The Limits of Ability

From a news roundup article at Anonymous Conservative linked in Vox Day’s “The charade of success”:

I always thought it bizarre Erik Prince walked into the CIA, fresh out of the Navy SEALs, heir to a billionaire fortune, as comfortable in a high-society soiree at a five star restaurant as he would be hip deep in mud somewhere getting shot at, high IQ and full of piss and vinegar, and CIA told him he didn’t have what it took. The guy who built an entire shadow CIA/Pentagon from scratch all on his own, tearing shit up across the entire globe, maybe with a hand in tearing down the Cabal, didn’t have what it took to be a case officer, or a paramilitary? All throughout the country, people were moving into their final positions in life, doors opening, others closing due to the vagaries of fate (or so they thought), blind to a machine that was all around them, amassing files on them from the time they were children with reports from the other little kids in the school around them, watching them, looking to compromise them, and having failed, expending its effort thwarting them or moving them somewhere else. How many good young kids, filled with ability, effort, and determination, had a dream like being an actor, or a writer, or a reporter, and they ended up expending their entire life on the dream, betting everything on themselves, and died baffled at how they ended up failing while surrounded by untalented rubes who soared? All because they trusted the lie of the Myth which the nation they pledged loyalty to sold them. And they may have been the lucky ones. The ones you really have to pity may end up being the ones who ended up on the red carpet, and getting to where everyone thought the real success was. The things they may have endured, may be unimaginable.

I’ve seen it before back when I was armpits-deep involved with the music scene in general. Bands, mediocre by all accounts, out of nowhere suddenly getting major label record deals, hailed as the next big thing, sometimes sticking, sometimes not. If you were in a band, were good enough and hustled enough, you could get somewhere but it was very hard without knowing someone…and it was even harder to know someone, aside from dumb luck.

Linkin Park struggled as all bands did, but only by a fraction. They signed to Warner Bros. because they knew Jeff Blue, who had become the label’s vice president. Blue had also helped them previously while he was working for Sony, and got Chester Bennington to join them after their previous vocalist left. They released their first album, Hybrid Theory, when they were barely college graduate age, with only a demo and an EP in their discography, and I don’t think they even toured before the album came out.

This story arc is nearly unheard of. That’s not to downplay their success, but they were riding on the rapcore/nu-metal wave, started by Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, etc., had done before them. Audiences were primed for that kind of sound. Linkin Park had songwriting chops; they weren’t mediocre but not groundbreaking by any means, and Hybrid Theory eventually sold 12 million copies. But, better bands and artists have slogged through much more to achieve only a small percent of what Linkin Park achieved.

If it feels like they came out of nowhere, it’s because they did, but it’s far less suspicious than noticing politicians that suddenly emerge into positive popularity (Obama). Unless you’re hypnotized, you’re going to know something artificial is going on the cause all of that fame.

It’s only a conspiracy insofar that we don’t know the details. In some areas, winners are selected, not voted upon by consumers, and if you’re someone who has the power to make someone famous, what are you asking for in return? There’s a lot more ugliness involved with those deals than any of us could know. To paraphrase an old saying I remember, too much success can be at least as dehumanizing as too much failure.

Related, this subject reminds me of P.O.D.’s “Hollywood,” the first song on their major label debut. I wonder if they had seen some things that made them write this.

All-American boy with big dreams of glamour life
Bright lights and boogie nights
The hype is everything could be yours if the price is right
Grab your nothing and hold it tight
The first chance you get your heading out to the west
This decision is one you won’t regret
Move to the place where everybody knows ya
Like Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

So you wanna be a superstar?
Welcome to Hollywood
Quick money, fly women, fast cars
Welcome to Hollywood
So you wanna be a superstar?
Welcome to Hollywood
High times, big dreams, living large
Welcome to Hollywood

One way ticket, then you’ll live this
Life of a superstar caught up in this business
God as my witness, you will never change
Only been here a day, already in the game
You changed your name; you don’t even look the same
Now you’re on top of the world: money, power, and fame
Picture perfect, just like you planned
No longer him, ’cause, you’re the man

You’ll never get the best of me

The time ticks away, you’ve had your play
Sold your soul for the roll, now you gots to pay
Forfeit integrity, overnight celebrity
Settle for selfish gain rather than dignity
Another sucka, why did you trust a playa like me, fool, eternal hustla
I’m taking everything now and you know
I hate to tell you, but I told you so