This world, particularly consumer culture makes fools of us, pitiful, degraded, bird-whacking, food mauling, sports watching, gambling, weed smoking, button pushing suckers desperately seeking Bozo buttons for doing poopoo in the potty.
The Overwhelm – the impossible intensity, velocity and degree of technological change, tidal waves of media, talking, the absolute madness of others, the chaos from without and within driving individuals to madness. Some can surf it, most drown.
The world depends on violent men who live within the law. The fascist doesn’t care. The religious extremist, tyrant, narcissist unleashes on the vulnerable because he can. And feels good about it. John Wayne stood for something necessary.
Society works when people have well-developed principles, live consistently within those principles, respect the principles of others and are honest about their trade offs.
Honorable people can only enjoy victories won the right way. Evil maniacs only care about winning. They’ll even parade a medal about ten and do high paid motivational speeches about victories they won by cheating.
Courageous people make impossible decisions, of life and death, in dilemmas with no good choices but a choice has to be made and they may suffer for getting it wrong but they made the choice; losers run their mouths about the trade offs and downsides on choices they lack the guts or status to make.
The dirty distance. Those who kill by the push of a button and never see a head blown off, those who pollute and never meet the kid they gave bone cancer. Or her mother.
Commitment to craft is often a cover for cowards who don’t have the guts to do the dirty work of learning by doing.
True noir is about the depths of depravity and conscious malice humans can descend to. Even the nicest guy if put in the right conditions.
True punk is the courage to fully express oneself no matter what the fuck one feels – or who it hurts.
Rawthentic is a good word.
Creative discomfort is what separates artists from chumps. The artist can sit in the discomfort of not knowing and do the work of figuring it. The chump rushes everything out as soon as he finishes to beg for validation.
Social media is like that expression better to stay silent and be thought a fool than running your mouth and confirming it. Something like that is going on at extreme scale.
The average American Christian reveres payback, violence and vengeance to such an intense degree you’d think Jesus tore himself off the cross, twirled the wood so he held it like a rifle and obliterated his tormenters with high-powered God lightning strikes.
To allow another human being to restructure reality in a series of powerful, intensely colorful images set to emotionally-charged music is more dangerous than you think.
A thought on God’s Judgment: no one thinks it applies to them.
The beauty of getting older is eventually you run out of ways to fuck things up, leaving only the righteous path. If you’re lucky. Otherwise you die just as stupid and ignorant as you lived. And that’s a travesty.
No matter how brilliant you are, someone thinks you’re an asshole. And the more brilliant you are the more vicious their need to out you as a fraud.
The definition of “Wonder” includes “a cause of astonishment or admiration; the quality of exciting amazed admiration; rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience; a feeling of doubt or uncertainty.”
The old time Hollywood writers said great writing “chops a lot of wood.” William Zinsser said the enemy of great writing is clutter.
One time I was in a crowded country bar, the Saxon Pub, in Austin, Texas. I went to put my arm around my wife’s shoulder. As I did my hand tenderly stroked the forearm of a long-haired shit-kicking cowboy sitting near her. He stared me down cold. I said, “Careful hoss, you don’t want to mess with me.” He leaned forward and in gravelly voice said, “I know. Dynamite comes in small packages.” I bought him a shot and then ran to the men’s room to clean my britches.