Life Imitates Art
The television show “The Simpsons” is the longest-running American sitcom and perhaps the most syndicated program globally. Initially, this program was centered around the antics of the delinquent “Bart” character and his mischief in an animated situational comedy format. After a few seasons, the Simpsons switched its focus to Homer Simpson and his evolution over the next 31 years. Since then, Homer has come to represent the American patriarch and comic icon whose hapless stupidity reflects the tragic condition of the blue-collar suburban male devoted to both his family and appetites in the backdrop of popular American culture. What if Homer Woke Up?
Homer’s lack of sensitivity, anger, fear, and apathy are outward manifestations of his lazy and mindless attitude. Part of this can be attributed to a crayon lodged in his brain, which he himself stuck in at the age of 6, reducing his IQ to 55. Once removed by scientists, Homer’s IQ rises to 105. However, Homer’s newfound intelligence offends others when his intellectual discoveries lead to job layoffs and offensive actions against his neighbors and coworkers. Unhappy and alienated, he voluntarily has the crayon re-inserted by his bartender, Moe.
Why Wake Up?
Waking up is not about an intelligence factor measured just in terms of IQ. Being highly intelligent does not mean the entire spectrum of intelligence is covered. There are other forms of intelligence we now recognize since this “HOMR” episode aired in 2001. In recent times, the term “woke” is used to describe a pretentious awareness of social injustice. Since 2001, emotional intelligence has come into mainstream consciousness with an emphasis on environmental and social concerns for a more informed society. The aspiration is to increase compassion to build a more compassionate society and just world. Emotional Intelligence is the goal.
What makes emotional intelligence different is first-hand knowledge, with a collective voice against conditions that ignorance and mindless behavior perpetuate. Inspirational Leaders effect change by uplifting people and unifying them to serve a higher purpose. These Leaders teach us to value what we would ordinarily ignore. What makes the difference is effort, attitude, sacrifice, and decisions. Discrimination is the right attitude against patterns that oppress people into submission. When we see this in ourselves, emotional intelligence enables us to exercise compassion towards ourselves and improve our values.
How Do We Fall Asleep?
What lodges the figurative crayon in our heads? Mindlessly accepting traditions and attitudes from sophisticated profiteers. In the US, and other parts of the world, manipulation by way of marketing is rampant. Subliminal advertising and the use of misleading content influences collective beliefs toward cultural trends and the choices that we make with the money spent by consumers and votes cast by those who vote. We are seduced by the idea of finding easy happiness.
Very few people are aware of the historical origins of the Public Relations industry introduced by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Using his knowledge of psychoanalysis, Bernays made his living by persuading buying decisions using popular media i.e. news outlets since 1929. This is now an art form.
What Do We Need to Do?
We need to be smarter than those lulled into a sleep-led complacency by allowing manipulation from social engineers. Today, social media platforms including 24×7 news media outlets that influence personal beliefs indirectly with a deliberate selection of content, veiled bias posing as objective journalism while obscuring issues of significance. We need to invest time in ourselves instead and develop higher self-esteem to be awake.
Being more self-aware and using our time toward goal setting is an important shift toward growth. Maturing your attitude toward others that you do not agree with and in spite of that working with them productively to solve collective problems achieves more than you can do alone. Tune out the hype from external influences, and work on matters of common interest. The alternative is increasing alienation, social issues and instability.
What is the consequence of allowing a public relations and marketing manipulation to go unchecked and yielding your power to the marketing complex of profiteers and political opportunists? When your mindset changes as planned to a pre-occupation with scarcity and status, your values decline down to material and superficial differences. A product-oriented culture fails to recognize relationships.
The Real Punchline
In the last several decades since the Simpsons first aired, men are more Homer-like than at any other point in recorded history, measured by scientists studying the primary male hormone testosterone This decline is associated with mood disorders, poor diet and inactivity. Eating and acting mindlessly coincides with behavioral issues, negative attitudes and declining health with the result of achieving a true Homeresque profile.
If Homer were to wake up, he would realize the tragedy of his situation and reverse the course of his inevitable decline. Most people that resemble him should. By realizing the inevitable consequence of his lifestyle, he would control environmental factors under his control such as diet, limiting psychological manipulation, and internal conditions that lead to poor eating habits, self-medicating and codependent relationships. What Homer lacks with or without the crayon is self-awareness. More Americans today, and in the western world in general laugh at their own fate when they laugh at Homer.