This morning, I received a call. (111) 111-11… you guessed it… 11. This was a telemarketer who hung up barely 1 second after his first ring. A few hours later, I received a call from a (248) number. They leave a voicemail and I listen. The voice starts off friendly enough. I’m told he’s an old friend and we haven’t spoken in a long time. But then, the message lingers. The upstanding-sounding gentlemen says, “Don’t hang up”, and I realize: it’s a recording. To the point, it was bullshit.
There is so much bullshit floating around these days. We buy bullshit. We sell bullshit. We eat bullshit. We speak bullshit. We live in a world so devoid of authenticity, many of us are thrown off by someone random being genuine; and I say “we” because, frankly, I have not always been innocent.
It’s in the culture, and it’s getting worse. The vassssst majority of people have to struggle to make money. Post adolescence, you are prompted with a stark reality, struggle to make a business, or sell your soul, shut the fuck up, and do someone else’s bidding… likely for some bullshit product or service neither you nor anyone else needs. I’ll leave the work bits to our friend, The Wayless Stranger, but let’s be honest, how much do you actually give a $#!t about the things you do throughout the course of a day? And, try to live a genuine life, you’ll encounter so much push back, you’ll begin to feel guilty for believing being different was the right move.
But, I’m not here to getchya down. I’m here to tell you about the new currency: Authenticity. The plague of bullshit has proliferated so much, it has embedded itself so deeply within our culture (and many others), that being genuine is now valued as “bold”. I don’t mean “telling it like it is”. There are enough assholes in this world quite eager to shit their opinions out of their mouths. This is false authenticity. It seems we are in such dire need of authentic personalities that we’re easily fooled by this attitude. Donald Trump is a shining example of this. Where every other president before him would sell you snake oil and tell you it came from olives, this moron tells you it’s snake oil then explains to you why snake oil is what you need... and… people… buy… it…
The truth is, I know what you need, and it isn’t convincing. You. Need. Inspiration. You need to know, that everyone else drives to work and thinks to themselves: “Why the fuck do I wake up at 7am for this shit?” You need to know, that everyone else thinks to themselves: “Am I supposed to look like that girl on Instagram?” You need to know, that everyone, at least once in their life, thinks to themselves: “I am capable of doing so much more… what am I waiting for?”