About Followers or Fans

Post 1091:

            I don’t like being led. Frankly, the impulse makes no sense to me. I’m totally down for suggestions and new ideas, but the notion that the world is full of leaders is strange. School was kind of fun though I think the idea of rebellion probably formed there.

            Yeah, my teachers thought I was kind of a jerk. I kind of was. Hey, kids, am I right?

            Well, I guess I never grew up. Authority and me have been fighting it out ever since. And just like the song says, Authority always wins. That’s why it’s called the Authority.

            So submission is the solution. Path of least resistance. Go with the flow. Be adaptable. Water, not stone. Can’t fight city hall. Death and taxes. Don’t make things hard on yourself.

            Yeah, none of that works for me. I like being different, and I don’t trust people just because they’re on a screen and they wear a tie or whatever.

            Now here’s the part where I become a hypocrite. I follow a lot of writers and actors and musicians and thinkers. So I’m a follower after all. Still, I’m really following their work. I’d rather be called a fan. I don’t really care what they do personally, I just want to hear their ideas or enjoy their creations. I divorce the art from the artist. This gets harder and harder to do these days. Everyone’s on the screen. This is a pipedream, but I wish we could go back to the times when you read a novel and the only thing you ever knew about the writer was written on the book jacket. Tom Clancy. Ok, looks like a dude and he knows a lot about military stuff. That was always good enough for me. I didn’t care about his dogs or his politics or causes or anything. He entertained me as a kid and got me through a lot of long car trips. Thanks Tom. I’m a fan.

            So I get it’s a matter of taste to some degree and to some degree being a fan and a follower are only slightly different. But it makes me feel better to say I’m a fan. Though not of the movie The Fan. That movie was sort of weird and not great.

            Random thoughts today, a little all over the map. Oh well. It happens.

            Cheers and see you after.