// 0002 As humanity descends to a new level of stupidity

Seven billion fucking people on the planet. Seven billion.

Look, I don’t want to sound callused. I really don’t. But we need a voice of reason here.

Here’s a little timeline. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out:

BSE – 1994

West Nile virus – 1999

SARS virus – 2003

Ebola virus – 2014

Coronavirus – 2019

Forgive the incompleteness of the timeline, I can’t be bothered, but are you starting to connect the dots yet, Poindexter?

The so-called “major” outbreak of a virus happens every four to five years, on the dot. So, don’t tell me there isn’t a fucking connection between outbreak (or, for that matter war) and presidency. This should be common knowledge, a foregone conclusion by now, but no. I wish in vain. People still believe the fearmongering and think it’s the veritable apocalypse, for Christ sake.

I’m not unsympathetic. To any of the families that have been affected, my condolences go out to you. You are the true victims here, not the twentysomething, mask-wearing, North American privileged yuppies parroting word for word what they heard in the news, which is mostly inaccurate hyperbole to begin with.

Here’s a tip, yuppy – turn the fucking news off and stop pretending you know anything or even give a shit about the people who’ve suffered. If you’ve got enough time to tweet about this fuckery, then contribute to a cause or go help the people who’ve lost their loved ones. Christ. Shit or get off the pot. Please. We would all be better off without you adding to the black hole of social media.

But let me get off that fresh morsel of hell and address how deep the stupidity runs. It’s absolutely disturbing how clueless people are, and yeah, I’m addressing you, you fucking Gap wearing waste of human flesh.

Have you done your research? Have you looked at the numbers? I know you haven’t, because if you did, you might know what I’m talking about.

Let’s look at another chart. See if you notice ANYTHING. And, really stare at it, because if you’ve got the attention of a fishbowl, you’re going to miss my point and fixate on my colorful language instead.

BSE – 231 cases (not even deaths – what kind of fuckery is this that you can’t find the facts you’re looking for?)

West Nile – 2,000 deaths

SARS – 555 deaths

Ebola – 11,310 deaths

Coronavirus – 2,817 deaths

I’m not going to pretend like you got the point. So, let me spell this out for you.

The common flu took 16,000 people’s lives during the 2019 – 2020 flu season. It’s a fucking crisis compared to the coronavirus. Scary as hell! Tell all your friends! Get on social media and warn everyone – the flu is coming to take your life!

Before you worry about the so-called “widespread” outbreak of the coronavirus (it’s not, it’s a CONTROLLED release of an experimental virus), maybe go and find a fucking cure for the common flu. And, stop pretending those vaccines are working, because they’re clearly making things worse.

Still not hitting the cranial bull’s eye? That’s what I figured, so let’s look at another timeline:

Word War I – 40 million casualties

World War II – 70 to 85 million casualties

Vietnam War – 3 million casualties

Do your fucking research before you spout off about something you don’t know anything about and apologize to your forefathers, bush league. If you can’t do that, then at least shut the fucking boob tube off and go do something with your wasted life.

STOP over-catastrophizing. You talk about this as though you're the victim, you’ve got a hot clue, when rumors (and they are just that, RUMORS) of mass outbreak are coming from fear-based, red herring propaganda marketing (read that, m-a-r-k-e-t-i-n-g) campaigns. You’re sittin’ pretty while other people suffer. Wake up, already.

Your stupidity diminishes the very freedom your forefathers fought for. Apologize. NOW. Get off Facebook and Twitter and put some honest, hard work into your chosen profession, or at least a hobby for fuck sake.

I’m sorry to say, but this is what a world at peace looks like, friend. There ain’t shit goin’ on out there, so we gotta stir it up. Dip into the toilet bowl and spin those feces around, like our IQ was less than that of a doorknob. When the human mind doesn’t have any problems to solve, it starts creating them.

Yeah, it’s nasty. And, it’s unbelievable. But if you look at it with a critical mind, you start to get a sense of who’s behind it all. Never put it passed them to toy with our minds and mess with our lives, especially in smaller, controlled doses.

I’m gone,
- Anderson

// 0001 Personal development got you down? Suck it up, buttercup

Personal development doesn’t make people happy? Fuck that.

The thing that most people get wrong is to assume that by adopting a new belief or perspective, or by taking a course (one fucking course?), that somehow everything is going to be “perfect” in their lives, whatever the fuck that means. Living in a pink unicorn wonderland where the roads are made of clouds, bacon tastes like candy and farts are made of rainbows?

Give me a break. Life is contrast. You can’t have highs without lows. No happy without sad. No euphoria without depression.

No matter how high you get off of a sorry sap's book, you're going to wake up Monday, go to work, deal with the same shit and same people. After going home, you're going to be confronted with the same choice of getting to work on something that brings happiness and fulfillment into your life, or sitting on the couch absorbing the blue light brainwashing they subject every slave to. Don't get mad at me. I'm guilty as sin.

Plus, you can’t honestly say to my face that you had even envisioned a future before going into that soul-breaking course. You were just excited to get in, plain and simple. And, somehow you thought you’d emerge unscathed by the cleansing fires of PD. Personal development, bro!

But here’s what you’re failing to recognize:

What’s making you unhappy is just below the surface of the shiny, fake veneer you call “normal”. Normal is bullshit because it’s just some face you’re putting on to satisfy society and make people (people you don't care about) think you’re okay and nothing could possibly be wrong. You don’t have any weird late-night fantasies, and your shit certainly don’t stink. Cash in the bank. Lookin’ dope. Drivin' your souped-up Honda.

Here’s the reality…

Personal development is DESIGNED (read that again, d-e-s-i-g-n-e-d) to draw that creepy crawler lurking underneath, that ugly black Arachnida that’s taken over your life at some inopportune moment and has been in control of you ever since. Don’t fool yourself. It’s there.

And, if we were honest with ourselves, we’d see that we’ve all got some skeletons in the closet. That closet has been waiting to be opened. You don’t shut that shit and never look at it again. No part of that will lead to growth!

To go through life expecting that there's no ugliness in all homo sapiens simply goes against the laws of nature I've already explained. Life is contrast!

The question is, what are you going to do when Freddy Krueger comes over for a friendly visit? Because he will.

Are you scared? Do you feel like shit? Are bad memories flooding your brain? Are your worst nightmares coming to attack you all at once in your living life? Fuck yeah! That’s how you know the shit is working!

If your dumbass course ain’t making life hard on you, you’re obviously taking some fluffy lollipop bullshit that makes everyone feel good and accomplishes absolutely zilch. But who am I to tell you not to go get smoke blown up every orifice?

Buck up, cowgirl, because this ain’t going to be no teacups, but it’s sure as hell going to be one hell of a ride. Dorothy may have wanted a cushy Limo ride to the Emerald City, but what she got was so much more than that – adventure, new friends, danger and a shit ton more. Stuff she could tell her grand kids as their eyes widen and jaws drop. And you think anything less would constitute a journey? No fuckin’ way.

Rehab is the hardest part of injury. Sure, the moment you sustain injury, it can hurt like hell. But learning to walk again is sometimes the much longer, more painful process that people tend to give up on. Are you starting to see the connection yet?

So, what makes you give up along the way? Mindset, Joe! Mindset!

You don’t need to confirm the universe is in perfect order to get on the horn to make some shit right in your life. The universe is doing just fine, thank you very much, and it’s tired of you even asking. Stop getting stuck in your head and start doing something we can actually put on the scoreboard.

And, to wrap this all up, you’ve got to ask yourself – do you really want to live with that ugly beast stashed away on the inside? Do you want to keep carrying it with you, knowing that it can peak its gnarly head out of the hole at any time and start messing with your life? Or, do you want to leave that shit behind?

Sure, you can carry on with that plastic smile and mannequin dream, but never and I mean NEVER fool yourself into thinking you’ve made it into the SEALs, because rest assured you didn’t have the guts, determination or mentality to make it past the first day of training if you didn't confront your demons in PD.

Go home, 
– Anderson

// 0000 The exploitation of talent continues… it’s getting worse

I’ve seen it time and again.

Big, pushy executive types think they can boss around the creative.

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” And they laugh in their boardrooms with their grey hair, oversized poncho and their richer than god Gucci suit.

Yeah. That’s not going to fly anymore. Not in the age we’re now in.

No, it may not be the apocalypse, but zombies are sure as hell walking the streets, and if you ain’t taking care of your talent, pretty soon your business won’t be taking care of you either.

They say talent is replaceable but let me tell you something. If you ain’t holding on to your talent, you’re sure as hell wasting money. And while you might be lying in your beds of green, behind an ivory tower, maybe even an ivory tower within an ivory tower, like a Matryoshka doll, your talent is getting stressed out. Bit by bit, they’re losing their mojo, and when it comes right down to it, there’s no one to blame but the boss.

What happens to your bottom line when the creative doesn’t give you the quality of shit you’ve been asking them to create on demand, day in day out? Make ‘em stay longer? Work harder? Have them beat their head against their slave cube, until they bleed out their soul and want to give up on life? Give up the very thing that used to have ‘em jump out of bed every morning?

Fine. Exploit the copyright. You’re a business. You gotta be smart about these things. I don’t have a problem with leveraging your works.

What most people don’t know is that “exploitation” goes far beyond the assets the artist worked their ass off to produce in the first place. It extends well into the artist's personal life, which is a mess thanks to the higher ups who pretend to give a shit but don't actually know a lick of shit.

Oh, you thought it ended in the 70s? Uh-uh. It’s getting worse. And, it’s not just the big corps either, sad to say.

Just look around. People barely talk face to face anymore. At any time, can you honestly say you’re aware of the people around you? How they’re actually doing? How they’re actually feeling? What they might be going through? No!

And, that’s multiplied as an artist. They gotta deal with the same shit you’re dealing with. Endless emails. Countless texts. More demands. Get this done. Get that done. Why isn’t this done? Where the fuck did you disappear to? I don’t get a day off, so you don’t either.

Really? You want the most out of the creative and you’re gonna have them fucking answering phone calls and emails all day? Jesus Christ! Give them the space to do what god himself put them on this green earth to do – make shit! Do this, and they will make shit you couldn’t dream up in your turkey dinner full-bellied REM cycles.

Executives want genius on demand. They could give a shit about how the artist is doing. “See those digits? They’re going up and to the right. Get them creatives to pump out more of that shit.”

I hate to say it man. But the world is rife with opportunity. Creatives are usually nice people and they might put up with a little more B.S. than the average person. Maybe you’ll keep ‘em for a year or two…

But honestly. Wake up and smell the hot cup of joe, bro. Writers are the new rock stars. Look at Neil Patel, Eric Siu, Peep Laja… they’re the ones running the show now. Take note. Content isn’t just the king. It’s the fuckin’ god, bro. And, you couldn’t hope to muster up the same level of genius with a bucket of Adderall and a vat of LSD.

Need I go on?

Treat your creatives like shit and they will burn out. That’ll be expensive for you. The fucked-up part is that it will be more expensive for the creative who’s got the organic grocery, reflexology massage and self-care bills to pay. This is what pisses me off.

But let’s not forget the important part, that it will be costly for you cause you got to live with the damage you did.

Maybe you should give the creative what they’re rightly owed before you pay out the nose for that lesson. Maybe you should treat your creatives well, I dunno, for once in history?

No? Okay, don’t listen to me. I’m just a privileged, cynical mid-aged white guy. What the hell do I know, anyway?

Fuck you,
- Anderson