Before I can actually start writing, I have to chase some threads of thought that aren’t going to end up in the book. What follows reflects some of what will surely be in the book, but it does not match the tone and focus of the book. It’s an example of how my mind works while chewing on what seems to me a very large problem.
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We humans suffer serious limitations. We can imagine pushing the envelope of human capabilities, but most of the time that comes at the cost of other things most humans do. You can’t be the best at everything. Indeed, most of us capable of honest self-appraisal aren’t much good at anything so far as we know.
As a writer, I make no pretense of competing with other writers in the market place. It’s not that no one wants to read my stuff, but that most of the folks who do aren’t all that willing or able to pay for it. You probably already have some idea that the writers who make really big money are pretty talented, but that’s only part of it. These successful writers know how to reach their target audience with their writing, but they also have help from certain gate keepers in the publishing business. If every talented writer got published, there would be such a vast overload of books that almost no one would be famous or get rich enough to keep doing it for pay.
Like everything else in the world, it’s as much politics as anything else. Economies of scale only work when the scale is big, and that means keeping a lot of competition outside the market. Yes, that model is breaking down, but what eventually replaces it is unlikely to be all that different fundamentally unless there is a broad shift in civilization to go along with it. The civilization we live in right now — commonly referred to as Western Civilization — is built on a range of ideas and values that demand we always go for the biggest and best. We are supposed to seek out that one thing at which we can excel and make it pay. We are supposed to seek dominance of scale so that we can luxuriate in the perquisites of winning.
It’s hard to break out of that system when everyone you encounter seems intent on that goal, even if in their own unique way. It seems everyone is looking for that one angle that grants them an advantage in competition for the various things people tend to value.
Even when folks give lip service to “just getting by,” they still refer to the same value system that seems ubiquitous in our world. It always seems to boil down to three things: fleshly comforts, absorbing entertainment or pride at achievement. They tend to come in all sorts of combinations and flavors, but those three elements of human desire do seem to dominate our Western world. We never get enough. Indeed, most of us can’t even get a reasonable share. Whatever it takes to be in the upper tier of those three things we value, most of us never get there. We just aren’t that talented or driven or whatever it takes. Yet we remain prisoners of the system that uses us as mere cattle for the use of those who do make it.
Even when people claim they are opting out of the Rat Race, they still cling to one or more peculiar call from the trio of Western values. The computer geek in his mother’s basement? It’s the entertainment of computers. The serious artiste who only answers the call of his art? It’s a weird combination of pride and entertainment. The Puritan work ethic, rags-to-riches boy? Just a peculiar expression of pride and creature comfort. On and on it goes as we realize it boils down to those three things in every case.
As long as we believe in it, we who can’t compete are the cattle for everyone else to herd around. Every so-called “opt out” path is yet one more expression of that same basic value system. It’s not for nothing a nickname for that value system is “materialism” — an obsession with this material world.
It’s not as if this world has no use or we should all be committing suicide right now. I don’t recommend that at all. Rather, I recommend two things. First, we should get used to being in many ways just one of the herd. That is, insofar as we have any connection to this world, for the most part we deal with averages and commons and all the various peculiar expressions of ordinariness. Embrace it and learn to love it, because the vast majority of what we can accomplish in this world is there. Second is that we must learn to measure value and accomplishment from outside this world. If you have no hopes for something beyond, there’s no point in staying here.
If all your expectations, hopes and dreams are sourced from this world, not only will you be likely forced to endure being ordinary at best, but you’ll never find any sense of peace. You will be doomed to a life of frustration on multiple levels. While many can accept that as the norm, it still does not bring the one shot at peace that is most certainly available. You have to step outside this world to really understand it.
