Friday, August 5, 2016

Microstory 380: Ambition

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Complexity

Ambition can be a divisive subject for people. The consensus, however, seems to be that it’s a naughty word. You’re allowed to have ambition, or rather you’re allowed to have it to some degree, but you’re certainly not allowed to express those feelings. Often in movies, someone loyal to the villain, or sometimes the villain themselves, will explain that they’re not bad, they’re just ambitious. So many characters are portrayed as evil only by showing them to have an insatiable hunger for more. The ultimate question in this regard is why not? Why shouldn’t they want as much as they can possibly get? This is the world you’ve signed up for. When you signed the social contract, you agreed to a capitalistic society. Due to globalization, not a single nation more advanced than a tribal stage is truly anything other than capitalistic, even if they structure their government as something else. They all need to export their goods, and they certainly need to import them, because nobody has everything. We’ve all chosen this, whether we like it or not, so we can’t really complain when people smart enough to take advantage of the system do just that. Now, I’m the first guy to tell you that Donald Trump is a piece of shit, and I will maintain that position until the day he dies, and beyond (he’s too old to be immortal). But I don’t think anyone can argue against the man being intelligent. He’s built an empire, and he’s used the law to do so. Has he broken the law as well? I’m almost 100% certain that he has, but that’s what’s strange. The law is imperfect, and by its methods of procedure, it allows itself to be broken, making certain types of illegal behavior effectively within the boundaries of law. Whoa, none of this sounds like my usual radically liberal self, does it? Well, I’m also a realist. I recognize that, even though you don’t like how we do things around here, you understand it better than me, and I better play ball. I mean I do have ambitions to change things, which is why I became a writer, but you don’t need to know about my 200-year plan. 200 years!? And you thought Donald Trump was ambitious.

Commitment

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