Recovering from the Poser Pandemic

I have a bad habit of eavesdropping. I blame it more on ADHD than being nosy. So I can't help but notice how many people in this cafe love to talk using regurgitated buzzwords and phrases that have become popular within their algorithm to distract from the fact they actually don’t have a single interesting, helpful or original thing to say. Like are the benefits, from this so-called “shadow work” you’ve done & are speaking loudly about for all to hear, in the room with us now? The lack of awareness is like a sticker in the middle of their forehead saying “validate me daddy”. Attention addicts take on so many different forms to be recognized as a part of their chosen subculture that they have copied and pasted their way into - using the free templates people post online. Taking notes on how to best signal that they "get it" and are operating on a higher frequency, whatever tf that means. Anyone that knows the first thing about a sense of enlightenment knows how incredibly fleeting it is by nature and how arrogant it comes across to act absolved and "holier than thou" in casual conversation. Apart from predictable, trendy language usage - this masquerading has bled into playing dress up as well. It used to be true that if you wore a hat, Wranglers and boots out in public it was because you worked with your hands to serve others in a necessary way. While these days it could only mean someone in that same giddup is wanting to be perceived as having grit..perhaps in navigating a conceptual graphic design gig for a pet hotel? I realize how cynical this all sounds, but hear me out. It may seem like the leap from criticizing a culture of pretenders to addressing a declining population of self reliant citizens may be quite a large one - but I actually see the poser pandemic and our nation's fragile food system as incredibly intertwined.

Duality of self can surely exist, maybe that graphic designer was raised on a ranch (can relate) but this discussion is about questioning what makes people want to pretend to be someone that they genuinely are not. However this phenomenon really isn't something to blame on the individual, when late stage capitalism has forced most people away from working the land and towards tending to menial tasks for a corporation, often and unfortunately for higher pay. It’s almost like that was on purpose? Hmmm. As though having to virtue signal in order to social climb to gain status and non-essential job opportunities has encouraged abandonment of authenticity and conviction? As if farmers being financially forced to grow monoculture cash crops that deplete the quality of our soil in large swaths of farmland across the country, was ultimately an unsustainable model? And has thus led to the disappearance of small farmers and self-reliant Americans? Monoculture people and monoculture crops, both unable to provide communities with all that we need so we are inevitably required to rely on power structures outside ourselves to exist comfortably? Weird.

You take away people's connection to the land, and they'll look for connection in anything and everything else. Oftentimes they’ll try to come back around to this innate need somehow, like having a jungle of non fruit bearing house plants, or taking up an outdoor hobby with a huge price tag on the equipment needed just to get started. Making these things part of their identity, because it provides temporary relief from uselessness and a vague sense of being in relationship to our natural environment. But what if we reframed which hobbies and activities we invested our time and energy into to ensure that at a baseline they will be beneficial not only to ourselves but also to our communities? Not to say we should never invest in pure self indulgence, joy is certainly an important factor to health. However American consumerism in the pursuit of individualism has become the main mode of operation for so many people the majority of their lives - that we now no longer have the agricultural infrastructure to feed ourselves (without relying on monopolized megacorporations that would rather bury food than not make a profit on it). 

To have an authentic identity that is interesting because it's based on the impact you have on improving the lives of others, rather than what you’ve done solely for yourself - is actually a lot easier than we have been led to believe. It looks like growing your own food, even if it's just a tiny herb planter box on your window sill. It looks like buying what you can’t grow from a local market and directly assisting in creating a stronger network of farmers, and therefore a more self-reliant community. It looks like thrifting your clothes or buying from a non-chain boutique, in which you are donating to a local non-profit or supporting your neighbor who’s a shop owner with a dream. It doesn’t need to be complicated, it just takes the awareness to see what's available around you and to choose to partake in your reality in a mutualistic way. Its choosing to live in that awareness all the time and not reverting to a scarcity mindset. Feelings of scarcity cause you to feel like you must analyze what personality type is most widely approved of in the field you are hoping to gain resources from - its oriented towards what you can take instead of give. It also means abstaining from continuing to consume what your targeted ads have shown can “fix” the latest insecurity your phone has detected. In short how can you invest into creating abundance for all instead of into your own ego?

What I want people to realize in this caffeine fueled rant, is that their feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, and competition - are rooted in their lack of discipline to focus on truly community based relationships, goals, and value systems. Conversely, any feelings of superiority are also based in non-reality. There is no drama in finding your own unique niche to uplift those around you, in fact you should want others to do what you’re doing to let the cause gain power. There is no energy to invest in desperate acts to be seen in a certain light when you’re too busy using that energy to work towards a shared mission. We spin out when we lose that sense of responsibility to serve others and our environment. When we stay in our own “mind palace” for too long without inspired action, it makes us sick first mentally - then physically. It is indeed a sickness to be checking up on others for the purpose of weighing your own perceived importance or relevance in relation to them - rather than because you have a similar vision and want the same things for your community and world at large. Stop wasting your time trying to be somebody, the idea of being famous or more important than your peers is cancerous. Start being the person who makes connections within your reality that boost the quality of life for those you share this Earth with, and see how much better that feels. Results may vary based on layers of delusion you’ve been buried under, but it should be hard and uncomfortable at first to take accountability for your cognitive dissonance.

Be brave enough to be irrelevant in some shallower spheres, yet full of purpose in those spheres of folks who have eyes to see what is deeply meaningful.