You can't rush reality
Posts tagged anxiety
What If You’re Completely Wrong?! . . . Plus, Paul Weighs in on Obama’s Nobel
Oct 15th
If there’s any consensus about Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize last week, it’s that the award was given somewhat prematurely, perhaps in an effort to strengthen the presidents resolve on the tough road ahead. Whatever the case may be, many in the media are outraged, including the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol who said somewhat disdainfully, “I mean, President Obama and I have done about the same amount to bring about world peace.”
Obama receives another award
So what do you call it when an award is given before a person has done anything to deserve it? I call it skipping the middle-man. In some respects, awards have a very practical function – acknowledging success is a way to ensure more success is generated. And in an era where the legitimacy of even the most accomplished among us is thrown into question by everything from a gender test to a drunk Kanye West swiping your microphone, maybe it’s time we rethink how we look at awards. If Obama doesn’t deserve the prize he was given, then in some ways we were all in the running. I say we should accept this as a fact and move ahead. We might miss out on gaining a hero to look up to, but if we all strive a bit harder to make the cut next time the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out, there might be a lot more actual peace in the world.
A Mountain Community For Dwarves Only…Plus, Paul Offers Advice on Killing It as a Single Parent
Oct 5th
As we trudge through our day-to-day problems, it sometimes helps to remember that there are magical places in the world. One worth contemplating is a mountain commune for dwarves only in Kunming, Southern China. There, you can see 120 miniature, elf-like people going about their real lives in fairy tale clothing, and living in mushroom shaped houses that they built for themselves. In contrast to the isolated Shangri-La’s or Madagascar’s of the past, however, this earthly paradise is developed out in the open, vulnerable to the political and economic challenges of mainstream life. This group of dwarves voluntarily segregated themselves into this commune because they faced constant discrimination from tall people. They quickly developed a cash cow livelihood for the entire community when they began to charge tourists an entry fee to observe the 4’3” or shorter residents in their self-designed story-book community, complete with their own functioning police force and fire brigade.
Fairy tales in real life
While some may denounce the theme park motif as being similar to an exploitative situation, shouldn’t we pause and ask ourselves a couple of things. First, isn’t it a different thing altogether when a group voluntarily (even happily) decides to monetize some aspect of its own novel condition? Isn’t the widely popular NBA just a freak show of tall, strong people? Isn’t the fashion industry just a freak show of well-proportioned people? Why shouldn’t dwarves organize and demand compensation for what makes them unique?! I even go so far as to say this particular theme park is superior to professional sports and the fashion industry, because instead of creating beauty from what is already desirable, these bold dwarves are creating something desirable out of what society looks down upon (literally!) Killing it is knowing that our own personal utopia will not just appear, but that, it if comes at all, it may be because we’re facing so many problems that utopia is the only way out.
