Sunday 16 September 2012

Irrelevance of Thought: Don’t Think Too Hard, You are Not That Important


Ever done something and wondered why the hell you did it in the first place or if you are still doing it why in the world you are still doing it? 

The funny thing is that the things we most regret having done are actually not done on the spur of the moment as we like to lie to others that they were.

Hard, cold thinking went into it... it being the perpetration of the nefarious thing you did or are still doing... most times conscious, objective thought played some part. That is, thinking arduously to do some stupid thing that is innately and irrevocably stupid but you figured you must do this stupid thing nonetheless. 

Like for me it would be the writing of this blogpost and keeping this blog public in general. As a friend once said, 'If you are too open-minded, your brains will fall out'. 

Am wary of the fact that people might actually start thinking Greyhorn (who is me when writing this blog) and the plain simple me are one and the same. What an appalling thing that would be! Every pleb (plebeian) can then claim that he/she knows what the bloody hell am thinking . . . bullshit. Half the time I myself don't know or am baffled ... totally confused . . . by what I'm thinking.

Going on about thinking . . . other times though the reasoning is subliminal... a subconscious mental process that craves stupidity and compels you to do the stupid thing. Whatever the case, you still DID think.

Many a time I have thought and thought interminably about various sets of problems that as any normal human am faced with in this journey through life.

Brand them challenges, call them situational obstacles, karma being a bitch etc. and after thorough thinking and analysis of the problem and of course identifying the requisite set of solutions... I still usually end up doing the idiotic thing.

Frustratingly I would do this unintelligent thing over and over again... albeit in different styles and flavours... all those clever things I had spent such a long time thinking about would sit on the kerb while I frolick obliviously and in total ecstasy with the only stupid thing one can do in such a situation.

Does this mean me, you and everyone else on this retarded world is . . . well, stupid? Absolutely! The harder you think to only end up doing nothing or the thing you deem foolish then I would have to say in this ad hoc stupidometer of mine you really are dim... as in dimwitted.

Jokes aside I think this particular self-deprecatory strategy of dissing myself and you could be annoying but it is the truth ain't it? Anyway since you are the reader I think it only appropriate that I should insult only you hereinafter, I have a feeling that if you are not sufficiently insulted by now you'll keep reading. 


Why do we procrastinate, ignore, modify, assume, ridicule (yes some sick people do ridicule their own ideas), mutilate and refuse to implement our own plans? 

Plans that we took a considerable amount of effort in coming up with in the first place? Let me paraphrase: why do we love to embellish stupidity? What is the purpose of thinking so hard to come up with solutions only to end up choosing what is not even in the list of solutions or continuing with your old habits anyway?

Is it an inherent need for self destruction? Hubris perhaps i.e. I have thought of every possible thing, so if I could think it then it is solved already... lesser beings would still be grappling to come up with such brilliant ideas and strategies, am still ahead... and so on and so forth. 

Vanity of vanities! Chasing after the wind! 

Greatness is the accumulation of all the things that you can actually motivate or scare the so called lesser beings into achieving for you. You are shit without the little stupid guys... ask Safaricom.

You can't be a great lawyer without some really scruffy, assuming and not so insightful lawyers to compare with. But more so the boys and girls of the Fourth Estate to keep harping of your great achievements. 


Greatness in darkness is... is there even such a thing to begin with 'Greatness in darkness'... it is like saying some absurd thing Buddha would mumble in one of his fatuous moments of 'enlightenment'...  such as The Plentiness of Emptiness...  I think what I meant is that you can't be nondescript and be great. 

Wait . . .  I really think I have just discovered some Universal Law or something. Repeat after me... YOU CAN'T BE A MEDIOCRE NOBODY AND BE GREAT... but curiously though you can be great for just being an overly visible, overtly loud-mouthed, excitable and pretentious buffoon. I know lots of those. Caroline Mutoko?


I have already disparaged the virtues of critical thinking elsewhere in this blog (Philosophy begets Stupidity) what I want to confine myself to in this post is actually this question: Is it worth your time to think so hard to be really good at what you do  while pandering, flattery and bootlicking can get you so much further? Social Engineering is what I think we called it.

You just work yourself into the bosoms of those who really matter then you create a persona and aura of effectiveness, efficiency etc and believe it or not (or so I believe) you become the platinum-eyed hot shot. That is from up above.... from down below it is often still extremely clear that such an individual is still a clump of mud or more aptly ... hot shit.

Thinking is irrelevant... particularly thinking hard about solving things. Perception on the other hand is king.  If one thinks you are busy solving something it matters not that you are actually seriously rubbishing someone on Facebook. It is even more impressive if you actually get someone to solve it for you and you take the cred. 

For instance it is not that you are farting... it is the perception of what you are farting that matters:  
Oh my... how wonderful... do you know so and so...  farts Rose-Petal perfume (as those in some exotic place in Southern France)... utterly delightful that fart is I tell you... exquisite. (Upper class laugh) ha ha ha ha.

Apparently it is only ordinary, mediocre people who think all fart is the same... they just can't perceive it right. Higher ranked people and seniors don't fart... they pass gas, inert and noble like Argon and Xenon. Anybody below you on the other hand is just a plain farter. 

Failures and mistakes take the same hue (or smell) as the above aphoristic fart. It actually depends on who is failing . . . and how. Damn Einstein, everything is indeed relative. There is no equity in either success or failure, that is should you be on the wrong side you will always get it bad... less accreditation for success and more of the blame for failure

Should you complain and bemoan your circumstance? Should you work harder? 

To the first rhetorical question the answer is absolutely not. Never moan and whine... not to yourself, not to fate, not to anyone else... ever! Especially if they can do something about whatever your grievance is... that is plainly gross. To the second ... you should also never work harder at what you are doing... you should be working harder on who you ought to be impressing. That is pandering ...  it is just bootlicking without the negative connotations. 

Am neither good at doing both of these things... and that is why am writing about them... so that they can somehow percolate into my consciousness and into my thick head. I always tend to complain a lot when I think am underconsidered or undervalued ... why? 

Because I would literally bring everything else to a screeching halt just to work harder at doing something that I deem important or necessary. Then you discover your effort wasn't worth an ounce of chicken droppings. Or the cred goes elsewhere. It's enough to make me want to tear off my moustache, listen to that disgusting noise they call punk rock and take a course on full time pandering. I tell ya' it is the only thing that fucking counts.

At some point... I think last year, I reached a point in my cynicism that I thought that I could never go higher than that. It seemed utterly impossible, anymore cynicism and I would stop talking for lack of belief that people actually know what the heck am saying or that  I would be misquoted due to the blithe diabolism of humanity. By the way this is not an original idea ... whatever an original idea might mean... prior to imperial Rome there was a dictator called Sulla this dude got so cynical that he would not even talk to his servants in case he is misquoted. 

Every single instruction he wrote down ... 

" Glutius Maximus my lowly slave, please pluck some soft leaves from the plants in the botanical garden behind the aviary so I may go relieve myself for it seems I have a dastard case of diarrhea.  
Signed Your Boss Sulla." 

Many others since have followed his wise example (not writing a letter while you have diarrhea but his cynical ways).

But loe and behold, my cynicism got bettered by the indifference to the law of cause and effect that so flagrantly exists everywhere. Anyone, and I mean anyone... who works hard should get the reward that befits his effort and vice versa. Something else, utterly obnoxious to me is what actually exists (which underscores the naiveté and idealism I still perceive the world with)... The Law of Pandering and Promotion.

Most people would tell me that that is the Law of Pragmatism (which does not exist) and the other one called the Law of Attraction (which I think is a laugh because with a well padded account and some fake projection of class you can pretty much attract anyone... from low class thieves, high class prostitutes, philanthropists and tree huggers to renowned social scientists who theorize on nothing meaningful), but am too bruised to hear any of it for the next century.  

That is, in a hundred years I would say I I’ll be ready to rationally approach this subject since hopefully I'll be long dead . . .  ghosts don't give a fuck. I also hope at that time the world would be so opulent and boring that an Inquest would be opened upon the discovery of this blog post to the causes of my melancholy, lunacy and arguably untimely demise at the age of 89.

Finally to all those of you who are trying to read in between the lines ... there is nothing there... if you find something then you must be a greater nut than me. 

Honestly, I would like to meet you . . . so that I can laugh at you? No no am not that mean yet ...  I terribly need somebody to point at and say 'Here is a greater nut!'. What an inspiration that would be! It would certainly help in churning out some more satirical, pungent commentaries. Who else than a nut who actually reads my stuff to help me along?
M Wycliff,
Nairobi.





PS:
Glutius Maximus is the biological name of the butt muscle; I needed a 'cheeky' name.