The Sticks: Revisiting the Album by Mother Mother
Written: October 23, 2023
Way early this morning, I relistened to this album due to my partner.
It had been a while since I listened to Mother Mother and a bit longer since I listened to this album in its entirety. This listen led me to think about civilization & capitalism & humanity & the human animal equivalent of zoo psychosis & to a degree, therianthropy. In the past, "The Sticks" (the song) was on my personal, yet generic, therianthropy playlists. It's a song (and an album) which I find a bit of resonance in.
I may be a dog but this really ain't it. I believe I am not at all cut out for living as & being a human. I'll be honest. Maybe it's neurodivergence. Maybe it's therianthropy. Maybe both, they aren't mutually exclusive. This world just seems so ill suited to me and I feel ill suited to it and its forced humanity. I can adapt and do what I need but I struggle with how unnatural it is. I don't easily grasp certain concepts like everyone else seems to. Some things have taken me many tries in contrast to how quick others seem to get it. I resonate hard with this part of a Carl Jung quote: "too much civilization makes sick animals"
And that's where zoo psychosis comes in. What is civilization & capitalist society if it's not some kind of zoo? Zoo psychosis is a sort of psychosis that occurs in wild animals kept in captivity. When their nature is disrupted by this, it manifests as self-destructive & stereotypic behaviors. In trans-species psychology, some consider it to be a form of C-PTSD (complex post traumatic stress disorder).
Consider how humans themselves aren't at all living in ways natural to their being and consider how they are traumatized in some way or another. I can't think of a single human who is unscathed by what is inflicted. And that's not even considering generational traumas brought about by colonialism, generational cycles of abuse in which one beats or otherwise harms their children and/or partners and the cycle repeats down the family line until one says "enough" and just interpersonal abuse in general. All of which are caused by civilized, patriarchal & capitalistic society in one way or another. Humans are sickened by this unnatural situation and humans are fucking terrifying in what they do as a result. Wars, weapons of mass destruction, genocide, new tech that I know for sure won't be used for anything good and has likely caused quite a lot of death in its construction. And that's not even all of it.
Most of them don't even realize it. They truly believe this is natural. Some believe this is the very will of whatever god they call upon. And I think both of those are a coping mechanism known as denial. The abused & traumatized will often deny their trauma. And a lot won't even know they're abused or traumatized until they leave the situation. The majority won't. The structures in place have caused mental illnesses & turmoil in spades. Zoo psychosis but for humans and anyone else stuck in such a body. The cycles, systems and structures in place will continue until it caves in on itself and this is pretty close right now. At least in North America. I both look forward to and yet dread to see what that brings with it.
I try not to dwell too much.
God awful shitty feeling of dread in my heart as I wait for the world to end regardless...
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