Meditation for March 8th, 2016
Traditionalists Versus Progressives
Some of us want to always be in the past. The idea of change is hard for us. We fight for old ways, even if we weren’t alive to live them. We take political documents and religious texts literally. We always say, “It ain’t like it used to be.” Others want change and lots of change. They believe that if we move always forward, that we will be better off. They want to change political documents and religious texts drastically if they don’t want to get rid of them all together. They are always heard saying, “I have an idea.” or, “In Sweden…”
The traditionalist thinks that things were better in the past. They look at culture and life back then with envy or nostalgia. They miss a time where black people had different drinking fountains and women were seen not heard. They look fondly at how the economy was being boosted by the military-industrial complex and the bad guys were so easy to spot: Russians and the Chinese. Some even look at those two countries as still enemies.
They just want things to stay exactly the same. This really means that the person has no imagination or intelligence. They need something like a constitution or a bible to tell them what to believe and what opinions to have. They need a sure thing that already happened to be their ideal.
A lot of people just won’t let go that one to five years that things went pretty well and will do anything to make it like that again or just remind everyone they come in contact with that it was better then. They will compare what people are doing now with what people were doing then. They just believe that if people would see how dumb things are now they would all see that then would be the better way to do everything now.
Then there are the progressives. They just can’t stand anything standing still for a minute without changing it or making it move. Nothing should be like then or now, but what it should be like in the future. They can’t accept anything but drastic proposals and ideas to rule.
Progressives are scared of sitting still. They think the world should move at their speed. Nature just doesn’t have a single speed. Cheetahs and tortoises don’t even hang out in the same eco system. Even if nothing is broken, nobody is getting hurt, everyone is more or less happy, the progressive will find the drama between the lines and try to change everything.
Progressives like to compare how other people and groups do it. Like the traditionalists who compare eras with now, progressives see things that are really different and complicated to add to our lives here – especially if it’s the Scandinavians who came up with it.
Progressives are just idiots who are scared of looking stupid by not saying anything. They make up for their lack of intelligence by always proposing change. They find something wrong in everything that is done now and how it’s done and try to change it to an unproven method or a method that doesn’t fit the demographic. They just can’t leave well enough alone.
Then there are the traditionalists that think they are being progressive and the progressives who think they are traditionalists. Leave these idiots alone because they have no idea who they are let alone how to do politics or what’s good for society. Usually they just post anything that seems important to Facebook without doing any real research. You’ll see the fake news, contradicting politics and social commentary. They also seem to post a lot like they think it is important.
Prayer
Simon the Zealot,
why can’t people know that it used to be done differently?
That it was done better?
Things were better back then.
The city was better before all these people moved here.
This music scene was better then, no one plays his or her own instruments anymore.
Everyone was prosperous in the 50s.
Society was better when everyone went to church.
Before the thugs showed up and ruined the NBA.
Before everyone got all PC.
Before the government started taking things from us.
Before rap.
Things were so much better when no one was freaking out about gluten,
building condos,
driving wrong,
interpreting the constitution wrong – and ignoring Supreme Court rulings that interpret those laws.
Why do people ignore history?
Whey does people not respect what was already here?
Why do we have to talk different?
Why are people always complaining?
Things used to be ok.
I should know, I’m 22 years old.
Janus,
give me the strength to change this,
to fight this,
start a revolution!
People who don’t want change are sticks in the mud, man.
In Iceland they do it the best way –
all though comparing a tiny island of 40,000 square miles with the population of under 400,000 of primarily one kind of person to a nation of ethno and racial diversity and a population of 318.9 million people on 3.8 million square feet of land might be the reason it might not work here, but hey, progress is all about making mistakes.
I need people to stop saying that,
start saying this,
wait! can’t say this anymore,
now you have to say this other thing – until it’s wrong too because it’s hard to fight on fifty to a hundred different fronts.
I know things are fine, but why be stagnant.
Add this.
Take this away.
Need more of this,
need less of that.
Even though all of this is theory,
I’m an expert.
If I can think it,
it can work in reality.
Because it works for other people,
it’ll work for us.
I can never ever leave anything be.
Give me the power to forever be changing other people’s lives.
Amen.
Craft
For the Progressive:
Get rid of every music you have and just keep these three albums: Gin Blossom’s New Miserable Experience, Foghat’s Live and New Edition’s self-titled second album. You cannot listen to anything but those three albums. You can shuffle those three albums, play one album for a long time until you want to beat yourself with a key-tar and then play the next album or what, but this all you can listen to.
Only watch the TV shows Taxi, Dear John and Benson. Watch all the episodes in a row, shuffle them or watch them out of order, it doesn’t matter for you can only watch those three shows.
Wear unlabeled grey and black clothing. Keep hair clean but unstyled. Be unimpressed with anything that isn’t the three albums you listen to or the three TV shows you watch. If someone happens to bring any of those up, jump for joy and just goad about how much you love those bands and shows and how they don’t make shows or music like that anymore.
For the traditionalist:
When anyone says anything about anything, you have to say, “I love that!” even if you’ve never heard of it.
Goal
Progressives need to learn to just settle down, watch and listen before jumping into something with a list of changes. Not everything needs to be changed. Sometimes things need to change at the pace it already is going, so you butting in with your big ideas are actually going to ruin everything. Stop ruining everything. Things can be good enough.
Traditionalists need to realize that as time seems linear, things will keep being newer and change. It will never be like it was before. So many factors go into making things change over time. It doesn’t mean it’s not bad, just different. The literal meaning of anything is something that is stuck in time and cannot grow with time. Traditionalists need to remember that things sucked back then too. It was more racist, more violent, less rights, less money, less comfort, less freedom, less technology, less sexy underwear, less free porn, less serious music, more decadence, less people being real, more war, death and famine. The only thing that used to be that really is missed today is 120 Minutes.