The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P. Pass to Enlightenment by Chael Sonnen Page B
Authors: Chael Sonnen
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want to see good TV, watch South Park . There is more clever writing, social commentary, and character development in one twenty-two-minute episode of South Park than in a whole season of The Sopranos . My favorite South Park episode is called “Stanley’s Cup.” It’s bitter, cynical, funny, brilliant. Enjoy.
Oh, right, the lesson … well … do your homework on the things you like and develop your own opinion about them. Don’t be enamored with or disenchanted by critics unless you know the critic and relate to his perspective. Art is in the eyes of the beholder. Science, on the other hand, is in the eyes of the Lord—so if you get shot and fall down, unless the bullet severed an artery or exploded in your intestines, walk it off.
On Today’s Menu:
Sacred Cow
SACRED COW (2ND HELPING)
I know I’ve already touched on this Sacred Cow thing with The Godfather movies. But there is another culturally instituted, nonnegotiable concept that has got to go. This one deals with rock-and-roll guitarists.
It seems that we just all have to agree, by dint of the “ascended masters” of all things rock and roll, that Jimi Hendrix was the best without question, or review, or dissent.
And he wasn’t .
Was he great? Sure. But he was also sloppy, his control of tone was less than perfect, and he died before he had a chance to register any significant artistic growth or create a massive enough oeuvre so as to enable us to do a comparative analysis with other great guitarists. Essentially, he fired a few shots that hit, and then hid in the weeds by dying. Make no mistake—he was a very, very good guitarist. But the Music Thought Police have declared him the Greatest, and anything other than slavish obedience to that notion constitutes heresy, which must be confronted, attacked, and burned at the stake.
Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. Bring up the subject with some music-fan friends. Mention the fact that you think Hendrix is a bit overrated, and that in your opinion there are a few guys who were just as good, and perhaps even a few who were better. Watch as they refuse to even consider your opinion, as they ridicule you, and as they question your ability to make such a pronouncement. Listen as they question your motives for making such a statement (including leveling charges of cultural bias and racism), and attack you personally. You may also notice, as I have, that the virulence of the attack is often directly proportional to the attacker’s reputation and status (self-created and self-maintained) as a “liberal” and “free thinker.” You will not be given a chance to bring up contrary evidence (say, by playing “Cowgirl in the Sand” by Neil Young). You will be ganged up on and shouted down by your friends. They will accuse you of ignorance, stupidity, and worse. Individuals like, I don’t know, MMA Color Commentators, who fashion themselves as free-thinking libertarians, will become Lockstep Liberals who stand for freedom, justice, and diversity— as long as you think like they do .
Keep this in mind the next time you decide to enter into a conversation with your most “enlightened,” “democratic,” “liberal” friends about just how good anything—from something as silly, subjective, and meaningless as Hendrix was (or wasn’t) to issues like global warming. You might see them a bit differently.
Don’t say Uncle Chael didn’t warn you.
Occupy And The Turkey Corollary
hen I was in college, I studied sociology, which is a sophisticated way of saying I spent five years watching how people become more idiotic as they band together.
I like to refer to this as the “turkey corollary”: as a group grows larger and larger, the group’s average IQ is only as high as the dumbest lump of nerves in the bunch. You could have a roomful of Nobel Prize winners, Mensa members, and ten flawless clones of me, but the moment a halfwit walks in, our collective powers are diminished by the bowl
Oh, right, the lesson … well … do your homework on the things you like and develop your own opinion about them. Don’t be enamored with or disenchanted by critics unless you know the critic and relate to his perspective. Art is in the eyes of the beholder. Science, on the other hand, is in the eyes of the Lord—so if you get shot and fall down, unless the bullet severed an artery or exploded in your intestines, walk it off.
On Today’s Menu:
Sacred Cow
SACRED COW (2ND HELPING)
I know I’ve already touched on this Sacred Cow thing with The Godfather movies. But there is another culturally instituted, nonnegotiable concept that has got to go. This one deals with rock-and-roll guitarists.
It seems that we just all have to agree, by dint of the “ascended masters” of all things rock and roll, that Jimi Hendrix was the best without question, or review, or dissent.
And he wasn’t .
Was he great? Sure. But he was also sloppy, his control of tone was less than perfect, and he died before he had a chance to register any significant artistic growth or create a massive enough oeuvre so as to enable us to do a comparative analysis with other great guitarists. Essentially, he fired a few shots that hit, and then hid in the weeds by dying. Make no mistake—he was a very, very good guitarist. But the Music Thought Police have declared him the Greatest, and anything other than slavish obedience to that notion constitutes heresy, which must be confronted, attacked, and burned at the stake.
Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. Bring up the subject with some music-fan friends. Mention the fact that you think Hendrix is a bit overrated, and that in your opinion there are a few guys who were just as good, and perhaps even a few who were better. Watch as they refuse to even consider your opinion, as they ridicule you, and as they question your ability to make such a pronouncement. Listen as they question your motives for making such a statement (including leveling charges of cultural bias and racism), and attack you personally. You may also notice, as I have, that the virulence of the attack is often directly proportional to the attacker’s reputation and status (self-created and self-maintained) as a “liberal” and “free thinker.” You will not be given a chance to bring up contrary evidence (say, by playing “Cowgirl in the Sand” by Neil Young). You will be ganged up on and shouted down by your friends. They will accuse you of ignorance, stupidity, and worse. Individuals like, I don’t know, MMA Color Commentators, who fashion themselves as free-thinking libertarians, will become Lockstep Liberals who stand for freedom, justice, and diversity— as long as you think like they do .
Keep this in mind the next time you decide to enter into a conversation with your most “enlightened,” “democratic,” “liberal” friends about just how good anything—from something as silly, subjective, and meaningless as Hendrix was (or wasn’t) to issues like global warming. You might see them a bit differently.
Don’t say Uncle Chael didn’t warn you.
Occupy And The Turkey Corollary
hen I was in college, I studied sociology, which is a sophisticated way of saying I spent five years watching how people become more idiotic as they band together.
I like to refer to this as the “turkey corollary”: as a group grows larger and larger, the group’s average IQ is only as high as the dumbest lump of nerves in the bunch. You could have a roomful of Nobel Prize winners, Mensa members, and ten flawless clones of me, but the moment a halfwit walks in, our collective powers are diminished by the bowl
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