Hunter Thompson\u2019s famous quote that it never got weird enough for him is more true than ever today.\u00a0 We live in boring times.\u00a0 Even when the towers fell, and terrorists struck fear into the hearts of the free world, and we rolled into our Forever War, we were so saturated by the 24 hour screaming news channels that nothing really sunk in.\u00a0 If it did sink in, it soon faded. Jon Stewart\u2019s quote is more apt today than Thompson, when the comedian shouted to his crowd of rally-goers that \u201cIf you amplify everything, you hear nothing.\u201d
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\nThe saturation has far-reaching effects, too.\u00a0 The death of print journalism and publishing is part of it. From the cheapest romance novel right up to the nation\u2019s most prestigious newspapers, the gates have been opened to the barbarians.\u00a0 At the top are the barbarian kings who greedily take control of as much territory as they can, turning the world view into their own queer propaganda machine. Meanwhile, as they make their money grab, their unwashed hordes flood the market. Endless blogs, self-published novels, a voice for everyone. The epitome of why Greek democracy failed.<\/p>\n
The publishing industry is the litmus for civilization\u2019s collapse.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone from a few thousand books released a year by an old boy\u2019s club of publishers to nearly a million books released each year, 80% of which are self-published.<\/p>\n
Some say that\u2019s good.\u00a0 Down with the tyrants and their New York publishing offices!\u00a0 But what happens when there are no controls?\u00a0 When everyone can release a book for pennies?<\/p>\n
Writing is one of the most intimate things we can do.\u00a0 We do it because we\u2019re bored, or we\u2019re driven to do so by some subconscious calling, or because we\u2019re trying to push through a bad place and make sense of the world around us.\u00a0 We are all, from the most famous author to the worst blogger, exercising (or exorcising) demons in one way or another.<\/p>\n
Most writing doesn\u2019t deserve to be read by others.\u00a0 It probably shouldn\u2019t be read by others.\u00a0 We only think that the purpose of writing is to acquire an audience because that\u2019s what we\u2019re told. That\u2019s what everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Writing is also about editing. Nobody does that anymore. Not even the big wigs. You must first edit yourself, in subtle and difficult ways. To that end, a writer must also be a marketer. If you want to give your work to the public, then you must assume a mantle of responsibility to that public.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean cater to an audience, or try to create some artificial audience. I just mean that your shit has to make some sort of sense, and the least you can do is run the spellchecker.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like you need to spend money and hire a professional copyeditor. Your self published shit isn\u2019t worth that effort. Take the Nacho Sasha approach and read everything out loud to yourself.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I catch all my mistakes and put out these perfect articles that never have typos, spelling errors, dropped words, run on sentences, and occasional missing paragraphs!<\/p>\n
Shut up.<\/p>\n
Where was I?\u00a0 Boredom, right? And how the current state of the publishing industry proves that our civilization is about to fall.\u00a0 We\u2019ve become a disorganized, distracted, overly medicated mass of mewling kittens clawing at the sides of a cardboard box. The American way is no longer about streets paved with gold, seizing opportunity, or just being free to explore, conquer, and get drunk.<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019re all in debt, we\u2019re all working ourselves into the ground, we\u2019re all beat down and afraid to move out of our very tiny spheres. We\u2019re going through weird American motions that we can\u2019t afford \u2013 home ownership and a car in every garage, a chicken in every pot. Where once a car in every garage meant a very different thing, and was a goal achieved with hard earned money, it\u2019s now funded by loans from shifty banks and credit cards that obliterate our souls.<\/p>\n
I have nothing against consumer cultures, but there really must be a limit. Maybe you shouldn\u2019t be spending 0 a day at KFC, know what I mean?<\/p>\n
I have nothing against any of this, really.\u00a0 Our fat nation full of poorly educated simpletons. Fuck them.\u00a0 Fuck America.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why I bother railing about the ignorant people who plague my life, ride the decaying public transportation with me every day, and piss all over my toilet when they come over to install my internet.\u00a0 They don\u2019t matter.\u00a0 In my eyes, they aren\u2019t even human beings.<\/p>\n
Which is why I was able to sit here and passively watch the towers come down, and why I don\u2019t care about war and death and poverty.\u00a0 We\u2019ve become automatons. Some form of self-replicating machine.\u00a0 So 100,000 of us get washed away over there\u2026 They\u2019ll be replaced, and largely by creatures who are incapable of learning any lessons.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m bored.\u00a0 Deeply bored.\u00a0 Humanity\u2019s trials, tribulations, successes, and accomplishments no longer mean anything to me. It\u2019s all become a joke \u2013 and not a very good one.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all bored, really, when it comes to those large things — the human race and our place on Earth right here, right now. Tell me you\u2019re into it.\u00a0 Tell me you actually go through the day thinking, by golly, what exciting times.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m bored on the individual level, as well.\u00a0 Particularly my romantic dealings with women. Young or old, recently met or decades on my contacts list, they\u2019re all the same. Disturbingly so.\u00a0 Their words and actions and reactions have the familiarity of a movie I\u2019ve watched a hundred times. I see an email, a voicemail, a letter and it\u2019s like Star Trek II<\/em>.\u00a0 I can mute the sound and start reciting the dialogue.<\/p>\n The predictability of the women in my life over the last decade bores me even when they\u2019re the architects of harm and tragedy. Those few, that is, who have gotten that far with me. I see the betrayal coming a mile away, and I\u2019m just too exhausted to care. I\u2019m actually bored to the point where, even when I can clearly identify a problem, I just can\u2019t be bothered to act. It\u2019s all part of the same, sad, unending joke, and I want nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m all for the end of civilization.\u00a0 Bring it on! Please — could someone, somewhere, fucking surprise me for a change? I\u2019m ready. I don\u2019t care if I\u2019m shocked and appalled, or pleasantly surprised. Just\u2026do something. Someone do something. And, no, blowing up a train and bringing down a building for some bizarre lost cause doesn\u2019t count.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been watching terrorists do that since Jews ran around Roman streets.<\/p>\n 9\/11 is nothing.\u00a0 We were practically expecting it. The only real and honest reaction was to point at your buddy and say, \u201cTold ya so, motherfucker.\u201d\u00a0 Thompson\u2019s last great quote from the ESPN rants in 2004 \u2013 \u201cBig darkness. Soon come.\u201d We\u2019ve been sitting here watching, and waiting, and expecting the worst since the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor. Hell, before that. Since the Germanic tribes sacked Italy in the 300\u2019s BC.<\/p>\n The pressure has never let up. And it\u2019s fucking boring. It\u2019s always the same. Tragedy begets fear begets tyranny.\u00a0 Both in the bigger picture, and in our own, small daily lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hunter Thompson\u2019s famous quote that it never got weird enough for him is more true than ever today.\u00a0 We live in boring times.\u00a0 Even when the towers fell, and terrorists struck fear into the hearts of the free world, and …<\/p>\n