I like to laugh at VIP’s - i’m sure it’s reaction formation · and i’m just really conflicted about my own self worth. Still in all, as a spectator sport, we are living in what the military politely describes as a “target rich environment” for laughing at VIP’s. If i had to take a guess, my trouble stems from being the 3rd child to a family of really pretty people. Where i sit today i struggle to leave go of the judgements i have made about them and their favorable appearances, because judgements are just fucked up; i don’t know better place to start. It is clear that to judge another is mostly highlighting those aspects of self one finds unappetizing. However it’s scary when i watch “woke people” and my skin crawls, or conversely it is those i imagine are suffering who get the greatest part of my concern; that doesn’t say much for my peace of mind. I once worked in a commercial real estate office that was populated by trust-fund babies, that portion of the population born on on 3rd base thinking they’d hit a triple and the behaviors i witnessed tracks with the leadership in place today, and often the leadership that steps into vacuums such as we’ve seen in post Covid-19 planet earth. From what i understand, the ultra-right anarchistic capitalists have had a large role to play in the agitation to “return to normal.”
I was working on the 17th floor of a Los Angeles office building when 9/11 occurred, and then spent an unnatural amount of time shooting Osama in an app that materialized within days of the event. However, i seemed to be the only person in Los Angeles who perceived the world’s outpouring of concern for the ‘merican people. Watching the drumbeat for war banging its way down the pike, turned my stomach, because of the wasted opportunity to alter history - i feel the same about this virus. I know how little 9/11 changed the hearts of those extracting profit on that 17th floor; if anything the tragedy seemed to inflame greed that is inherent to commercial real estate, or speculation of any kind. This may be why i am sensitive to the efforts to educate Viet Nam on the “promise” that profit uses to gain a foothold in the hearts of a people tempered by a war to protect their nation from the aggression that capitalism employs for easy pickings, and the seduction capitalism reverts to to deceive the war weary. Viet Nam defeated the world because she understood deceit after years of betrayal by imperialist powers - the world has changed, but the motivation has not.
It is why the hair on the back of my neck stands on end when someone who would not give me the time of day when i was a stranger, but all of a sudden wants to play paddy-cake if there is any sense my influence can benefit them. The game is the same worldwide - Viet Nam is no different. VIP’s live and die on how popular they can be - VIP’s want influence, i do not. My ambition wherever i have gone is to learn and help people achieve their goals. I realized this while teaching in downtown Los Angeles schools. My employers enjoyed the fact that i could establish rapport with students as long as i was as compliant as they deemed appropriate for the students, however once i made clear it was the student’s interests to which i remained obedient, my usefulness as an instructor sort of evaporated. There was one occasion that stands out in my mind while mining the commercial real estate market of Los Angeles which corresponds - because familiarity is part of the “con” i sat in the Regional Manager’s office one afternoon with one of the top salesman exploring ways to increase sales, and i suggested: “why not treat the market like one might behave toward a grove of valuable fruit trees, like avocados?” The two eminently successful by the $ metric looked at me like i was from another planet. The conventional wisdom for property is to squeeze until there is pain, then sell. The concept of compassionate transactions was, and is entirely foreign to the captains of industry - part of the “infinite growth paradigm” delusion.
The stakes are much greater today than the egos on the table 15 years ago - now it has become clear that what John Lennon imagined so many years ago was more truth than idle speculation, “I think we’re being run by maniac for maniacal end, and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.” What is disturbing is how many of the doofuses protesting masks intrinsically understand what John said, but are unable to make the connection because . .. ··· because of what¿ the billionaires are capable, willing and actively buying a lot of friends? Yes that is part of it, but it is the same in the small ancient village i live on a different scale. The big shots, VIP’s and their running dogs perform much the same on an abbreviated scale - but with much greater consequence. This is why the koch bros, unfettered by morals were able to unleash bullshit into ‘merican schools on an unprecedented level. Everyone want’s to be a big-shot; what better bait for the ancient con of “bait and switch” than moolah, (you know, fast cars, broads - the more willing the better · suck-ups galore) all the shit one found in high school while fending off bullies and Christian confidants - “tell me your nasty, and i will save you.” The same old salacious snake oil salesman that want to peek at you “user” history to determine which side of the “law” you stand, so they can jack-off in the privacy of their corner offices.
Much as i didn’t want to, i am laughing at the mockery of compassion that passes to today as “aid to developing nations.” The foreigners i find on nearly every continent i’ve been to want mostly to ingratiate themselves enough with the local culture to be important, or VIP’s, after which overlay whatever conceit it is they are running from where they ran from; and this is important - MYSELF INCLUDED · This myopic self-centered blindness to the greater danger we all of us face - extinction · is what i live and breathe. At my age and given my questionable embrace of the “at risk” parts of our world, and i know some pretty at risk characters, my time is not long, nor is my patience. When i see creative, intelligent and caring personalities around me vying for a piece of the fat meat at the buffet table - be it cruise ships left at sea without a care for the 1,000’s of displaced workers, or the oil tankers waiting offshore to crash asunder into shore by the bad weather we all know is coming - or the “leader of the FREE world” willing to sacrifice millions of his faithful to gain ratings, i don’t give a fuck anymore if i prick your sensitive places, unless of course you still possess enough spirit in your heart to look into my wounded eyes and say to me “i don’t care if you are old, ugly, and poor - i still love you.”
jts 17/05/2020
http://stoanartst.blogspot.com
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