The thoughts of a cynical optimist. Batman and the Joker.

I'm Robin Liepman. I'm perceived to most as a pretty happy, optimistic guy. That is my social persona. But I find that the more I wear a pasted on smile, the less I'm in touch with reality, and with myself. But pessimism doesn't help either. Pessimism is the curling of the soul into the fetal position. Lately, I've cast aside my bounciness and become more of a cynical optimist.
This doesn't mean that I'm going to conform to the standard of angry white boy smoking cigarettes, constantly listen to politically driven anger rap, and insulting everyone I disagree with. What it means is that I'm going to look at life through a more realistic lens, but push myself towards that which makes my life better and the world better, under the belief that progress is achievable.
Psychologist Carl Jung introduced a concept called "the collective unconscious." This is basically mob mentality, the social group accepting certain concepts and patterns into their reality. We see this when we read about oppression in the USA, Nazis just "doing their jobs."
Moving on from there, I would like to talk about entertainment. Entertainment without a doubt alters the collective unconscious. It is a hand which molds the clay of our minds. Our minds can be molded positively or negatively.
Let's take for example, the Joker in the newest Batman movie.
The Joker stands for mayhem, destruction and craziness, which stems from an apathetic or pessimistic worldview. Apathy is a very destructive force, which created a lot of the worlds shit, such as homelessness, trash, the addiction to world of warcraft, and liposuction, to name a few. I think the Joker was a blessing in disguise for all those people who are secretly emo but held within a certain social norm that renders self-expression such a daring task that most don't walk that road. When this movie came along, many of the true apathetics, pessimists, and crazies were able to express themselves using the Joker as an access point, but in a way that made people say, "oh, it's the Joker! WHY SO SERIOUS! Hahaha." The Joker has become a form of Jesus to the apathetic and distraught, which allows them to explore the dark realm of their twisted desires by... well... wearing eyeshadow and lipstick.
But as cool as the Joker was in the movie, I side with Batman. He fights the negative, but remains a cynical realist. Batman knows what the fuck is up.
This brings me to comedy. Comedy is a mental place in which we are aloud to complain, insult, and express our deepest thoughts and emotions, if we can craft it in a nice package that the audience will accept. By doing this, the collective unconscious is made more aware of that which exists but is either unaware of, or doesn't pay much attention to.
Comedy can be the Joker that twists and turns our social condition, making us morph into a unified mind that enjoys having shit thrown at us so we can take that shit and throw it at more people.
Or Comedy can be Batman, that shines light into the face of darkness and laughs heroically as it is rendered powerless by the police of the mind.
Well that was my blog for today. Sorry it was late and a little unorganized. Cynical optimists are busy.

Energy Drinks [Paul Herzog

I drink too many energy drinks now. Three a day, at least. I feel like I’m on a one way train ride to diabetic island. I don’t know why either, they taste pretty terrible. They taste like a mixture of metal and gasoline. Which explains why when they wear off you feel like you got hit by a car. Drinking them is just like the first time you drive a car on the freeway. You get on, and start going so fast, it feels amazing. Then two hours later, BOOM, you crash and piss your pants. Wake up like, “Uhh what happened?? Did I die?! Why am I peeing blood?”

Energy drinks always have badass names. Monster, Full Throttle, Rockstar. Which is bullshit because I’ve never felt like any of those things when I drink one. I’ve never been drinking a Rockstar and suddenly a bunch of hot chicks throw their panties at me. They should give them more accurate names like, Jitter Getter, Bladder Buster, or A Diabetic Future.

They have their own special section at the gas station too. “Over here is the normal soda...and over here is the ENERGY DRANK!!!” It makes you feel like you flew an F-15 into the sun.” The energy drinks are looking over at the normal soda like, “We don’t like to be associated with them...pussies. You drink us and you’ll probably beat a grizzly bear in a cage fight. Probably. Fuck a ‘Coke and a Smile’, we want some action, bitch.” You know that they’re made with bull semen too right? Who was the guy that was watching the running of the bulls and was like, “I bet if I blow one of those things I could move like that!” Bulls don’t even seem like the best choice. I’m waiting for the energy drink made with cheetah semen. That’s gonna be fucking chaos. You drink one of those and you will literally take down a zebra and eat it.