10.21.04

Oh dear. I ruffled someone's feathers. Remember in September when I broke my MC cherry? One of the bands just started a blog, and referenced my entry.

Here it is: disgruntled boy.

Heaven forbid that someone have an opinion in the Rose City. That's one of my biggest beefs about this place. Everyone is so busy affirming everyone else that any exception to the rule of undeserving and limitless praise is interpreted as mean, unflattering, and destructive. Any opinion that differs from the paradigm must be prefaced with an explanation, and an apology.

I'm tired of it. It's passive/aggressive behaviour. It's maddening. To illustrate, find a short movie called Tex, the Passive-Aggressive Gunslinger. From it you'll get a taste of my frustration.

I know my own work has suffered because people aren't willing to say that something sucks, or needs improvment. It's seductive, too. When you do hear truthful criticism, it's much easier to get defensive. I know; I've fallen into that trap. Then I kick myself for being a weenie.

What gets me is that even though there's unlimited affirmation, I think most people understand on some level that it's undeserved and are therefore insecure and defensive. That's the way it makes me feel.

It's like giving everyone As in a class, no matter how hard they worked. It cheapens the worth of that grade. It's like inflation; it takes more and more of the same thing to get the basics. Or like addictions that take more and more to have the original impact.

Or I could be wrong.

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