Everyone is in everyone else's face these days.
Everybody seems proud of it. Worse yet, no one seems bothered by it.
I read an article the other day that at first made me sad, then made me furious.
Forgetting her unimpressive writing ability, and her age - she is as best I can determine in her mid 30s - the sentiments expressed in her piece are brilliantly suited...to Donald Trump supporters. (I am pulling rank on the age issue because if you are going to be as bitter as she is, at least be over 50.)
Her thesis, that she has "lived long enough to be fucking over pretty much everything," is absurd given that she hasn't reached 40," and her article is so filled with venom that I have to wonder what her remaining years will be like, more for those unfortunate folks around her than for her.
But I don't want to give her any more attention than that. If you have four minutes to waste, read her piece. It is basically a laundry list of ways she wants to be all about herself and get in everyone's face about her newly-discovered egomania.
As I say, it is the perfect sentiment for Trump and his supporters, and for this grim era we appear to be in of emerging white supremacists and Black Lives Matter and everyone else in between who believes it is a birthright to be as loud as possible and as aggressive as needed to get attention.
I regard Trump as the worst America has to offer, but I will give him credit. His bragging and egomania, and his urge to punch people in the face and have them carted off in stretchers, is pitch perfect for the times.
This is the era of everyone wanting to be about themselves, and punch their enemies, real or imagined, in the face, literally or metaphorically.
It is the era of doing whatever it takes to get attention, and coming to the light bulb-over-the-head realization that, these days, bad attention is every bit as good - maybe better - than good attention.
Good attention may get you the grudging respect of your colleagues and neighbors. Bad attention will get you your own TV show.
To a degree, I get it. I don't agree with it, but I get it. And certainly, when you get to be 55 or 60, there is a strong temptation to say, "screw it, I've been polite long enough. Now it's my turn to say fuck you to anyone I don't like or who I think is in my way."
I am asking my fellow "mature" people out there, resist that temptation.
Resist it or we will all become Donald Trumps - without the money or..."charm."
I also am hoping the younger generation will resist this temptation. A "screw you" attitude towards the world seems exciting and life-affirming for a short time until you bump against others with the same outlook on life, in which case you're not as special and unique as you may have hoped, or you bump against those who find it unappealing, in which case you may be very lonely.
I don't want to punch anyone on face or send them out on stretchers. I don't "get" the benefits of this screw you attitude. But then, I've always been repelled by self-promoters, braggarts and egomaniacs. I used to think most people felt like I do. I now know, perhaps with the impending election of the most egregious self-promoter history has ever produced, that I was wrong.
Most people love egomaniacs.
Most people WANT to be in your face, whether to punch it, or merely to let you know, hey, I won't be stepped on any more!!!
And these ultra-aggressive types, who I now see may be in the majority, seem unconcerned about whether the people whose faces they want to smash have genuinely stepped on them or caused them any harm it all. Their arms are flailing, and if you are their targets or collateral damage doesn't matter. Their goal is to hit something. As the author of the afore-mentioned awful piece states in her opening, "you realize who you want in your inner circle and who you want banished forever and ever."
The problem is, those circles change over time. The person whose face you want to be in or smash today may have been a friend and ally 20 years later if you hasn't banished them "forever and ever."
It's a rush, an exhilarating feeling, to tell people off, to announce to the world that long list of things you don't give a fuck about. Until the rush wears off - quickly - and you are left wondering why you were such an egocentric ass.