The mother of all evil, thy name is mediocrity

If the mother of all Evil is Mediocrity, then the father of all Evil, tasked to protect and feed Evil and his mother is Politeness. Politeness is designed to protect people’s false ego, the beautiful lies they tell themselves about themselves. The illusion that they are good enough for ANY company (in both senses of the word; a group of people or a business). Nobody wants to offend a grown person’s idea of who they are by pointing out cold truths, and this is particularly frowned upon by women who cannot handle the truth but still wish to be treated like Victorian-era ladies. “Yes, dear. You are correct, my dear. Naturally, cats are girls and dogs are boys and nobody knows where either species comes from, dear.”

A LOT of politeness is simply the process of allowing people to hang onto their false beliefs about anything they choose to hang onto. Who is their true friend, who loves them, (EEEEVERYONE FUCKING LOVES THEM, right?) how beautiful and handsome they are (fit for superstardom, naturally), how talented, smart, great they are (beyond reproach) and how KIND and VIRTUOUS they are (perfect fucking angels, I tell ya).

And the idiot who actually believes in that crap is pure evil. Entitled, delusional, the king of the world. (Because they’re a perfect person, obviously, they should be idolized and made into the boss, should they not?)

No thanks, I’m watching my ego

The smart people, the ones who are keeping themselves in check, don’t accept compliments without consideration. They are like calorie counters for empty compliments. They only take in the compliments that they feel are truthful, real, raw food for their ego.

Accepting a false ego is dangerous. Truly dangerous. The cruelest thing you can do to a person is to allow them to hang onto it. It leads to the victim having false friends and false lovers, and THAT puts them on a very shaky ground indeed. Also, if you are habitually giving your friends a false ego, you will eventually surround yourself with full-blown narcissists.

Redefine respect

The fix to this is to redefine what “respect” means.

1. They don’t need favors from you. (Offer help, a service, a product, your friendship, your love if you feel like it, but don’t assume they need it because they’re so tragic and you’re so great.)
2. Even if you don’t like this person, it doesn’t mean they are unlovable for all people in this world. You don’t have to suck up to them simply because you would never appreciate them for who they actually are and you feel so sorry for them that you believe they could never do without your approval of them.
3. Assume they are old enough and mature enough to handle the truth about the situation they’re in.
4. Squash your own ego: Just because you think you are the picture of perfection (and ALL PEOPLE believe that about themselves, ALL OF THEM!!!!! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM) don’t assume they feel the same about your alleged perfection. Assume they probably don’t want to be like you.
5. Your opinion about them shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all to anyone. Speak freely.
6. Here’s a kicker: People LOVE hearing the truth about themselves. Everyone is their own idea of perfection. (What they are is what they admire, they admire what they are, pay the fuck attention!) They trust you more when you actually observe them in an honest light. They realize you KNOW them. The danger here is that many people assume that means you ARE like them if you can understand them. You’ll have to learn to point out your differences as you point out characteristics about them.

Mediocrity

Getting back to it.

Mediocrity forms when everyone lies to each other about what we all like and appreciate.

NOBODY likes fucking mediocrity except mediocrity themselves. (Just as we all love what we are.) It’s just that EVERYONE THINKS others love what they, themselves love, and NOBODY believes it as strongly as the mediocre people. THEREFORE, they’re always HELPING others to remain mediocre.

This stops EVERYTHING GOOD from happening – or at least slows it down to a crawl.

There is one good thing about it: it STABALIZES communities. Otherwise, we’d be Bitcoin. (Take that as a clue and check the market rate over the years.)

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