The close of the year is upon us and so looms the reflective thoughts that accompany such a transition. All over the place you see year in review stories filled with the deaths and dramatic moments that make up our popular culture. Many people make New Year’s resolutions of all sorts. Now I am not really a New Year’s resolution type of guy but today I was struck by something a buddy of mine (Barry) wrote on Facebook. He challenged everyone to only post original content as opposed to regurgitating quippy quotes, Willy Wonka demotivational posters, and political gibberish. Now most of us gave him a hard time about it but it really did strike a nerve with me. Perhaps because I had just watched a few clips of the movie Idiocrasy and it drove the idea home. And to quote Wikipedia’s definition of the society in the movie “Advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism have run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid society devoid of intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, and coherent notions of justice and human rights.” This just seemed right that it rooted itself as the reflective thought of my “end of the year” mindset.
So I am going to not only repeat Barry’s challenge to you but I am going to also up the ante. I challenge you all to stop repeating your same stories and to go and make new ones. Do what you can, maybe it will only be one big adventure that you chalk up this year, maybe it will be one for each month, I don’t care. But do not sit and be the same thing, doing the same thing, dreaming the same thing and not make something new. Learn a new language, play an instrument, something, ANYTHING. But let’s all strive to break free from the pop culture media nonsense that dulls our minds. Karl Marx said “Religion is the opium of the people”. I beg to differ at this stage of the game and say that in our modern society that MEDIA IS THE OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE. So let us break free from that which binds us, the padded chains that so comfortably hold us back, and move forward to be something greater. That is my goal and my challenge to you. So to all of you I wish a happy and productive 2013.
LEARN – GROW - SHARE – REPEAT
We have loved and emulated them all....
