What makes the Hat Trick vulgar - minor rewrite


(insert cricket sounds here)

I wrote about Zed Shaw's article on mastery here. Even before that, I had been trying to "slim down" my philosophy and my magick. I've been having better luck with the philosophy. Blogging forced me to make the change through repetition. I have to distill my thoughts to get people to pay attention. Then I have to find a hook.

My thoughts aren't always good thoughts. I'm probably more sex obsessed than most. And when I am tired or in an emotional down cycle, I can focus on minutia instead of life.

Still, I've been noticing something lately. Unless people know me, succinct gets mistaken for trivial and uninformed. If I want a talk among equals or at least peers, I often have to do something over the top to "show my credentials." This usually means picking the highest profile target, showing that I know his quotes, then deconstructing his argument, and finally throwing in things that I know he never thought of. On a certain level, there's a rush in that that thrills me.

But on another level, the part of me that is striving for mastery sees it as pretty vulgar. It's sort of the equivalent of whipping my penis out onto the table and proclaiming "Mine's better than yours. Let's see what you got."

See, I told you. Sex obsessed.

I don't do it all the time. There are scads of topics I know almost nothing about. For example, I'm one of the few American males who couldn't tell you anything about professional sports. And then there are topics that just don't justify the bother, so I keep quiet and pass on through. But when I do speak, I'd like to be noticed.

It's the Hat Trick Syndrome. I have to pull a Hat Trick to get a crowd to pay attention if they don't know me. Then they want another Hat Trick to see if the first time was a fluke. Then they want another Hat Trick to make sure I'm for real. Three times is the charm you know. That's when they start taking what I say seriously. Of course, they think they know me then.

I'd rather not do a Hat Trick at all with philosophy discussions. It can get very quiet afterwards. Sometimes the participants weren't really all that interested in the philosophy, they were trying to establish a pecking order. Then I derail things in one of the most offensive ways possible. Imagine wanting to talk about philosophy instead of sitting quietly at the feet of the Acknowledged Expert waiting for my portion of wisdom.

Even if my thoughts are good, they don't necessarily rise above the "ambient noise" because we live in an age of Twitter and texting. Most of it is exactly that, noise. It doesn't help that I am fond of jokes and phrases that work on multiple levels. One liners don't stand out in that soup, no matter how well crafted. Short thoughts get buried in trivia. And sometimes it's all about the egos and only the Expert is supposed to make the one liners.

I'd rather not be seen as the trouble making troll. But how else can you get them to pay attention?

Blast it all to blue blazes, I just might have to become famous.

Posted: Tue - April 27, 2010 at 01:33 PM
 ◊ 
 ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Technopagan Yearnings
© 2005 - 2010   All Rights Reserved