Poserism

At no point in history, have there been so many fake people in America. I say America because I can say with a certain degree of certainty that "poserism" is an American phenomenon.

Listen, I am proud of the right to be a poser. This country was founded on principles of poserism. "All men are created equal (except black people)" etc. You get what I mean, I hope.

I just recently started getting into Kurt Vonnegut. Now, some of you are already saying,

 "Vonnegut? What a poser."

But really, he is generally accepted as a great American thinker and a progressive, well, human.

One of my favorite Vonnegut quotes is his explanation of the moral to Mother Night where he says,

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." 

I'll leave it to you to actually read the book or watch the movie (which awesomely stars Nick Nolte), but the basic point is that once we sacrifice what we actually believe in, we become whatever it is we are pretending to be. Whether we do it for a woman, a job, a social status, or some sort of misguided patriotism, we are bound to lose ourselves to this replacement personality that we create.

Examples of Posers:

HIPSTERS - These are the guys that wont tell you what music they are listening to because if anyone but them have heard of the band, they cease to be "underground" and thus automatically mainstream and un-hip. In addition, the boys wear really tight pants and stupid jewelry that represents their "individuality".  They also claim to know nothing about the World because they don't watch TV.  There's a lot of cool stuff going on around you if you are just willing to share a little of your precious time with the rest of us common sheep.

POLITICAL NUTS - I'm sure we've seen the kooks that are on in a 4-hour block on the cable "news" networks. Hannity, Cavuto, Olberman, The Chick, The Fat Guy with the drug addiction, etc. Not to say that these guys are always lying but most often, they are spewing fact after fact and spinning them into some sort of conspiracy or name-calling playground pissing-contest. When even the hosts of the shows themselves begin to talk about who gets better ratings and more viewers, how can you trust that anything you are seeing is more than mere pandering? Maybe you can, but I sure can't. These guys begin to represent ideas that they may not even believe themselves for the sake of viewership. I'd rather watch William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu on Deadliest Warrior anyway.

RELIGIOUS HATERS - I believe in God. I'm pretty sure God is cool with all people. God doesn't hate. God loves, so stop being a hateful bigot. Stop trying to make gay people in criminals (especially if you make it your life's work and then take a male prostitute on your cabin cruiser). Just tolerate. I know deep down inside you don't give a hoot if Johnny and Jimmy are picking out china at the Pottery Barn so leave them alone and go back to watching Two and a Half Men.

Also, can we stop with the guidos already? Jeesh.