Somewhere along the way, the concept of “inspiration” has become deluded, spoiled, degraded, perverted, etc (at least speaking for myself - although this is spoken as an observation of cultural phenomena, from a particular perspective - of course, not an absolute Truth for all people at all times)…
What used to be potentially a portal to Divine ecstasy, deep soul-touching beauty, and the finest of appreciation for the universe’s wonders somehow almost seemed to have morphed into this commodified ideal appropriated by the self-help cult, hustle-porn peddles, and social media “influencers” (in some circles, brilliantly a.k.a. “shitfluencers”) as an enticing marketing honeypot - and equally embraced by millions wanting both an escape from the monotony of “normality” into a larger-than-life fantasy of epic proportions fulfilling the ego’s desire for some uber-important “purpose” providing a steady stream of self-gratification and dopamine.
With the rise of social media platforms as staple institutions of modern culture and the accompanying psychological drive to impress others with highlight reels of cherry-picked, staged facades we’d learnt to expect would ‘get’ likes & followers, it seems “inspiration” has become far less the spiritual nourishment it once was, and far more “inspiration™” - a derivate egregor mutated and birthed through capitalistic morphogenic fields.
What is inspiration…? Some have said the linguistic roots trace back to that of ‘being in spirit. That classic version, a state of being characterized by awe, an expansion of heart, a deep moving & touching of the soul - something profound, blurring the boundaries between everyday physicality and the mysterious, mythical and sacred with a potency to uplift consciousness into elevated realms of joy, wonder, appreciation, and bliss. The modernized version… while all those characteristics may still be held as as ideal, it often seems more like a packaging - an alluring sugar-coating utilized to hook followers; an archetypal ideology reappropriated to bait content consumers in a process of conversion to clients, or at the least capturing attention to fuel ego that thrives on validation.
Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong directions, perceptions biased with the results of social media algorithms; yet it seems that true art has become increasingly rare amongst a growing plethora of “content creators” whose output has been influenced more by strategies, formulas, pop trends, and cookie-cutter patterns than a raw drive for original creative expression. Just as attention spans has decreased, so too has the capacity for investing countless hours refining one’s craft and pouring one’s heart & soul into something truly, deeply inspiring. It seems like the days where art held the capacity for inspiration to degrees such as great symphonic composers such as a Mozart, Beethoven or Bach or painters like Michaelangelo & DaVinci embodied may be behind us. Instead, we now have endless feeds of memes - cartoons looking like they could’ve been drawn by a four-year-old with hideous grammar and basic “inspirational” platitudes slapped on pretty pictures of some exotic travel destination, propagated like viruses to masses not-yet attuned to the degree of “toxic positivity” many encompass.
This is not to suggest that dumb memes aren’t sometimes fantastic or the simplicity of some popular content doesn’t have its time & place; but rather to shine a spotlight on the trend of diminishing quality of substance overall as the quantity of content online has increased. And with that, the shifting of our collective conceptions of what inspiration is.
(a fantastic tune to accompany the remainder of your reading experience:)
Of course, it’s impossible to speak for everyone; and while I personally may not be inspired by much of the abundant mediocre-to-sub-par content online positioned as “inspirational,” there may be others who are inspired by (some of) it. Afterall, quality when it comes to art especially is largely subjective. And though I may cringe upon seeing some basic cookie-cutter shit for the 11,437th time, there’s probably some kid in his teens or early twenties who finds it awesome. (Maybe that kid was me twenty years ago, in some cases.)
I’m still finding balance in offering critiques such as these, figuring out how to communicate the whole concept without too much weight going into cynicism - which could easily happen without diligence in ensuring that balance.
At times I start writings such as these, unsure of why or losing sight along the way of the larger ideas originally intended to convey (kinda like right now). “No statue was ever erected for a critic,” the saying goes. (Hehe, “erect.”) For all the criticisms I’ve dwelled in and expended energy sharing over the years, I seem to be realizing it is often an expenditure with great opportunity cost - dwelling in negativity rather than actually creating from inspiration. Though at the same time, perhaps this loops back to the overall theme as considering maybe “inspiration” isn’t always the ultra-positive sugar-coated rainbows & unicorns fairytale many think & attempt conveying; that returning to the view of “in-spirit,” sometimes that creative impulse of spirit needing expression is of a critical nature - not for the sole purpose of (cynical) criticism of itself, but the criticism being only one part of a larger process involving not just identifying what may be seen as subjectively “wrong” at a given point in time, but a broader discernment of how things have evolved in ways that may not be the most beneficial and could be course-corrected to influence more-favorable outcomes for both ourselves individually and societally.
Like, shit’s getting kinda crazy on planet earth lately. Whether one’s focus may have been on the hardships of economics & finance, the divisiveness & destructiveness of politics & war, cultural degradation with the breakdown of core sustainable human values & basic intelligences, or whatever other physical manifestations of collective confusion & distortion have been shaking heads and fearing for future generations, the human experience in 2024 has turned out quite a bit differently than most of us probably anticipated a way’s back… and not entirely for the better. It doesn’t matter whether you identify as politically left or right, man, woman, or any of the other 126 mental-illnesses institutionally accepted as “genders” these days, most of can agree upon the fact that some things are due for change - whether the conclusion is drawn as looking through the lens of ‘climate change,’ health/disease epidemics, conflict in the Middle East, governments exercising increasingly-tyrannical controls, systematic poisoning of our food & air & water, political encouragements for children unable to drive or make adult choices to identify as a fucking genderless cat, chop their dick off and pump them full of unnatural hormones and ballooned botoxed lips, etc, etc.
Fact is, that’s where we’re at. And we don’t need to keep on trying to “wake people up,” self-righteously projecting blame on “elites” and singing the same songs of victimization. Nor does spiritually-bypassing it all through some kumba-ya “love & light” escapism do anyone any better, really. Alot of it is just some damn complex systematic issues with no clear, simple solutions, despite how many might want to try preach with fake certainty; not to oversimplify in a different way with the thought-terminating cliche of “it is what it is,” but this is where we’re at in our collective evolution - which is occurring on massive scales over far longer periods of time than any of our puny human brains could possibly comprehend (perhaps with the rare exception of a brief window of hyperaccleration into a higher vantage point during a psychedelic trip). There is only so much any of us can do, when it comes to many of these larger-scale expressions of the discord, imbalance and distortion in our collective psyche playing itself out on the grand stage of earth.
Though maybe, there’s some nuggets of Truth in all those spiritual platitudes implying that what we do individually does make a difference. That our individual frequency does have ripple effects. That “doing what we love,” “living from our heart,” etc. does make a much-needed contribution to the whole. (As per David R. Hawkins’ scale of consciousness and the science implicating that a person calibrating at the vibration of love counterbalances for millions in fear, etc.)
Now consider “doing what you love,” “living from your heart,” etc. = “inspiration.”
There’s more than enough noise of parroted opinions cluttering overcrowded echo chambers, the feedback in/of which only adds to further distortion, confusion, and chaos in the collective field. The opportunity cost of the time spent participating there: an inspired, inspiring life. Which would mean not only the difference between a hell and heaven of one’s personal life, but a contribution to the whole of just more distortion perpetuating chaos or a higher benchmark of clarity, integrity, and harmoniously-aligned power as disengaging from the disorder to honor & embody higher potentials. If we actually want/hope to see positive change on our planet, inspiration might actually just be one of the fundamentally-essential keys to it.
And we don’t need the commoditized cookie-cutter versions of inspiration™ pushed by "life coaches" and self-appointed self-help gurus regurgitating scripts optimized for marketing "results"… We need the clear, undistorted, authentic, genuine frequencies of individuals living their unique blueprint & purpose thriving in the true inspiration of what brings them radiant peace, satisfaction, and success in their own terms.
So why the criticism: because there’s a literal world of difference to be created as traversing the chasm of a gap between the capitalistic version of “inspiration” many have been leaning towards/into and that of true inspiration.
Because somewhere along the way, we fell off the wagon, began valuing the wrong things, and spiralled out into norms where “inspiration™” became a marketing tool yielded with intent to manipulate audiences for financially & egoicly self-serving purposes - *at the cost of the clarity required to live fully-authentically & inspired in one’s unique, heart & soul-based frequency.
Yada, yada, yada.
Of course, take all the above with a grain of salt.
Perhaps I am the one late to the party, not here to preach but be the recipient of my own words after having drifted off into the conditioned programs criticized. Surely there may be others living truly inspired and inspiring others in ways I’ve subconsciously projected otherwise onto, with part of the criticisms an outgrowth of healing yet to be done over the wounds of having “lost my way” from the inspiration I once did seem to have for life. Afterall, who would I be, but a “loser,” to put down a bunch of kids as “shitfluencers” or whatnot for living what I think might be based on corrupted values, *while they are the ones excitedly travelling about joyfully and “living their best life” with friends as I remain ‘stuck’ and alone in unfulfilling hermitude.
Though again, ”balance” - not to discount the merit of observations and wisdom emerging through my intimate experience which allows for mature discernment to speak through/with the criticisms in ways that may serve others and the collective (if only through a ripple effect of frequency as refining my own, unbeknownst to what degree.)
Who shall read this let alone resonate, who knows. Hopefully it will have been a worthwhile shared exploration, imparting seeds that shall sprout in the (collective sub)conscious to tip the scales a bit further back into balance towards recognition & proper valuation of true inspiration as weeding out some of the patterns we’ve fallen into that’ve averted too much emphasis into misuse of the distorted conceptualizations of commoditized “inspiration™.”
And may we all, in our own correct timing, find our way to a true inspired & inspiring life - whatever that may mean & look like for ourselves, and if so we choose to undertake deconditioning from all the ideas of what it might look like in order to unveil the most pleasant surprises of our true unique frequency shining through in its inspiration.
Or some shit.
Activation complete.
(And to leave y'all with perhaps the most inspiring musician & performance I've come across in years...)