Everything Is Going to Be Alright: the Allegory of Heaven & Hell

By Matthew T. McKinley

This book is for the people that want to change the world starting from the inside out. Change doesnt come from pointing fingers, rather it comes from helping others. Matthews philosophy is a synthesis of Eastern and Western ideals and is derivative of the brilliant minds that searched for truth before him. Strongly inspired by Platos Allegory of the Cave, Matthew wanted to write something that followed the same path in finding reality in a world where perception takes precedence. This book embodies the search for enlightenment and instills a hope for a better tomorrow. Matthew uses lyrics from songs from all walks of life in tribute to their ability to communicate their search for a better tomorrow. This book will give you the tools to gain personal power in order to allow your voice to be heard because you are an invaluable part of the world. You will develop a foundation of solid logic that will allow you to decipher the most complex issues plaguing our world today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493171934

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Matthew T. McKinley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 02/28/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

541882

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1:     The Creation Of Heaven And Hell And How Money Gained Its Power

Chapter 2:     Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

Chapter 3:     My Friends (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Chapter 4:     Buried Myself Alive (The Used)

Chapter 5:     Right Where It Belongs (Nine Inch Nails)

Chapter 6:     Changes (2Pac)

Chapter 7:     Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones)

Chapter 8:     Imagine (John Lennon)

Chapter 9:     Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Chapter 10:   Headshot (Thomas C. Knust)

Chapter 11:   Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd)

Chapter 12:   When I Come Around (Green Day)

Chapter 13:   Creep (Radiohead)

Chapter 14:   Time To Pretend (MGMT)

Chapter 15:   In Bloom (Nirvana)

Chapter 16:   It’s So Easy (Guns N’ Roses)

Chapter 17:   It Doesn’t Mean A Thing (The Airborne Toxic Event)

Chapter 18:   Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Chapter 19:   This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)

Conclusion

References

About The Author

Endnotes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my mom, who gave everything for me and sacrificed her own happiness so that I could be happy. She is the reason that I’m here, and she has been the biggest influence in my life. I can never repay her for what she did, but I can pay it forward as much as possible.

To Adrienne, who gives me the unconditional love that inspires me to have such a positive outlook on humanity. She is as generous and sincere of a person as I have ever known.

To Alyssa, the cutest little girl in the world. She gave me back my ability to find joy in little things in life. As long as I am around her, I will never get old. I love her more than life itself.

To my stepdad Matt, for stepping into my life and being my father. Because having a mother and a father are two very important things that allow a person to develop into a healthy human being.

To my brother Casey, who listened to me rant for so many years and gave me his attention when no one else could. He allowed me to pursue my quest for enlightenment, and without him, I would still be lost.

To my uncle Tom, who instilled in me the tenacity to fight against the bullies in life. I may not have his right hook, but I have his words. When the world took away his physical ability to fight bullies, he discovered how to make a difference with words, and his optimism is contagious.

To my uncle Donny McKinley, who is literally the McKinley family’s rock. He kept both my brother and me stable in a very unstable environment. He is one of the few that were given little chance but flourished like a diamond in a field of coal.

To everyone else in my family that I love so dearly and mean the world to me. You all are big reasons that I have happiness, and you all are so special. My cousins: Brian, Charlie, Christina, Courtney, Kai, Meredith, Nick, and Samantha. My aunts: Karen, Penny, and Sue. My uncles: Don Saunders and Sean. My grandmas: Betty, Judy, and Karen. My grandpas: Bill, Charlie, and Don. My great-grandma Maxine. My sister-in-law Michelle. And my biological father Mike.

To my friends that put up with my antics throughout the years. I am not the easiest person to get along with, but they still put up with me.

To my therapist, Diane Devore, who gave me the tools to understand what was ailing me and causing me mental afflictions. If you’re in San Diego and need some help or just want to talk to someone impartial, you can visit her website at www.ddevorelcsw.com. If you’re not in San Diego, just search for therapists in your area. Therapy is nothing to be ashamed of.

And to those before me that wrote such inspiring words. Because I am not any different than anyone else nor are they; but through collaboration, we can all help each other out to find meaning in this world.

INTRODUCTION

My whole life I have tried finding a way to manifest my thoughts into words. It is so hard to make something intangible become real. I have always been a very cognizant and cerebral person, and I have always found such value in thinking and philosophizing. In college, many of my friends would joke and call me Socrates because I would always talk about deep issues, even while downing beers at a fraternity party. But that is just how my mind has always worked. There was always something deep inside of me that needed to get out.

On and off for the last few years of my life, I have been fighting a feeling of extreme anxiety. I have been doing everything I can in order to get it under control so that I could just relax and be happy. But no matter what I do, it persists. I have tried to drown my anxiety with alcohol, but all that would do is make me pass out and feel like crap for days on end and leave me with a hangover. I have tried binge eating, using that short-term satisfaction to try and relieve myself from my anxiety. I tried anything that I could think of but no matter what I did, my anxiety constantly lingered. I thought that if I could get away from all the smoke and mirrors in my life, I could isolate my problems in order to find a solution.

I moved far away from home and everything that I had ever known. I became both socially and physically isolated, in an attempt to have as much control over my life as possible. I felt that somehow, I had lost the ability to give meaning to my life. But isolating myself just made everything even more difficult for me because I wasn’t able to share experiences with others, which just made me even more anxious. I realized that I was a social creature and that my happiness greatly depended on other people. This was a problem because everywhere I looked I saw hate, greed, anger, and unhappiness. I didn’t feel like I could rely on my environment to give me the things that I needed in order to enjoy life. The things that were supposed to give me pleasure gave me grief. So I had to figure out a way to change that.

I have always understood the power of words and perception. I have found solace in reading about philosophies that have explained things that I had not previously known. I also found comfort in writing philosophy so that I could understand my own views on life, meaning, politics, the economy, and everything else. This has allowed me to explain in depth everything about the world that I live in and what I know to be true.

But no matter how much I wrote and how much I thought, nothing seemed to satisfy me because I couldn’t really understand why things were the way they were. There were so many things about life that I looked at in bafflement and shrugged off, saying that that is just the way things are. But I don’t feel that way anymore because I honestly feel that I have found the foundation for a logical understanding of life that would decipher the complicated intricacies that have created conflict and unrest in society. The afflictions that are a result of an incongruent relationship between desire and action can be eased with an understanding of what is needed to pair what we want with how we act. The running joke of solving world peace is not a joke anymore. The reality of a solution is at my doorstep, and I feel that it is actually obtainable. It is no longer just optimistic hope but an actual tangible understanding of a possible human utopian society.

The ideals that have led us to constant turmoil and have caused constant conflict with no tangible ends are a result of a faulty foundation of logical understanding. I feel that people have been trying to cure symptoms while ignoring the underlying disease, which has allowed the illness to manifest itself, leaving it impervious to treatment. But I feel like I have really figured out a solution to everyone’s problems. I truly believe that I have created a second premise that we must use as a Rosetta stone in order to decipher the most complicated problems that plague our minds and cause us discomfort from the incongruence of faulty logic. The irony in the solution is what has allowed for such a simple idea to be misunderstood for so long by so many brilliant minds. But if we hold true to the ideals that it holds, then we can begin to understand life for what it really is, and reality will take precedence over perception again and allow life to be meaningful again.

The first premise was already discovered by Rene Descartes, which is this:

I think, therefore I am.

When Descartes chose to logically isolate everything in order to gain a pure and unbiased understanding, the first true thing that he found that can be understood is that we are alive because we know we are; there is no denying that fact. To a person that wants to know everything before understanding anything, this statement is shallow and meaningless. But to a person that can understand the importance of a solid foundation, it is a breakthrough in the enlightenment of human understanding. And although this premise is very powerful, it still is too vague to stand alone.

In order to make reality remain secure in foundation, it