Dirt Is Honest

 The whole world is full of people with stories to tell. They just don't know it. Most of them are running around with their heads down, struggling to deal with the day-to-day. 

Yes, everyone has their own story to tell, and the reason they have that story is also the reason most aren't able to tell it; the stress of maintaining from day-to-day while a world full of pimps, ten-percenters and other thieves in suits put the screws on you to fuel their greedy desires so they're alright and fuck you, Jack. 

And that's before we get to personal interaction or anything even vaguely relating to humanity. Only a pawn in their game indeed! Dylan knew that scene. It's the stress of making it in a shitty system where everyone's out for something from you, but no-one wants to give anything back that makes you question things and realize you've got to value your own self-worth because no-one else is going to. Unless you're making it on a screen somewhere, being paid five-figure sums to appear on TV and answer a few questions no-one really wants the answers to but think they do because the answers are coming out of a pretty face. Then people pay attention, of course. But that's another story… 

As I was saying, it's the stress factor of not living too comfortably that gives you something to write about. But it's also the stress of balancing the books while maintaining some kind of base-level sanity which sucks the energy and leaves it hard to muster the strength to express. 

No wonder everyone's walking around with their heads down. No-one dare look up for fear of being handed a bill to pay, or being backed in a corner to take a job or a product or a service they don't want to supposedly provide a 'way out' when all it does it provide a way in to something you never wanted a part of in the first place; with very little chance of making it out alive and still wanting to live... 

Yes, that's the system, sink or swim fuckers... capitalism means constant struggle, and it doesn't work. It is a progression to nowhere, perpetual warfare. Living outside the system is real life. That's where the true winners are. The system is for people who can't handle real life. That's what the system's there for; to take care of the needy. And there are plenty of them... or so they think. 

But the truly needy are few and far between. Most people who rely on the system don't really need to, they're just too dumb or ignorant or lazy or weak or fucking comfortable to live some kind of real thinking, feeling self-reliant decision-making, honest and true existence. That would be crazy to these people. That would require facing up to facts. That would require effort. Effort that may well lead to failure or disappointment, and where would that leave them?

Shit, people might start talking; 'so-and-so is a strange one, he has his own ideas, likes to do his own thing...' 

No, best aim for an easy life. Just earn enough to pay the bills and own a colour TV set, and everything is alright. Kill eight hours a day at work, spend the evening being stared at and talked at by the TV and then sleep. Find some time for eating and shitting, and everything's in order. No need to worry. Except about money; getting more of it, spending more of it, gaining possessions...

Well, those goals just won't do it for me. I like my own thoughts and feelings and schemes and ideas. They're mine. They come from real-life experience, not influenced by TV shows or celebrities (so boring) or two-bit jokers on moneymaking pedestals so far removed from a normal man's life they wouldn't recognise him if they stopped to buy him a drink (which they wouldn't) but for some reason still think they have something of value to say to him. See most newspaper columnists writing in an effort to impress their editors and literary friends rather than saying what they really want to say, unless all they want to say is things to impress their friends and editors and fellow writers. Whoever they're writing for, they don't speak to me. 

Yes, the comfortable existence sanitizes life and washes away the dirt, puts 5 channels of soma on the TV, and probably a good dose in the water supply too. But you need the dirt. Dirt is real. Dirt under the fingernails cleanses the soul. Dirt is honest.