Friend me, Holden?
We hope that no one has ever said or thought this about you–but it’s likely that they already have.
We live in a world where about 98% of the time wimpiness and lack of courage are rationalized, stylized, and sold to us as “smart” or “prudent” and even as a “right”.
Americans, too, of course. For all our bluster, many of us get weaker, more insubstantial, and more irrelevant every day. We don’t even meet and talk; instead, we type and text, day in and day out, like skittish little critters in cages running on those shiny little treadmills.
Technology has insulated rather than “unleashed” many of us. Is this all there is? Busy but dazed and confused? Whoa. Life sure got small and squeaky fast.
“Are we not men?” Historically, all humans (not just Yanks in de-evolution stages) have routinely sidestepped truth, our real beliefs, and initial urges of loyalty to others.
I mean loyalty as automatic and instinctual.
It can be a either to true friends, or even to virtual strangers. It is the support and allegiance owing to anyone who we know in a flash–and in our deepest and best selves–deserve our immediate aid and good offices because of fairness, past ties, a promise or an understanding.
And you either get it–or you don’t. Most humans, apparently, do not. Maybe there’s no need to read further.
“Are we not men?” Welcome to the House of Pain, Mr. Prendick.