Saturday, April 29, 2006

Cojones Grande

“Is this how you want to be remembered?” the father asks Yuri Orlov in Lord of War.

Yuri shakes his head. “I don’t want to be remembered at all,” Yuri says. “If being remembered means being dead.”

In a Pearls Before Swine comic strip by Stephen Pastis, the “cute” characters talk about how everybody, in the end, is forgotten. You remember a famous name from a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand years ago. But the more you go back in time, the less people you “remember.”

“Eventually,” the cute character says, “We’re all forgotten, even the best ones among us.”

Somebody said sometime ago, and I’m not sure now if he had something to do with Freud, that it was only the human ego that pushes us to delude ourselves of our sense of importance. Whenever we think of our own personal worth, we tend to exaggerate it. We tend to feel “big.” We tend to see ourselves as if we’re the center of the universe. And indeed, for many centuries before the first breed of upstarts like Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno, people everywhere, even ordinary peasants, were sure the universe was made for them. That man was the apex of creation; that there was in fact a “creation.” And that everything else revolved around this blob of mud called “Earth.”

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[The big, fat human ego]


These days, somebody like Raul Gonzales would merely roll his eyes and say: “That’s bullshit.”

I might be walking down that road with my devil-may-care swagger, and I‘d meet Raul Gonzales with his needle, ready to pop my bubble.

I might say, “I am a big-shot cyberjock.”

Raul Gonzales would just say: “That sounds like Dinky Soliman’s dung.”

I might say, “You know what, my dick is bigger than Las Pinas City.”

Raul Gonzales would just say: “That’s the stinkiest dog turd I’ve ever smelled.”

Because while Freud’s Ego and Superego would sing in unison about one’s sense of significance, there’s the Id somewhere, lurking in the dark caverns of our heads, always devoted to remind us we’re just animals.

Animals who can talk. And fuck. And brag about it.

One of my favorite scenes in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 that hits it home so deeply is when Snowden lies on the plane’s floor, the guy’s intestines and lunch slipping out of his blasted torso, and Yossarian staring at it all and finally getting it—finally understanding that man is garbage.

I once told somebody I’m not here to bring beauty to the universe or change this fucking world. I’m not here to make any difference. That was back in those days when people expected wonderful things to come out of my hat, and were disappointed.

I told that same somebody, If you believe that crap, I’ll tell you another. I said, All those kids want to “make a difference.” Now, this planet is a bleeding mess. Everybody you meet down the road, they want to change the world. Now, look at this. Is this the planet you want? A world created by all sorts of crusaders, all sorts of upstarts out to launch their own revolution.

It’s all pap. There are days you’re just tired of it all. You see somebody say on TV, “My dream is to make a difference.” I scratch my head and wonder, how do you do that? The universe is a swirling mass of change, and it churns every moment. How do you add more shit to the status quo, when the status quo itself is a quick-shifting neon light in any Malate trance club?

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Besides, “making a difference” is one of those insufferably crappy lines we love serving ourselves; it’s in the same hackneyed league as “be yourself” or “the greatest good for the greatest number.” Lines nobody really thinks over, lines that we use as ready resource when the need to masturbate strikes or when there’s the sudden craving to slake off some deep personal emptiness.

Human beings are funny. First, they acquire some new evolutionary equipment like the cerebral cortex, and they begin “thinking” that everything they see is made for them. Then, they build on the tale and reinforce it for generations until they begin taking the myth as “truth.” Until nobody remembers that the first guy who told it wove it around a bonfire just to entertain the tribe's kids. Until nobody remembers we’re just articulate animals, after all.

It’s usually fun to listen to the mass of people. But eventually, the fun wears thin. Sometimes, I feel like I'd rather just sit down and stare at my balls till kingdom come.

***
For other Bullshit Meister posts, see:

Wrongness

League of Monsters

Friday Evening Kitsch

The State of the Art

Goodbye, and Thanks for all the Crap



Add to Technorati Favorites!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

its been quite a while since i also realised how much some love tickling their vanity - it puts me off and makes me look at people with less and less trust on their intentions.

but my thoughts have never come even close to the analogy you made with dreams and the Universe. that was some thought writting!

love
sd

Anonymous said...

I hear you. It also seems to be getting worse as time goes on. But it would be fun to be the center of the universe for just a day.

Anonymous said...

[u][b]Xrumer[/b][/u]

[b]Xrumer SEO Professionals

As Xrumer experts, we from been using [url=http://www.xrumer-seo.com]Xrumer[/url] quest of a long time things being what they are and remember how to harness the titanic power of Xrumer and go off it into a Bills machine.

We also purvey the cheapest prices on the market. Numberless competitors devise order 2x or even 3x and a lot of the continuously 5x what we responsibility you. But we feel in providing gigantic accommodation at a tearful affordable rate. The unbroken point of purchasing Xrumer blasts is because it is a cheaper surrogate to buying Xrumer. So we focusing to stifle that mental activity in cognizant and provide you with the cheapest grade possible.

Not only do we take the greatest prices but our turnaround heyday payment your Xrumer posting is super fast. We drive take your posting done ahead of you discern it.

We also cater you with a sated log of well-heeled posts on different forums. So that you can notice also in behalf of yourself the power of Xrumer and how we be struck by harnessed it to benefit your site.[/b]


[b]Search Engine Optimization

Using Xrumer you can think to see thousands upon thousands of backlinks in behalf of your site. Tons of the forums that your Place you force be posted on bear exalted PageRank. Having your tie-in on these sites can truly help establish up some crown quality endorse links and genuinely as well your Alexa Rating and Google PageRank rating owing to the roof.

This is making your put more and more popular. And with this inflate in celebrity as familiarly as PageRank you can think to see your site in effect filthy gamy in those Search Mechanism Results.
Conveyance

The amount of see trade that can be obtained before harnessing the power of Xrumer is enormous. You are publishing your plat to tens of thousands of forums. With our higher packages you may equivalent be publishing your site to HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of forums. Create 1 mail on a stylish forum disposition almost always rig out 1000 or so views, with communicate 100 of those people visiting your site. Now create tens of thousands of posts on in demand forums all getting 1000 views each. Your see trade longing associate because of the roof.

These are all targeted visitors that are interested or curious far your site. Imagine how assorted sales or leads you can achieve with this great number of targeted visitors. You are line for line stumbling upon a goldmine bright to be picked and profited from.

Keep in mind, Above is Money.
[/b]

TRAVERSE B RECOVER YOUR CHEAPLY DEFAME TODAY:


http://www.xrumer-seo.com