What I most want to know is how to always be happy. How can I always be happy?
- Ashley Y.
The first thing you should do is pick up a copy of Hello Cruel World - 101 Alternatives to Suicide. If you try as many activities as you can muster, and rotate regularly, you should be able to do something that makes you happy every day.
Everything in the book is categorized from self-loving to self-destructive and a relative level of difficulty in accomplishing the task. But be warned, it doesn’t let you wallow in the shallows. “Hello Cruel World” offers potentially life altering tasks. Even delving into trading one addiction for another, if that is what it takes, escapism and cutting.
Number 79 in the list is “Take drugs. No really. Take Drugs,” has what I think is the best advice that can be given about chasing happiness There is no guarantee that you will ever be able to stop. Ever.
Chasing happiness for most people becomes an addiction. It is difficult to hold as a goal because it is ephemeral — always changing. Happiness is more of a side-effect than result of the things we do in our life. If you really want to be happy all the time give your self permission. Permission to be content, permission to accept small accomplishments, and permission to be a success even when you meant to do something else.
How do people get away with Racism?
- Peter D.
Well there was a time when I would have said something cynical. Something like, you get away with Racism by being rich. But those days are behind me. Today I understand that Racism is different than racist. Individuals can be racist, only institutions can commit racism. So getting away with racism generally takes a confluence of political power, fained ignorance, institutional deficiency and a lack of human decency. Famous purveyors of Racism include Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic and Dick Cheney. Which I guess brings me back to my original thought, you get away with Racism by controlling a national treasury and an army.
Why is it that you only see malt liquor commercials on BET? Do they really think that black people are the only ones that drink malt liquor?
-Jaime
That is a really good question, in the sense that it highlights that most people don’t know what malt liquor is. Malt liquor is more than just 40s and Colt 45, it is any alcohol created from barley that exceeds certain legal limits for the definition of beer. Ritzy companies like Hair of the Dog call their high alcohol drinks, over 10% by volume, “barley wine” to make them sound special. Meanwhile, Bacardi, Sparks, Boones, et al are also malt liquor. I forgot Zima, drink choice of both girls and effeminate Australians is a malt liqour.
My friend Christopher “Pez” Ashley makes a very compelling argument that the most lucrative malt liquor purveyors are, actually, wine cooler distributors. And that white women are the major buyers of such things. So, Jaime and I would like to see more malt liquor ads during The View and less during Def Comedy Jam.
