The empire has degenerated into the living embodiment of “dudes with podcasts.” As someone who has hosted two, I feel comfortable saying that because while I think what I say matters, I also know that the James Webb Space Telescope has not even found everything in the universe, so why should I strive for overwhelming relevance? Rather than trying to expand our knowledge and gain insight on our existence based on a plethora of experiences, we seem to have decided that “everyone” wants to live the life of the suburbs on television. In the past, this might have been interesting, but now? All of this obsession with imitating others has made the empire decidedly boring for the rest of the planet, which is why people are ignoring us.
“Change my mind.” “I’m just asking a question.” Notice how each of those statements is less about real engagement, and more about demanding emotional labor while offering demeaning, oversimplistic statements that have no basis in fact. Generally, we now live on an imperial timeline when people get rich instigating conflict for no reason at all. Not saying a Christian holiday greeting? Suddenly, that is a national crisis and people need to work to manipulate private entities into compliance. Some of the stories of the empire are less savory than others? Now everyone needs to use those storytellers as targets and coerce them back into the dominant narrative, even though nothing is being done to change the outcome of those stories. It is as if everyone needs to use someone else as a toy, punch down, and attempt to force others to prove our humanity. This is not what rational people do.
Ever wonder why so many nasty people get more attention than they deserve? The punchline of the majority of comedy, sitcoms, and so much more is almost always “I’m a creep.” I mean, I would settle for people who would leave other people alone and engage in healthy observation. However, we live in a nasty era because rather than shutting down inappropriate behavior–such as getting others to mock a target, refusing to respect anyone without money, or impoverishing those who cannot academically compete in a broken education system–we spent too much time “being the bigger person” and laughing off denigration. Should everything have 15 warning labels and a warm discussion? No, but we should also admit that nothing positive has arisen from moving excessively far in the other direction.
Finally, we have lost the ability to communicate in healthy ways, such as responding to interest and disengaging when there is no interest. So many of us are always denying interest and punching down, while secretly hoping interest is returned and that people overcome the “barrier” of denied interest to win our “affection.” A lot of this stems from the cultivation of the failure to hear the word “No.” Instead of realizing that some people will be interested in building community and others will not, we have made an artform of begging for reciprocity. Time, energy, and resources have been poured into doing our level best to seek interest from people ignoring us, as well as ignoring those who are genuinely interested. We have been taught to believe that the entire universe is playing “hard to get,” and if we do the right thing this time, everything we want will be accomplished.
Honestly, the only solution to this energy is to stop feeding it, which means to stop honoring the premise that everyone needs an audience. Some people are clamoring for attention because they feel unseen, but they never stopped to consider that maybe they were unseen for a reason. Again, I do what I do and live how I live because I get something out of this, as well as making myself healthier to sustain relationships with those who matter. Others are putting way too much energy into getting and sustaining attention, which has made them obnoxious people to be around for too long. Getting wealthy by being obnoxious, and then wondering why the world is difficult, just makes the world a harder place to endure. Maybe we could solve some problems if we start disengaging from stubborn idiots who, without an audience, realize that they have nothing to say.
Chasing A Dying Empire 