“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”--Marcus Aurelius
I have an opinion about everything. Give me a topic--any topic--and I will give you an opinion. It may not be valid, and I'll be the first to tell you as much, but I'll offer it up nonetheless. Ignornance is no obstacle. If I don't know much about a given topic I'll do a bit of research, and then, voila! here's my opinion.
The thing is, opinions are like assholes: everybody's got one. To make matters worse, most people think theirs smells like roses while everyone else's smells like shit.
Not me. I know better. All opinions are equal. Some may appear more valid than others but in reality, they all smell like shit.
That's why I pride myself on providing insightful opinions, not valid ones. Insight is always valuable. It can give you a new perspective on a familiar issue or prompt you to consider a novel or unusual idea.
Remember my mandate? I'm the Meme Merchant, trading in ideas old and new, familiar and foreign, sane and insane. My goal? To help you see how everything is connected. Nothing stands alone, distinct and separate from the rest: all things stand in relation to each other like the different parts of a machine or components of a single organism.
Ideas are no different. Each one is connected not only to the mind that spawned it but also to every subsequent mind that carries and shapes it. Just as ecologists make no distinction between organisms and the environments they inhabit, neither should we distinguish between ideas and minds. Both are intrinsically connected and inseparable.
What is an idea without a mind to carry it? What is a mind devoid of ideas?
The organism-environment analogy is extremely apt. Certain minds make better ecosystems than others; likewise, some ideas thrive in certain minds better than others. Ideas that compete over the same psychological resources fight tooth-and-nail for survival. Some die out while others thrive and multiply, spreading virulently from mind to mind.
It's not a one-sided relationship, either. Some ideas pay huge dividend by helping us shape the world around us. Houses, cars, skyscrapers, computers, robots, and every other human-made object in the world owes its existence to an idea. Other ideas give us hope, belief in a higher purpose, or the means to master our unruly emotions.
The way we talk, dress, act, think--these are all byproducts of the memes we house in our brains.
In this context, it's easy to see why Marcus Aurelius felt the way he did. How can we take any opinion seriously when we know that it's just another selfish little meme wanting nothing more than to procreate, even at the expense of other ideas.
We're all meme merchants whether we know it or not. We're constantly trading opinions, ideas, trends, and beliefs with each other.
So far my exchange with you has been terribly one-sided. I've been selfish, writing about all the stuff that gets me fired up, never once considering what you might want to read about.
Any merchant worth his salt knows that commerce is all about supply and demand.
What is your demand? What ideas do you want to see stripped down and laid bare? What topic would you like to learn about but never had the time or motivation to explore on your own? History, politics, philosophy, pop-culture, sports, space, conspiracy theories, whatever. You name it, I'll write about it.
It may not be pretty but I promise it will be interesting.
Please send all requests to bellevue.estates@gmail.com, or hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.
I already have a topic for my first Two Cent Rant. Thanks to King Purcey and my little Pendeja for the request. I've been wanting to write about this topic for a while now but kept putting it on the back-burner. Well guess what? The time is now.
Want a hint? He's the hottest young politician on Parliament Hill (doesn't take much to win that contest) and if the latest polls mean anything (they don't), he might be the next prime minister of Canada.
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| Musketeer, or leader of the Liberal Party? |
/rant over
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