What about curmudgeons?
posted by Cassius Gaius | January 3, 2012
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IcerocketIn one of my "other lives"(I have a few) I spend a lot of time with the Church of the Subgenius. For those who forgot about it, the Church can be defined below.
"the world's first Industrial Church, the
prophesied End Times cult of screamers and laughers, scoffers, blasphemers
mockers, sinners, and the last true holymen in America today."
Most Subgenii(myself included) can be considered a "particular flavor". A lot of people don't care for Subgenii(which works out ok because most Subgenii don't care for people).
However, spending time with them brings up a big critique I have for "smaller communities" and the localization movement in general.
Think about it for a moment. In small communities today it isn't exactly hard for someone to get "voted off the island". One vote and you're out. This isn't that big of a deal nowadays as if you get tossed out of a community now you can go back into the "default world", make a living, and plan out your own retirement. It might be lonely but it is possible.
Some of the propositions I have read in regards to the future people want would take away that safety net so if someone gets booted from their community they will have very little options. Most of them seem to end with a short life and a lonely death.
This, of course, is fine for the beautiful, the smart, and the charismatic. Such people will usually do ok no matter what system is implemented. What I am worried about are the people who aren't especially charismatic or smart. They are the ones that slip through the cracks now and will slip through the cracks even more with most of the community systems I have seen forwarded.
So I repeat the question that is the title of this post.
What about the curmudgeons? The people of a "particular flavor"? The rude, crude, lame, and uncool people? The ones who aren't as productive as they once were? What is their place in your brave new world?
Comments
BEWARE!
— Jan 04, 2012
Perhaps you've been asking the wrong question dear reverend. What is it this brave new world isn't doing when you're the one with all the questions to be asked? The answers can be found at the end of tall glass of bottomless friday nights drunken out miserable 'weekends' of dribble-make-up wearing pandering want to be pandas... Parades will be had for the ones who went too far, mark my words sir! When u p is d o w n you'll be praised for your silent etiquette. this is isn't poetry mind you. turn on the new and turn off your mind one last time, if you can . . BEWARE I DARE say? soon we'll all be staring at each others secrets and will have nothing to hold but our bare souls screaming in ecstasy at last! at last! Armageddon is upon us! sweet victory with no prizes to be won anymore! X-day is finally here! We may have gotten the date wrong, but we were ready nonetheless. so stew your brains once more and then be done with it!
-REv. Sleepybrains (the third) esq.
I seem to remember this blog
— Feb 28, 2012
Is this a re-post?
This is my thought - the beautiful, the smart, and the charismatic actually end up not doing all that well in life. Too much reliance on the superficial and not enough on substance: character, honestly, integrity, sense of humor, critical thinking, genuine kindness, humility. All far more important in the overall scheme of things.
This makes me think of the teaching from Christianity that says - the first will be last and the last will be first. I don't honestly know what the Christians meant, but I have always interpreted it to mean that the things which the world values will have no importance at all in the end times. The things which are eternally valuable will be the only things that matter.
As a corollary to that teaching, I understand that Jesus Christ was actually quite homely, but the Church beautified him to diminish the masses - to make them feel less than - always their goal. The idea is that he chose a life which included being unattractive as a demonstration that attractiveness is actually meaningless.
Anyway, as to your question concerning people who get booted from their community - this is what I think is happening on our planet - the real transformation is an inner one. What we are all learning is that our real safety comes from within. The way that I see it is - if you're not rebellious to the world in someway, you are simply a doormat. As you begin to individuate - which happens for some of us at 10 and others of us at 30, you WILL get booted out of many communities. I got booted out of my own family - well sort of - a long story.
But to suffice to say that anybody who is on a path of awakening is going to be booted many, many times before they find the community that is right for them. And any true seeker will find that there is going to be a time when they are on their own - no community at all. We all must learn to be completely alone at some point in our journey.
As long as one is answering that inner call, they can be assured that however challenging things are in any given moment, they will eventually be okay. They will not forever be homeless or shelterless. It will be a temporary experience, but nothing here is forever. Relief and healing is on its way. Always. Always. Always.
I re-read your question
— Feb 28, 2012
and I see that your concern is more about those who currently seem to be cared for in some way by the default world - people who are marginalized by the greater culture but are provided a place in the world that many would like to see pass away.
This is what I think - we are all deeply compassionate people - with very few exceptions. Our reliance upon the State to take care of those who don't fit in - well its only because we created the State that this happened. People are not newly compassionate. Its very human to love and before the State took on these duties, people were taken care of. The State promotes the idea that they were not, but that's simply not true. Not perfectly and not in every case, but has the State been perfect about it? In some cases, the State has been more abusive and neglectful.
So the only thing you can do is look around your local community and see who needs to be cared for and then do it. You can't answer that question for the whole world, but you're extremely powerful in how you respond to what comes in front of you.
