Wednesday 7/19/23
Commitment doesn't happen without principle. The other night for dinner, the Admiral and the Captain made scallops. The scallops were doused in white wine before cooking. I was assured that the wine burns off. This may be true, but I would not touch the dinner all the same because of the principle and from principles comes my commitment in all matters of all natures. It takes strength to have principles, which people pick up on on some level, consciously articulated or not. What few people realize, though, is that it is from principles that strength comes, too. Also, duty. And from duty, we get courage. This was but something trivial pertaining to a meal. But consistency matters with each of the things I have mentioned. Consistency isn't relative.
I know a man whose life is given over to false cheer and praise. He likes and frequents zoos. I sent him a masterful story about a zoo called "Rosa." Regarding this story, he said nothing, which is what I expected, because of what it is, what I am, and who he is. This same man will praise--without meaning any of it--any amateur or wannabe who reads writing at a reading, sends him a poor book, plays a guitar at an open mic night, or dances on the street corner, for that matter. But when the realest of deals is in front of him, he says nothing. Does that say everything about a person and this man? No, not everything, and it wouldn't be fair for me to suggest that. It does say a lot, though.
Insincerity is the lingua franca of our world right now. Sincerity is too much for people. It frightens them, puts them off, causes them to shut their mouths rather than let any such thing come out. Being sincere is looked at presently as not just a way of being; it's also treated as if it were an ability, because it's such a foreign action, like, say, being an aerialist is a series of foreign actions. People think they don't have the ability to be sincere, and if sincerity requires an ability to utilize language in an honest way free of cliche and repetition of trite phrases, then they may be on to something. But more than that, sincerity is willingness and openness. It is vulnerability. As these things, it now represents extreme risk to people, and is a scarifying concept. So people are not sincere. Very little good comes from anything pertaining to human relations and interactions when there is not sincerity. Sincerity has been replaced with learned, default behaviors and default words. Given the internet and social media and that how people speak on social media has become how they speak in "real" life on account that real life is increasingly less real for people, then words are primarily mimetic. Everything is simply a repetition. People don't look into their own minds and hearts when they speak; they look into the closet of cliches and worn phrases that are just about all that anyone ever uses, and they select something. It never comes from them or within them. It's not theirs. They don't even mean it. That is how people now talk. And it's how people "praise" anything they praise. That there are no stakes--because, again, they don't mean these words that are not even their own--makes it easier for them. So what gets praised? Things no one actually cares about or thinks highly of. Because there is no jeopardy for them personally. What wins awards, etc.? Things that are praised. One sees how this works.
America has an obesity problem, which is apparent to anyone who goes outside where there are people. When I was a kid, it was uncommon for people to be obese. Now it seems like it is uncommon for people not to be, especially men over a certain age, but few demographics are exempt. Obesity is the norm. Why? That's because of the larger issue which is the real issue, which is that this country has a laziness epidemic. People want to do as little as possible in every area, be they physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual. By spiritual I am not talking about religion, but matters of the human spirit. If you are unlikely to try in one area, you are unlikely to try in all areas. Someone's physical condition can well be a tip-off to how they are in these other areas. If you never move physically, I think it's less likely you do any internal heavy lifting. Society "adapts" by devolving, for society must provide, by which is meant that society has to take care of the average person. The average person is less average in all areas--often by far--than what the average person was in times past, because what is average changes; it can go up, but for a long time it has gone considerably down. People hate to try. They hate effort. Any effort. You can only be a failure of a human being as a human being if you do not put forward honest and consistent effort. It also helps to have purpose if one is going to try. Very few people have any purpose or even an inkling of what purpose means. Purpose is different than obligation. To be a person of purpose, a person has to be an actual individual. An actual individual is sincere. From sincerity comes commitment which came from principle. Which produces strength. Which instills duty and devotion. Which fosters courage. It's all related. Which is also why these things now scarcely exist in the world. Rare is the person who will make an effort to do even one thing the best way possible or even more than the barest amount necessary, which, as we've seen, is hardly any amount at all.
