September 13th,
2005:
The following is
a message I got about two weeks ago on Mike’s Forum.
Hello,
It is I, Avid Reader. You may remember me from such posts as “Aikido” and “Re:Re:Aikido”. Introductions aside, where are you Mike? I
need my fix! I need something to distract me from the pathetic Magic the Gathering
players that crowd the Computer Labs at my university. Also, wise Descado, why
do geeks think it’s cool to be a geek? Same with rednecks. Educate the people, Mike. If you lead, many others will follow! Viva le Revolution!!!
“Be normal,
and people will accept you. Be deranged, and they will make you their leader.” -Christopher Titus.
***
My response:
Well, Avid Reader,
I really haven’t had time to write much lately. I know I use that excuse
a lot, but most of the time it’s true. Regardless, I’ve often thought
of the labels people give themselves, and I suspect it simply has to do with fitting in.
Doesn’t matter where, as long as it’s SOMEwhere.
Geeks are a great
example of this, though you could just as easily substitute Goths, Hippies, Wiggers, Causeheads, Vampires, etc. They don’t fit into what they perceive as the mainstream, (which doesn’t exist, in my opinion),
so they label themselves with a bunch of non-conformist dogmas and then cling to a group of likeminded individuals. It’s the glorification of being an outcast, when in fact, no one has “cast them out”
of anything. By rebelling against the norm, (which again, doesn’t exist),
they become special and unique, thus creating an “out” for not being rock stars, or movies gods, or any of the
other crap they THINK society deems they should be.
(Insert “Fight
Club” reference).
It’s human
nature to want to belong, but people that intentionally adopt such labels are cheating themselves out of who they really are. Look at me! I could probably fit into
a bunch of stereotypes if I wanted to. Yet, I don’t feel the need to cling,
or to change, or to sheepishly say, “Uh, okay, yeah, I agree.” That
doesn’t mean I don’t care about being accepted. I do, and desperately;
it’s just that I go about it in the only way I know how… genuinely.
I’ll state
my opinions, I’ll make my case, and then I’ll let other people deal with it.
Never do I fight a battle based on someone else’s points, or some other group’s ideals. FUCK THAT, man!!! It’s like Republicans defending Bush
at every turn. They don’t do it because they think he’s doing a good
job. No, they do it because the herd of which they’re a part, defends him. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.
Very tribal, very human.
Personally, I’m
not a Republican or a Democrat. I support abortion AND the death penalty. Alas, you can’t survive in politics without being a spineless wishy-washy weasel,
and it’s not their fault. WE made things the way they are by thinking about
ourselves instead of the greater good. We did it by acting on emotion rather
than objectivity. We did it by being ignorant instead of educated. Politicians MUST talk out of both sides of their mouths. Otherwise,
we fucking crucify ‘em for disagreeing with any little whim we fancy, (and by “we”, I mean the American
populous as a whole). If we all weren’t so selfish, we’d probably
have our government filled with noble individuals instead of slimy grass snakes.
Ah, but I’m
getting off on a tangent here, and I didn’t mean to. The point is, people
cling and adhere to certain stereotypes because they aren’t strong enough to be individuals. Why? Because they might not have enough desirable traits to
be accepted as individuals.
I’m being
extremely judgmental here, but mediocrity is a fact of life, and not everybody is cut out to be a rock star or a movie god. Instead of embracing that shitty certainty, some people deal with it by becoming part
of a pack- a prowling gang of wolves (or sheep) who exist on the fringes, and thus bark their dissatisfaction at all those
who live differently.
“I’m
a Geek, and I’m proud of it! Ah haaaaaaaa!
I’m so much better than you nine-to-fiver’s, you corporate slaves!
I’m gonna let my hair grow long and greasy, and I’m not gonna shower, and I’m gonna plant computer
virus’s all over the internet to show you assholes who’s boss! That’ll
teach ya to fuck with US!!!”
And all the while,
nobody was fucking with ‘em in the first place… other than not wanting to hear them droning on and on about the
merits of geekdom.
It’s
not always a choice, however. Some people are simply raised a certain way, and-
since that way is, again, out of the mainstream- they have no choice but to adamantly defend it.
Rednecks
are a great example.
I can’t
tell you how many dumb redneck bitches I’ve heard wail and moan about having seven kids, and how it’s “so
tough”, and how they gave up their lives for their children.
Such
martyrdom.
Hey! Nobody forced you to have seven kids, whore!
YOU made that choice, and you did so with full knowledge of what you were getting into after you had the first one. Oh, did you think it was gonna be LESS hard when you got pregnant the second time? Or the third time? Or the fourteenth
time? I understand that you dropped out of school in the eighth grade, and that
most of your subsequent education has been courtesy of Jimmy Swaggart, but JESUS TITTY FUCKING CHRIST!!!
The
real tragedy is that this is a self-perpetuating cycle, that the children of rednecks almost always become rednecks themselves,
and on it goes. Now, before I continue, I think a definition of “redneck”
is in order. I’m not talking about southern or country folk, per say. I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, and was nonetheless enriched by a community as
noble as any in our great country. No, I’m talking about stereotypical
“poor white trash”; those who contribute little if anything to society, and thus constitute a drain on the whole. I suspect that in this venue, our definitions of “redneck” probably differ,
Avid Reader.
In mine, poverty
is the catalyst for redneckdom, and thus the engine that drives the self-perpetuating cycle I mentioned before. Ah, but it’s easy for me, (as a middle class, tax paying, non-welfare citizen), to portray these
people in a negative light. So easy, in fact, that it assaults the objectivity
I profess to love so much. All in all, it’s not their fault… BUT
THAT’S NOT AN EXCUSE!!! The evolutionary impetus towards self preservation
is in all of us, so why do some turn out okay, and others turn out fucked up?
In terms of semantics,
I should be a stereotypical redneck by proxy.
That is to say, my parents should’ve been rednecks, which would’ve caused me to be one. There are certainly rednecks in my family, and on both sides, but my brother and I benefited from a family
dynamic that made us different, just as my parents benefited from family dynamics that made them different, (respectively). We come from a converging line of Republican nationals and Republican immigrants which-
as much as I hate to admit it- fostered an illusionary yet beneficial sense of right and wrong. We were raised to be “good” people, and that armored us against the evils of poverty stricken
Mississippi. It can also be argued
that my brother and I are extremely intelligent, but that’s beside the point I’m trying to make here.
The
point I’m TRYING to make, is that our backgrounds- while logistically Redneckian- gave us the ability to choose. And we make good choices. We graduated
high school, we stayed away from drugs and mechanic shops, we went to college, and we eventually capitalized on our resulting
talents. This is rarely the case with poor white trash. They never get the “choice”, and thus turn out to be people you and I look down on from our
pampered pedestals.
I’m
not saying you’ve been literally pampered, Avid Reader, no more than I’m saying I have. Financially, I’ve had a pretty rocky run. There have
been times when I’ve actually gone hungry for want of my next pay check. But
that’s not real poverty. That’s not the kind of poverty that blights
the mind and obliterates morality. No, I’ve never lived in a trailer park
with seven dogs and seven kids and seven rats with no hope for the future. THAT’S
what creates those we label as rednecks, and again, the fault does not lie solely with them.
They
never had even the most minuscule things that create choice, and so I find myself forced to exercise understanding rather
than judgment.
I’m human
though, and I get just as pissed when I drive into the parking lot here at my apartment complex and see a god damn 12 year
old girl dressed like a hooker. I mean, who the fuck is letting her wear a pink
strapless tube top and cut off shorts up to her prepubescent ass?!? Who the fuck
is taking her to TJ Max and saying, “Yeah, honey, I’ll buy that halter top for ya!
I’ll help ya catch a man!”
No, dumbass, it’ll
help her become a teenaged gutter slut just like you!
I’m
gonna stop now because I just can’t take emotion out of it. I get angry
when I see little kids socially sucker punched simply because their parents don’t know any better. I know this will never happen, but I think you should have to pass some kind of test before you’re
allowed to procreate. Yes, I realize that’s fascist and totally against
the ideals upon which our magnificent country was founded. But, what are we doing
to ourselves?!? We’re allowing the poor to get poorer, the ignorant to
get more ignorant, and the lowest common denominator to breed without restriction.
I guess
that’s humans for ya. We excel at fucking ourselves up.
Ya know, in Sweden,
young men are required to spend time in the military, and I’d imagine they come out with a huge degree of discipline,
and an awareness of the greater good. I would’ve NEVER advocated this when
I was younger, but now that I’m past thirty, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea, (again, because I wouldn’t
have to do it myself. Humans suck, huh?).
Ah,
but getting back to your core question, Avid Reader, people cling to group situations because that’s what it is our
nature to do. We want to belong, we want to be part of a tribe, and the specifics
of merit have little to do with it. Back home, I have a lot of “friends”
that can be categorized as rednecks, yet they’re not really my friends. I
might see them out in some bar over Christmas, and we might exchange a few, “How the hell are ya’s?!?” …but
the bonding goes no further.
I’m simply
not a part of that tribe anymore, and I should kick my own ass for feeling prideful about it.
After all my ceremonious blow-harding, I benefited from choices that not everybody has… and it made all the difference.
Hope that kinda
answered your question, Avid Reader. I know this wasn’t funny, but stay
tuned. I’ve got some cool new stories to tell once I get a chance to sit
down and write.
Your redneck,
-Mike
