It is Christmas (actually it was yesterday), and I have spent the entire day in bed sick, first with reconciling myself to the world, and also with a cold. Phone calls, emails, and other forms of communication were very manageable, so there was a moment or two of reflection, and the inspirations derived came and went with little-to-no consequence. An exercise in mediocrity produced from reduced levels of stimulation has transformed me to lump and log syndrome. My willpower to do any other is diminished.
This has occurred to me:
We studied a little bit of William James in my philosophy and psychology classes. He was very popular during his time, and quite congruent with the Zeitgeist of burgeoning American thinking that seemed to fuel ideals such as manifest destiny through existentialism. Along with John Dewey, James was considered a co-founder of a thought movement termed pragmatism. Psychology of the time referred to this form of thinking, and therapeutic technique as functionalism. The oversimplified basic premise of these systems of thought was, if it works, do it (Nike would have been nothing without the work that James produced). I bring up James, and functionalism as a topic because this variety of thinking seems to be extremely prevalent, and is a major root to business and social philosophy today. It seems too, that armed with this philosophy as a compass, we have focused mostly on implied antecedents and misunderstood how they are connected to real consequences.
Now, I'm not critiquing James for his contributions (mostly because I have little more than a summary of his work to pull from). I will, however, criticize any just do it strategies which strive solely towards producing instant gratification with little (if one acknowledges degrees) accountability and responsibility for consequences. It seems that it is within my nature to compulsively berate and ever-so-slightly belittle (again, if one acknowledges degrees) commercialization, stringent uniformity, and highly celebrated pathological narcissism (I'm thinking Dick Cheney) spun around to appear as a social service. Because this seems to be part of my nature, I suspect this has much to do with why I tend to be socially awkward.
I struggle with the Christmas season. The warm fuzzy feelings that I once cherished during this time of year are all but gone, and they seem ghostly to me now. It is around this time of year that I shut off the television, the radio, and do nearly everything I can to drown out the commercials. If I could grow insensitive and delusional toward the consistent stream of bullshit that is shoveled through every grocery store, shopping center, and department store to be found in this blessed two month period, then I would probably join right in and feel just as happy as everyone appears to be in these gaudy displays of cheer; but alas, I have been cursed with a few reality genes that just don't let the anesthetic vapors seep in.
A dear friend of mine refers to this time of year as Organized Joy. It reminds me of the history lessons surrounding the inculcation of Nazism in early 1930's--even if you didn't support the Party, you were supportive. Ever watch a crowd of people turn on a key speaker during the middle of his/her speech? If it were legal to bring pitchforks and torches to those events, human shishkabob becomes an option for the menu. Being a person who has something to say that isn't fun and festive runs this kind of risk almost every holiday season. It would be interesting to see how many people, the day after Christmas, remember the poor man who was trampled to death during a shopping stampede in New York last month. Emphasis on realism tends more often than not to fall in to the not so fun category, so speeches and lessons about real dangers of Santa CEO are probably going to receive a most aggressive rejection. Moral of this story: Don't step out of line, or you're gonna get forked!
With that said, I'd like to come back to just do it policies. This year, more than any other that I've had the pleasure to participate, has been most wrought with rot! The same bastards that stand on a bandwagon of less government do so with the message that government is just stealing tax payer's contributions. It's funny how those who scream the most seem to be the worst for waste, especially when they advocate programs that are designed to fail more than succeed (thus never proving themselves wrong). The thievery, scandals, lies, facades, and out right blatant abuses of power have been so prolific that it will probably take decades to fish out how we have come to this wonderful state of national slavery. It is my opinion that some of our political figureheads should be investigated for participation in treason. Problems arise though, because that kind of charge would probably fall under a category of frivolous law suit. When I was a kid, the big enemy was the KGB. Today we have a more general term--terrorism. It's a brilliant strategy because you can apply this terminology to any country, race, religion, or people, and it broadens the scope of impact when there is a need to rally money and support for a company's industry and CEO's retirement fund. . .uh. . . I mean. . .uh, for a "peace effort". The concept of "whatever works" seems to coincide nicely with "whatever makes the most money". War mongering continues to be a profitable venture.
As a marginalized member of this society, I wonder if I'm going to fall victim to Pragmatism with a limited fascist vision. Merry Christmas!
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