There is No Like Button in the Real World

The 80s were magical, but that time is lost and gone forever. We may never get that feeling back and if you missed the 80s, you may never know what it is like to live in the risk on world and that fucking sucks. I feel sorry for all you who were raised with all these good intentions about happiness and a place in the world, but you will never know the liberation that comes with traveling south crossland.

Millennials are free to continue to suck until you get your own generational identifiers. Stop clinging to bands that were playing music before you were alive. Stop reading Malcolm Galdwell and his Pollyanna nonsense and thinking it unlocks a secret code to getting ahead in life. News fucking flash, there are no outliers. Here is a tip to figuring out who you are, get your own culture and stop liking the culture from other generations. Your parents lied to you, happiness is not your goal and you cannot click like for certain parts of your life. Lives are full of like and dislike moments; it is in the darkest, deepest dislike moments of life that we find our true character.

Some of the most powerful esthetic experiences of our time, from Madonna Like a Virgin to Bruce born in a dead man’s town covering up the kicks he took when he hit the ground, set the audiences up externalizing and magnifying their secret core of sickness which is reflected in those who they mock and the lurid fantasies they consume, just as our deepest fears and prejudices script the jokes we tell each other. That is the fucking truth. I said it.

This is where the truth works. The truth puts you on stage in front of all to see, not hidden behind a screen and a wall.

Number one, everybody should realize that all this Facebook, Snapchat, Tweets and whatever, is all just a joke and a mistake. It is just foolishness so stop treating it with any seriousness or respect at all and just recognize that it is To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, so just consume the stupid thing and go for the next one tomorrow; and don’t worry about the fact that it’s a joke and a mistake and bunch of foolishness. Ignore the fact that their mosaic of life is controlled and given to you in your newsfeed that lacks the sweep of history; which is why you are desperate to attach yourself to some other generation. That is why you are looking for a reason to believe.

The first mistake of all this social networking is to assume that it is serious. I am going to be an asshole here and say that nothing is true; everything is permitted, which is true as a matter of fact. The truest form of the human condition is you cannot enslave a fool. Self-organization is preferable to being organized by others. Put out the fire and don’t look past my shoulder; there is no like button in the real world

I lived long enough to have seen this before. Poor man wants to be rich, the rich man wants to be king and the king is not satisfied till he rules everything. I don’t have role models and don’t keep inspirational expressions around to make me feel better about myself. I learned long ago I am happiest when I am in the game. That is what going to fix America and that is the only cure for the lost soul. There is going to be an exodus and the conscious souls are going to be the ones in the game. It has always been that way. That is how we will find our way out of the wasteland we are in. Yea, it is fucking wasteland and I know this because the Millennials are looking to prior generations for something. Some ray of sunshine. Here is a tip; get together before you get much older and find yourself. There is no newsfeed and no tweet stream to provide direction.

Late on February 22, 1980 America woke up from a long depressing katzenjammer induced by the 70s. If you were lucky enough to be around to see, it was amazing. If you don’t remember the 80s, you missed one hell of a transformational decade our history. I fucking swear Americans woke up one day and said fuck it; we are going to get over ourselves. We created the culture that has dominated our history and our self-being for the past thirty-four years; and rock and roll was there.

I am referring to real rock and roll with creative genius behind it – not some look at me twerking stunt. I am at the end with this shallow world I am living in. I feel we are chasing a mirage because we are so scared to offend, to take risk, to fail. I just want to explode and tear apart everything around me. We need to take our culture to the river, to wash it in the river and take away the sins so we can move on.

– Lester Bangs, October 2014