Fit the Powers that Be
The title of this entry is a corruption of the Public Enemy cut “Fight the Power”—which is from an Isley Brother’s cut of the same name. There are millions of permutable egocentric interpretations about why people dissent. Most of the accused are boiled down to jealous toddlers, swaddled in narcissism.
The last week of Blog cruising is full of people asking other people to ‘act nicer.’ The Mini-Microsoft guy is reminded that “Rarely does a bad attitude solve the problem.” This quote sounds like advice for “sex workers.” Show me some scientific data proving that pleasuring people with an unmistakably “good” attitude solves a real problem. Let’s talk about the Dalia Lama’s attitude and his problem with Red China.
In “My funny valentine” Nicholas Carr is rebuffed by The Scobelizer for being unkind to Microsoft and too kind to Google. In “Government Bias Against Apple” Om Malik accuses the United States Government of being rude to Apple and too chummy with Microsoft. And, of course, the biggie, the CrunchNotes.com guy is not a racist.
Hmm… ‘act nicer.’ Well the poet in me, the African poet in me, wants to break the Imperial English that holds me captive in order to communicate non-English Imperial values. So dig: Nice was/is a city in Italy/France—and this reminds me of the need to get along in a renaissance mercantile culture. You never know who your next customer will be so it’s best to not offend anyone—except us Africans because everybody knows (including us) that we have no money—and we are ‘used to’ spending our existential billions on people who don’t care whether we live or die.
So when I have to act ‘nice’ I know that I am acting. Okay, now I am actor. I expect to be paid like a professional. Most people act for free in a habitual imitation of television beings. Now that’s not Nice—is it? Hey that sounds like slavery! Now the dialectical extremist in you may suggest that when I “refuse” to act nice that means “I want” to be angry. Hey, dude, I did not grow up in that kind of dysfunctional family. My mother or father never ever beat me physically or emotionally into a pulp until I put on my “happy face.” What does the Pink Floyd song say? “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way…” Welcome to my ghetto. That shit is broke.