The word selfish has always had a negative connotation. This is largely due to the fact that most people misuse the word, and take it out of context. It is true that selfishness can be quite harmful depending on how it is used. But did you know that there are in fact two forms of selfishness? Today we will be exploring the positive connotations of selfishness.
Selfish people will call a reserved person selfish for not allowing others to be selfish with them. The selfish person in question is not inherently wrong for calling the private person selfish. The problem here is that they make it seem like he who is more reserved is the only one who is selfish. When in fact, EVERYBODY IS SELFISH.
Somehow it’s only wrong when you are selfish, but not them. Almost as if there was an unwritten expectation that you are supposed to be the only selfless one in the room so they can easily get away with being selfish with you, but the moment you fight back, you are the selfish one. Do you see the gaslighting in that?
But then again, what did you really expect from selfish people? There is an old saying, “if a thief really wants something, consider it gone.” So then apply that same logic to the context of this article. If a thief really wants your submission, you don’t know how far they are willing to go to get it. It becomes like a game to them. They will obsess night and day over it, and they won’t stop until they have you like a puppet on a string.
They will find other mentally deranged people to agree with them and back them up when they are wrong. They have already identified their target. This is done far in advance, and is usually motivated by hidden feelings of envy that they have all collectively harbored towards the target’s inherently good nature.
The only thing left to do now is to single out the target and gaslight him or her as a group. They can’t just leave well enough alone, they have to try and control the target somehow. If they can deprive you of something as vital as your free will, they feel like they have won, which is exactly what makes them so damned sadistic.
But did you know that you are being negatively selfish by enabling them? Let me explain; your need to prove them wrong comes from a place of ego. By selfishly feeding your ego, you are distracting yourself from practicing a more positive form of selfishness that better preserves your higher existence. But what does that actually look like? Here are several examples:
Asserting non-negotiable boundaries when dealing with people.
Swiftly and aggressively cutting off toxic relatives, friends, bosses, co-workers, girlfriends, deities. You get the picture.
Prioritizing peace, privacy, health, wealth, comfort and ultimately your life’s purpose over friends/drama, etc.
Choosing to pamper yourself over accepting crappy job offers among other forms of humiliation rituals. You don’t have to be rude. You can simply say, “Thanks for the offer, but I must respectfully decline.” That’s it!
Choosing vital nutritional sources, and touching grass and water versus stressing over kids and bills all the damn time.
Choosing not to marry when you know you are not the type to ever settle down. As selfish as that is, it is still better than playing with people’s feelings.
And so you see, the difference between me and other selfish people is that I am selfish with my own life, while they are selfish with other people’s lives. As selfish as I am, I still respect each individual’s sovereign autonomy over their own lives.
Do not be selfish with other people’s lives. And above all else, do not allow others to be selfish with your life. That, dear reader, is the clear difference between sadism and hedonism.
It’s the end of the month and time once again for our monthly review series. Our muse for the month of May is Edward Nygma, alias, The Riddler. Particularly in his first appearance on Batman The Animated Series, during an episode titled, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” But first, here’s a disclaimer: The following review contains spoilers so I recommend watching the episode first before reading this or any other reviews on the topic. Now without further ado, let’s begin.
Overview:
Batman The Animated Series is an American television series that premiered on Fox in 1992. The series was created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini as a 90’s revival of Bob Kane’s 1938 creation for Detective Comics, and originally consisted of 85 episodes across two seasons, the largest episode count for a single season of any children’s show at the time.
“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich,” was the forty-first episode of the series. It originally aired during the show’s first season on November 18, 1992. Written by David Wise, Directed by Eric Radomski, and starred Kevin Conroy, John Glover and Gary Frank. It was also The Riddler’s debut episode.
The Premise:
Edward Nygma (John Glover) is an employee of “Competitron,” a toy manufacturer. The episode opens with Nygma arriving at work one cloudy morning just in time as the janitor was tossing his name tag in the trash. Nygma asked the janitor what he was doing and that was when his employer Daniel Mockridge (Gary Frank) who was standing there all along informed him that he was fired.
Nygma protested that Mockridge cannot do without him because he is the smartest game designer in the company. Mockridge replied that he can indeed fire Ngyma because the latter is suing him for royalty. As an employee of Competitron, Nygma previously designed a video game titled, “Riddle of the Minotaur,” and is now suing the company for royalty. Furthermore, Mockridge lives up to his name by mocking Nygma in the form of a rhetorical question, the titular question of the episode.
After some time had passed, Mockridge tried pitching Nygma’s work to Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) and Luscious Fox (Brock Peters) who were initially hesitant. At some point during the meeting, Mockridge looked outside the window of the conference room and noticed an ominous riddle in neon light. The riddle read, “Why do multimillion dollar deals break down in the wasteland?”
Later that evening inside the Batcave, Bruce dons his Batman alter ego, and ponders on the meaning of the riddle as Robin (Loren Lester) ironically plays “Riddle of the Minotaur” on the bat computer.
“Holy irony Batman, it’s a good thing I’m already familiar with this game. I have a hunch we might be needing it soon.”
“Good thinking old chum, to the batmobile.”
Though they didn’t actually say any of that, I think it’s worth mentioning that their voices actually sounded a bit more cartoonish this time around, almost like they sounded in the classic “Superfriends,” cartoons from the 70’s, hinting at the fact that this episode is nowhere near as dark and brooding as other episodes.
Meanwhile over at Competitron, Mockridge walked into his office and found Nygma sitting in his swivel chair in the dark, donning his Riddler alter ego for the first time. No doubt the end result of trauma, and a need to get even. Mockridge humored Nygma, perhaps feeling a bit cocky that he might be able to get Nygma to create more games for Competitron, but Nygma had other plans.
He redesigned the Chinese finger puzzle in the form of some gold rings that look eerily similar to the symbol on the Olympic flag. He tossed the gold rings at Mockridge who was none the wiser and who tried solving it, only to unwittingly cuff himself with it, just as two of Nygma’s henchmen pounced on him.
Batman and Robin crashed the party just in time, and got into a fight with Nygma’s goons who managed to escape with Mockridge as their hostage. Sometime later that night as Batman and Robin were driving across the Gotham bridge, they noticed that the lights were flashing all across the city.
Batman, quickly realizing it to be morse code, translated the message, and it turned out to be another of Nygma’s riddles that read, “When is the Minataur’s owner as high as an elephant’s maize?” They quickly realized that maize is a wordplay for maze, and took off for the amusement park where they had to navigate a life-sized replica of Nygma’s video game in order to find Mockridge.
Robin used his experience from playing the Minotaur game to help navigate the maze, and after solving several puzzles and riding on a cool mechanical flying hand (unique to the DCAU), they eventually got to Mockridge and answered one final riddle in time to save him from being sliced in two by an animatronic, sword-wielding minotaur. It turned out that Nygma lured them to the maze intentionally to buy himself enough time to flee the city.
Wayne enterprise eventually bought Riddle of the Minotaur from Competitron, and Dick lamented during the aftermath that it’s such a pity they had to sell to a creep like Mockridge. But that was when Bruce interjected that “Mockridge may have his money, but he won’t be sleeping well.”
We then cut to a scene where we see Mockridge carefully bolting his door at night and looking under his bed, trembling with a shotgun before reluctantly climbing into bed and cowering under the covers. Bruce ended the episode by asking the question, “How much is a good night’s sleep worth? Now there’s a riddle for ya.”
Personal Takeaway:
This cautionary tale serves as a reminder of a clause that could be included in your employment contract depending on the nature of your job. A clause stating that your employer owns the patent to anything you invent for the company while employed to that particular company. Most companies have ensured to include this clause within their employment contracts. The same is true with music, animation and especially writing.
When I first got back to writing, and shortly before I created my blog site on WordPress, I tried freelancing for another blog site. Though I am avidly against using AI to write because I think it takes the soul out of writing, I nonetheless used Chat GPT to offer suggestions on what topics to cover. I did so for no other reason than to save my best ideas for my own upcoming blog.
So I gave them mediocre ideas while saving the topics near and dear to my heart for myself, because I knew that if I wasn’t smart about it, I would never own my ideas outright, I’d only get paid for them. Sure enough I paid the price for my betrayal in the short term because they never accepted any of my submissions, but to me it was worth it because I was rewarded for remaining disciplined in the long run.
The point that I am making by sharing that example is that if you have a bright idea that could potentially make you millions in the future, don’t share it with an employer, create it for your own profit and ownership. You’d be well within your rights to do so. It is your intellectual property after all, and make sure you patent it before pitching it to anyone.
Another thing to add is to always rent the rights to your intellectual property versus selling it off. Never sell to any individual or corporation because if you no longer own the rights to your work you are forfeiting your rights to future royalties.
Although The Riddler was the monster of the week in this story, he is really more of a tragic anti-hero who sold out his ideas for a quick buck. Edward Nygma was born but The Riddler was made, and the person who made him is the real villain of the picture.
Nygma wasn’t Mockridge’s only victim, he was just the one who took action, albeit misguided. Think of how many more families were plunged into undue poverty all due to Mockridge’s greed and betrayal. At least we know Nygma’s name. Think of all the other Gothamites whose names we will never know.
In the end, Edward Nygma got the poetic justice he so richly deserves, and I don’t think he stuck around long enough to witness the full extent of the damage that Mockridge was dealt at his hands.
Bruce Wayne’s question at the end pertaining to the value of a good night’s sleep was essential in weighing the pros and cons of guilt versus reward. The final scene that saw Mockridge bolting his door at night was the most brooding part of the episode. It came straight from out of a horror film right down to the music score.
Trivia:
It was mentioned in the episode that Nygma’s first initial along with his surname (E. Nygma), are a wordplay for enigma, meaning a man of mystery and intrigue.
This was a carefully devised strategy that Nygma used to trap Mockridge who otherwise wouldn’t have trusted him. Mockridge made the mistake of thinking he knew Nygma well enough and just assumed he was some harmless schmuck he could easily get over on.
Conclusion:
“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich” was generally well received by fans of the show and went down in history as one of the most memorable episodes of the entire series. I give this cautionary tale of greed, guilt and doubt in one’s own potential a five out of five good night’s sleep, and I’ll see you on the next one.
I know that as men we are taught to be stoic. From a very early age we are taught to compromise our safety, comfort, and mental health for the women and children in the village. “Take it like a man, with a stiff upper lip,” they say.
Your nerves are constantly being tested since your first day of kindergarten, always trying to see if they can make you flinch. But did you know that everything in life has a set amount of mileage? Life is all about balancing time versus mileage and the body keeps score.
There are usually two ways that men cope with life’s challenges. The first and most common way is to ward off any threat, real or perceived by being the loudest one in the room, always trying to be “that guy.” This is always unprovoked as that is the energy that they lead with by default whenever they enter any room.
The second way is to be stoic. To act like something doesn’t bother you. To not show emotions. But did you know that when you do that, you are buying them extra time to take more jabs at you? And although you may not feel them now, you will definitely be paying for them on the back end.
Don’t take what I am saying out of context. If someone puts hands on you, then obviously fuck them up. But if all they are doing is spewing words, you can afford to be stoic to some extent.
Though what is the point of being stoic all the time, and just letting someone’s mouth run like a dia-river (river of diarrhea), and you just sit there and take it?
That is very taxing on your mental health and will only allow resentment to fester overtime. Not only that, but it’s also reconditioning your mind to accept learned helplessness overtime. That may work for women but it’s not going to work for men.
Do you see how that is a sunk cost fallacy? When in fact, there is a third way that is not commonly explored. A way that is far more effective than standing there taking it with a stiff upper lip, but what many view as cowardice.
Why not simply walk away? A part of granting yourself the permission to exist is also granting yourself the permission to walk away without having to explain yourself to anyone, or without compromising yourself in any other way.
The loudest one in the room is not the bravest, he is the most insecure and the stupidest. Empty barrels make the most noise. Walking away is standing up for yourself, the ultimate form of stoicism.
But what does walking away actually look like? Here are some examples; declining the invitation, being strategic while you’re out indulging, ending toxic friendships, name changes and cutting off toxic relatives, firing your toxic boss and denouncing all religions.
So now you’re probably thinking, “What do you want us to do, just sit in a corner by ourselves and sulk?” To which I would reply, your isolation arc is your villain arc, and it takes a certain kind of person who is perfectly willing to embrace their villain arc.
You are going to piss off a lot of selfish people when you finally choose yourself over loyalty to friends, family and society. They are going to label you as weird, selfish, anti-social or somehow socially awkward. They are going to laugh at you and make a mockery of all your dreams, goals, and aspirations.
Understand that this is all done intentionally to break your spirit and your will, and only a true villain won’t care either way. If you are not the villain of their story, you will become the villain of yours.
Now you must decide for yourself whether you will practice martyrdom, or true stoicism within its proper context.
Have you noticed racial disparities pertaining to life expectancy among males? Does it seem like black men in the United States, or the west in general, typically do not live long compared to other races of men, or even their female counterparts?
Well it is not just a feeling. Statistics prove that Black men in the United States live an average of 69 years compared to 75 years for White men, and 82 years for Asian men.
Only Native Americans have a lower life expectancy with an average of 63 years. But what are some of the factors that contribute to a disparity of life expectancy among the races?
Speaking specifically to my brothers, how many of you remember seeing your fathers and uncles stressing over bills and rent while growing up? Then to add to that, there are TV tropes that perpetuate that stereotype within the context of popular culture. Most notably James Evans (John Amos) from “Good Times,” always stressing over the light bill and the goddamned rent.
That sort of stress on a continual basis can lead to several ailments such as cancer, morbid obesity and hypertension. In addition to that, men tend to cope with stress by drinking, smoking and eating unhealthy foods (Brooklyn dollar slices I’m looking at you), or whatever else they can afford that further exacerbates these ailments within our bodies.
Another factor at play is the tendency to have multiple children by multiple women that often stems from teenage peer pressure. This also adds to stress that bachelors have the luxury of avoiding, and by time the four and the zero is looking right back at us, we are already experiencing several avoidable complications that are disproportionate in comparison to men of other races.
As a Black man, I spent my early twenties living in Brooklyn where I witnessed many of these unadvisable life choices in full effect. As a Jamaican, I have witnessed more or less the same kind of life choices that influenced much of my early life (womanizing and rum drinking), but with the added detail of having access to some of the rarest and most exotic botanical blessings on the face of the earth.
No one who lives on an island surrounded by palm trees where it’s always summer should be dying from cancer and heart disease, nor should they suffer from depression.
We grow ackee and breadfruit. Our seafood is freshly sourced from some of the most bountiful rivers on earth, and we make quite literally everything from scratch. We blend a nice batch of carrot juice to have with our rice and peas on a Sunday evening.
We truly are the land of wood and water. So then what gives? Are we choosing to ignore our botanical blessings? Or do we take it for granted until the moment we get on the plane and all that good stuff goes away?
How long has Rastafari been preaching that Ital is vital? How long have they been burning out babylon pork, and people used to scorn them and cut off their dreadlocks? Although I am not a Rastafarian, I do respect a lot of what they say, and I take the good from the bad.
Not everyone can be a Rastafarian, but every Black man can embrace softness. We have the kind of capitalism in America that allows us the privilege to create several passive income streams that lead to intergenerational wealth.
The same capitalism that allows your landlord to raise the rent while your boss strategically cuts your hours, also allows you to register the trademark and patent for all your creative endeavors while enjoying the rights to said work for the entire duration of your life plus seventy years, so then do exactly that.
What we need is a soft wife, a soft life, and soft work that feels more rewarding than punishing. Soft life IS the answer to our health and lifestyle disparity. A little wine every once in a blue, nothing excessive. Fresh, healthy meals made from scratch, and with love.
Refreshing, Jazz infused Monday mornings filled with sunshine, coffee and long walks along the coastline. We already have enough opposition from the world, the last thing we need now is internal opposition.
With the recent death of Pope Francis on April 21 at the age of 88, there is some speculation as the world awaits his successor. This is the time for a changing of the guard, and what better time there is than now for me to offer up a few suggestions pertaining to my hope for the future of the catholic church. The suggestions I have in mind are quite controversial, so let me first give a disclaimer.
In no way am I religious, and I personally do not care what the church does, but a lot of people in this modern age still believe in religion, and I respect that. To each his own. On the other hand, the church has a lot of influence on the world stage.
If they have that much influence, they should be setting a good example, but the catholic church has not been able to escape the numerous sex abuse scandals throughout the years, most notably under the watch of Benedict XVI that led to his untimely resignation. I think I have the solution, and as controversial as it may be, I hope you will consider it.
First of all, may I suggest making history once again, this time by selecting a Black pope? If Obama could become America’s first Black president, Megan Markle could be the first woman of mixed heritage who marries into British royalty, and Pope Francis could become the first Hispanic pope, then certainly there can also be a Black pope. It would add a lot more respect to our image in the world, and set another example to the youth as to what they can achieve.
Therefore, I am suggesting for there to be a black pope, and one who allows priests and nuns to marry. I am of the view that many of the sex abuse scandals in the church are directly caused by sexual frustration that arise from priests not being allowed to marry, and that cases of sex abuse within the church would drastically diminish if they were allowed to marry.
What was even the point of priestly celibacy within the catholic church in the first place? How is it that protestant ministers are allowed to marry, but not catholic priests? This is why people think that catholics are a bunch of pedophiles and homosexuals.
Sexual desire is like a powerful volcanic eruption that is not to be trifled with, and trying to pretend otherwise can truly torture your soul. I believe that the subsect of the population who truly possesses the discipline to effectively maintain celibacy are very few and far between.
If you are not one of them, then you are playing with your own head by believing that you are, and if you want to play with your head, the least you can do is grab some lotion and excuse yourself to the restroom, don’t forget the magazines.
Let the masters of celibacy join the priesthood, it is not for everyone. But even so, they can still relax some of their rules. There are some who truly want to dedicate their lives to service, but the number one thing that’s stopping them is the rule of celibacy.
My hope is that the future pope, whomever he may be, will consider this article, and follow in the lead of the late Pope Francis who had already begun relaxing some of the rules by allowing some men in very few locations to join the priesthood after they were already married.
If not, then why not allow them to hire escorts to satisfy their needs? As blasphemous as that may sound, it’s still better than to allow for the very preventable abuse of some poor alter boy.
The only thing I can think of that’s better than that is for religion as a whole to be done away with as the masses begin to awaken to the power of their own potential, and seek truth from within.
It is the end of the month, and time for another review. Our muse for the month of April is Walter White, the tragic antihero protagonist of “Breaking Bad,” portrayed by Bryan Cranston. Spoilers are ahead, so I recommend watching the entire series before reading or watching any reviews for it.
Breaking Bad was an American television crime drama created by Vince Gilligan. It lasted for five seasons between 2008 and 2013, and featured high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who became a notorious meth dealer and went by the alias “Heisenberg,” after being diagnosed with lung cancer on his 50th birthday.
It all started one day when Walt’s brother in law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) went on a sting and took him along for the ride. While waiting in the car, Walt spotted one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as he was attempting to flee the scene of the sting. Walt confronted Pinkman and blackmailed him into helping him sell crystal meth. The deal was that Walt cooks, and Jesse sells.
In that moment, Walt broke bad, and it wasn’t long before the middle-aged, middle-classed suburban school teacher was boondocking in the deserts outside of Albuquerque, cooking methamphetamine out of an RV.
Walt would soon clash with other dealers such as Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) and Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), often involving conflicts of interest relating to deals they made. But what made Walt break bad? Was his midlife crisis caused by a surprising cancer diagnosis, or was that only the trigger for a much deeper cause?
Before the beginning of the series, Walt had one third stakes in “Gray Matter,” a tech startup that he co-founded along with Elliot (Adam Godley) and Gretchen Schwartz (Jessica Hecht). Not only was Walt one of Gray Matter’s co-founders, but he was also engaged to Gretchen at some point.
Eventually, he sold his share of Gray Matter for five thousand dollars and ghosted Elliot and Gretchen. As soon as Walt’s back was turned, Elliot married Gretchen and Gray Matter took off into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Walt felt like he was robbed of his chance in life to make it big. He felt cheated by the very people he once thought were his friends. He grew bitter and resentful towards Elliot and Gretchen, and blamed them for ruining his chance.
On his fiftieth birthday, the cancer diagnosis he received was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Something inside of him snapped when he realized that he spent his entire life being a husband, father and a schoolteacher, and had nothing to show for it. Not only that, but he was about to die, and had nothing to show for his life.
This kind of thing can torture a man’s soul, and it caused him to reflect on all of his life’s mistakes. He ultimately chose to break bad in an attempt to chase after the laughing phantom of his youth.
Initially, Walt started cooking crystal meth in order to ensure that his family would be in want for nothing after he was dead. However, the last time he saw his wife Skylar (Anna Gunn) towards the end of the series, Walt finally confessed that he wanted to build his own empire in order to compensate for selling his shares in Gray Matter. But above all else, he simply liked the thrill of the hunt.
And there you have it folks, the real reason why Walter White broke bad. This is similar to an episode of “Batman: The Animated Series,” titled, “If you are so smart, why aren’t you rich.” In this episode, Edward Nygma (John Glover) dons his riddler alter ego for the first time to exact vengeance against his boss, Daniel Mockridge (Gary Frank) for firing him and stealing his intellectual property. Another muse deserving its own review.
Why did Walt sell his Gray Matter Share?
Walt abruptly broke up with Gretchen after spending a fourth of July weekend with her wealthy family. He sold his Gray Matter share to Elliot shortly thereafter, who subsequently started dating Gretchen, and made her a business partner.
It was never really explained during the show’s run why Walt ghosted Gretchen so abruptly, but there is a very plausible fan theory out there suggesting that he felt insecure and inadequate in comparison to her wealthy family.
What might have been?
If Walt didn’t sell his share in Gray Matter, he and Gretchen would have definitely taken off in every meaningful way possible. He might have never met Skylar. But then again, he probably wouldn’t care too much about starting an affair with Skylar if he’d met her after he was already sitting on top of a billion dollar dynasty.
The problem is that he didn’t believe in what was possible. He didn’t believe in him and Gretchen as an item, he didn’t believe in the vision they shared for the future of the company, and he allowed his doubts and insecurities to get in the way of what was possible.
Personal Takeaway:
The cautionary tale of Walter White serves to remind us to believe in what might be possible, and to be wary of friends who do not share our vision. Walt could have been living the good life, but instead he ended up venturing down a very dark path that he responded to by turning to a life of crime.
Whatever you do, if you have an idea that you know could be worth millions in the long run, do not allow others to buy you out. You had best believe that they see your vision too, and they want to reap all the benefits for themselves without putting in the blood, sweat and tears that’s required to thoroughly earn it. They have no problem paying you ten thousand dollars today, just so they can legally exclude you from ten million dollars tomorrow. They are not your friends.
Also, never enter into any deals that require you to give up ownership of your intellectual properties. I recommend retaining creative control so that you can keep earning royalties for the rest of your life plus seventy years. Speaking of royalties, make sure that you copyright your intellectual property. You can do so by visiting https://www.copyright.gov.
All in all, the Elliot and Gretchen story arc in Breaking Bad was an eye opening cautionary tale. I give it a 5 out of 5 blue crystal rocks, and I’ll see you on the next one.
Have you ever applied for a job, then when you follow up for an interview, you are told that the position has already been filled? It’s either that or they don’t even bother to reply.
Do you find that this happens a lot more often than normal? Is it just you, or is something else going on not too far beneath the surface that might not readily cross your mind?
Many companies have a practice of uploading a job posting to your typical search site, but they are not currently hiring for the position. So then why even post if they are not ready to hire?
The most common reason given by news reports covering the topic is that employers want to get a feel of the market just to see how many people are in need.
Although I am certain they must get a giant ego trip out of feeling depended upon for basic human sustenance, the primary reason for them doing so is so they can have an aggregate of potential applicants to pull from in the event of an emergency vacancy within their company.
And while that is understandable, the bait and switch element of that hiring practice poses many undue hardships for job applicants, including but not limited to; applicants feeling like they wasted their time when they could have applied elsewhere, mounting frustration from being unable to differentiate between real and fake ads, it creates the need to compete more intensely than normal often pushing ethical boundaries, especially if you have many little mouths to feed, and last but not least, a deferral of hope that sickens the heart, causing many applicants to give up, the worst of them all, especially if they have been hungrily job hunting for a while now.
The thing to keep in mind is that employers do not care about your needs. They will always act in their own best interest. Perhaps I should say that they will NEVER act in your best interest. They HATE you. If this doesn’t prove it, I don’t know what will. Why would anyone want to work for an enemy unless they were a sycophantic masochist?
As a sidebar, if you have many little mouths to feed, you really shouldn’t be working for anyone. I have literally seen pregnant women get fired in the middle of winter.
This statement is not meant to excuse accountability if someone deserves to get fired, but it simply supports the notion that accountability can be redirected to securing sustainable income outside of employment.
Which is why I keep emphasizing that one must remain resilient and eke out a living based on the gifts one was born with. Imagine how many hurdles you could dodge just by remaining committed to this principle. Imagine how much red tape wouldn’t even phase you.
Your world would have been different, and with that new world comes a host of new problems. As bad as those problems might be, getting the runaround and having someone waste your time would not be one of them.
Sending out multiple resumes hoping that at least one of them bites your bait would definitely not be one of them. Not only that, but you would have the necessary resources to put out those much bigger fires whenever they do arise.
There are plenty of amazingly gifted and talented people who are asleep at the wheel. Do you not know who you are? Did you truly believe that nature formed your bodies only for it to be broken by a disgusting bunch of sadistic pigs? Only normies work for other people. Let them fight over crumbs.
Just think that if I had only answered my calling since the time that I had first come of age, I wouldn’t even know what a bait and switch job posting is. I wouldn’t care, and when I eventually came across the news report, I would have been appalled, unlike now.
That is but one example of all the bullshit you have to deal with when you serve other people in a subservient way. The only benefit that comes from me living in this godforsaken timeline is that I am not naive. If you don’t build your dreams, others will hire you to build theirs.
I have come to find that in recent years, employers often complain that people don’t want to work anymore. The first time that I heard them complain was during the Covid pandemic of 2020 that created a labor shortage on a massive scale.
People returned to work the following year, hoping that things would be different, but were only met with more disrespect than ever before. They were now puzzled as to what happened.
We were all kind of hoping that the pandemic would humble our employers somewhat, and that they were calling us to return to work with a different approach in mind. But the opposite was proven to be true as greed and corruption was at an all time high.
Now there seems to be a mass exodus as people are walking off these jobs left and right. Employers are once again complaining that people don’t want to work anymore.
Only now, with the pandemic out the way, they make it sound like people don’t want to work because they are lazy. But are the people truly lazy? Funny how employers neglect to tell you about the part that they played in the mass exodus.
There was a time in America when the 40 hour work week was sustainable. In 1982, a guy could work 40 hours a week in a factory or warehouse, or as a mailman, and was able to afford a car and a house in the suburbs with a nicely manicured lawn, and a white picket fence.
He had a tradcon wife who could afford to stay home and bake pies all day, a couple of kids and a dog. He was able to live the American dream solely off his factory salary with a few extra perks, and then retire comfortably after thirty years with a lifelong pension. It was fucking beautiful.
Not only that, but on a more social level people were generally more decent and respectful despite basic human shortcomings.
Fast forward to 2025, and it’s damn near impossible to buy a house, the rent is through the roof, minimum wage is higher than ever before but inflation quickly wipes it out all the same.
On a more antisocial level, people are stupid and racist, and one is literally punished for even daring to believe that they are allowed to live a half-decent quality of life. Employees are treated like expendable cattle, surveillance is gradually chipping away at your rights to privacy, and some of the absolute most despicable people on the planet seem to hold all the cards.
This new system is more oligarchal, the former was capitalism. That is the kind of paradigm shift that occurs whenever one’s culture is infiltrated by an enemy. This is nothing new. It has happened time and again throughout all of history, but now is America’s turn.
For 18 years, I have been living in the very spot where the United States was once located, and I want to find my way back to the United States. Now we can either live in a cabin in the woods, and live like it’s 1982, or we can learn as much as we possibly can about this “brave” new world and find a way to make it work somehow.
I believe that people are inherently innovative. Once you become truly motivated and you are in the mode, it is next to impossible to be lazy. It often gets to where people have to literally beg you to take a break, or go to bed for the night.
People have to literally drag you to the dinner table and spoon feed you at that point. Once you get to that level, laziness takes on a whole new meaning because neglecting your physical upkeep is also a form of laziness.
It isn’t that people don’t want to work, they just don’t want to be abused by a blasted bunch of ingrates who themselves are lazy. If push comes to shove, they would rather live in their damned cars before they swallow another ounce of disrespect.
Why were they even begging us to return to work if they neither value, nor appreciate us? We are tired of being abused. We want to work, but not for other people. We want to work for ourselves.
We don’t want change, we want things to be different. Because if you say you want change, don’t get upset when the man tosses some literal change in your direction. What may be a small fortune to you is only a tax write-off for him.
We want to earn an honest living instead of feeling peer pressured into playing office politics and sick mind games with a bunch of stupid fakes all day. Imagine a work day where all you literally had to do was show up on time, clock in, do your job, get paid a sustainable wage and bounce.
When last I checked, it was much later than June 19, 1865, but it has become painfully obvious to me that they are attempting to sneak slavery in through the back door by means of oligarchism.
Only this time, it’s not just the black man who will be enslaved, but members of every race who don’t achieve financial freedom up until a certain deadline that is set to occur in the not so distant future.
But it is our responsibility to do some soul searching in order to discover our respective niche, and then create a successful business around that niche. Or did you truly believe that nature formed our bodies just for them to be broken by a greedy, sadistic bunch of pigs, all in the name of profit?
We were all born with one unique gift, or another. The problem is that most people tend to neglect their gift, often due to a misguided sense of envy towards another person’s gift.
As such, they end up being stuck competing in the deadly rat race for scarce benefit and spoils where they are surrounded by a bunch of rat bastards, a difficult cycle to break free from.
When people think about creativity, they instantly assume that it means they will become famous, and not everyone wants to be famous. Some people truly cannot handle fame. But what they fail to realize is that their gift doesn’t necessarily have to be an Oscar worthy talent.
Perhaps you have liked baking, or interior decorating since childhood. Perhaps you have always liked carving shapes into wood, doing so comes naturally for you. And so you practice everyday a little at a time, not realizing that it will make you a truly legendary carpenter someday.
Practicing your gift may not grant you A list level fame, but you will nonetheless be famous and highly sought after in some niche circles. Whatever may be, as the saying goes; if you don’t work on your own dreams, someone else will hire you to work on theirs. And while you are working overnight, holidays and weekends for time and a half, they are on a yacht with their girlfriends (or yours), sipping champagne and living the soft life laughing at you.
If doing some soul searching to discover your niche is your ticket to financial freedom, wouldn’t you take it? Imagine living a soft life of your own where your financial security is not contingent upon pretending to like the people who utterly despise you.
Finally, let me close by reiterating the question that is the title of this article — is it true that nobody wants to work anymore? The answer is an astounding no. People do want to work, just not for any of you.
Why does it seem like there are some who can do no wrong, while there are others who can do no right? It doesn’t matter if the accused is actually guilty any more than it matters whether the accuser is innocent. So then what really matters? What is the basis of deciding whether or not someone deserves punishment? Besides being wealthy, I think it has everything to do with the halo effect.
The halo effect is when someone is assumed to be inherently good based solely on their physical appearance. This doesn’t only apply when determining guilt or innocence, but is also present in social and romantic situations.
Several key features that add to the halo effect are; having an attractive facial symmetry, height, being in better shape, light or pale skin, straight or curly hair texture, speaking more intelligently (unless you are black), signs of youth regardless of age, owning clothes, cars and other accessories that symbolizes wealth or any combination of the above.
The opposite of the halo effect is the failo effect (popular among incels), where someone is assumed to be inherently evil, stupid, or somehow otherwise unworthy, based solely on physical aesthetics.
Several key features that add to the failo effect are having an ugly or otherwise offensive facial symmetry, lack of height, being overweight, having darker skin, a coarser hair texture, your gender, using more slang words out of context, male pattern baldness and signs of ageing regardless of age, wearing plain clothing or other accessories that symbolize poverty or frugality, or any combination of the above.
Any combination of the above is the problem that most incels face, because everything else could be on fleek, but his face is a deal breaker. And the irony of that whole situation is that it may not even be a bad face, just not an attractive one.
In other words, she would have otherwise found him to be quite handsome if she was not viewing him through a sexual lens. They always look for rigid jawlines and hunter eyes, and if he is lacking in those departments, then his handsomeness is not commonly viewed as masculine among groups of female admirers.
Female groups practice hive thinking. One of the girls may really like him, but she will reject him if her friends disapprove because her friends will reject her if she doesn’t.
If they don’t reject her then, they will allow her to become a liability and pull down their social value, and nothing matters more to them than social dominance. Sisterhood above personal likes and preferences. Most normies are too weak willed to reject the group for their own sense of individuality.
The worst part is that it’s not entirely the fault of the man in question. Sometimes it really only boils down to evolution and genetics, his luck of the draw so to speak.
Society believes that anyone who suffers from the failo effect is generally not deserving of anything worth having. As a result, one is forced to live in a constant state of entropy that is disproportionate to others as they face one brutal act of sabotage after another.
It is easier for them to railroad an innocent out of job opportunities, money and even his very freedom than it is to admit that they just don’t like him and leave him alone.
The halo effect is a problem because it gives a free pass for one to abuse another based solely on the way they look. As a result, it breeds entitlement, narcissism and mental disease that encourages others to join them in persecuting an innocent.
Racism like all forms of prejudice was born out of the halo effect, and the persecution it breeds doesn’t work without the consent of all of society, which explains why no one rushes to the aid of the innocent in question. Not only that, but most normies fear that they too will come under attack if they ever try to defend you, so they’re just glad the heat is off them.
Most normies who are lacking in the looks department end up becoming douchebags in order to get laid. If you are not willing to douchemaxx to get ahead, then welcome to my blog. You’ve come to the right place.
People are shallow. People are racist. This is a very sobering and objective truth. It seems like your only two options now are to either hit the gym and stack your paper to improve your own life as a priority, or become a minimalist doomer living in your mother’s basement until you croak.
The road ahead is very long and lonely, and is not the type of journey for extraverted normies to concern themselves with. The toughest battles are given to the most capable soldiers. Please see my article about the power of solitude.
If a plane goes even 1 mile outside of its designated parameter, it’s far off course, and it’s hard to get back on. The same is true for friend groups that’s wrong for you, or even family for that matter.
Two’s company and three’s a crowd. A wise man once told me that if you give the devil a ride, he’s going to want to drive.
Say for instance, you were born into a family of attorneys. Your father is a lawyer, your grandfather is a lawyer, and his father before him was a lawyer. For the entirety of your life so far, you have been told that you must follow in their footsteps. You go along to get along even though you have always wanted to be a singer.
Legal papers may bore you, but music is your passion. If you don’t break free from among them and take a plunge into the deep blue waters to do some soul searching and seek truth, you will go on believing that law is your passion.
This would have been most unfortunate because not only have you missed your true calling, but doing so has caused a ripple effect that led to a brain drain in your preferred industry. You could have been the single greatest vocalist of all time. But now, you have allowed someone less deserving to steal your destiny because you think you’re supposed to be an attorney.
Likewise, over on the wrong side of the tracks, you always wanted to be an attorney. You tell your family and some of your neighbors out of naivety, hoping they would encourage you. Not only do they not support you, but they actually call you a divestor because they all collectively have a crab in a bucket mentality.
In order for you to get along, you foolishly turn down a scholarship to study abroad just so you can fit the mold for society’s expectation of you. Five years later, you are now a single mother of four with no man in the damn house, flipping burgers for a living. All your old school mates are living the dream, while you can’t even find the time to pick up a book after work.
Not only do you not know who you are, but the legal profession has also suffered a brain drain. You could have been the most legendary attorney of all time, but now an innocent man being railroaded by the system will lose his case and get sent to the chair because you missed your calling. That condemned man could have gone on to father a son who would’ve found the cure for cancer, but that will never happen now either, and on and on it goes.
It also doesn’t help that it’s difficult to break out of certain mental conditioning. Once you’re off course, it’s hard to get back on, and it usually takes something truly drastic taking place in your life in order to snap you out of it.
But before that drastic thing happens, you can choose to take a plunge into the deep blue waters and do some soul searching. What does that look like? It could look like many things, but whatever shape it assumes, solitude is definitely at its core.
When you shut out the useless noise and clutter, your brain starts talking, and when your brain finally shuts up, your heart starts talking. That’s usually when you remember what you wanted to do when you were fourteen, and still living at home with no responsibilities.
Solitude can be brutal, especially if you are an extravert, but even if you are not. It is when you are truly alone with no distractions that all the mistakes of your life will flash before your eyes. But it is also when you will discover who you really are.
Before that, you were seeing yourself through the lens of other people’s perceptions of you, but those perceptions are skewed based on their own biases and subjectivities. If you want to get an unbiased, objective perspective of yourself, you must be willing to enter your isolation arc.
Not only should you be willing, but also prepared to face whatever you will discover, because all of your life choices and mistakes might hit you like a ton of bricks. It could get pretty intense. You are not going to have any support, you will only have yourself.
If you are looking for some kind of higher power to be there for you to lean on in those moments, maybe you’re not ready for this. Your isolation arc might even reveal that the higher power in question is not really what you thought it was, but that topic deserves its own article. The bottom line is that the isolation arc is going to screw you raw with no lube, there is no buffer for this.
But once you are done, your covert enemies will be exposed for what they truly are, and it will then become clear to you exactly why they are your enemies. Most importantly, you will never make another decision out of fear, which means that no one will ever be able to manipulate you. After that, you will essentially become a whole new person, and your trajectory for the future will be back on course. It’s going to be a beautiful day.
In last week’s article, I speculated on the next four years under Trump as well as outlined my expectations from his administration. But one of the topics I did not touch is the expected end of the welfare state, and how it would affect those who depend upon it.
This will of course take place in stages as they gradually cut social services one by one. Its impact on the economy will be negative to say the least, as those who depend on those services will become displaced. However, hard as it is to accept, ending the welfare state is a clear step in the right direction.
First of all, social services have for many decades served as a bridge to help get needy families out of poverty. The grassroots of the welfare state took place sometime circa 1968 during the Johnson administration. That was when planned parenthood programs initially took effect, and disproportionately targeted African-American communities in comparison to other ethnic groups at the time.
The main requirement for planned parenthood was to be the head of household as a single mother. Many black women at the time felt pressured to kick their man out the house in favor of a welfare check, and as a result of that, many black boys grew up without a strong father figure in the house.
This dependency mindset is particularly dangerous because it encourages dependency on a system that at any given moment can decide to starve them out. Not only that, but many rules were put in place that limits their sovereignty and autonomy under section 8 housing, similar to what one would expect in communist Cuba under Castro.
It’s one thing to temporarily use social services as a stepping stone to get ahead in life, and quite another to permanently rely on them. For some, finding their usual spot in the food stamp line every Monday morning is their chosen field, and it is revolting. They are making it bad for those who are actually making use of the opportunity, all while playing right into the hands of the racist, entitled, misandric, communist left who wants to keep them docile and dependent.
The idea of socialism is that the citizen surrenders his sovereign rights and civil liberties in favor of government handouts. The pro is that he receives the very basics of food, clothes and shelter. But what if those basic needs are met at the expense of some higher purpose?
Almost like how talk show hosts on commercial radio would rather waste precious airtime to distract you with useless banter when they could have been discussing existentialism and how it could impact your ultimate destiny. The con is that they control too much of your life. The likelihood of missing your destiny is much higher, and to add insult to injury they only provide you with a limited supply under the pretext that they have many mouths to feed.
We see examples of this in Cuba where food is rationed to one loaf of bread per week, per household. In 1970’s Jamaica where grocery items (often incompatible) were married to each other as bundle deals, and the government controlled the retail price. And finally in 1980’s China where entire families got evicted from welfare camps if they had more than one child per household.
Capitalism on the other hand allows for the individual to be more responsible in his pursuit of happiness. Though social services are available for those who need it, the onus is on the individual to decide how he would rather eke out a living. Preferably, he would do so by honing his passion, but not everyone is willing to commit to finding out what that even is, which is exactly the point. They don’t have to do any kind of soul searching if they don’t want to. They don’t have to do anything.
The pro of capitalism is that you retain most of your civil liberties, but the con is that the free market is highly competitive. For that reason alone, you will likely fall through the cracks of society if you don’t figure it out, and do so quickly.
Your landlord is practicing a form of capitalism when he raises the rent, and your employer is practicing the same form of capitalism when he cuts your hours so you can barely make rent this month. That specific form of capitalism is very vampirical by nature and requires you to bleed in order for others to eat. That is the kind of capitalism that everyone has a fucking problem with, but capitalism in and of itself is not inherently bad.
It is the very system that this great republic was founded upon back in 1776, that allows for someone who was born in poverty to change their lot in life.
The same capitalist free market that allows your employer and landlord to abuse you, also allows you to invent something truly life changing and register the patent for it. But you have got to stop doing a job and actually start working if you don’t want others to suck you dry. Socialism allows you to survive, and Capitalism allows you to thrive.
Is it really worth sacrificing long term goals for short term gain?
On January 20th, 2025, history was made when Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as the 47 president of the United States, thus making him the first two term president who has a gap in between terms.
This is a most welcome change to the presidency, because it has been four years since this country has seen any real leadership. Now that the gross incompetence of the Biden administration is in our rear view mirror, what could Trump’s second term mean for the future of America, and the world at large. In this article, I will attempt to predict, or speculate on the next four years under Trump.
First of all, what I admire about Trump is his swift and decisive ability to make a decision without apology. The best example of that was Friday afternoon when he along with Vice President Vance hosted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the white house.
Trump made an example out of Zelenskyy after he wasted Trump’s valuable time by declining a cease fire intervention from the Trump administration. Zelenskyy was then essentially kicked out of the white house, and offered the opportunity to return once he decides what he wants to do going forward.
Zelenskyy will now have to go home empty handed as the bloodshed that’s currently taking place on his soil continues on his watch. This will make Zelenskyy less favorable in the eyes of the Ukrainian electorate, who will likely not re-elect him.
This latest episode is among the earliest signs of what to expect under the second Trump administration. We have already seen ICE raids being played out all across the country since the end of January, and more to come. Or did you really think that the raids have stopped just because the mainstream media have stopped talking about it around the clock?
Truth be told, very few immigrants come to this country with the best intentions, myself being one of them. You would think that most immigrants would be grateful for the opportunity to come over here, and do so with the intent of starting a business, purchasing a home, then eventually raise a family and help to uplift their community.
But no, most immigrants come over here with a cutthroat ghetto mentality to get a normie job and sabotage their colleagues at work. This is not a socio-economic issue, but rather, it is an issue of character.
If someone had a bad character right from the jump, giving them resources they never had won’t improve their character, but will only further enable them. Having stronger border protection won’t completely eradicate this nuisance, but it will drastically reduce the possibility of inviting more degenerates to come over here. We already have enough of our own problems as it is, and the push to end birthright citizenship is only the first step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, the donkeys over in the entitled madhouse to the left seem to get the impression that your interest in securing your borders and bringing all the American jobs back home somehow makes you a racist. Why? Because they can’t get a bunch of freebies anymore? The devil with all of them. Let them take a plunge into the deep blue waters and figure it out for themselves.
During a time when I thought I was one of them, it was only because I was genuinely scared of what I may have had to go through to get to where I wanted to go. But now that I am certain that pain is inevitable, I am more than willing to be fearless in stating how I have always felt. If they were smart, they would use that pain to mold them into who they were always destined to become. They’ll be alright. Or will they?
Trump represents capitalism, the first real capitalism that we’ve had in this country since the Reagan presidency. None of the Bushes were able to achieve that level of capitalism, and it is our duty as Americans to help Trump bring back the free market of the 80’s, where a guy was free to make a buck from doing what he loves versus what he feels he must.
But before we can get there, we must first weed out the mental illness that has taken over the status quo and tried to normalize itself within society.
It is filled with a special kind of envy, malice and entitlement so deep that it blinds all logic and reason. It is a disease, and it must be eradicated. This is not just about ethnic cleansing, but really more about preserving the way capitalism was truly meant to be.
However, no one is coming to save you. The single role of government within a democracy is to secure the unalienable rights of we the people. It is ultimately up to you to use that liberty to pursue happiness. Read, listen, study, journal, network if you must, but then finally take the necessary first step in order to get ahead.
Answer the call. Choose the right side of history. This is a fight for the future.