Preface: You know how I said I had a few blogs backed up to post? Well this is it, there were only two, so you better enjoy it.
One human flaw that is
wrought throughout culture, and is especially prevalent on internet
forums; is the disgusting, immoral practice I'm going to dub media
elitism. When a certain object or concept is held in such high regard that
everyone has to think it is the epitome of greatness, lest they be named as a shit-tasted normie. Oh wait, did I call it a flaw? I meant completely
normal idea that has been practised throughout history and is part of humanity's innate attraction to certain things over others.
You see, I've been
through three phases of media elitism. At first I was like your average edgy teen. I held such
veneration of the collective idea of “good taste” that I would
purposefully seek out these “ascended forms of art” and force
myself to like them. I often didn't really get it, as most people
don't with high art, but I just attributed this to me being an idiot
pleb and I'd just try harder to work it out next time. I spent hours watching films
I didn't get, listening to albums I didn't get, binging anime I
didn't get. Stupid, right? Wrong. Because you're overlooking one
important factor. The most important factor. In fact, it is quite
possibly the only factor that even matters.
But before I tell you what it is, I'll move through the two other phases, just because I'm a bait switching cunt. The second stage was the inventively named “elitist elitist” stage.
One day, or rather over a transitional period, I realised that liking
things just because other people told me to was dumb, and a thing only idiot plebs would do. So I stopped liking the things I was told were good,
and looked for things I liked all on my own. I tried to judge a thing based
purely on its own merits, disregarding anyone else's opinions or the
context of the thing in question. This might sound like an admirable
breakthrough, becoming a better person, growing up. However, it's not
like I came to these conclusions on my own, or even if these conclusions were even grounded. It was just that the
people that I looked up to had changed. Now I looked up to the people
that looked down on those I used to idolise. So I switched from
calling my original idols “gods of good taste” to “the idiot
masses”; and the content they liked from “intellectual
masterpieces” to “pretentious artsy bull crap”. Even though I
believed I was rejecting elitism, I had just ascended into a higher
form of elitism, elitism elitism: the belief that you are above
elitism and elitists. Putting it this way you can see that its just
as dumb, if not dumber, as stage one, and much more dangerous.
It was around this time
that I actually started to mature
mentally. And by mature I mean completely destroy my humanity by
becoming engrossed in my own cynicism and nihilistic tendencies.
Don't worry, I'm perfectly mind broken. I entered the pit
of philosophy (ie. - Having no life and spending all my time in my
room with the curtains shut), and left it with my favourite phrase:
“Fun things are good.” God that was a fucking waste of two years.
But this phrase does actually sum up my point nicely. The only reason
to ever do something is to have fun, and this brings me back to that
oh-so-juicy snag point from half a page back. The factor that I
omitted was that the act of indulging in elitism was fun. Being an elitist is fun. Watching
pretentious Japanese cartoons that I don't understand is fun. Every
aspect of being an elitist is fun, mindless fun. And it doesn't really harm anyone
either, as long as you keep it to meaningless stuff (like art). And
as we all know, fun things are good. If it's fun then there is no reason to
stop. So I have returned to being an autist. Sorry, elitist. I watch French noir, listen
to prog rock, hell I even write esoteric elitist blogs on the
internet. And right now I find it fun. And that's good enough for me.
And that is the story of how I learnt to stop giving a shit, and love mindless self
indulgence.
PS-
If you thought this would have any relevance to the band, you were
right. This is literally what they're all about. MSI is all about not caring
anymore and just loving fun things: it's literally their name. I'll
write a full post about them at some point. Or maybe I'm just a fraud and
this is just another mindless rip off ;)
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