Leaving [fill in the blank] on the table
does not say the quiet part aloud, but rather,
is the quiet part aloud.
The Quiet Part Aloud
Which is to say,
in other words:
a) what am I talking about, b) why does it matter, and c) what in the Sam Hill does it have to do with you?
*
If you really have no idea, ask Alexa or Siri or Google: "I leave $5 billion on the table."
(attribution: Brian Cox as 'Logan Roy' in the Season 3 finale of Succession (December 2021))
That
is 'leaving money on the table'.
*
But 'leaving [fill in the blank] on the table' isn't about a pile of billions on a pile of billions. It's about fear of missing out. On steroids.
*
It's about the lengths of the hustle.
If you really have no idea, ask Siri or Alexa or Google: "This city, this whole country, is a strip club: you got people tossing the money and people doing the dance."
(attribution: Jennifer Lopez as 'Ramona Vega' with the last word of Hustlers (September 2019))
That
is as if not hustling is 'leaving money on the table'.
*
As if only fools walk away from [fill in the blank].
*
If that
is 'this whole country' as 'Ramona' quips - if that
is 'winning' as 'Logan' crows -
the quiet part aloud
is the real world
where you and I live.
*
If you really have no idea, ask Google or Siri or Alexa: 'ProPublica Tracking PPP'.
(attribution: over $800 billion U.S. Small Business Administration 'forgivable loans' ('closed' June 2021) appropriated by the 116th U.S. Congress (2020) and the 117th U.S. Congress (2021))
[fill in the blank]
But
for some of you, a consequential opportunity to exercise our vote is asking us: who to trust and what to believe and why this or that matters.
Where we live,
everyone knows leaving anything on the table is not an option.
*
Winning is why 'Logan' leaves nothing on the table. Everyone's a hustler is why 'Ramona' leaves nothing on the table. Me?
Do you wonder what kind of world 'Logan' lives in? Or 'Ramona'? What kind of world
yokes everyone to self-interest, exceptional and exclusive? What kind of world
makes paying for greed, indifferent and swollen,
the price of living?
*
That world is the real world -
but
that world is not the whole world.
*
Here,
we leave nothing on the table because elections matter. And
we leave everything on the table. Because
walking away from what does not matter is the difference between believing in that world and making that world -
not the whole world.
*
If you really have no idea, I ask:
bailout beggars: what kind of world,
hustlers: what kind of world,
cut throats: what kind of world,
you:
what kind of world
do you believe in? And what kind of world
are you making? Because the real world
is made by you.
Preface to the Addendum, a Case
As for: a) what am I talking about, b) why does it matter, and c) what in the Sam Hill does it have to do with you?
A case.
Addendum, a Case
In the real world, an ova bearer is at the mercy of reproductive potential
only
insofar and when
the law forbids
advancements in reproductive knowledge
from being exercised by the will of an ova bearer.
As if
'the mercy of reproductive potential'
nullifies the agency
of an ova bearer,
because the law forbids
all potential but that of reproductive potential
be afforded 'agency'.
As if
each and every single-celled ova possesses,
in the absence of real material will, 'agency'
per a right
denied each and every multi-celled ova bearer actually possessed of free will.
*
This is the real world,
where we live.
Here,
where ova bearers are nurses and teachers, military defense technologists and national security operatives, presidents and prime ministers. Where, moreover,
each and every ova bearer
matters less than a single-celled ova,
according to deciders of opinions who would rather 'we the ova bearers' not be free of the prison of reproductive potential.
*
As if a prison is not a prison, because a prison is
'a welcome joy', 'a divine favor', 'a gift of servility',
with a coin toss, a millisecond tap or swipe on a mobile device, a game of Russian roulette, that is to say,
'sacred'.
*
To oppose the multitude that would throw away my dignity for their 'belief', is to leave nothing on the table.
Because there is nothing 'reasonable' about the prison of reproductive potential,
here,
where the so-called 'reasonable' theft of my dignity is the 'choice' of so-called 'faithful loyalists'.
*
To wit:
Vote for nurses and teachers, military defense technologists and national security operatives, presidents and prime ministers. Vote for not holding ova bearers back from their potential. From opportunities and accomplishments. Beyond reproducing reproductions. Vote for not upholding deciding opinions that strip ova bearers of their dignity to possess agency over their organs.
Oppose a world that yokes everyone to the inevitable and unsurprising consequences of the quiet part aloud. The kind of world where bailout beggars and hustlers and cut throats, live. The real world. Where we the people pay the price. That is me. And. That is you.
M
*
Postface to the Addendum, a Case
To be unafraid of the quiet part aloud,
is not shameless crowing: 'I am the victim!'
that is audible and visible,
everywhen and everywhere.
To be unafraid of the quiet part aloud,
is seeing the naked emperor
and knowing
The emperor is a fraud. The tailor that the emperor employs to prove the unparalleled virtue of the emperor, is a fraud. The coterie that spins trifling spectres tirelessly in service to the emperor, makes this world, 'real'. The ruled who go along with this world, make leaving nothing on the table, 'what matters', everyhere and everynow.
*
After all,
the quiet part aloud is clear and present.
Neither a lie nor a fraud, is sacred;
only the truth, is sacred.
M
