I�m starting a new movement, and it�s called Trivialism. It takes the stupid things in society and elevates them to the realm of immeasurable substance. It�s not an emphasis on style over substance, it�s a complete subversion of substance entirely. The things our society currently holds to high esteem�fame, religion, consumerism, expansion, knowledge�are in fact mere distractions from the true importance of the world, whatever that is. I say �whatever that is� as a joke, but also as the best definition of truth I can possibly conjure. The individual imagination manifests itself in the individual�s daily life. And since I have never placed anything higher in significance than imagination, I am tethered to the notion that the daily manifestations are bastions of importance and insight into one�s very being. The decision to leave hands in pockets rather than fold them across one�s chest, for example, bears more of the essential fabric work of the human condition than all archaic texts and philosophical definitions of faith and reason. I believe in a human spirit that is enduring, but I do not believe in a judgmental afterlife because that is incongruous with the world I continually face. I have neither need nor evidence of the ridiculous notion of re-emergence and, therefore, do not put stock in phony superstitions and primitive, ritualistic pseudo-philosophy. Religion is less important than the whistling sound made through the nose in the midst of a lingering cold. The whistling at least has personality. It has a sense of itself and is married to its owner in a relationship that religion, for its millions of years of existence, has continually failed to accomplish. Religions are a microscopic element of a personality. How one uses his or her religion, however, is infinitely more telling and, likewise, an infinitely greater purveyor of individuality and importance. If one weaves religion into all personal decisions�as one often does in the face of a directionless universe�then it is the needle that creates the immutably important fabric of personality. It is in these cases that one�s religion takes a backseat to one�s application of religion, which should never be confused with the religion itself. The religion itself is nothing without the intentions and actions of its user. And even the application of any religion, with regard to individuality, seems boring and unimaginative. How is one able to reconcile the idea of a truly unique life while simultaneously incorporating ancient and established philosophies of meaning into his or her personal existence? Religion disrupts individuality because it serves to commodify and regulate that which is by nature matchless and self-defined. In the same way a tree is chopped down and transformed into one of several homogeneous wooden desks, so to do the institutions of society serve as a transformer. Our branches are shorn, our leaves fall to the ground, and that which makes us human is stripped away and replaced with that which makes us the structured machines of a consumer driven culture. For those of us who have come to reject these institutions, there is no needle save our own imagination. We could cling to philosophies of morality and transcendentalism, but how boring! How utterly unimaginative! Our time would better be served formulating our needles on our own, with nothing more than our current habits and situations, our collections of faults, shortcomings, triumphs, and experiences. These are the things that are important. These are the things to which we must relentlessly cling, in spite of our society�s intention of stripping us of ourselves. Resisting commodification involves holding to that which makes you who you are. And if you are fond of who you are, or who you were, or who you have the potential to become, resist the things that are sophomorically defined as important for you, and find importance within the realm of your own existence. |