Getting Lost on my way to Syracuse (10/15/14)

I stopped watching the news a long time ago. Part of my reason for my ongoing 10 year boycott of the news is that I don’t believe journalists report the news any more. I think they at best provide a biased view of world events, and at worst misrepresent or fabricate what is happening altogether. The world is always coming to an end. Then someone who is supposed to be looking out for the best interests of the people parades in front of the camera to scare the public into believing him or her while simultaneously attacking his or her competition.

I’ll be willing to bet that those elected officials parading on TV have never gotten lost on the back roads like I did in New York and Connecticut on my way up to Syracuse. If they did they were either not paying attention or worse yet they simply didn’t care. What I saw were people living on the street looking for somewhere to keep warm at night. I saw boarded up store fronts and vacant rundown factories.

I would go so far as to say it was a terrifying sight to see. Everyone I saw was at best living paycheck to paycheck scraping to get by, and they were only one moderately negative event away from being destitute. So if I can see this so plainly why is it that the people who profess to be fighting for their constituents blind to the fact, or is it that they are fighting for their own self interests and not their constituents?

I bring this up because my friend Freeman told me it was going to be a hard-sell for me to convince people that I was an Average Joe based on my background. To a certain degree Freeman was correct. When I talk to most people what I get from them is that Average Joe is tied to mediocrity. I guess where my point of view differs is that I see Average Joe as a person who doesn’t position himself or herself as superior to anyone else, just one of the guys. Mark Cuban has a billion dollars in the bank, is an iconic person, and from what I’ve seen of him he’s an Average Joe.

One of the most important points of the book is that “they” aren’t different than us. Are the icons,  celebrities, and affluent different than the 99%? Absolutely! We are all unique and by definition we are different, but we aren’t fundamentally different. Even “royalty” is no different than you or me. They can claim that they were ordained by their creator if they want to, but at the end of the day a long time ago someone in their family seized control of their country by force and they remained in power because no one wanted to challenge them, end of story.

This myth of superiority has been around forever, and it’s about time we let it just die. It is the foundation of what holds us back from pursuing our dreams. The truth is the only difference between where we are and where we want to be is that we don’t truly want to be there yet. You don’t want to commit to the sacrifices it takes to get there, and that’s okay. That is honestly the most powerful realization I have ever had because it puts all the power into my hands. The only drawback is that once you believe it you become accountable for your successes and your failures; that’s a scary proposition.