Mildly Infuriating
My trail of thought here started with Fame. Ignoring all the other internal ramblings that I thought
of maybe writing about prior. Maybe I'll get to that. So ... fame.
And instead of just being stuck with the obvious, I was at the time - passively - also parsing
some other impressions that had piled up. It started ... well. I guess we can go way back to when ...
people chiming in over how amazingly the best 10/10 game ever the most recent Zelda game was - which
I didn't have a part in since I was pretty much disconnected from the franchise after Twilight Princess.
Like, I maybe was a little upset about the game, but ... what's the point? "Let those people have their
fun" I thought and the rest became background noise.
But this trail of thought actually started with Baldur's Gate 3. Not that what I came to whitness came
unexpectedly. I suppose I had known humanity - or behaviour of crowds on the internet - well enough to
have seen it coming from miles away. Not even smelling it against the wind as the wind was already
very well blowing it the "right" direction.
And ... I'm not even thinking about all those Edge Lord Dress-up-game Dark Urge people or Minthara simps.
Or the myriads of Build Videos, or the eventually inevitable descent into the inner workings of the game
(which is in my view a bit perverse - "gaming" a 'role playing game', but well, gamers be gaming) - it's
none of that and yet all of it at the same time.
But yea. "Whatever" I thought. It's like ... not my type of fun. Perhaps because I'm a bit anti-social
overall. So yea, whatever. It's not that I care all that much. I enjoyed my time with the game, and
that's that.
And then ... Akuma gameplay got revealed. And again - I wasn't surprised
or anything. There was no reason for me to expect anything different or new in that regard. And - for
once - I was actually able to enjoy a Hype. But ... yea. It's like ... say ... a Pear in a Supermarket.
A hypothetical one. I'm not sure if this is even accurate, but I'm sure it happens here and there, not
sure what fruit this would be typical for. Anyhow. So, someone would grab it - press for how soft it is
and put it back if its too hard. The next one would come around and do the same. Until one person comes
around that can feel all the dents in the fruit - and not buy it because it has been touched so often.
That's ... kind of how I felt. Except - I'm the pear. I enjoyed something - but eventually something
... got to me.
I'm sure it's Kids. But ... seeing - or catching a vibe over comments I've read, rather; Feeling perhaps,
sensing? - "these" Levels of ... "power greed" I might call it, ... was actually kind of disheartening.
Then there's some sub-plot involving Ed, who kind of might have kicked this off - but ... . I mean, if
like 50% of the people are like fawning over how giddy they are to play Akuma because they think he's
gonna be Overpoweredly Broken AF ... "gotta be League players!". You know, the kind that is a bit beyond
... "whatever". Which yea, is another 'whatever' - but ... still.
By which I want to say that it's unhealthy on so many Levels and it's going to be a topic for a while
I suppose. And for those that try to make sense of all this slang here ... Capcom did a great Job at
not making Akuma the "Low Skill Noob PWNR 3000". As also making an overall really good job at balancing
the game.
And then the most recent example was over some ... I suppose fake "Leak" from the final boss of the
Elden Ring DLC. I saw one redditor announcing that if it was true he'd go full on Frenzied Flame and
be done with the game or whatever. And I'm sure this isn't particularly new - and more just a me
problem, having so far just been too pre-occupied with other things to really care.
I'd generally say that you can't let a few bad apples dictate the terms of how we should think or feel
about a thing. Which I suppose is also going to be one of the topics that'll stick around for a while.
The shorter the better though.
And now my musings on Fame have somehow become a conduit to wrap all of this mess up into a rather
simple thesis, though it might take a less simple sequence of words to convey it.
Hmm ... OK, simple enough! ... The thing being: We're stuck in a cycle of doom of increasingly more and
more stupid expectations.
We might actually have reached rock bottom a while ago - with yet more to come as compounded by the
number of people that are affected.
And that's actually not quite as disheartening or horrifying as some of the other stuff that's been
... bothering me. But ... at least I don't have too too much of a hard time maintaining a positive
attitude.
Ish. It's like when you're carrying somehting really heavy. There's like a sweet spot between effort
put in and letting physics do some of the work for you - but a minor slip can send the whole thing
crumbling down. But once you're used to picking back up ... it's just another "whatever" added to
the mix.
Anyhow ...
I mean, the thing is this: Everyone born in the last Millennium - that isn't too old and has spent
enough time on the internet knows exactly what I mean. Should. Even if they're "lost" as we'd
say going by my standards here.
It's like ... every other year or so ... going by ones personal frame of reference ... things would
just get more stupid. That's ... the simple observation. What got me is, that although I had very
recent examples of "it" I couldn't think of any off of the top of my head right away. Taking me to
the conclusion that we, as things get more stupid, eventually get used to it. Perhaps find peace with
it even. Until the next iteration comes around and it triggers that experience again. Possibly we don't
even know what exactly it triggers, possibly because we've gotten used to it and can no longer sanely
distinguish the ongoing insanity from the rest. But clearly the new thing is super silly - until we've
gotten used to that and need something even more stupid to remind us that ... things are just somehow
going down the shitter.
So, that's the one side. The side that can give us at least some sense of sanity. Like, at least we're
not entirely oblivious to it. Which is probably not a great comfort, but ... possibly still the best
the world has to offer right now. Except for ... yea, but that's not the topic here.
And to that we only have to add the usual suspects to have it all fall in place. So, people get stupid
expectations - blaming immaturity, blaming fairy tales, this and that - and so, eventually somebody
comes to satisfy those expectations and becomes famous in doing so. By that, the world once again got
a little bit more stupid - channeling the next group of people into aquiring even more stupid expectations.
And so on ... and so forth.
And ontop of it all - the old shit doesn't really go away. It's like pollution driven climate change,
except ... happening in parallel on what we might call a different plane of existence that however
also still affects us in about as much. And sure ... "then there's politics".
So, some old insanity that we thought to be a dead horse ... has like a given chance to re-animate.
Being more of a Frankenstein's Monster perhaps, rather than a Zombie. I mean, the whole Anti-Woke
bullcrap is really just Gamergate ... or "Gamergate" as we'd like to call it here ... except ... it's
like ... become a religion. Like ... yea, a Cult.
Mantras and prayers and all that just for the sake of it - utterly devoid of any practical purpose,
but to corrupt and deceive.
And there has to be a reason why "we" end up here. Why all the roads of stupid ... lead back to the
same thing. Anyway ...
What I was trying to say is, that people can stumble upon something that was silly 10 years ago -
something we've moved past since - but for one reason or another it's very 'now' to that person,
which is then possibly going to find individuals of a like mind sooner or later.
And yea, I suppose ... "thus we split into three groups" ... or so. The stupid, the lost and the
last bastion of hope.
And from how I feel it cannot be changed by 'conventional means'. Because ... Money and Power buy
Influence. Influence to tell a story. Influence to do, regardless of how many people disagree.
Influence to not do - regardless of how many want it done!
But that too is ... a different story. Sort of.
And yea. It's a Trans Allegory, basically. Mankind has to undergo a transformation. A metamorphosis.
It's like ... most of us know it and want it - but something's holding us back. And maybe that's
just ... like how I felt ... before I started my transition, about my transition. That I could not
ever bring myself to doing it.
So, boiled down to the primitives ... the problem as per this presentation is one of fame and
lostness. Lostness being at the heart of all the silly expectations people have. And I can't
shake the feeling that I'm very much a victim of that too. Probably because it is so. I mean,
I can suppose what kind of weird stories people might tell - themselves or others - about me.
Fabricated stuff. Entirely made up. Born from fear, envy, doubt, cynicism ... whatever.
And here again: On the one side people who are lost - as in: Having no true access to the reality
of it - and on the other side 'fame'; Bad/ill actors weaving the narrative.
And it's complicated because everyone is like on a different Level. And in a world where people
believe in something that is utterly nonsensical, the explanations they come up with to make
sense of it - all of the answers are like ... entirely arbitrary and by virtue of that utterly
unpredictable. Besides the patterns that emerge from the common throughline.
I mean, I recently saw a video - because apparently I hate my sanity (like, I actually had to
cringe on the floor, lamenting out loud over my questionable decision) - and the gist of it,
without going into detail is this: A row of people, among them polititians, would stand in
unity presenting their agenda. Some person asks a question or two, entirely collapsing any
semblance of reason to their posturing, such that any one person asked would deny affiliation
with the things that the other one of them just said. "We have individual ideas on some key
issues" they would say. And "of course you have" I'd internally respond to that.
I mean, it's ... and yet they'd continue standing there, sticking together in unison, making me
wanna shove an Elephants fist up each of those assholes.
Or worse. But ... God denied me satisfaction by violence - and I'm sorry I asked, I was joking,
but also kind of serious.
And so - yea, being a Christian isn't easy. And these times, are one of those where the difficulty
levels are turned up a notch. Or two. Or seven. Or so. One trick though is to understand that most
of it is just stress that'll go away eventually.
Strategy
So, by my own rhetoric, this would only be the tip of the iceberg. At the end of the day the Bible's
prominent beats try to sell us on the idea that God will deal with the nonsense, though looking closer
reveals that those are only the final strokes. And yet somehow things are supposed to turn out
alright.
So, to my understanding, the parable of the weeds is one of the more important ones to understand.
The one that says to not rip out the weeds until harvest for it'll unroot the crops as well.
Like A.I.. From how things appear to be right now - that is yet another fight on the long list of
fights we - or humanity - has lost. And also, once again, a problem of our own making. Even if most
individuals are innocent, we yet drive the machine that enables those developments.
We could then go and try to formulate the problems as to then take a harsh stance against that. But,
that might just be another "War on Drugs" - including the unfavorable shift in power differentials.
So yea, turning towards "minding our own business" ... being the answer once again. I mean, it's not
even a new proposal. It's ... part of the message I share. Fundamentally so.
It's like ... fighting 'against' a thing seems to have never really worked. The only time it might have
worked was when God got involved - and by how those things turned out, He wasn't really down with it.
Not all the way at least. Anyway.
I just had to vent ... I guess. And since it's gotten late and I really don't want to bother myself
with finding an excuse to stretch this out any further ... I'll call this a day and hope that I can
share something better next time around.
Peace!
By the way: My consuption has concluded last Saturday. Ignoring the conclusions of the obligatory
scavenging hunts. So, apparently: If I have weed, I also have to smoke it. I've tried to exercise
discipline ... and to be
fair, I also managed to be disciplined - but, weed is one of those substances where going balls to the
wall is I think ... actually beneficial. And I changed my mind on Bongs again. At some point, a good
bong with an ice compartment might just be the peak of cultured cannabis consumption. I mean, I tried
the whole glass thing, but ... airflow problems make that kinda ... whack.
Well ... there sure is also a quantity issue ... but anyhow ... that's all beside the point ...