Commentators

I try to find commentators on political affairs who I like to listen to. However it is not easy. There have been times when commentators have really had great insight into things, however there are a lot of times when it seems all they are doing is sitting in their armchairs continually bitching, bitching, bitching.

There was a recent article that some of these people can make up to a six-figure income PER MONTH. That would mean these people literally are sitting in their armchairs and bitching.

I frequently hear them appealing to the average person, but then the reality of the average person is far from what these people are doing. I would say much farther than many of the people they incessantly bitch about. Because even people like some of the politicians they criticize constantly have day jobs. They get up and go to work every day. They make things happen in the world the old-fashioned way – by getting off their asses every morning and working.

But when you listen to whining commentators over and over, they come off as so fucking entitled. They bitch about this and that, as if they expect all this shit to be there for them, working perfectly, and if one little thing is wrong or out of place they spring into action with a rage of fury.

Fuck them. That is not a healthy nor realistic disposition about the world that anyone should have. Thus, in this regard, these commentators fail to be leaders or good role models.

Yes there can be a value in having acerbic insight into things, but if that’s where they get stuck, it becomes destructive. And it makes the commentators look foolish, like whining brats.

If you are really a man then stand up and make something in the world. Don’t just bitch about it. What are you leading? What have you accomplished?

Once you start trying to accomplish things you may realize it’s not as easy as it seems sitting back in your armchair. It entails a lot of commitment, dedication, and perseverance. Things just do not come easily. Yes it is important for there to be voices to recognize and to call out injustices in the world, and there are many injustices and there are many people who need a voice. But you have to be careful not to lead people on a destructive path.

Or maybe that’s all there is? Maybe things are just so irredeemably fucked that there’s little more than a stream of black and red pills on how fucked and hopeless everything is, so why not just rage endlessly?

But even in that case, I still think it’s not appropriate to fall into that. One has to rise above the world. One has to be better. That sometimes may mean the ultimate renunciation even of this body and this world.

Buddha spoke about the topic of the self and harm. He taught the ultimate mental ninja and showed that there really isn’t a self. He also knew that this would be criticized as nihilism, and this is the common charge against his mental ninja teachings. He is accused of being nihilistic and he explicitly takes this charge on and explains how it is based on a false view, but most people will not be able to grasp the subtlety of it.

Living in this muck, I think about these teachings of Buddha often. Buddha specifically talked about a previous life of his in which he basically went through a lot of crap. Buddha emphatically told a disciple that even if your arms and legs are chopped off, he forbids you from getting angry.

We do get angry. I get angry, indignant, etc. At some level it impels a person to action, even if that action is just speaking out, an attempt to make known what is occurring, or to communicate discontent. There is a value in communication. We need to communicate and it seems to me to not communicate in some situations is immoral. Communication is a responsibility, it is an initial act of making a stand, even if that is all making a stand is limited to because nothing more can be done.

But we cannot lose ourselves nor lose light of the fact that we are mortal beings, here inhabiting this world only for a time, but this is not our ultimate home. That is not nihilism, it is wisdom. It doesn’t mean give up the world, but it means always have perspective and be realistic.