Liberal Extremism

The conflict among the right and left has become more mainstream these days.  The difference of opinion that used to be a small part of most people's overall ideologies and beliefs has spilled to the forefront.  We wear our politics on our sleeves these days.  And madness seems to have the upper edge.  Well, it almost always does, but unreasonability, unwavering, staunch totalitarianism and near fascism seems to be winning the day. (As a side note, it is interesting how liberatiranism has blended into fascism as a means to justify an end, like a big budget studio justifying Transformers 20 to be able to use the revenues to fund some glorified art project).  The right wing nuts rule the roost these days, across the globe, with no pretense of compromise or even trying to take a middle road.

A big reason for this rise has to be attributed to a major failure of liberals.  It is more a fault of the liberals than liberalism per se.  Conservatives managed to get under our skin.  They became so annoying, so deliberately obnoxious that we felt justified in treating them with THEIR values and not OURS. Hardly any attempts were made to take the high road with them.  To offer a chance of dialogue or compromise.  Instead we chose to consider them beneath us.  Unworthy of a dignified response.  They were only to be mocked and ridiculed (quite deservedly so, in many cases).  Even our protests became as such.  One word of derision by them against something and we shoved it in excess, down their throats, flooding the streets lanes and by-lanes (and the gutters of the internet) with more of those.

We, in essence, became fanatics.  Taking unabashedly uncompromising stances against anything they chose or stood for.  We stopped examining right and wrong, stopped trying to look for common ground.  We mocked them incessantly in the name of satire.  But as it turns out, that didn't work.  We never provided the rationale, we stopped countering their ranting with rationale arguments, leading any newcomer to the fray to imagine, they were the rational ones and we were the jokers.  These newcomers will be influenced by the current dominant trend, not by what is right overall.  We rarely get to shape ourselves separate from our environment.  Case in point, all these millenials who will have the misfortune of being Marvel fans over DC purely based on the current state of blockbuster cinema.  Comedy is best when used for healing, not for hurting.  We used hammers where incisive blades were needed.  In gamer terms, we used rocket launchers in close quarters and took critical hits.  And now it is time to re-spawn.

Conservatives have of course, taken the upper hand to go on the offensive.  They never had any pretense for middle grounds.  They haven't lost their way because this was always their way.  There are a few wolves in sheep clothing though.  Seemingly calm minded rational people who claim to be neither conservatives nor liberals, but use the abusive libtards for liberals.  Who rationally try to justify every extreme measure and step taken, who cover every conservative excess as a need of the hour.

If we lose at times, let it be with dignity.  Let us at least remain the sane reasonable ones.  It is one thing to lose to right wing nuts.  It is completely another to lose our sense of identity and what we stand for.  Mocking is easy, but reasoning takes time and patience.  Comedy can be stand up, but philosophy needs to be a sit down affair.  A dialogue not a monologue.  Oh, and if you thought, I was talking about one particular place or instance, you're wrong.  It is happening all around the globe.

Loop de Loop

What we watch on loop, the songs we keep on repeat in our playlists, our go to books and passages to re read, tell a lot about us.  The best way to tell about a person isn't based on the places he has been, but the home he returns to.  Our comforts and the refuge we seek tell a lot about our fears and who we truly are.  But we would rather have people judge us based on the taste we want to have, rather than our guilty pleasures.  The one song that is so cool that hardly anyone has heard of, from a genre that few have heard of, or from the soundtrack of an art film;  that festival release, limited run art film that is praised by bloggers everywhere and which we forced ourselves to sit through.  We want people to believe these are the things that define us, that influence us to our very core.  But they are more influenza than influences.  They come and go but we keep retreating to our guilty pleasures, our happy place.

A big part of it is judgement.  People have always judged others.  Today it is much easier and there are more aspects of one's life made public for judgement.  So we become our own PR reps and image consultants.  We try to mold an image of ours, like vain people showing off that exact same profile and expression the moment a camera enters the vicinity.  A selfie pout of preferences, if you will.  The internet bio description is one big wide angle lens with Carl Zeiss optics and intelligent flash whatever.  But it can never define who we are.

Habits are formed by repetitive actions that ingrain themselves into our personality.  That habit is born out of repetition.  Our comfort food for the soul, on incessant loop, repeating, shapes us for better or for worse.  The ideal life is probably a good mix of healthy habits and new experiences.  Some habits are healthy, some are not.  Some experiences are pleasant, some unnerving.  The right experiences can convert into healthy habits.  So it is always good to try out new stuff.  Go check out that foreign film, even with subtitles.  Go read that genre of fiction that you always turned your nose on.  Go listen to instrumental classic.  And those who scoff at repetition?  They probably do it because they hate missing out on new things while re-watching and re-reading.  But repetition has its own advantage.  It frees up a portion of the mind to think and ponder in ways that we don't when we are absorbing new stuff or when we are completely idle.  It is like muscle memory.  Like putting your brain on autopilot so you can do other things.  Like any autopilot, best be the only one on the road when you do it.

Classical Dilemma

Steven Spielberg is adapting a movie version of the bestseller sci-fi, Ready Player One.  The adaptation, which had originally tapped Christopher Nolan, is well under production with the main casting having been wrapped up.  The USP of the book:  a treasure hunt featuring clues based on pop culture references based on the 80s.  Comedies like The Big Bang Theory have long decided to forgo good jokes, substituting credible jokes having good payoffs with lazy pop culture references.  They rely on cracks about other TV shows, comics and movies to do their heavy lifting for them. 

At one point, that is the only relevance that classics will eventually have.  So that we can be aware of the pop culture references based on them.  We will binge watch and binge read classics so we can binge watch other pop shows.  Besides, no one is going to ask what u grasp or understand or take away from each.  You only plow through to tick off lists on Goodreads and Facebook.  Going through the motions so that you can get in on the conversation.  Besides, who even needs originals anymore when you have re-imagination, rehashes, reinterpretations.  Which is basically taking one egoistic interpretation and forcing it upon the world.  Again, something we humans have expertise in (See: Religion, Classics, Philosophy, Star Wars)

Which, when you think about it, is a bigger crime.  Reading and watching stuff like cramming for an exam.  Its like visiting the landmarks and not soaking up the culture.  Which, by the way, is another thing that today's tourists are fond of.  Especially, Indian tourists.  It enables us to indulge in slugfests under the guise of commentators and experts.  We are all commentators in today's era.  Reacting to stuff rather than relating to them - a tinder swipe in lieu of a long term commitment that could alter and affect your perspective and life for the better.  Because this way, you can move onto the next TV show/movie that is crowding your DVR or taking up space on your hard drive.

My Friend, My Enemy, My Imagination

We have transferred our emotions and daily trauma to imaginary personalities and larger than life personalities.  We laugh and cry with them, feel anger and pain with them.  While we focus on a constant assault of overwhelming stimuli based on pop culture and work pressure, we have effectively outsourced the human side of things.

And so you have emotions that you experience during your day, that you may try to suppress with an influx of pop culture bombardment.  You let out your anguish and frustrations on imaginary villains and monsters, conjured up by someone's imagination, nurtured by your own.  Think yelling at the screen times thousand.  Lashing out at made up monsters that you can't punch.  Which perpetuates a circle.  Feel good movies, to make you feel better, video games to take pressure off, comedies when you have had a bad day.  All good in moderation, probably.  But we binge.  We binge work, we binge watch, we binge drink, we binge eat.  If someone recommended moderation to us, we would binge on it for a week and then give it up.

We all now move around with imaginary friends and ideal situations and so call ideal scenarios stuck in our head, trying to make up for the dissonance and disarray that abound our personal lives.  Relying on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. more than friends, hanging out in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, weeping over Hodor's death with equal or possibly more fervor than thousands of others that perish in mindless violence around the globe.

Fantasy and escapism have become the mantra.  Which is ironic because most of these works have the reality and real world occurrence at their core.  Just that core taken and polished with idealism, blended with gratification and topped off with low calorie wit and banter.  Kind of like taking taking healthy stuff like wheat and barley and turning them into beer and scotch.  Or, for a more pop culture relevant analogy, using Superman's DNA to create Doomsday.