Maybe it's the gulfstream jet and estate of a prosperity preacher. Or the megawatt bling and lifestyle of a celebrity. Or a small business that rings a bell at the corner of bull and bear because the sky's the limit.
What it all means is in the eye of the beholder.
What It All Means
We want it all, don't we?
The life.
The dream.
Everything.
*
Because who doesn't, right? Milquetoasts, that's who. Too timid and uptight to take what's rightfully theirs. Prey, that's what they are. Too afraid to be wolves.
Chumps. Laughing stocks. Fools. Too gutless to stand up to bullies. How did we become the cowed?
*
Except... other people's stuff isn't rightfully our stuff, is it? I mean: our property's ours, and theirs is theirs. Because fair's fair.
And... we aren't beasts. I mean: we don't scrabble in packs ruled by fangs and claws. Because living like animals is... inhuman.
And... what bullies are terrorizing us? Basics who lie and roar and steal? Who strut and growl like one-eyed jacks?
*
Come on.
What is this? The road to having the life? Manifesting the dream? Owning everything?
*
In my day, I've smelled a lot of bullshit. No doubt you have too. This smells like a lie packaged as a promise that has nothing to do with prosperity or fame or pies in the sky.
For this is promise-selling 101. Selling us what we want to hear. Selling us what we want to buy. As for what is really being said? As for what is really being bought?
*
That is everything and that is in the eye of the beholder.
So one poll will report that 'it' is financial realities. A study will conclude that 'it' is culture wars. A panel of pundits will opine that 'it' is religious beliefs.
Surprise, surprise, not:
none of this is it.
*
Many of us don't want the life or the dream or everything. Many of us want the fiction.
That that is 'rightfully ours'. That 'bullies' are to blame for 'standing in our way'. That what's 'fair' is nuclear war. That what's 'honest' is naked criminality.
Because the fiction makes the rules. Including immunity from the rules for us and ours. Until the fiction makes the lie the truth.
*
Which is to say:
It can feel like blood and sweat and tears is for chumps and laughing stocks and fools when 'work smarter not harder' is the earworm of the day. It can feel like you won't make it unless you give up and give in. It can feel like the answer to having it all... is a promise.
As if 'the life' that's prosperity preacher sized; 'the dream' that's celebrity sized; and 'everything' that's the sky's the limit sized... is one monetary gift, one viral plot, and one hustle away. Because that's the promise, no?
I mean: really... That is a myth and everybody knows
only a sucker prospects for gold in a steaming pile of bullshit.
Epilogue
About bullies and basics.
Bullies and basics have bones to pick;
their grievances are epic;
and they're flooding the conversation as if they're the voices of reason.
*
I know better. You know better. But 'the conversation' evangelizes otherwise. It spotlights every bone, every grievance, as if this is what it's all about and this is what it all means.
*
This is how bullies and basics make narrative currency. To draw lanes. To move goal posts. To write the story they tell themselves.
So polls and studies and pundits, report and conclude and opine, such story: real and relevant and wholly believable.
Because the fiction makes the lie the truth. Including a myth packaged as a line that the villain is the victim who's saving us all... from villains.
M
I’ve done a lot of research and I see through you now. You rage, diagnose, question, pose, laugh, nurse, and create agency without ever surrendering or finding peace. You are villain in one’s story but a hero in most. In the end, I appreciate and love that you don’t demand others to rewrite their story but rather focus on showing them the reality and truth so that they reconnect with an inner integrity that has been sorely neglected for some time.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a cartoon I saw years ago reading this.
ReplyDeleteA man stranded on a small island saw a boat approaching, he screamed, “Boat!” He was finally going to be rescued from the small island and be able to live his life to the fullest.
A man stranded on a small boat saw land approaching, he screamed, “Land!” He was finally going to be rescued from the small boat and be able to live his life to the fullest.
In the end, neither of them was going to be rescued but their prison was going to be different. In the end, they didn’t realize that by working together they could help each other escape.
In the end, be careful of wearing the villain’s cape as it’s impossible to wear another’s clothes without becoming what you are pretending to be. The good news is contained here within that despite what others say, you can come back from that.
ReplyDeleteHow did we come to a place and time where we believe that it’s better to not try so as to avoid the loss? Think about what will happen this year? If you don’t at least try to save what we have, it’s entirely your fault.
ReplyDeleteStories are nothing more than ideas put into words. In good stories, the whole of the idea passes into words. If that idea overflows everything in it becomes stuck in labels around the idea, the plot of the story loses all credibility and the story its very life. Nevertheless, a story cannot dispense with having ideas that are profound and impactful less it becomes nothing more than noise and a convenient excuse to do whatever the characters in the story want to do.
ReplyDeleteThe way of the fool is right in their own eyes. It’s easy to see things as right when you are far from it. After talking about those who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, all should come away with the knowledge that these folks are wise only in their eyes and clever by only their sight. It’s easy to be tempted to do what is right by justifying whatever part of society rationalizes, rewords, or reframes your desires into something that it’s not. By doing this, the righteous reject God and seek to elevate others to become God, even when what they preach is far from the teachings of the all-seeing eye.
ReplyDeleteVillains have hearts… too.
ReplyDeleteVillains save but… two.
Villains heaven go… to.
It’s all about context, you say. Yet it’s not. The part of the villain is only determined by the narrator, you say. Yet it’s not. Even Angels need to put down their halos to make change, you say. Yet it’s not. In the end, you will tell yourself whatever it is that you want to do whatever you want to. Even when you know it’s villainous.
ReplyDeleteWhen all of society is evil, it is not the villain that will be the only one to speak the truth. So what does that make you?
ReplyDeleteThis is a bold... strategy. Let's see if... it pays off... for you...
DeleteI live where the sun does not set in the winter and does not go down in the summer. It’s easy for my sister and I to understand right and wrong when your parents are champions who are steadfast in the pursuit of mutuality, unity, and truth; and when those that have raised you are examples of heroism in their daily endeavors. I have known nothing but love, truth, and kindness my entire life sheltered here in this northern paradise. Why is this important? It’s grounded me in a reality that allows me to see that society’s fascination with those that are not fully bad (anti-villain) or good (anti-hero) is nothing more than a desire to win at all costs to get what people feel they deserve. Why else blur the lines? It’s a trick as old as time. And I can see without blindness that this unhealthy obsession is rewriting social norms in broad daylight to justify the wickedness for nothing more than a small gain for you and a huge gain for the those that recklessly defy norms and compacts with nothing more than “truth” and “smiles.”
ReplyDeleteFloods are the most common hazard in the world. They occur when land that is normally dry experiences an overflow of water that is faster than the land’s capacity to absorb it. In societal terms when grievances are more than society can absorb, society becomes flooded with bad ideas and people. Unfortunately, unlike geography, we can’t simply flush the bad people and ideas out, but we can move to higher ground and let them flow out to the ocean of nothingness.
ReplyDeleteIn my lifetime, we have gone from men who overturned evils to those who have done untold evils. We’ve gone from voting for people who stood for something to those who wanted to save the world to those who just want to burn it down. I am now convinced in the next four years we will be voting either to elect a parrot or a clown.
ReplyDeleteYou must be... really upset to... not have a... single curse word...
DeleteOld voices go forward,
ReplyDeleteI miss talks,
Over a buried past,
Playing out to side,
When we were young,
Full of life and love,
Minds without tricks,
Your truth remains,
In my dreams now,
Here or there or future,
You are my hero.