CNN'S HEROIC KARMA VISION

by a.b. barnett

I commend CNN for its initiative of acknowledging the spirit of individuals who seem to be impelled, by their conscience, to perform good deeds. Nevertheless, I couldn't disagree any further or stronger, with the proliferation of all the other ill-begotten heroic deed contests. The problem resides, precisely, in the conjugation of these two words: contest and hero; as well as the dubious methods by which their nominees will be selected as winners.

In the first place, an act of heroism is, by definition, selfless; hence, it is the result of spontaneity consciousness and valor. A deed whose sole reward is crowned by the fruition effected through the act itself. Thus, they're all winners in my book.

Secondly, I'd like to know since when did WISDOM establish its dwellings in the realm of the mobile vulgus, or the vacillating crowd? It seems everything nowadays is in contention; as if Good Deeds and Art could, or should, be judged in the likes of jousting lists, or 100 meter sprint races, in order to determine a winner. Why can't some people comprehend that True Art and Good Deeds are inherently Triumphant?

I can't believe the archetype of crassness has laid its rotten egg in the nest of our consciousness by way of a chain of meretricious companies and tv shows that purport to be reputable bastions of credibility; and yet, it has, apparently occured. This trend is such an insidiously stealthy plague, that it seems we have become practically, if not utterly, inured; and, in the process of such inuredness, have branded it the “new standard” of a spurious pattern of selection.

The impregnation of our immanent asylums by these contentional cabals, has allowed me to painfully perceive the distorted ways by which some people would manage to walk erectly, regardless of how low a bar may be positioned. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the time for a deep probing introspection has been long overdue.

We need to take into account that we are, basically, closed thermodynamic devices; therefore, the energy we exude, and will no longer be available to us,can be measured. However, the remaining amount, which is not unlimited, we will never be able to fathom. For this reason we should expend our energies wisely, instead of engaging in a senseless and wasteful entropy that, in the end, would transform us into the pawns of a uniformed inertness.

I sincerely hope the Nobel Foundation doesn't feel compelled to adopt such a spurious and bathetic trend to choose their honorees; yet, I still cannot comprehend this new distorted and dichotomic view on heroism. Because it is an utterly crass idea to subject all those selected heroic deeds to a sort of popularity contest. As a matter of fact, CNN has wisely kept the word contest at bay, for they are,obviously, aware that genuine heroic deeds ought to be exultantly recognized, rather than being utilized in some futile money-making canard.

This act of appreciation by CNN, reinforces its reputation, besides proving that it practices what it predicates in its mottoes. I only wish the selecting committee could just acknowledge every single nominee that has already been felicitously chosen.

All in all, the purpose of this essay is to decry every connivingly expedient scheme that distorts and takes advantage of everything that has been conceived under the umbrella of Good Intentions. True responsible media, as well as other corporations, should function as beacons of edification; therefore, they should cast a guiding light in lieu of an obscuring shadow. Nonetheless, we end up being disserviced by meretricious corporations that have chosen to arrantly appeal to the rigid prudes and the laxly salacious in a simultaneous and blatant display of what's truly genuine in them: venality, connivance and expedience.

In my humble view, there should be more alternatives offering an eclectic voice; a voice effortfully aimed towards the promotion of an affordable sane objective: a Homeostatic state of Mind. Needless to say, if we're able to elude the pits of profligate wastrels, by all means,we should be able to afford it.

The problem, with this inauspicious phenomenon of contentional fever, lies in the fact that an unsound majority is giving too much credence to casuists; their siblings the sophists; and their cousins the imbeciles and asinines. Therefore, this infamous family, as infectious as it's always been, is nefariously prescribing its bathetic cues to accomplish nothing; and after the lessons that have been accrued in our collective millennia, we should be aware that this whole Zeitgeist, or rather Poltergeist, can be summarized as: ex nihilo, nihil fit, or nothing produces nothing. So, let us embark on the ship of goods to produce from something.

By a.b. barnett