Being Righteous
Since publishing Conspiracy Heads wherein I describe the ways people interact with conspiracy theories, or broadly mass narratives, I wanted to figure out where I stand, what my telos is.
I was listening to the Unmasked interview series conducted by Ron Bennington. In this series Ron interviews the top comedians, not necessarily popular, but comedians who stand for their craft and point of view.
In Patrice’s Unmasked interview he describes his MO as wanting to be righteous, not in a religious sense, but in the actual definition:
right·eous| ˈrīCHəs |
adjective
(of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous
What led me to the Unmasked series was a youtube documentary which breaks down the spirit and perspective of the irreplaceable Patrice O’Neal:
Patrice O’Neal’s generation who appeared regularly on the Opie and Anthony radio show are good and revered because they are righteous. Comics like Louis CK, Dave Attell, Jim Norton, Nick Di Paolo, Robert Kelly, Colin Quinn, Greg Giraldo and I’m probably missing a few. Many of these comedians appeared on Colin Quinn’s Tough Crowd.
Righteousness is a common trait among people I admire. I don’t fully agree with everything these role models say. It’s an attitude I’m concerned with in just about everything I can think of. It seems to be lost in this generation (younger and older than myself), that you can hear someone speak and digest everything they said in context then judge for yourself what you feel. I hope people become more bold, not just emboldened by what they are told to believe in.
Too often people attach themselves to ideologies and idols. That isn’t righteous. At the other end, you have a guy like Justified Arrogance, like a year or more ago, who tries to cancel John Joseph and Harley Flanagan for not being “woke” or accepting covid guidelines. All the while selling bootlegs of Cro-Mags merch and laying on his bed like a little girl with pig-tails, chewing bubblegum and fawning over shirtless promo photos of Cro-Mags from the 1980s. Not righteous. For one Harley and John are right in their skepticism and how could you ever listen to Age of Quarrel and assume these guys would be down with government mandates and superficial identity politics? Because Mr. Arrogance was concerned for his neck, with his fan-girlish brand fetishizing people who were going against the popular narrative. It would have been righteous to stand with them or just ignore the ankle biters asking you to cancel someone else - “Will you stand for this?”, “Do you condone this?”, if anyone is asking you questions like that tell them to suck a dick. They are speaking as a megaphone with a thousand other faces flashing through their mind, completely insincere and concerned with social status. Or sincere and mentally deranged. People cling to nebulous social movements because they are lost or their lives are in shambles…
“You can be sincere and still be stupid.”
―Fyodor Dostoevsky
In this clip, Patrice tells Opie and Anthony how Hollywood works and how it compromises people's integrity. What he says really goes beyond Hollywood. Today everyone is concerned with their Image, a narcissistic pathology that has infected everyone through social media. It feels like a curse that we’re so corrupted by our image. But it’s crucial you either meld the two - your real self and Image - or keep them separate. I envy my friends who live life and have social media without needing to express themselves or project an image to the world.
Something great about Patrice on O and A was that he was challenged on most of what he said, either by comics, radio hosts, or callers. He had to stand on his words and figure out what he was trying to say, which often led to him saying something profound.