Read on for a look at some excuses for mediocrity in freelance writing, at the cult of happiness, the fixation of practicality, and the dread of oversimplification.
I've seen some streaming videos on YouTube with the chatting on the side. It does seem sad. It's a product of fame in general, too, the idolizing of celebrities, the degradation of the fans that's at the root of the pyramidal structure of most civilized societies.
Mind Cafe's guidelines sound like something from Hay House or some other self-help publisher. The emphasis seems to be on identifying a problem & offering a simple, heuristic solution -- as if life were an algebra problem or a sitcom in which every dilemna is resolved with 25 minutes. But even the simplest of life's problems is way too complicated to be unraveled in an article that could be read in ten minutes.
And, even once you grasp the nature of the problem, it doesn't mean you have any power to solve it.
You could go up to a homeless man & expound to him on all the complexities of our economy that have conspired against him: inflation, deindustrialization, overpopulation, commercial mortgage-backed securities, the corporate takeover of real estate, ad nauseum -- but all that knowledge would do him no good; he'd still be homeless. The truth about his situation would be just as useless as the New Age lie that his circumstances are only a reflection of his inner poverty.
Sometimes I wonder if the self-help boom these days belies an unconscious recognition in most people that they've effectively become helpless, atomized individuals with no real power over themselves or their circumstances -- flotsam & jetsam caught in the spume of corporate leviathans. In the face of that kind of terror, people will latch on to any worm-eaten dogma that happens to float by & promises salvation. Semen retention it is!
That's a good point about the need for power to apply our practical knowledge. It's a question of oversimplification, whereas Mind Cafe is fixated on the threat of language that overcomplicates, as if that's a major factor in an infantilized society.
It's possible we're eager for simple solutions because we secretly know we're helpless. But I suspect it's more likely that we oversimplify the problems, expecting easy solutions, because we've been infantilized. Babies don't have much self-knowledge. The latter is reserved for philosophical types who don't fall so easily for simplistic pseudo-answers.
I've seen some streaming videos on YouTube with the chatting on the side. It does seem sad. It's a product of fame in general, too, the idolizing of celebrities, the degradation of the fans that's at the root of the pyramidal structure of most civilized societies.
ReplyDeleteMind Cafe's guidelines sound like something from Hay House or some other self-help publisher. The emphasis seems to be on identifying a problem & offering a simple, heuristic solution -- as if life were an algebra problem or a sitcom in which every dilemna is resolved with 25 minutes. But even the simplest of life's problems is way too complicated to be unraveled in an article that could be read in ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteAnd, even once you grasp the nature of the problem, it doesn't mean you have any power to solve it.
You could go up to a homeless man & expound to him on all the complexities of our economy that have conspired against him: inflation, deindustrialization, overpopulation, commercial mortgage-backed securities, the corporate takeover of real estate, ad nauseum -- but all that knowledge would do him no good; he'd still be homeless. The truth about his situation would be just as useless as the New Age lie that his circumstances are only a reflection of his inner poverty.
Sometimes I wonder if the self-help boom these days belies an unconscious recognition in most people that they've effectively become helpless, atomized individuals with no real power over themselves or their circumstances -- flotsam & jetsam caught in the spume of corporate leviathans. In the face of that kind of terror, people will latch on to any worm-eaten dogma that happens to float by & promises salvation. Semen retention it is!
That's a good point about the need for power to apply our practical knowledge. It's a question of oversimplification, whereas Mind Cafe is fixated on the threat of language that overcomplicates, as if that's a major factor in an infantilized society.
DeleteIt's possible we're eager for simple solutions because we secretly know we're helpless. But I suspect it's more likely that we oversimplify the problems, expecting easy solutions, because we've been infantilized. Babies don't have much self-knowledge. The latter is reserved for philosophical types who don't fall so easily for simplistic pseudo-answers.