For the "well-adjusted" in all of us

I think it was Krishnamurti, a hindu guru-guy that wrote lots of books for the new-agey crowd, who said something like "it is no great accomplishment to be 'well-adjusted' to a profoundly sick society." What did he mean?

We have all heard it said, usually when we are talking about children or adolescents, that a particular person 'seems well-adjusted.' This means that we are assessing the person's ability to operate in society, to make a living, and to get along with all the other 'well-adjusted' folk.

We tend to take this as a positive thing, that one is 'well-adjusted.' Yet Krishnamurti says that this well-adjusted state is nothing to really brag or be all that proud about. Why would a so-called 'enlightened being' say such a thing? What does it mean to be 'well-adjusted' to the society that we are living in now? What kind of a society am I 'well-adjusted' to? For what purposes must I be 'well-adjusted' and for whose benefit am I 'well-adjusted' to procure? Is being 'well-adjusted' to this society really good for me or not?

Some would say that to be 'well-adjusted' means that I am doing what is for my own good in climbing up the ladder of doled privileges that the society stands ready to hand out to good boys and girls who are well-behaved and who clearly are not a challenge or a threat to the status quo. When mommy and daddy reward other brother for being a suck-up, not standing up for himself, and not challenging authority, other other brother learns that sucking-up to power is 'well-adjusted' and will be rewarded.

When mommy and daddy punish other brother for 'mouthing-off' or 'talking back' to or laughing at power, other other brother learns to shut up, sit down, and be quiet. This is what a 'well-adjusted' person does, sits down, shuts up, stays quiet, obeys, performs, and applauds, no matter what 'authority' or 'tradition' or 'convention' does.

The well-adjusted child, adult, wife, husband, citizen, etc., goes along with whatever daddy/mommy/congregation/city/state/profession, etc. does or wants to do without question EVEN IF what mommydaddy wants to do is clearly wrong. This 'well-adjusted' response is really no response at all, but rather a 'buying into' whatever line of shit authority wants you to buy into to get the things done that 'authority' wants to get done.

We all kind of 'go along' with lots of crap we wouldn't otherwise 'go along' with if we weren't so 'well-adjusted.'

'Well-adjusted' citizens go along with things like mass-murder and genocide of innocents, systematic impoverishment of particular segments of society, like those who are poor, sick, female, or 'colored.'

'Well-adjusted' folk go along with notions of racial supremacy, environmental negligence, military and secret operations designed to topple democracies and erect totalitarian dictators in their place.

'Well adjusted' folk join up to go kill little brown people, who might be women, children, sick or old, over in some far-away place so that transnational oil companies can gain an unfair advantage to natural resources.

The 'well-adjusted' Republican really believes that it is ok to make sure that 'me' and 'mine' are taken care of while letting the rest go die, "..for all I care, because it is not my responsibility to help create a society were people do not fear growing old or becoming ill." This 'well-adjusted' person believes that LGBTQs should not be allowed to have families, estates, medical rights, public status, or anything and probably wishes they would all go die as well.

A 'well-adjusted' worker, in our society, is robotic, obedient, quiet, hard-working-for-nothing-beyond making rich people richer, works his ass off all his life only to be bilked out of his retirement funds by Wall Street bankers and Defense Industry contractors who build roads on the side with Mexican slave-labor. This 'well-adjusted' worker lives in a world that is run by capitalists who exploit him, all the while actually believing that we all will be capitalists, by mere virtue of the fact that we live in a 'capitalist' society, doesn't know that he is NOT a capitalist and pretends to be one and votes for his oppressors and his oppressor's agenda every time he agrees to sell his labor-power to the capitalist for less than it is worth, even though food is taken from the mouths of his own children when he does so. He does this because he knows that it is in his best interests (lest he be punished) because all the other 'well-adjusted' people around him agree to be systematically exploited as well.

The 'well-adjusted' 'Christian' is the one who is not very Christian at all. This 'well-adjusted' person hates everyone who is not like himself, sees himself as better than everyone who is not the same kind of 'Christian' that he is, thinks it is ok to go kill people for Jesus and petroleum, or for whatever reason his 'Christian' authorities tell him to go murder the "unbelieving scum over there."

It is no great accomplishment to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society... it is the norm, fortunately or not.

"Ordinary people do f*cked-up things when f*cked-up things become ordinary" -Propaghandi