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Empty Brilliance [1]

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Date: 2023-04-06  

There is a very large problem in this country and around the world that has largely been brought forth by social media and the technological information world. I call it “empty brilliance”. This is a state of mind that has very little substantive content and a lot of emotional baggage. Empty brilliance is probably the number one pandemic on the planet. When you wrap your head around this concept, you see how contagious it really is.

Empty brilliance emerges from a “virus” that we call cynicism: an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest ; skepticism. Cynicism use to be something that functioned in our society at a minimum because issuing forth an opinion, for self interest or for community interest, was usually done in an environment where you could be challenged in a face-to-face encounter. What we call “grass roots.” In other words, one would think long and hard before stepping onto the podium to issue forth some “information” if the content was subject to questions and was obviously self-interest induced. This provided a sort of “choke hold” on the expressions in the public domain because the “grifters” were immediately identified and held accountable in the moment. Not all of them, mind you, but more than are addressed today.

The shortest and cheapest path to empty brilliance is to become a cynic. Cynics now abound everywhere and actually control all media and social platforms. The number of people that I know who have anointed themselves “experts” in various fields of importance to our social construct, yet actually possess very little experience or training is vast. Parents who don’t know how to parent, but want to tell teachers how to teach come to mind. In some cases, it has made the art of “doing business” somewhat of a passing fad. “Doing business” in this sense is the practice of working with compatible knowledge-based peer groups to accomplish something or produce something of worth. The “empty brilliance” crew interjects their emotional opinions and the pandemic is off and running. People find themselves having to deal with emotional baggage of these “empty brilliance” actors instead of working with knowledgable people who know how to get things done and or how not to get things done. The fuel is the paradox of those who are acting in a self-interest capacity while projecting their cynical attitudes towards those who they portray as acting in self-interest. Sen. Ted Cruz makes a living at this.

Not this country, or any country, can expect to survive when the avenues and platforms of public discourse and exploration for the common good are dominated by these “experts” in “empty brilliance”. Cynicism may make you look important in the short term, but it is suicide in the long term. And, in fact, it authors a climate of emotional chaos and depressive attitudes that has a long lasting affect on the minds of the young and their natural propensity to be optimistic.

No one should abandon caution by confusing it with cynicism. This article can be considered cynical. I suppose it is your judgement as to whether or not it portrays “empty brilliance”. Therein lies the fulcrum of judgement. There are those who love Ted Cruz and there are those who loath him. Some recognize him for his grift and some do not. Trump has taken this “art form” to the top of its game. He relies on “empty brilliance” to manufacture the emotional reaction that he needs to remain in the game. I suppose it comes down to what requires a cynical approach and what doesn’t. Therein lies the definition of brilliance. Is the brilliance being expressed substantive or emotional? Is it packed with self-interest pronouncements or is it something of worth to the majority and common good?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/6/2162417/-Empty-Brilliance

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