There are 2 of me. One that is “pre” and one that is “post”. I’m fairly certain this line in the space/time continuum holds true for many living people (in the US, at least) at the time of the nexus collapse.
“What the fuck are you talking about? It sounds like you’ve gone off the tracks and knocked your bloody head on the cement in crazy town?”
It all goes back to September 11th, 2001. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out here. You tell me if you recognize the “change” in reality as it relates to you.
The Pre ME: Before 9/11/01, I was mainly still living music, breathing music, and all about music. Music was life. Music was being. I could talk about it for hours on end. I could get into the detail and speculative hints derived from subtle lyrics conveying the meaning of the songwriter. I wrote lyrics in a spiral notebook that I tended to have with me. I had demo tapes with music that I had created with a producer and put some of those lyrics onto (unfortunately tape doesn’t last and those demos are all melted or molded memories now). Suffice it to say, music was a major part of my life from the 80’s through the 90’s. Sure, by this time I was already into technology. But that was, and still is, just a day job. I get nothing back from technology other than time and skill traded for money. That’s it. The technology field has never brought me happiness. Never will either. It’s just a means to an end for money so that I can write like this or something… But I digress…
Then 9/11/01 happened.
The Post ME: From that very morning, it was like being locked into the news 24/7. Who the fuck did this? Who is waging war on our land? Why the fuck did they do this? And so on and so forth. The music station I listened to rolled over to the talk radio and news station… and then, even after the analysis and commentary, and the “answers” given and discussed, that station stuck. And then all of these other things became apparent to me. The ills of the world were before me, the desperate state our country was in, laid bare before my eyes. And the way to look at things and analyze them in greater detail became 2nd nature. Why are others not seeing this? Why can’t people think logically and put 2 and 2 together and see 4 staring them down, right in their fucking face? Shit… This government is downright evil and it doesn’t really matter who controls it.
So then came… My time pushing libertarianism. We’re going to change the world. We’re going to join with Republicans and push the FairTax. This is going to happen. I’m going to write about current events in my blogs and inform the people of the cause and effect logic and critical thinking that they are not seeing. I’m going to push candidates so we can get this country back on track. I’m going to….
(It’s now 2024)
I look back and I’m not sure if any of those blogs, now long since deleted from this heinous internet, made any difference. The FairTax is never brought up anymore, even though that would be the most fair system of tax this planet has ever seen. The politicians have gotten worse and worse. Checks and balances in the American government are no more. There is no more law and order. Everything is now on a subjective and sliding scale. Democracy (mob rule) has killed this Republic. And I sit here and look back over 2+ decades of actions that brings me to the realization that nothing I’ve done, in a political sense, has made a difference. We just slid further down the hole. And truth be told, I don’t think my shouting at the world will change it. So for the most part, minus some bitter outrage on X from time to time (which I’m trying to stop doing), I’ve been abstaining from most political commentary because I don’t want to be that “Post person” that wastes time on that which I have no ability to change. I want to be more like the “Pre person” that enjoys music and writing (the writing having become so much more than just lyrics now). I want to think less about the rot I cannot fix. I don’t want to obsess over the shit anymore.
All that is to say, I feel like 9/11/01 broke this country and the people, in so many ways. So much so that everything that came after it became political and ideological. In the 90’s we pushed individuality over race, sex and gender (group think was bad, being apart of a group meant you were a follower). We were on the cusp of everyone being just “live and let live”. Then after 9/11/01, everything fractured and it kept fracturing, and it kept dividing, and now everyone has a team and/or group they defend (empowered by the internet and social media) over any and everyone else. Everything is political and those born after 9/11/01 have grown up in a world that never knew how close we were to all getting along and looking past race/sex/gender to just live. So they think that this identity politics is the way of the world and always has been. History be damned. Society is off the rails, never to get back onto them.
So you’ll have to excuse me if I write more fiction and personal observations about the media and manipulation of the self, over the current political shithole we’re currently sustaining ourselves within. We’re not getting out of that shithole and no amount of words will change that. So my words are being used for other things these days.
If there is a solution to a problem, there is no need to worry. And if there is no solution, there is no need to worry. - Dalai Lama
I want to me more like the “Pre Me” and much, much less like the “Post Me”. It’s a happier state of being. It’s not an outright ignorance of reality but instead more like filing reality away into a filing cabinet in the brain. I’m aware of the shit, but I don’t want to obsess over it. And I certainly don’t want to write and post about it all day. That’s not living life. That’s not being creative. That’s just curating the content that can’t be controlled. So why bother?
Don't insult phoenixes.
That said, that is pretty much the reason why I don't take Clown World seriously at all and just write, and any based man will eventually reach that point with whatever their favored bread and circus is. No, we don't wanna discuss defective NPCs constantly backstabbing each other, at least not unless we can point and laugh at them while presenting solutions like PRO.
I'll mention anti men stuff as those are hazards you must avoid, and that category includes all politics regardless of side. But nothing is open for debate, because anyone who considers your survival or freedom a point of debate is the enemy.
On the bright side, 9/11 would never work again, because even if they tried such a thing (and they will), and all humans didn't immediately assume it was a false flag (and they will), there is no target you can choose that would make enough care, with the most common reaction being pissed off that only three thousand from New York died. Or whereever the targeting takes place.
Case in point: Far worse has already happened many times, with all the food plants catching on fire one day and for no reason at all, the gas attack on Ohio, the arson attacks on various areas including all those houses with non blue roofs, etc. And aside from lowering their already negative trust, nothing really happened.
Fuck yeah man. I was about to reply that it wasn’t necessarily 9/11 for me but as I was typing and thinking about it, I’m not so sure it wasn’t….thats fucking weird. I was on the biggest naval station on the east coast that day, it’s almost surreal to think back on.
Love the writing dude, I’m looking forward to reading some of your archives.