WHY YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING (OR, AT LEAST, A POSSIBLE REASON)
part 1
I love motivational words. Love them. Love them. They used to be quite popular in high schools back when America had a pretty decent economy and Just Do It was new enough to still be confused as a zen haiku (and not merely transform into a zen haiku after most Americans basically forgot cultural history after Stars Wars was released). They were on the walls of your Home Ec or English teacher's walls. "Those who can't lose sight of the shore...," "only thing to fear is fear itself," "There is never a time when your passion will be economically irrelevant," etc. These were also found (mostly, probably) in white-collar offices across America, the kinds of places Office Space and Fight Club satirized in highly different ways, with highly different results.
Notice there's no cubicle, or person, in sight
Then came the Despair.com, which everyone loved (except for people who probably dislike the Beatles on a sonic some sonic level), and the jaded post-grunge grungy snarl of "This doesn't really mean what reality is telling me."
1999, the year we started waiting for the end.
Now we're back to the 90's, albeit with a more Regression-laden viewpoint, self improvement in the face of the fact none of us will get to be rock stars. History repeats every twenty years, at least according to Dazed and Confused:
"It's like the every-other-decade theory, you know? The '50s were boring, the '60s rocked, and the '70s-- Oh, my god, they obviously suck. Come on. Maybe the '80s will be radical. You know? I figure we'll be in our 20s and, hey, it can't get any worse."
So am I, Mr. Flannel, so am I.
Examples? A few, just to wet the proverbial whistle.
The last one is especially curious. Really? That's the only thing we don't regret? And we'll regret every chance we never took? Like that affair the married person never had, or the plane Seth McFarlane didn't take but it turned out to be 9/11 so it was okay. I don't think he has any regrets here. Meaning, what we view as a chance determines risk. It is perception. It is harder for a gypsy to stay still, to break the cycle, than to keep travelling. However, some things do not require risk, nor should they. There is a great many things we take for granted in (most) of our country, like transit that works (sorry, Detroit), good roads (sorry, Detroit), and not living by Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse, and Eminem (sorry, again, Detroit). We want these things to be stable to afford our own instability. We don't want the pilot to be a drop-out wandering soul hippie type, we want that guy to show up on time while we can go backpacking in the Himalayas, dang nabbit.
Curious. Black and white points aside, we must ask ourselves what is the point of these posts on Facebook. And why do we respond to them?
The most obvious must be "inspiration." In fact, I found these pictures by typing "inspiration" into google. It's that inspirational.
Huh.
Like a mugging. Or persecution. Or marriage. Really, variables, just like choosing between tea or coffee.
And, if you're Christian, this niche one's for you:
It may be on the same beach as the "Regrets" poster. Also, notice the main subject visually isn't God, but owner of said "side."
God, in these contexts, is usually a kind of "Helper," a "buddy," or a variation of USE THE FORCE, LUKE. It's not so much theology or interest in God, but a way to use God as a means to the user's end. Hence the reason the guy walks alone on the Rocky beach, and why someone takes a selfie while praising god, akin to painting a self-portrait while singing praises to your significant other.
I know, I know, The ME-generation. It's cliche to this point. We (Generation Y, the Millennials) are narcissistic, egotistical, self-promoting, agenda-driven. Unlike before, when Generation X sacrificed themselves during World War II and- oh, wait, wrong generation- Generation X watched a lot of MTV and sang through gravel.
And they said rappers were the bad influence
We've been told by the media, and have discussed without our peers and colleagues, that the next generation is self-absorbed. Here's Time doing the five-trick pony since the 60's.
This self-absorption can be linked back to Romanticism, Walt Whitman, the birth of cool and teen culture, yada yada yada, but we all look at someone twenty years younger than us and think, "deep down, you have no idea." I did this the other day with a self-proclaimed "Millennium Baby" who didn't know what Pink Floyd was. I'm not even into Pink Floyd, let alone really knew what they were when I was fourteen, but her ignorance was too much to take. Kids and their silly rap music and video games. Of course, while making soup today and texting someone back a reply to their question, an older gentleman asked me if anyone under thirty did anything without a screen, or a phone, or a computer, or a video game. I felt defensive, because I didn't even want to text the person while making the Clam Chowder, the same way he probably defended himself against his grandfather who complained nobody used the telephone back in his day, to which he might have said, "Yes, Grandpa, but now the world runs on the phone and nobody is going to want to date me if I use a telegram and civil war penmanship."
But- he had a point. He does. I don't know how, but he does. It feels different. I don't really know if I'm just romanticizing the past, because darkness and egomania and sin and crooked perception have been around since, I don't know, day one or maybe two, and the point is we as a species, for all our googling and atom-splitting, haven't really changed much in the deep struggle...but-
We used to not take photos of ourselves. We looked in the mirror, sure, and we did it in private, ashamed if someone else saw us, unless we were the vain person from a Disney cartoon and happened to be a wicked step-mother.
She just lost five Twitter followers.
This is just to say talking about yourself used to be considered a sign you were self-absorbed. Because that was a thing. And it still is, especially in certain circles that scorn Facebook and smartphones in almost conspiratorial ways (usually certain indie music clans, Fundamentalist Christian sects, and that one neighborhood in Portland with the tin-man painted book-exchange mailbox combo).
Not so much anymore. We should just agree on that. And I know, those last two lines could come from the mouth of Donald Trump, but isn't it only just because of today's society that this guy has made it anywhere in a presidential race?
But that's for another discussion. Sorry, this isn't a three point essay, more a post-tea ramble (look, the self-obsessed, personalized excuse rears its ugly mug), and we're skipping around a bit. Let's get back to the topic.
Inspirational posters, like Donald Trump in late 2015, are all over our Facebook newsfeeds. And what both have in common is they make us feel, in some way, better. Donald Trump makes you feel better because you realize there was something worse in the world, which makes all the other politicians seem like rational, sane people. Inspirational posters are good because they are self-therapy.
But there's been inspirational quotes for thousands of years. And they do have their use. Like this:
Oh. Huh.
It's a little harsher, a little more fire and brimstone, a little cold.
Because it's Christopher Lasch
Played by the one of the Quaid brothers
Christopher Lasch, historian and social critic, wrote The Culture of Narcissism.
It's a good, lengthy tome. Very seventies, Phillip Roth-esque cover.
Here's a quote from a New York Times article of his impact:
"Even as he dug deep into psychoanalytic and social theory and American history, Lasch took in a remarkable range of contemporary experience, making many observations that, if anything, ring more true today. In a chapter called “The Degradation of Sport,” he lamented the way big money and free agency were turning the athlete into a mere “entertainer” who “sells his services to the highest bidder,” bound to his team only in a spirit of “antagonistic cooperation” (a term borrowed from David Riesman). Noting how self-help experts make us feel that success or failure is at stake at every moment, he seemed to anticipate the calculating side of social networking. “The search for competitive advantage through emotional manipulation,” he wrote, culminates in a sociability that functions as “an extension of work by other means.” And long before Stephen Colber tcoined the term “truthiness,” Lasch perceived that “the air is saturated with statements that are neither true nor false but merely credible” — which only makes it easier for the narcissist to see the world as an extension of his desires."
Dum dum dum.
And with that, we leave till next post.
(to be continued)
