Click!
People raised on a healthy diet of television do not engage me in my “old” age. The personalities of these people are likely to be a composite of the fictional characters they’ve seen. Since none of these characters are entertaining or containing to me in any lasting way, it is very likely that people naturally imitating them will be quite plodding and predictable. Now, from their point of view, my personality is alien—because it is not of television. Since my “show” never came on the air, they know instinctively not to watch. So I get the click. Nothing personal. It’s more habitual.
Click!
The whole process of “fitting in” that is sold to us as a “natural” stage of American adolescence (which to me is an assimilation process designed by the ruling class) is the time when a child makes the decision to develop a personality that won’t get taken off “the air.” Having no “air time” sounds like certain death for humans that need a breathing apparatus, submerged in the culture. This time of adolescence is when one considers the impossibility that one person can contain a personality that “deals” with other people and a “real me” personality reserved for the people they “care about.” Experience informs me that what we call a personality can wither without use and can grow stronger with use. This means to me that the secret, caring personality withers and the dealer guy takes over. To care for others is a complex, life-management skill that grows with use—it is not a unit of fantastic rhetoric used to threaten others with a loneliness they already have (but are too distracted to really feel)…
My solutions to any of the problems implied in the previous paragraph is to not invest any energy in developing a fake-ass dealership personality—and to devote as much time as possible to becoming stronger and wiser in caring for others. This decision, based on my research of pre-colonial African societies, is foundationally counter-cultural to the Western tradition in general and American life in particular. In America, going into business almost always means “perception management”—and this term (to me) is another way of saying “living a lie.” Your earnings must meet expectations in the market. These expectations are managed by spending millions in marketing and sales.
To most Americans, professionalism essentially means living with a lie in an easy-going manner. To prioritize laws that govern trees, water, air and stones over the laws of the streets (including Wall Street) is, to these people, childish. It is quite unfortunate (for me—since all you wanna-be “professional” mufukkas outnumber me 10,000 to one) that my worldview toward lifetime achievement is exactly the opposite. Children live in a pretend world where there is no such thing as global warming—but one day these children have to grow up and smell the heat wave or die laughing… Adults should not have to deceive other adults in a world without the concept of war—this is the very essence of true equality and non-hierarchy… And another thing—oh, I’m just getting started, you—
Click!
Bryan Wilhite, his chapbook “the adolescence of the cool” is available for sale online. The previous sentence cost millions of dollars in sales and marketing to produce.