Man, I’ve already written more long posts this week than I do in a normal month. I think I need a nap. Well, that’ll come soon enough. It’s time for my annual 2-week vacation, so I wanted to say a few words…
All of us, as humans, are voyeurs. Don’t you think?
I mean…we get dressed up, wait in traffic, and hand over our hard-earned money to sit in a dark theater just to be a fly on the wall of someone’s experience. At hotels, we walk past open doors and all of us have the same reaction…peeking in to see if we can catch a glimpse. We’re such curious observers of human behavior. And, oh man, was there some behavior to see this year. Here’s one of my observations about the strange time known as 2017…
With this constant stream of information, are we hearing so many words…so many illogical things every day…that we’re totally numb to it? Whether big or small…nonsensical statements just don’t phase us anymore. How about a small example of the types of things we hear throughout our day?
“Oh, Louis CK, Matt Lauer, Tiger Woods, and Harvey Weinstein…they’re all the same.”
Really?
Wait, what?
Tiger Woods had consensual adult sex. You might not like him but, um, Harvey Weinstein profoundly altered the course of multiple lives forever because he’s a violent rapist.
How are those the same things?
Lumping everything into one tidy box to avoid the complications of actual thinking is a dangerous game to play.
And it’s a VERY acceptable lifestyle choice in crazy town.
(By the way, the more common name of crazy town is “2017”)
Every day, our retardation of thought drifts into new and increasingly simplistic territory.
In crazy town, every perspective…no matter how nonsensical…is seen as legitimate.
Remember when we used to hear something absurd and then process it?
Now it just gets buried under the next wave of information that flies into our next moment.
If you’re comfortable lumping all women, all men, all black, all white, all Christian, all Muslim, all gays, all Republicans, all Democrats, all athletes, all entertainers, or all of any other group into a tiny box and making them the same “thing” in your mind…well, I hate to break it to you, but your thinking is fucked up.
That isn’t a political statement.
Just a statement of common sense for anyone who doesn’t want to be a terrible person.
It’s really important for details to still matter.
Whatever you want to call this…sloppy thinking…intellectual laziness…it’s as if we’ve grown 140-character brains. The advantages are clear, right? It’s easier to think in black and white than it is to deal with the greys of reality. And, shit, it’s so much faster. Snappy slogans and catchy headlines grab our attention. It only requires a second of focus and then we can resume zoning out on all of those annoying details.
We don’t need to process information anymore.
It can all just become a white noise of words that wash over us as we enjoy our mental hibernation.
Think about it, how many words came at you yesterday? Phone calls, texts, emails, social media, television, internet reading, and on and on…
How sure are you that this constant daily barrage has helped your growth?
Is it making you happier?
Are you confident that you’re still a clear thinker?
We hear a lot about “loving yourself” these days. Well, yeah, it sure as hell seems like a better option than hating yourself. Not much you can do for others when the person in the mirror is your enemy. But, in crazy town, “loving yourself” apparently just means buying shit that makes you feel good. Strangely enough, I always thought loving myself included seeing where I’m a fuckup…and then caring enough about myself to make changes.
Who are we kidding…
Are we actually interested in making any changes to our mental habits in 2018?
Have we even really thought about it?
Or are our brains too numb to handle that kind of–
–Hold on, there’s a scandal with a governor on TV right now…wait, my phone is buzzing…sorry, I just got a tweet from…no way, bitcoin is up again to…what, they’re doing a remake of that already?
Sorry, what were we talking about?
Well, I know one thing…I’m tired. In all seriousness, this year has exhausted me and I need to unplug. It’s time to recharge. If it isn’t obvious, I’d highly recommend everyone taking some time away from technology for a little while.
Ok, let’s handle blog business and then call it a year here.
Before I forget, if you do want to contact the guy from this week, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with his new anonymous email address. But I’ll do it in January. Because I’m unplugging. And, again, an introduction is as far as I’m going with this. I’m not looking to be a middleman in that conversation or a part of any decision.
As far as MileNerd, my end-of-year-thoughts are these…
If The Points Guy closed down, all of his sheeple would just move on to the next commercial blog and it wouldn’t be a big deal to them. I’m well aware that the same is not true here. And, honestly, that’s one of the biggest reasons I keep writing 5 days a week. It sure as hell wasn’t because I was worried about where I’d finish in those USA Today blog rankings (thank you for thinking of me, though). And it wasn’t to pad some numbers I don’t look at or to add followers on the MileNerd Twitter page which doesn’t exist.
The goals of most other bloggers are not my goals. They care about quantity – money, followers, likes, hits, etc.
I do not.
At all.
We just aren’t playing the same game.
My goal isn’t to be better than anyone else. But I’m also not going to dumb myself down because the bar is so low. I’m interested in being trustworthy. It continues to be important to me not to mislead people. There are zero games being played here. Maybe that’s why you guys are so loyal. I don’t know but thank you for all you’ve given me this year. I can feel that many of you guys care. And I tried to give you my best in return. Anyway, I’ll be making a pretty big announcement on January 1st. Until then, it’s time to sign off. Have a great 2 weeks and hopefully some of you will actually unplug. I’ll see you in 2018.
Happy holidays, nerds!