Death to All Who Dare Betray the Norm
Case in point: Aleksey Vayner.
"You know Investement Bankers, they're all like this!"
-- Fraser Seitel, The Practice of Public Relations
Like many, many humans, Aleksey aspires to greatness, even to transcendence, but commits the culturally-incriminating treason of admitting this. Aleksey's openness embarrasses us as much or more than it embarrasses him. He has exposed the viewer to their own hubris, and that is why viewers laugh. They must distance themselves from what they know is their own internal pride of life. As soon as one person laughs, then the next is compelled to join in.
What has Aleksey done differently than any other product, politician, or preacher in America? In essence, nothing. If you're going to crucify him, you better start lining up the crosses and railroad spikes and fire up a crucifixion assembly line, because there are Billions Of Blowhards out there. For instance, I'm sure Hugo the UMPC Guru is a really nice guy, but the thin veneer of a nifty new gadget provides little cover for a tautological condescending delivery roughly equivalent to Mr. Vayner's, or the average Dick Cheney speech, for that matter. Granted, Hugo tones down the sensationalism, but certainly Cheney doesn't.
Consider this famous example, "We KNOW that Saddam Hussein has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction." But you want to crucify some ideological kid from Yale, for chrissake?
Aleksey has merely epitomized nearly every value that the American Marketplace holds most dear. Built upon a solid foundation of accomplishment (did you make it into Yale? I didn't think so), Aleksey goes on to overstate and sensationalize some of his other accomplishments. Is your body as sculpted as his? Have you ever been even close to that self-disciplined? I didn't think so. But you assassinate him because you envy him. In America, "to whom much is given, much is required" means that, "to the extent that you've surpassed us, you are compelled to serves us." What a load of ignorant passive-aggressive American crap.
Aleksey's only infraction, if there is any at all, is a failure to also epitomize the American hypocrisy that he could have foreseen, give another five years of maturity. Yes, let us all mock Aleksey for believing what we sold him in ever motivational book, action movie, and team-building offsite that we've ever produced.
Aleksey believed our counterfeit culture and for that he shall be permanently exiled.
We all say we don't believe those windbag infomercials, but we stock our homes with the crap. We claim that we'd never be so stupid as to install spyware, but the PC infections grow faster than ever. We blame the email system for messages we never intended to send or to which we never intended to reply. We blame the cell phone network for dropping calls that in fact we were too cowardly to take.
No wonder the Wizard of Oz endures generation after generation. America is full of Cowardly Lions, vapid Tin Men, and dipshit Scarecrows all bumbling along the Yellow Brick Road. But let someone show up with a Map and a Compass, and just watch how fast the rejection and alienation begin.
No, I call bullshit on the self-righteous UBS-led lynch mob. The same UBS mob that hemmed in millions of people on a bogus Vonage IPO and made certain that new accounts could not unload shares as they plummeted. Who the hell are you to mock anyone?
That is arrogance, hubris, and hypocrisy on a scale that cannot be comprehended.
Above all, you fear Aleksey because he is more creative than you, more focused than you, could probably do your job and the five people who report to you, and could kick your ass with two hands tied behind his back. That's why you mock him: he's young, he's brilliant, he's naively optimistic, he hasn't yet allowed your narrow and cynical view of the world to browbeat him into submission.
The next time you say, "yeah, my boyfriend and I have been dating for 16 months now," when in fact it's only been 13 months ... that is more malignant than anything on Aleksey's video and that is the part of your insincere, lying, disingenuous ass that his video blew wide open, for the whole world to see.
It is you who ought be embarrassed and to the extent you are not, Aleksey doesn't even hold a candle to you.
"You know Investement Bankers, they're all like this!"
-- Fraser Seitel, The Practice of Public Relations
Like many, many humans, Aleksey aspires to greatness, even to transcendence, but commits the culturally-incriminating treason of admitting this. Aleksey's openness embarrasses us as much or more than it embarrasses him. He has exposed the viewer to their own hubris, and that is why viewers laugh. They must distance themselves from what they know is their own internal pride of life. As soon as one person laughs, then the next is compelled to join in.
What has Aleksey done differently than any other product, politician, or preacher in America? In essence, nothing. If you're going to crucify him, you better start lining up the crosses and railroad spikes and fire up a crucifixion assembly line, because there are Billions Of Blowhards out there. For instance, I'm sure Hugo the UMPC Guru is a really nice guy, but the thin veneer of a nifty new gadget provides little cover for a tautological condescending delivery roughly equivalent to Mr. Vayner's, or the average Dick Cheney speech, for that matter. Granted, Hugo tones down the sensationalism, but certainly Cheney doesn't.
Consider this famous example, "We KNOW that Saddam Hussein has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction." But you want to crucify some ideological kid from Yale, for chrissake?
Aleksey has merely epitomized nearly every value that the American Marketplace holds most dear. Built upon a solid foundation of accomplishment (did you make it into Yale? I didn't think so), Aleksey goes on to overstate and sensationalize some of his other accomplishments. Is your body as sculpted as his? Have you ever been even close to that self-disciplined? I didn't think so. But you assassinate him because you envy him. In America, "to whom much is given, much is required" means that, "to the extent that you've surpassed us, you are compelled to serves us." What a load of ignorant passive-aggressive American crap.
Aleksey's only infraction, if there is any at all, is a failure to also epitomize the American hypocrisy that he could have foreseen, give another five years of maturity. Yes, let us all mock Aleksey for believing what we sold him in ever motivational book, action movie, and team-building offsite that we've ever produced.
Aleksey believed our counterfeit culture and for that he shall be permanently exiled.
We all say we don't believe those windbag infomercials, but we stock our homes with the crap. We claim that we'd never be so stupid as to install spyware, but the PC infections grow faster than ever. We blame the email system for messages we never intended to send or to which we never intended to reply. We blame the cell phone network for dropping calls that in fact we were too cowardly to take.
No wonder the Wizard of Oz endures generation after generation. America is full of Cowardly Lions, vapid Tin Men, and dipshit Scarecrows all bumbling along the Yellow Brick Road. But let someone show up with a Map and a Compass, and just watch how fast the rejection and alienation begin.
No, I call bullshit on the self-righteous UBS-led lynch mob. The same UBS mob that hemmed in millions of people on a bogus Vonage IPO and made certain that new accounts could not unload shares as they plummeted. Who the hell are you to mock anyone?
That is arrogance, hubris, and hypocrisy on a scale that cannot be comprehended.
Above all, you fear Aleksey because he is more creative than you, more focused than you, could probably do your job and the five people who report to you, and could kick your ass with two hands tied behind his back. That's why you mock him: he's young, he's brilliant, he's naively optimistic, he hasn't yet allowed your narrow and cynical view of the world to browbeat him into submission.
The next time you say, "yeah, my boyfriend and I have been dating for 16 months now," when in fact it's only been 13 months ... that is more malignant than anything on Aleksey's video and that is the part of your insincere, lying, disingenuous ass that his video blew wide open, for the whole world to see.
It is you who ought be embarrassed and to the extent you are not, Aleksey doesn't even hold a candle to you.
posted by deviate-from-the-norm | 21:12
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