Uphill Interpretations
Morning Thoughts #79
Suddenly, one day, it was seemingly agreed upon: to be human was to begin with less. Becoming was of little to no consequence if it wasn't also overcoming. To be great, to do great, to make things of a certain greatness were nothing apart from the story of how you came to be the person in your present condition, now theoretically capable of such productions. The act paled before the actor. Who you are isn't what you are - no, it's the contrast of your life today to what you were and your prospects at that time. Your good character judged always in the context of your origin story.
Where once childhood began our stories, now victimhood begins them. And any story that doesn't begin from such is hardly seen as worth telling. And being human, we all want to tell our stories - and for them to be seen as worth telling. So we mine our memories, histories, ourselves of all that ails us - let us dwell upon the brutal past, for the sake of proper character development! Self-pity is a superpower with such incentives in place! It's not that initial weakness produces, in the end, the greatest strength - no, it's all about the strongest narrative arc! The one extreme of art for art's sake has given way to another: the artist for the artist's sake - objective narcissism for subjective narcissism!