(Title stolen from but unrelated to the Misfits)
I’m not one of those who thinks, ‘back in my day things were better; men were men, women were women, and music was music.’ Mostly, the only folks who think ‘those were the good old days’ are white, heterosexual, males who’re pouting that now it’s their turn to let others people play. So when I say that back in my day rock music was rock music, and hip-hop was hip-hop and country was country you can bet that I’m not being nostalgic. Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be.
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Noah was still in the blueprint stage for his ark, and I was in high-school, people used to think that the boundaries that existed between musical genres were were inflexible and permanent, and that’s all there was to it. Rap and rock music were opposites and incompatible; as was country and punk, swing and metal, rap and country, gypsy and punk… (I can go on like this all day, but you get the point.) Hell, people even used to define themselves by these artificially created categories, they’d take sides and only allow themselves to enjoy one particular type of music; which was great and all, but it was kinda like limiting yourself to only one type of sex.
Then came the Twenty-First Century and it sang, “That’s fucking dumb!” and hosted a wild and beautiful cacophonic musical orgy who’s echoes are still making sweet and filthy love to our ear-holes to this day.
Thanks New Millennium!
As ridiculous as people saying that music can only fit neatly into one genre seems today, I’m surprised to see that people still do it all the time but not so much to music these days, only about themselves, and each other. If you look for it you can see it everywhere, people expecting others to be, and striving themselves to be, two-dimensional.
“One can hardly level a charge of hypocrisy without then becoming guilty of it oneself.”
A while back I was talking to a person I’ve known for years and simply pointed out that what they were saying was in direct contradiction with things they’d said in the past. Well, if you don’t know, let me tell you, people don’t appreciate this as much as you’d think. They often don’t take it as a slap on the back for evolving their opinion, and neither did this person. They were mildly outraged (if there is such a thing) and not only recanted their previous position but even went that extra mile of denying having ever said anything like it. The worst part of the whole experience? They actually believed it!
Naturally, I whipped out the word hypocrite, and things took a turn.
The parson I was talking to wasn’t psychotic, not any more than the average person at least, they were only experiencing what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is that uncomfortable feeling we get when we do something we feel is contrary to our beliefs, or if we’re confronted with new information that smashes things we were so sure of just moments before, or even if we just try and have two values that we think are in opposition. As humans we hate this sensation and will do just about anything to end it – Kill it! Murder it until it’s fucking dead! And on fire!
You know what? Everybody’s a fucking hypocrite (yes, you are) and that’s one of the things that makes us such amazing creatures. I know that I am, I’d be disappointed in myself if I wasn’t. we’re too complex not to be. Somewhere inside all of us are ideologies of such opposing polarities that it’s amazing we haven’t imploded from the force of their attraction. We just have to accept that we are growing, changing, ever-evolving organisms that shouldn’t try to be static.
People are like die and life is a craps shoot. There are countless factors that go into what number you see on top after a roll. Your mood, the wind direction, the table you’re playing on, the moons pull on the earth, that famous butterfly flapping it’s wings somewhere on the other side of the globe, and who knows what else. All these things effect the game in ways we’ll never comprehend. And like that, who we’re talking to, where we are, the number moments since our last public masturbatory experience, and whether we’re wearing our sexy or our granny panties all effect us, and who we are every moment of every day. This is called priming and it can be pretty scary stuff.
In dice the 4 and the 1 touch, just a fraction of a millimeter difference between them, but a world away from winning to a looser. The 1 and the 6 are as far apart as they can get, they’re still the same die, just as one’s arguments may seem to be at odds, they’re both still them.
When Nietzsche was describing his ideal state of being he said, “Sharp and mild, rough and fine, strange and familiar, impure and clean, a place where fool and sage convene: all this I am and wish to mean” So take Nietzsche’s advice and Make yourself. Become the beautiful monster you already are, stitched together from all the best junk you can find like an obscene quilt of flesh and soul and ideas and talents. And though a quilt is made up from bits and pieces of many old things each one is new and unique.
People who aren’t hypocrites, who are consistent, they’re just trying to damn hard to be the same thing all the time. No one is just a hippie, Christian, punk, a good-guy, business-man, sadist, female, goth, straight, or republican, and if they appear that way, their either faking it (to themselves) or lobotomized. If someone calls you a hypocrite, or a walking contradiction, just smile and take it as the compliment it is. That’ll really piss them off. But more importantly know that it just means you’re too nuanced to be easily defined. After all, to de-fine means to make finite, to limit, and you are a potentially infinite combination of mix-and-match possibilities.
