I cannot say what makes a mystery...
or doesn't...
except to say: 'formulas' are not 'mysteries'.
The Not-Mystery of the Basic B$tch
There are no mysteries. You know: unknowns. There is only (a) what's known, hidden from you, (b) by a stranger or a someone not a stranger (c) or a you, yourself.
*
So there's a woman knocking at the door. Why? Why not no one? Why is there a stranger at the door?
But I don't ask the someone at the door: why. Because I know something the stranger doesn't: she won't tell me the truth. Not because the truth is unknown. Not because the truth is a 'mystery'.
Because the someone knows. Why she is knocking at my door.
I don't ask because the truth is her secret. Withheld from me to keep me in the dark. As if darkness is hers to impose.
*
So there's a man who sits accused in a courtroom. Why? What's happened? What compels a man to be so publicly addressed?
Who's to say? The accused? I don't ask the accused: why. Because I know what everybody knows: the accused won't tell anybody the truth. Not because the truth is unknown. Not because the truth is a 'mystery'.
Because what's happened, happens: not by everybody squeezing their eyes shut; not by everybody tying their hands to their sides and fixing their feet to the ground; not by everybody zipping their lips with tossed invisible keys.
Because see-nothings and do-nothings and speak-nothings do not exist except insofar as fictions that secret the truth behind nothings.
*
So there's someone who starts 'it'. Why? Why not no one? Who, after all, starts a war?
It's unjust and terrible and of all wretched human acts, the worst. Every. Single. Time. Still: why? why? why? we ask.
Not because the truth is unknown. Not because the truth is a 'mystery'. Because life is fragile and cheap. As for sacred:
What's sacred about molecules? Their mere existence? Still: we profess 'our truths' like knives of blamelessness at each other's throats. As if grace forgives us... our dishonesties.
*
There are no mysteries. You know: unknowns. There is only (a) what's known, hidden from us, (b) by a stranger or a someone not a stranger (c) or an us, ourselves.
I am, on the one hand,
disappointed that The Not-Mystery of the Basic B$tch is not a familiar 'story', much less a 'formula' 'mystery'.
But I am, on the other,
not confounded.
By the time its audience appreciates the thrill of its puzzle: not only is it the case that a familiar 'story' was never a 'mystery', not really, afterwards, it will never 'again', dumbfound its audience.
*
Such that what we enjoy
is not-mysteries after all.
*
But life, unlike a genre or procedural or category, doesn't present not-mysteries as 'formulas'. A woman. A man. A someone. A knock. A trial. A war. The telling that entertains
is make believe.
In reality, to know what's known, hidden from us, by a stranger or a someone not a stranger or an us, ourselves -
is our not-mystery to solve.
*
The not-mystery of who to trust. With ourselves. With our honesty. With being kind.
The not-mystery of who to vote for. Because lives worth living are not created by human beings who don't give a f*ck, sh!t, or d@mn.
The not-mystery of who to stand with. As if standing 'as one with our own' without a moral compass... is who we are and what we do.
Because the 'formula' for 'basic' is, in the end, unoriginal and...
unexceptional.
M
*
Notes
(i) The title of this post is The Mystery of the Basic B$tch. However, I appreciate that such title is, in a sense, misleading. With that in mind, the published title of this post is The Not-Mystery of the Basic B$tch.
Note that my title references Lisa Jewell's None of This Is True: A Novel for reasons that are plain and self-evident.
(ii) The not-mystery of the 'basic b$tch' or 'normative @ssholery' isn't why.
Id est: (a) ignorance, delusion, and rejection doesn't make conventional antipathy, hostility, and wrongdoing not exist; (b) blaming everything and everyone but oneself and one's own doesn't make oneself and one's own right and everything and everyone else objectionable; (c) deciding final solutions are the only way to act doesn't make such decisions the only legitimate means to acceptable ends, etc.
Which is to say, the not-mystery of the 'basic s$gma' or 'prescriptive @ssholery' is what. we. make. so.
(iii) My 'truth to power'
to the powerful who are teeming masses is: there are truths to be told; to the powerful who are inheritors of aristocracy, who govern institutions and legacies is: there are truths to be told; to the powerful who are extremists, who employ cruelty and malice is: there are truths to be told
because power is not above truth.
My 'truth to power'
opposes the reasoning that there exists an inherent 'right' to power through (a) a so-called 'divine right' that abuses the conditions and exploits the loopholes of representative government, (b) corruption and contempt of truth, and/or (c) the 'will' of make believe, whether such make believe is a so-called 'privilege' of (i) 'ideology' or (ii) 'faith' or (iii) so-called 'right' to lie with bona fide 'impunity'.
(iv) There is no 'mystery' to a future that furthers goodness; there is plainly:
action that advances such future or action that ensures such future is dead-on-arrival or inaction that robs the future of its potential to be more than
basic.
M
This story is older than time. There is no why, just is. I left because there was no why, just is.
ReplyDeleteThey sent fleets. Fleets did not return. They sent enemies. Enemies did not return. They sent friends. Friends did not return. There was no why, just is.
He arrived. I knew him. A child compared to me. I finally cried. Why him? His not returning would destroy the harmony of the ones I cared about. As we squared, I tensed. He would test me. A warrior like no other but there would be no why, just is. Then he sat and laid his blade to the side. And, I... I attacked.
Four days. I crippled day one. I broke day two. I screamed day three. He defeated me on day four. Why have you come I said? My heart heavy with the lie to come. There would be no why, just is.
He smiled, healed me, handed me a flower, and left. I then realized he was not there to lie but to expose my own. I realized that my lie was there be no why, just is. Life is a blink of an eye until you are the dust you were. He freed me.
Telling lies, alibis, selling hate while supersizing tragedies through a greed that we can't just resist. Humanity! We are hopefully blind to what we are with no sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteThis time of fragmentation of knowledge into endless compartments speeds away unchecked, surely to be accentuated over the decades to come. It's necessary if one wants to explore, experiment, and make progress. Keep telling yourself that. The fragmentation of knowledges elimintates mutuality that allow all to coexist, communicate, make unions. It promotes social misunderstanding and division, making societies of specialists and ghettos of not. Focus too much on the branch or the leaf, you forget that they are part of a tree which is part of a forest. Being aware of a forest is crucial to bringing people together instead of letting them delve into the paranoia, delusion, and hatred that drives wars, discrimination, and other evils.
ReplyDeleteHold a second. What I say affects. I choose to respect. I am selective. My voice is enough. You don't want us waking up our giants. One belief. No restarts. Think. Before it all falls apart.
ReplyDeleteI will pray to win the support we need from such as you. We are faithful in preaching the truth of God's power working through us. We use our righteousness to throw down the wicked while defending the meek. In the end, all that you need to know is what was found in the greatest book of all time.
ReplyDelete99% of all problems are caused by people simply being basic.
ReplyDeleteThe good news?
99% of the problems are really simple to fix and within people's abilities to do so.
The bad news?
People have to choose to fix them.
The rest of us on this planet are so screwed.
Bad day at... the office friend....?
DeleteI met with... a pharma guy... about a new... idea that I... have. It will make... trillions. It's a vaccine... it produces antibodies... against basic assholes... and even better... it solves our... climate problems and... global overcrowding... I call it... Anti Sigma Serum...See what I... did there lol...
ReplyDeleteThe not so mystery is no !@#$ing mystery after all. Don't be an !@#$ing !@#hole just because you !@#$ing can.
ReplyDeleteHumans may never attain the potential that so many others have hoped for (not the least themselves). They fail to self-reflect, artificially self endow attributes, false rank against everything else, and invent new ways to define what is good, accepting that these are eternal and unconditional until the next new way. Yet rather than acknowledge these things and work to produce individuals that are better they instead strive to make better clones of their mediocrity, indifference, and lack of free thinking. Society really doesn't help with this because the man in the court, the one declaring war, and the knocker of the door all have one thing in common - they want people who will give them everything in exchange for nothing.
ReplyDeleteA coward will ever live
ReplyDeleteSafe from strife
Unstable words in speech
Its tongue own mishap
Captive to Another
Man's gaudy design.
Pharisee always have the forumla to save the world. They know when to do things, how to do them, and where to do them. They make everything feel so wonderful when you go along with their. And things always turn out for the best, that is until you realize that they are nothing more an absolute liar.
ReplyDeleteReligion and politics make the most awful horse and rider. The rider believes that there is no limits to what they can do. They push the mount faster and faster and faster until religion removes any thought of obstacles from their path as such is their faith, their divine right. And in that last fleeting moment of life, they and theirs forget that the cliff does not show itself to those that rush blindly until its too late.
ReplyDeleteEnduring governments increasingly gravitate to aristocratic forms the longer that they exist. It's an inevitable pattern. It doesn't matter whether your identifier is hereditary, monetary, influential, or power based. It seeps into everything and before you know it is impossible to see the past, live in the present, and wasted on the future. All that is left is people who act on their bases instead of their potential.
ReplyDeleteDu kaller det basic eller sigma. Jeg kaller dem feige.
ReplyDeleteIngen rase kan være stor når den utvanner standardene, begrenser viljen, regulerer appetitten, gjerder i himmelen, nekter frihet, fokuserer på konsekvenser alene, begrenser valg og ber alle om å tilpasse seg.
Ja, dette høres kjent ut for meg når jeg ser ut av vinduet og innser at jeg er omgitt av feiginger som heller vil få et like eller et smil enn å gjøre noe meningsfullt.
I once served with one that told me you have to lead people, you have to be good. If you don't have the guts to always be good then step aside. I never once watched him step aside nor do bad things and justify them as they were needed. Bad was bad.
ReplyDeleteI worry that we live in a bureaucracy of crazy monkeys that hide their mistakes until it's too late to fix anything that they have broken too severely.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not that Johnny is basic. The problem isn't even that he can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't think at all because he is too busy feeling his way to the end.
ReplyDeleteI love how people like yourself pride themselves on complexity and deride everyone else as basic. You fail to realize that the truth that you so love is not complex, it's just not something you are good at. And therein lies the danger of you that you spread panic, fear, and hate through your aristocratic and well-to-do hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait... to see how... she rides this... pony...
DeleteI love a good not-mystery. Not mysteries never lose their poetry and rhyme when solved and the solution almost always turns into something more beautiful than the puzzle itself. You can then read them again and the not mystery will uncover new not mysteries for you to solve and wonder through. Thank you for this masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteI never get shocked anymore that a person who focuses on the end justifies the mean is not a good person. Their focus on doing anything to get to the end that they want is a dead giveaway that they are a bad person doing bad things while trying to look good. A good person just focuses on the end of each action which culminates in a series of good deeds without a thought of a reward. They also expend a lot less energy in doing it because they aren’t having to giftwrap it as something it is not…
ReplyDeleteWalk through nature and you realize that the real !@#$% is humanity. You don’t see a tiger trying to be a lion, a palm tree an apple, or a mountain be a lake. Humans will go out of their way to be someone they are not if there is something in it for them.
ReplyDeleteWe stand on a tall mountain during a blizzard. It ebbs and grows letting us see the path one moment and gone the next. Stand still, you freeze. Take the wrong road, fall off. Most of you are doomed to the former. A truly good person acts for the best and takes what comes knowing that they will either live good or die good.
ReplyDeleteYour vision and courage continue to lead to significant successes in efforts to further the rights of all and leading to meaningful change in society. I feel more informed and more open to seeing things than I have at any time in the past. I have joined dialogues that I was too afraid well to the south of here to be part of and it has resulted in a concrete improvement in my life and those around me. Thank you. I know that my daughter and I both are grateful for you as it gives us someone to aspire to.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. I often fear that it is easy to focus on the loud person abusing power while ignoring all that support them or don’t rise to their level. These people remain hidden in the background but are no less cruel or bad than the ones that they elevate.
ReplyDeleteOur lives end the day we choose silence about the things that matter over the noise of the truth.
ReplyDeleteLet’s consider what the act of speaking truth to power must be to be virtuous: 1) Truthful, 2) Do no harm to innocents, 3) not be self-interested, 4) a product of reflection, 5) the speaker must be willing to pay the price, and lastly, it’s done with no spite or anger. Consider your champion and now consider her. Which one do you think is virtuous?
ReplyDeleteI suspect 100 years from now that a postmodern doctor will identify that the 20th and 21st centuries were remarkably full of defects in which the opening of people’s anus was missing or blocked which caused them to randomly project their holes onto others.
ReplyDeleteIs it that people are being basic bitches or is it that their pettiness is guided by fatigue of so much that is beyond our control? As time goes by and things don’t improve, people piddle out and what we get instead of hope is dismay and that leads to more raw emotions. So, how do we restore hope?
ReplyDeleteGenerally accepted opinions that claim to explain truths should be handled with caution and care. It’s important now more so because the last century or two produced an overabundance of stupid thoughts that pretend to be the keys to unlocking “human potential.” In the end they are nothing more than a desperate and poorly advised effort to escape responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI sit in a courtroom where all throw noise and words at me. I am so persecuted for the truth that I give. People are afraid of the truth. They seek to wrong me for the truth and the success that is me. A wave is coming. Choose your side so it doesn’t wash you away.
ReplyDeleteI always choose... the side of... potato salad...
DeleteWhy must you do what you do? Is it not enough to poison the well that now you wish to rob those of us who have worked so hard of their riches? Please open your eyes before it’s too late.
ReplyDeletePlease talk less, you will sound far less ignorant and basic
DeleteTo sit in silence when the word needs your noise is to sin against the very creator you aspire to love.
ReplyDeleteI was proud to see the impact of your words. You embolden people to speak out, to vote, to act for the country that they love. This is their land; this is our land. Now we all just need to continue to make it mutual, protect it, and never let the other side pass it to their darkness.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you continue to stand for the side of truth and mutuality. We must stand. Those who act like they are neutral always help the bad, never the good. Their silence encourages basics and alphas while tormenting the wholesome and good. The counter our love with their indifference.
ReplyDeleteTo remain neutral when others choose base behavior, you choose the side of oppression and evil.
ReplyDeleteBasics, if you will, drive me bonkers. They blame everyone and anyone else but themselves. They make their own choices, living every day with the consequence of that choice but then act like they are not the problem when they choose to elevate, suppress, quiet, and destroy.
ReplyDeleteWhy is that so many believe that God’s will is a mystery? Why is it we believe that so few know it? Is it not all around us? One could argue that divine will is found in your very DNA. Another could argue that divine will is nothing more than God gifting us all the ability to choose. Still others might speculate that interpretation and guesswork are not required to understand that will. In the end, don’t overthink or miss the point of God’s will. You are neither divine nor godly. And you certainly don’t have the right to interfere with the choice of others or to pass judgement on them. God gave you the gifts that God did so you could live and let others live regardless of what they are.
ReplyDeleteTime flies and meanders. There is a library. In that library, the shelves are endless. Each book is an opportunity. To choose and then see how things might have been. So, why do people not visit this library? Why? They’d have to do things differently. Knowledge is a responsibility to not only do better for yourself but also hold others to that same responsibility. The basic – they don’t want to do either as it means that their fantasy would come to an end.
ReplyDeleteI work in a trade where every day I hear just about every excuse for not doing good, lying, or leaving bodies in their wake. I didn’t know what I was doing, the result was a mystery, it’s not my fault, I only made a mistake. Let’s be honest. All of these are scapegoats for people who either choose to do something bad or choose to just not give a shit. It’s refreshing to see someone not only address that but also the not so mysterious reason why people keep getting away with it in that others choose to look away, say nothing, or do nothing. Thank you! You help people like me stay on the course.
ReplyDeleteVery few can write like you do. Your words are measured. Your thoughts organized. Your message clear and understandable. It's no wonder that the extreme dislike you so. You are a barrier to their plans. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteThere is a plan. It's written by the alphas. It's put into place by the sigmas. And all it requires is for everyone else to not care. Thankfully there is someone that does.
ReplyDeleteThere is a moon. Not the paper moon you worship.
ReplyDeleteThere is a big blue sea. Not the cardboard sea you sail on.
There is a fiery sun. Not the fake crystal sun you look up to.
There is you. Not the make-believe version you promote.
There is real. Not the charlatan casting magic of nothing.
In the end, there is you and me in a place that is burning,
So why is it that you don’t believe in what you know is real.
The fake piety that is the not so mystery of the basic can only be enabled by those who choose to go along for the fear of being left out or being wrong. True piety is those that stand where they are while everyone else chooses a side to just not be left out. Which are you?
ReplyDeleteToo many children pretend to be a bear who are pretending to be emperors pretending to be God so that they can get theirs before the wave comes and washes it all away.
ReplyDeleteYour lost cause is my winning cause. Let’s see who gets to the finish line first, Tortoise.
ReplyDeleteShe is much... to cute to... be a shell...She is more... the angel that... will always finish... well ahead of... your fatty ass...
ReplyDeleteIs it not strange that rule breakers breach obedience to all as they casually demonstrate obedience to nothing?
ReplyDeleteI blame paywalls for the rise of the mysteries that are not mysteries but rather deliberate actions in disguise. The moment that we corporatized media and made it where you had to pay for news, the moment that the fringe was able to walk through the door and feed lies to the masses as truths.
ReplyDeleteA game of hot potato where mediocrity and vanity is roasted is exactly what the chef has prepared to go with what you bring to Thanksgiving: perspective.
ReplyDeleteYour recent post... it had me... at the ending...
ReplyDeleteIs it fake piety when we ask that women follow the scriptures like Timothy 2:12 and 2:15? Please learn your scripture and place before you lead others to the blazing gates of Hell.
ReplyDeleteYou sir are a tool and an uneducated scholar. Your fake views were formulated by men who wished to advance patriarchal societies through a narrow interpretation of post Bronze Age legal texts and revisionist additions made by Roman false prophets. More learned scholars evaluate sources other than legal texts; in research on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel, also by using multiple sources that are not written by those wishing to advance a political agenda of theocracy. Taken together, these challenges provide compelling reasons for abandoning patriarchal rhetoric as an adequate or accurate descriptor of God's view of the role of gender in life.
DeleteA small Johnson... is nothing more... than an inadequate... falsely advertised tool...
Delete