Q&A #4: Shut up and get back to work!

Questions (Q) & Conversation (C) With the Master Grizzly

This is a question I received, by email reply yesterday, from a fellow BB reader, Nick M. His comment / question was edited, slightly, for clarity. The sentence starting with C: (Conversation) is me!

Q: Your recent preface to atrocity propaganda (ref) was a good one; however, by having an entire ‘Culture & Society’ category (ref), are you not wrangling your readers into negative and distracting news, just the same?

C: In Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, the Priest passed along some wisdom to Dantes. It is essentially about gaining new perspectives, dependent upon what rock face you’re currently looking from.

When the priest says, “the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect”…

He is saying, like I have, that adversity (or, in our case here, the culture wars) can be a catalyst for new shifts in personal growth and the development of new ideas and perspectives.

Haven’t you noticed that the focal points of my Culture & Society posts are about human nature? About the Stupid Human Tricks we play on each other. In other words, critically-working through HOW and WHY we think the way we do… that is my interest.

Other writers, without question, go down geopolitical and ideological rabbit holes as if they turned the spiked punch bowl over their faces and bathed it in; they stew in the distractions of the negative news cycle and/or look for supportive friends to find "enemies" to fight!

There’s a big difference there in execution.

As I explained here, I have found that my world (as in the one I have immediate control over) can be whatever I make it out to be. However, their world (as in the one the Establishment controls) can’t be blindly ignored, either.

There’s a cross in the road, here, to witness.

One road has you going down an ‘anger orgy’ you might get overly-obsessed with.

The second road has you sticking your head in the sand, like an Ostrich, and yelling, “Nah, nah, nah, nah… I caaaaaan’t heeeear you!”

Societal absurdities — from digital ID systems… to… planned warmongering… to… narcissist culture & social media — have to be seen for what they are. They absolutely do affect us and impact lives.

But, and this is a BIG buuuuut, don’t get sucked into the background noise.

For anyone who does, or has a tendency to fool themselves into feeling that they’re creating a better version of themselves by constantly “witnessing” The Matrix, I always send them to this Alex Becker post:

The above ☝️ is what the majority of so-called “news reporters” here on Substack need to watch.

For the rest of us — led by Yours truly — we’ll just keep fighting the good fight, from the inside-out, by increasing our skills, our self-awareness, doing self-accountability assessments, and finding bigger ways to add value to others.

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🔗 Related Links:

My Q&A Archives:
https://bearsbulletins.substack.com/t/q-and-a

Doomer Optimism (for Pro subscribers)
https://bearsbulletins.substack.com/p/ww-011522

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