Am I back?
Who is the president?
What city do I live in?
That was a close one… Somehow I got sucked into some bizarre alternate dimension where smart kind people respected each other, and we all looked forward with hope to a blessed, exciting, and sustainable future. It must have been some kind of dream. Needless to say, It feels so good to be back inside our mutual reality tunnel of loneliness and cynicism. Wherever I went was so positive and rejuvenating that I was starting to forget who I really was.
Speaking of multi-layered realities, I find the best way to mess with your own universe is to change up your media stream. Most of us are constantly pulled along by a current of online and cable television experiences. Even if that isn’t how you roll in particular, any consistent media habit can become psychically confining. Personally, I like to shift into alternate media universes whenever possible. For example, when I moved to Minneapolis and was at my absolute poorest, I could not really afford cable or internet. What I could afford was an unlimited movie pass at the nearest Hollywood Video. This amazing place had become the repository for the remaining catalogs of numerous and constantly-closing local branches. While the majority of the country was flipping channels, I was tearing through a near-infinite catalog of forgotten gems. I watched over 100 titles in the first 30 days alone (much of unemployment is about passing the time). Everyday, I was digging through a physical world of DVDs when the rest of America was pointing and clicking pointing and clicking. Almost nothing I watched was less than 5 years old (including Ultimate Fighting Championships 25-60).
When I did get out of the house with enough cash to cover two beers and two tips, I would find my perspective in debates and conversations becoming more and more unique. It is amazing what an alternate media stream will do to ideas about “consensus opinion.” My unique source list provided me with well-researched ideas that were lost to those swimming in the mainstream soup. Surprisingly, many 20 year old ideas are quite relevant. Some of them even make status updates and blogs seem like juvenile indicators of the downfall of civilization. Apparently a life of reading books, talking and thinking could be even more effective than blandly pawing an iPad. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me give an example.
Once I was three months and about 250 titles in (my work/social life was improving), I started watching “The Twilight Zone”. Don’t know if you have seen it, but it was the foundation for things like “Twin Peaks” and “Lost.” It is the classic dark horse for best television show ever. Still, reliving these old shows was not the most mind-blowing aspect of my viewing experience. What really took me by surprise were the old public service announcements and commercials at the end of every episode (did TV used to only have 30 seconds of commercials per show?). What I cannot forget was a PSA-like precursor to “Rock the Vote.” Here is what happens; an animated anthropomorphic spokesthing comes out to a repetitive jingle. I can’t remember the exact lyrics but it was along the lines of don’t forget to vote for your favorite candidate blah dee blah blah blah. Then the anthropomorphic spokesthing proceeds to the poorly drawn ballot boxes and makes its selection. The choice of who to vote for was between six potential candidates. Each fake choice was presented with absolutely equal value. I sat stunned on the only chair in my sparse apartment.
Six!? Are you kidding me!? 50 years ago a public representation of political choice included 6 motherfucking options. To me, that seems to indicate a 66% drop in personal freedom. Today, we don’t even pretend that we have more than two bullshit choices. Even when that rare third party does make a go of it, they are usually accused of attempting to destroy democracy (see Ralph Nader). Or, they reconsider and join one of the two mainstream parties even though they barely fit in (see Ron Paul). I am so sick of the pervasive illusion of choice. Every election cycle we endure constant news, advertising, and infotainment, and it all boils down to Democrat or Republican, Coke or Pepsi, beef or pork, Bud or Miller, Marlboro or Camel, Viagra or Cialis, Xanax or Zoloft, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This is what happens when you get out of the mainstream current. Suddenly ideas that should be obvious seem to bolt down from the heavens.
You realize that constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is basically a lost cause.
You realize that freedom is a battle that must be won again and again (someone that wasn’t me said that).
Your new reality insists that there are not two sides to every story, there are many, and pretending freedom is represented by a simple “one or the other” is pointless and exhausting. During times like these I want to go back to the Twilight Zone. I want the world that creator Rod Serling thought was cruel and bizarre. I can’t imagine what his response would be to this one. Sometimes the only way to move forward is to take a breath and look back.
Tags: Inception, lost, responsibility, revolutionary poets, the twilight zone, voting
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