Category: Nonfiction

Vignettes upon other vignettes seems like a decent strategy for an extended, focused work, but after you get one or two of them stacked up, any kind of theme you may have cooked up is pretty much null and void.

Now, how to avoid this quandary? Well, for one, just start with a single vignette and give it some decent bones instead of flitting to the next visionary tree branch.

So what, then? A single vignette doesn’t seem like anything that would merit further exploration. Really? Well, to me, at least. But if there’s anything I’ve learned about my artistic self over the past decade and a half, it’s that I need to keep pushing for an idea or composition even if it seems like I’m beating a dead horse (or any quadruped of equal or lesser value in a retail setting).

Turns out, I’m a little different than the average bear. If one were to judge my relationship with normalcy based only upon my previous two sentences (yes, they’re MINE, you can’t have them), this passive observer would immediately note my usage of animal imagery to illustrate my points. Is that odd?

I very rarely find myself making analogies that involve human subjects. Is it because I find humans inherently boring? Well, yes. But why is that? Could it be the ambient enslavement to a dying world model that props up megalomaniacs as they continue to rape and pillage the world without a single twinge of regret? Yes, that. People are small. Animals have no need for any of that contrived bullshit, and never have. Granted, their typical experience is nasty, brutish and short compared to that of the average human, but there is certainly a large gray area that both man and beast inhabit wherein the nasty, brutish shortness of life is quite similar.

So we have a system that rewards greed and callousness while forcing our better angels to atrophy and wilt right off of our shoulders. An appropriate question would be the classic “why?” Numerous thinkers have dealt with this inevitability, and there are likely myriad valid hypotheses. It would seem as though beating their heads against their respective cognitive brick walls must yield a certain quantity of usable results when it comes to acquiring an undergirding of purpose in their lives as they navigate through uncertain absurdity. Or, at the very least, they develop effective coping mechanisms for somehow circumventing the latent treachery and “becoming their best selves” in spite of it all.

It seems to me that writing periodic diatribes bemoaning the state of things is probably not the way to go, based on the sporadic evidence I’ve collected throughout my life that all points to an inherent pointlessness.

And maybe it truly is all pointless, and the vast majority of human creatures never confront that particular dataset in their short, fruitless/feckless lives. The “ignorance is bliss” model sure leaves a lot to be desired. If we only have a brief flicker of life within each of us, I would wager that it’s irresponsible for anyone to remain unenlightened as a default state of being.

Perhaps the average person’s capacity for all this gobbledygook is just quite limited, and they’re better off simply participating in their direct surroundings, shaping their communities and whatnots. However, I have yet to be convinced of that. Sure, community-building is a non-negative endeavor (unless it purposefully excludes/ostracizes others), and we are the kind of animal that seems to default to a pack mentality in order to “survive.” But hey, survival of the species is a given until we blow ourselves up or become self-loathing to the point of exterminating “the other” as a form of “racial duty.” I don’t think we’re QUITE there yet, though all the earmarks are certainly present.

I would argue that the average person is capable of reaching the point where they’re acknowledging the violence inherent in the “pack animal mentality,” and a certain voice or inclination allows them to stall or abort their mental/social development in favor of a cowardly lifestyle that involves selling out for an occasional treat. But, of course, that occasional treat becomes mundane and unrewarding after a bit, necessitating different, more frequent treats if they’re to avoid disillusionment.

Enter big tech, who’s developed an effective method for addicting humans to intrinsically-valueless trinkets and dopamine hits, all at pennies on the dollar and with a more-effective delivery system than at any previous time in human history. This model allows humans to still exhibit their same level of natural, comfortable cowardice while deluding themselves into genuinely believing that this is a “real way of life.”

On a certain level, most people must understand that they’re complicit in the destruction of everything we painstakingly built over millennia, so what gives? Back to the greed and callousness.

This is why I find it difficult to believe that rehashing the same old argument has any sort of merit. This creates a clear division between toiling in inherent pointlessness and striving to find a purpose (any purpose at all) that has actual, tangible value. Does that mean that people need to construct their own frameworks for genuine purpose, rather than consuming idiotic pablum until their eyes bleed? I would say yes.

So why am I still going on with this circular diatribe? I’m a coward, just like the rest of ‘em!