Life As Performance Art 161

The shadow is everywhere, and it infects and defiles everything we say and do. No one is clean, no one gets off scot-free. Whether it is a coffee shop run and staffed by naive twenty-somethings who put up a sign declaring that they uphold and honour all trannies and hookers (which by implication means that they likely also believe that a transwoman is a real woman, a transman is a real man and that prostitution, or, it's politically correct monicker, sex work, is indeed a legitimate profession.) Who only knows what they must use for brains, but they're usually all so stoned on cannabis that their critical thinking has gone way down the toilet and their cognitive functions are probably on their way down there as well. But this is just another example of the prevalence of the shadow, which also exists in my tart and barbed commentary about people that annoy me. It's this white hats versus black hats mentality, good guys versus bad guys. Cowboys and Indians, anyone? Okay, we will give a five minute pause for the shrieking, screaming and squealing from the politically correct thought police to die down a bit. Indians is, after all, not a nice word. These are people who have absolutely no sense of humour, no sense of proportion, are so blinded by their self-righteous indignation that they are absolutely convinced of their virtue and moral superiority over anyone who happens to disagree with them while they themselves remain completely blind to what obnoxious, judgmental and sanctimonious twits they all are. That is the shadow. He (or she? How about they?) doesn't play favourites. We are all fair game and we all live in its noxious and toxic thrall. Or like this barmy man-hated feminist who was featured recently on an Ideas program about PMS. She waxed shrill and indignant about all the comedic mileage that has been given to PMS on TV shows and that it is all the fault of patriarchy and woman-hating misogynists. As if no one has ever heard of Archie Bunker and Homer Simpson, those famous butts of anti dumb cis binary male humour? I actually emailed Ideas about that shrill and humourless man-hating female. Here is my email: "One of the great indicators of maturity is the ability to laugh at ourselves. Humans are intrinsically funny. So, honey, stop blaming it all on patriarchy, grow a skin and a sense of humour too." I received a nice reply from the producer of the program who said she would forward my message to the offended lady (oh, they´re starting to shriek again! What fun!) So I replied "I do sympathise with what women have to go through, and as much as I can within my limited experience I do try to empathize, but there also comes a time, I think, when the best option is laughter. And I mean this as much for men as for women (Homer Simpson, anyone?). There is something so dreadfully serious about the way people seem to take everything these days and it is concerning that humour seems to be really endangered in these oh, so very earnest times we are living in (which is never the same as being derisory or disrespectful, by the way.) all the best" In other words, we're all pretty bad, white hats, black hats, cowboys and First Nations Warriors (tee-hee!) We are all slaves to the shadow and even if we are never completely set free from it, the very least we can do is acknowledge it and do what we can to mitigate the damage, because the shadow thrives on our blindness and ignorance.