The Samson Society group that meets at Crossgates Baptist Church is now meeting (starting tomorrow - 8/21) on Saturday mornings at 7 AM.
For more information contact Mr. Bo Hust at bhust20@gmail.com or (601) 270-5820.
Friday, August 20, 2021
Thursday, August 19, 2021
MSRP / Impulse Buy / Loss Leader - The Economy Of Internet Porn
We are all consumers. As modern, 21st century human beings, we must be, for we have basic needs that we ourselves - more often than not - are unable to meet (pragmatically), and this positions us to take on the role of a typical western consumer (purchasing food, clothing, or shelter).
Many of you know how cheap I am relative to fast food, and I'm like this because I revile in the ubiquity of retail storefronts. For they serve as a constant reminder of how costly it is to consume (for I too, ain't no farmer). Therefore due to this ubiquity, avoiding this 2021 retail reality is quite difficult (if not impossible) to achieve, for there are so many storefronts - main street & virtual available to us (w/ more and more coming each day) that cater to just about everything imaginable. Thusly, I SO OFTEN FEEL TRAPPED WITHIN THIS RETAIL ECONOMY, and in turn protest by keeping my wallet close to my vest.
So what is retail, and why does its ubiquity offend me so?
Retail, in concept, is as follows: precisely packaged, marketed, and pitched goods at the very top of a supply chain. As a side note to that statement, for the wealthy, methodically / unabashedly paying retail price is often (though certainly not always) seen as a sign of "what it means to be" truly affluent. As such, retail represents the most convenient, most polished, most effortless consumer transaction available (that also happens to be the most pricey), and this is because the retail pricing structure is so heavily layered (from deep within) relative to its specific narrative (supply chain arc). A narrative that had to take place (& justifiably be paid for) in order to bring a consumer all of the convenience, polish, and effortlessness therein.
There's Rob's summary of the concept of retail from Econ 101.
I want to revisit this statement before we go any further (expounding on more econ lessons in relation to Internet porn), for I believe it speaks to the notion of entitlement which is just about as pagan a term as there's ever been, and we don't need to miss that.
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Working at the Chick-A-Fil in Northpark Mall throughout high school gave the teenage version of Rob a firsthand look at retail fast food (fried chicken sandwiches and fried potatoes) consumers.
Chick-A-Fil is in line with other companies like Applebee's and Chili's (franchised restaurant chains) or Nissan in that they appeal equally to both whites and blacks. And this is a critical cultural accomplishment for these companies relative to the massive monetary success they've achieved. For so many companies that set up retail operations here in the Deep South ultimately fail because their business model isn't successful in "traveling" between races.
Therefore, I as a 15-17-year-old, was exposed to all manner of economic class (impoverished blacks to wealthy whites) of Mississippian whilst working part-time at the Chick-A-Fil.
I can recall one busy summer Saturday at lunchtime, watching in awe as a rich, white (& very tall) woman exclaimed repeatedly to my cashier colleague, "I don't care what it costs, just give it to me like I asked!"
What she was referring to was a uniquely customized order (for her and her beautiful - and all very tall - family) that had my co-worker befuddled.
In a similar vein, I sold a minivan (I was a Chrysler / Plymouth new car salesman one summer whilst in college) to a ostentatiously rich, white guy during the long since defunct "Mississippi Fairgrounds Sale" of 1991. After he'd decisively agreed on a final purchase price, I lead him to the "Business Office Tent" (in order for him to write a check for the purchase).
To my horror, in spite of the line of customers waiting it out quietly under the big top (there in the stifling summer heat), he traipsed directly to the front of the line. And after pushing a lady aside, he sat down in one of the two "Accounting Guy's" chairs and proceeded to carry out all the necessary paperwork relative to his cash purchase / retail transaction for his new luxury minivan (1991 Chrysler Town & Country).
From there, all I could do (as a 19-year-old) was hope I wouldn't be fired (I wasn't) once the dealership I was working for returned to its Highway 80 location the following week.
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Western corporations most salient, reliable consumer are children (& adults who consume like children).
There's a nugget of truth from Econ 101.
Why is this? Because children embody the notion of entitlement. If you're short on understanding what the word entitlement means, simply think of a (western) child's self-centered outlook on almost everything.
Too, children have little to no impulse control, and this is why so much retail merch is displayed prominently at the check-out line within most retail big box stores / restaurants / convenience stores. Retail impulse buys account for a massive amount of revenue for companies. And, it's all exorbitantly overpriced incidentals (junk drinks, junk food, junk magazines, junk toys) that children (& adults who consume like children), in particular, can't seem to resist.
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Now, let's take these econ concepts that we've reviewed / explained so far and attempt to apply them to Internet porn.
Firstly, the Internet represents the highest echelon of retail. It is not only the retail zenith but the city floating in the sky. And primarily, this is due to the illusion (I can't stress that enough) of privacy that the Internet provides the consumer. For what is the most bothersome aspect of having a storefront retail experience (big box / restaurant / convenience or specialty store)?
Zero privacy. Instead, you're inconvenienced by all of those other consumers (of various races / socioeconomic backgrounds) that you're forced to share the retail store with.
And that's so very...unentitled. And those folks are so very difficult to "justify" all those impulse buys to (whilst around them).
Combine that Internet consuming "luxury" (privacy) with the impulse buying setup of impulse buying setups. For it's simply a click, and another click. And one more click. And everything just magically appears (as you've ordered it up) right in front of your eyes. And from there, you're experiencing the novel giddiness of technological entitlement.
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A side note:
Back when I consumed mucho amounts (hours and hours) of gay porn online, it took me awhile to figure out a bizarre physiological side effect.
For I'd come away (sorry) with super dry eyes. So dry, in fact, that I was unable to do much of anything to stop the intense stinging (& subsequent redness) for hours on end. Therefore, my only recourse was to lie down with my eyes shut.
What was happening was as follows: Whilst consuming Internet porn, my brain was so pleased with its private, overly entitled viewing experience of naked people having sex that it simply told my eyelids to cease blinking throughout. Therefore, for hours on end, I'd blink far, far less than needed to keep my eyes healthily moisturized. And, of course, that no blinking Internet porn consumption session took quite a toll on my eyeballs. Ouch.
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One final econ 101 nugget for you here at the wrap up of this post.
Nintendo keeps a steady revenue stream intact by selling Mario, Link, and Zelda. (Those same tired cartoon characters from the '80s.) These are intellectual properties that are owned by the company, and this is what consumers (of all ages) purchase from Nintendo (mostly around the holidays) in the form of video games.
Nintendo also happens to sell video game consoles, but these are loss leaders and not part of their forecasted revenue stream. A loss leader is a retail gimmick that companies use to capture consumers indirectly. As such, companies position loss leaders to handcuff consumers into only purchasing their intellectual property (because it won't work at all or nearly as well elsewhere).
Think of the Nintendo Switch. This console may very well become the most purchased in the history of console sales (in the next few years). The Nintendo Switch is a loss leader for Nintendo. As such, it's sold at a loss to them in order to get more and more of the devices into the hands of consumers - all over the western world.
Why is this important to Nintendo?
Because it handcuffs the consumer to Nintendo's tried & true intellectual property: Mario, Link, and Zelda.
From there, Nintendo sells retailed priced video games that only work on the Nintendo Switch. And arguably, most of these games are simply upgraded rehashes of the same platforming, FPS, third-person action / adventure concept. Concepts brought to life via an Italian plumber, pointy-eared elf teenager & his bug-eyed girlfriend.
How might this translate to Internet porn?
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There're only so many ways to fuck. And there're only so many types of individuals one can observe fucking.
Internet porn consumers know this. And their brains know it too. Yet, there are characters (porn models) online who provide a somewhat familiar narrative (story) to the fucking. Let's dub them Bettie Breast Implant and Henry Bigdick.
Porn tube channels (offering loss leader "free porn") will only satisfy a consumer for so long, taking their favorite hardworking porn models into account. No doubt, these consumers are eventually going to desire more. More intense, more extreme, more hard, hardcore. Or perhaps it's just that continual craving for the very latest performance from that specific porn model(s).
But this is going to retail cost them. Plus, it may very well usher them into promiscuous behaviors as a result as they fall further and further down the rabbit hole.
Sexual intimacy was created by God to only be experienced - as a distinct representation of Christ's relationship to his church - within the marriage bed. Husband and wife together. Working collectively to pleasure each other.
It's not watching naked people fuck. It's not lust. It's not the same rehashed scenario scripted out by Bettie and Henry in the least. It's a beautiful, unique experience that embodies / represents love to the highest degree. (Even if there's no money shot.)
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So what's the takeaway?
Thanks to such the individual novelty embodied within today's Internet-capable technology, many of us are behaving like idiots. Idiots who're acquiescing more and more towards discarding any remaining semblance of our adult sensibilities. And we're all being screwed by tech-savvy companies. Companies much more interested in their bottom line than our well-being. As such, we're now within the golden age of the entitled, retail consumer. It's an age built on the illusion that we're actually fully in control (& completely comprehend the methodology behind) of our own hyper-convenient retail consumption.
Unfortunately, that's the farthest thing from the truth. We have lost all control, and very few understand who's actual behind the curtain. Therefore, until you wake up and realize just how uninterested these companies are in you and yours well-being, you're simply one additional dumbass sheep that's "addicted" to Internet porn.
Wake up! Grow up! Set yourself apart! As a Christian, you are a child of the King! Be holy because you are holy.
You're not rich. You (& I) have been duped.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Monday, August 16, 2021
"Everyone Needs A Dream." / "Successful People Can Help You Be Successful." / "It Only Takes One Misstep To Derail Your Entire Life."
The most confusing / appalling aspect to me of this world of woe is parental neglect. And that encompasses both the physical and emotional. For I cannot fathom why any parent would behave this way towards their children except under the circumstances of being either mentally ill or of a dramatically low intelligence quotient.
Children are a gift from God. They represent our future. They are our legacy in so many ways. These facts are what keep me befuddled as to why any sane, of average (or better) intelligence parent wouldn't make their children's well being of top priority.
For this is what God does for his children. The Bible is clear about that.
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Therefore, as our Heavenly Father, does he teach us to be
- Independent thinkers?
- Brown nosers?
- Fatalistic?
No. No. And no.
Christianity is rooted in the notion of being reborn, and the catalyst for that rebirth is faith. Faith gifted to us from God.
What's the significance of rebirth within Christiandom?
Procedurally, it symbolizes moving from orphan to adopted sons / daughters of our Heavenly Father by being clothed in righteousness. Righteousness that was purchased for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God's son.
Righteousness is the sovereign, perfected will of our Heavenly Father. In other words, think of it as the most perfect diamond on planet Earth. Flawless.
Therefore, our Heavenly Father is the perfect parent. Perfectly nurturing. Perfectly loving. Perfect.
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As a biological parent (dad), I'm fortunate to have three daughters. One of which is lasering towards young adulthood as she (here recently) entered into her collegiate career. It is my hope that she'll eventually become independent of me and her mother, and go on to do work that's in line with God's will for her. Perhaps she'll stay single or marry. Nonetheless, as she continues to mature forward, her mother and I are expecting her to lean in less and less towards us as her parents.
This is the complete opposite of what our Heavenly Father wants of us as his children.
He has no interest in us becoming independent of him or to rely on anything other than him for every good thing. Nor does he want us to focus on anything other than the present day (& all of its worries).
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In closing, what about everyone around us? Whether it's other Christians or pagan, what is our responsibility towards them?
To serve. To go the extra mile. And pray for their salvation as well. And we do this out of love that was first shown to us by our Heavenly Father.
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Being Pursued Platonically
When I entered architecture school at Mississippi State University back in 1990, I was fortunate to gain acceptance into the full program, therefore at Day 1, I had access to all of the necessary freshman classes (including the notorious 4-hour Mon. / Wed. / Fri. Design Studio) that I was required to pass in order to gain access to Year Two through Year Five.
But not everyone was as fortunate as I was. There was also a "Summer Track" for those who failed to gain full access as freshmen, and this particular track required intensive Design Studio summer coursework (Mon.-Fri. for 8 weeks) post-freshman year. From there, if you passed those summer courses, you were allowed to merge into Year Two with the original class. All in all, once these two groups were combined, we had +/-45 students at the start of Year Two.
As you might imagine, I found myself appointed to the group that had the emotional upper hand because I'd had a summer off in between my freshman and sophomore year from architecture school. Plus, there was simply the notion that I was somewhat "more qualified" than my summer school peers since I'd gained full access to the degree program at Day One as a freshmen.
And, whilst reminiscing, I certainly witnessed the ramifications of this discrepancy within some of my summer school (now) peer group.
Specifically, I can recall one student from Memphis who struggled mightily with the Second Year Design Studio coursework, and primarily, I believe this struggle was rooted in his difficulty in making friends amongst the +/-45 member Second Year architecture school class.
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During my tenure at Mississippi State University, I was also a clarinet player within the Maroon Band, therefore I was obligated to attend all of the football games that the marching band supported (which was 90% of the scheduled fall games).
I recall having the opportunity to attend the Liberty Bowl - MSU vs Air Force (with my clarinet in tow) during Christmas break of my sophomore year, and having the good fortune of running into this student from Memphis. He was all smiles as he excitedly asked me if I was still within the architecture program. I replied with a resounding YES, and this brought on an even bigger grin across his face. From there, he could hardly contain himself by exclaiming his decision to leave the architecture degree program (and MSU altogether) behind.
I remember standing there on the sidelines looking confused and a bit flummoxed, but eventually, I realized that his quitting had freed him from isolation and all the misery therein.
And some of that misery and isolation, I had indirectly contributed to, due to the fact that I was on the "higher end" of the aforementioned sophomore year hierarchal discrepancy.
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What makes an individual relationally compelling? What are those traits that provide a bit of a gateway for some individuals to be pursued platonically and others not?
Speaking specifically about this Memphis guy, I offer the following recollections combined with experience with others like him (including me).
1. Take an interest in other men.
1b. Ask thoughtful questions of these men.
2. Try to put yourself within other men's shoes.
And that's really it.
Now, let's expound on these.
1. Because we human beings are constantly self analyzing, stroking / managing our egos, it takes genuine effort to actually pivot our attention from ourselves to another human being for any length of time. But this must be accomplished if you're going to be successful in gaining friends. Too, we need to realize that since 99.9% of our time is devoted to this, that .1% that remains can most certainly be relinquished sans complaining. I've heard more often than not that guys can come away from initial junctures with potential friends and feel as if they were called to listen too much. But what they've failed to realize is that whilst given an opportunity, many men will not hold back in advancing in that direction, particularly if they've made the decision to invest their story (into someone else) for such a time as that.
Now, let's circle back to that one student from Memphis that I mentioned earlier on.
This student, just like the rest of us, was required to be in the second year studio space from 1 PM - 5 PM every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there in the architecture building. He was assigned a drafting table and stool just like his +/-45 peers. And that drafting table was amongst all the others (though from what I can recall, his was on the perimeter of the studio space).
That 4 hour, thrice-weekly class was every architecture students' time to design pretend buildings - for the most part - that had been assigned to us by our team of professors. And we had a lot of leeway in that class to mull around and critique each other's - in progress - work.
This one student from Memphis never took the opportunity to do anything for those 4 hours except work silently at his drafting table. In fact, none of us even knew his name because he was literally silent - at all times. In fact, the only time I believe I'd ever heard him actually speak was during the aforementioned Liberty Bowl juncture.
Now, I get that this young man may have had a shitload of personal stuff going on in the background that no one else was privy to, but even so, he was amongst an assigned, highly streamlined peer group. And we were all highly collaborative and overall very supportive (even taking the two sub-groups into consideration).
1b. When I was appointed to the position of Staff Architect with the Department of Finance & Administration (State of Mississippi), back in 2006, I was mated to an existing bureaucrat (who'd worked there +/-3 years), and as such, we were teamed to oversee both the planning (me) and construction (him) of publicly funded projects within a certain region of the state assigned to us as a team.
It was my hope at day one of my new job to befriend this now teammate of mine, but I was unsuccessful in doing so, therefore throughout the 6 years I worked there, my relationship with him was icy at best.
Why?
Because none of my initial questions / comments to him during my warmup (90) days had any real thoughtfulness behind them. Instead, what came out of my mouth towards him was mostly driven by emotion. And this reeked of arrogance or outright unintelligence (both emotional and cognitive). In fact, I can actually remember me driving the final nail into the coffin of our fledging friendship via yet another dumbass question from Rob.
No one wants to befriend a dumbass. I mean, who needs the hassle? Therefore, he chose not to befriend me.
As a result of this stupidity on my part, those (6) years at DFA were not nearly as enjoyable as they could have been had I simply made more of an effort relative to thoughtfully communicating with this newfound colleague.
2. And this last one is the hardest of all. But I will say this, it gets a whole lot easier to accomplish this one when you're a middle-aged man versus a young man. Gray hair equates to experience, and that experience is what enriches a middle-aged man's outlook on so many things.
Yet, experience does not begat wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from God, and I believe the foundation of wisdom is taking the time to rake through the "leaves of the past". Methodically and with intentions towards learning. Learning that's centered on maturation, sanctification, and forgiveness whilst being cocooned in humility.
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My Silas was just recently appointed to a new administrative position over the summer, and like I was when I was his age (he's decades younger than I am), he's been both elated to have been affirmed via this appointment and overwhelmed at the thought of the newfound responsibilities therein. Hence, all of these emotional and cognitive climaxes have had him obsessed with nothing but THE NEW J-O-B over the past +/-45 days.
And this has been to the point of me being intentional about pulling back a bit. For he simply hasn't had any spare grey matter for anything but THE NEW J-O-B, therefore there was no point in me attempting to lean in to my brother. Instead, I simply had to be patient with him. For it's not everyday that this type of milestone occurs.
But, the situation is beginning to change somewhat, particularly now that he's experienced one full week of his official administrative duties within the new position.
So, in light of what I detailed above (1, 1b, 2), here's my forecasted next move.
I telephoned him on Friday, (8/13) and he returned by call yesterday, (8/14). I asked him specifically about last week (his first full week of administrative duties at new job). And that was the only point of my call. Though he did, reflexively, ask about my outlook, I deflected the question, and really worked hard to interrogate him further thoughtfully about THE NEW J-O-B.
Then I asked him if it could be arranged for me to come visit him on the job soon in order to see firsthand the new setting he's working within.
And this is where I struck gold.
You could tell he was struggling to contain the excitement in his voice as he imagined me stepping into his vocational realm as his brother. And what I mean by that term "brother" is someone with a lengthy personal history (he and I have walked together formally - via Samson Society - since early 2019).
In closing, I hope this idea pans out. For I want this pursuit (his pursuit of me) to continue to be earned / vetted out between the two of us. No matter how hard or inconvenient it may seem to be.
There is nothing more valuable to me than nurturing friendships that meet my personal needs. Samson Society, throughout the past 7 years, has served as the ultimate petri dish (streamlined, assigned peer group) for these relationships to mature out of.
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