerned most Young Folks today they don't even know really any of the details of what it was about it is yet nothing more than fireworks flag wave waving and of course drinking just like we tie into everything else that we do pretty much got to have the fucking drinking so that's it and it becomes a ritual and rituals are bad news because amongst other things you have to be you have to get to a point in what you're doing that it becomes so mindless so utterly devoid of any thinking you get to the point where the people cannot even objectively look around and sing what in the hell are we celebrating this for and give you yet another brief example on at my website under the comments I had questioned two people and I had a great correspondence through the mail with them um through messaging through email and they're fine and I and they just seem you know they're really Pleasant folks to talk to and I said you know I said you this is wonderful and thanks for contacting me but you could have just put all this on the comment board and instantly they get to respond I get the response from them and they say oh no I I I don't want to do that no and so I was intrigued by this strangeness because I have done everything as I've already stated to make things as you know safe and secure as possible and uh you know it's an anonymous name you picked and you're just completely anonymous and all that and so it's still and they said repeatedly they said they were afraid I said what are you afraid of well if I say the wrong thing you know who's um anything I heard everything from if I say the wrong thing I'm going to potentially piss off some lunatic who's going to I don't know drive by my car and throw a bomb in my window or I'm going to piss off the powers that be uh in the government and they'll basically do the same thing foreign so let me let's see if I got this straight on the one hand with all the fireworks and the cherry bombs and firecracker and you you know you fucking engage in this ritual of hundreds of people and doing fine you do this thing collectively and you're all happy and you're waving your fucking flags and you're doing all you're doing this whole thing but at the same time you're so goddamn afraid that you can't leave a message about something political here in the land of the free and the home of the brave but you're too frightened and I'm not I'm not necessarily saying that it isn't Justified but is the point is the irony that people you're too afraid to even freely exchange ideas or criticism of your government or anything else for that fucking matter and so apparently it's the irony that they miss the irony that here they are mermaid you know they're doing all this horseshit fuck but you can't get them to leave a comment on a on a comment board on a small little known podcasters website that that is my point that people apparently are not somehow or not seeing the contradiction that I'm talking about so yeah full engagement and a ritual but simultaneously full engagement in a ritual that in real terms has no meaning empty slogans about their freedom their Liberty and on and on Burgers country in the world and where is this and where are that and what are you doing our military's badass man and all this and you know to the more educated of those the NPR type of shit and they're well in America you’re essentially you can worship whatever you like and you can do this and you could do that and I'm like yes and you can legally you're allowed to drink Coke or Pepsi because that's the shallowness of your life you again do not seem to understand that you have Coke or Pepsi and that's it and that's what I'm talking about you are free to vote now you're free to vote it does not matter apparently it matters not that they actually give a shit biscuit about your vote that they're actually going to do something to represent your vote no that that's the tricky part that's the you know the Laughing up the sleeve oh of course yeah you're free to vote all you like or we're not gonna we don't give a shit what you know there's a snowball's chance in hell of anything would ever actually go the way you want but you yes sure of course by all means go ahead vote vote to your fucking Hearts content I'm saying all of this because I'm it's by Monday well next program I won't mention any of this even though the next day will actually be the fourth so I'm giving you a chance to uh listen to this over the weekend and I don't know maybe stew and throw me a whole bunch of hate mail or what who knows God only knows what you're going to do but at least you could say at least you can say this maybe you don't agree with what I'm saying okay fine but the point is at least I had the balls to say it at least I'm not cowed to the point where I wouldn't write about it which I do you so you see it's because I want freedom and true representative government and no you won't see me here constantly waving the flag or something else a lot of bozos do but putting one two or even more gigantic ass American flags in their you know their uh pickup trucks that are 18 fucking feet off the ground you know and I just wanted to say this guy getting out of the truck wants anything he had like three huge American flags and I just want to you know of course initially I'm lucky you know he didn't hit me or something but I didn’t care I was just a good mood I said I walked there I said hey I wonder I just wanted to thank you for putting the flags in the back of your pickup the way you did and he's just oh well sure yeah you know he said because for a minute there I mean you know there's a lot of pickups that don't have those flags and for a minute there I was beginning to worry that you might not be American take care [Music] you know wherever you may be in this world and whether it be morning noon or night that you're listening to the show I do appreciate it but I would really appreciate it even more if you would go to my website because not only can you listen to all my episodes but there's just so much more going on so check it out go on over to the earnestmanshow.com leave a comment subscribe or hit that notification Bell whatever the case may be until next time this is Ernest Mann reminding you that there are no bad words just bad actions [Music]