Curing the HICCUPS
Today I will be discussing the dreaded hiccups and how to best go about curing them. Be ready to be shocked, to hold your breath or to drink water upside down!
HICCUPS (Habitual Inbuilt Constructs Constantly Undermining Productivity)
To start this blog and to put it into context, allow me to quote Rollo May, the famed existential psychologist, who wrote an important book called Man’s Search for Himself. In this book he says: “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice … it is conformity.”
Now I am not about to get on a soapbox here and berate anyone for conforming to society because I would be throwing stones from inside a glasshouse, but let us look at the idea of conformity and how it creates our hiccups.
CONFORMITY
Since the dawn of humanity we have been social beings and the need to belong is an intrinsic part of who we are. From first belonging to our mothers, then to our families, then to our friends, then to our communities etc, we constantly seek some form of attachment.
With the rise of capitalism we all gained a new surrogate mother who, from the moment our formative minds could process information, began assuring us that we would need for nothing ever again as long as ‘we always listen to mummy’. Like any loving mother she is there every step we take through life to usher us in the ‘right’ direction and to make sure that any difficult decision is made for us.
However mother has smothered us with too much love and we have become spoilt. We no longer know how to count our own pocket money, outwit the local bully or even stand on our own two feet for that matter! We lay on our backs and suckled on our surrogate mother’s abundance for so long we became entirely dependent.
How did we collectively allow this to happen? I’ll tell you how.
When we knew we were being overfed, under-worked and treated like little lords and ladies we looked to our left and looked to our right and saw that everybody else was doing the same. We conformed. We live in a society where whistleblowing is seen as a heinous crime, so what chance of somebody calling time on our avarice?
However, this is not the main theme of this topic but helps to diagnose how we fell prey to these hiccups.
As a by-product of our surrogate mother mollycoddling us so proficiently, we never developed anti-bodies for the ills we now suffer. We were brought up in a bubble which was always prone to burst. Because our pampering began so young, our ailments are now habitual and inbuilt. We know no better!
Before the fresh mint was invented halitosis didn’t exist. However, wherever there is suggestion there is an open market and suggestion is the silent parent of conformity.
So with silent daddy and surrogate mummy together what chance did we ever have as young innocents?! We were convinced that we could not be autonomous, independent, forthright or decisive. What other choice but to do what our parents told us? Conformity.
However…
Whilst under mummy and daddy’s roof, we all saw that maverick uncle that even our parents had to give it to. He’d turn up at the house and put his feet up on mummy’s dinner table and would never listen to a word that daddy said. He’d smoke indoors, drink whilst everyone else was eating and play his guitar when everyone else was trying to sleep. Although your parents would visibly shake their head in disappointment at him there was always a sense of quiet appreciation. Although your parents would admonish you for play acting like you were your uncle, you could sense that they loved you more for it. They wanted you to be like him – just not with any help from them.
Uncle courage.
The beauty of living by uncle’s rules is that you are free to be yourself, which is the most productive thing that you can ever offer. Freeing yourself of insidious suggestion and stifling consumerist capitalism are the beginnings of true self-autonomy.
It is very hard to break the spell that mummy and daddy have held you captive with for as far back as your memory may take you; but hold firm to those memories of uncle courage. You watched him long and hard as a child and have even masqueraded as him when growing up so the ability to do it is definitely within you.
Mummy and daddy would have you live under their roof forever as a dependent because they only exist as long as you conform to what they dictate. They derive their sustenance from your chubby chops and as long as you and everyone to your left and to your right stay at home so mummy can tickle your soft bellies, they will keep on doing it.
It is time to move out!!
Mummy will respect you more when you proactively take charge and, believe me, once mummy is under control daddy will automatically do your bidding too. Be your uncle and see how much fun you will have. True fun is food for the soul and by default highly productive. Real productivity is food for the body and mind and by default is truly fun. So what are you waiting for?!
Let me finish by saying that according to different medical sources the most common way to cure one’s self of the hiccups is to pay them no mind.
I couldn’t agree more.
© Joel Bravette 2010
