The Background

Ever played Pokemon?

You play as a traveling Pokemon trainer who goes out to win badges in order to become the best trainer in the world. The world is filled with other trainers, but very few of them are travelers. They own shops, provide daycare for Pokemon, work at plants, bike shops, etc. Basically, everyday bull, same as the real world.

Ever played an RPG?

Most RPGs are focused around one or more heroes who travel around slaying monsters, doing quests, saving damsels in distress, changing the world, etc. However, most people in these types of worlds are not travelers. They’re blacksmiths, merchants, commoners, farmers, peasants, beggars, soldiers, government officials, kings, etc. Again, basically the same crap you’d find in the real world.

Ever watched a heroic movie?

There’s always a small group of people who go out and rebel against something. You cheer these people on. In their world, other people are not like them. Other people are, once again, everyday folk who live everyday lives and don’t try to do anything about anything. They’re content to carry on existing.

This is the Hero vs the Background.

As a child, I played Pokemon. As a teenager (and right up until the present day) I loved RPGs. One watches movies at all ages.

In all of these cases, even as a small child, I wondered why everyone wasn’t doing the fun stuff. I thought how bored these people must be in their houses, or standing around selling wares, tilling fields, etc. I thought, “Why isn’t everyone an adventurer? Why doesn’t everyone go on grand quests to change the world? Why are they leading such mind-numbing existences?”

As a youth, I couldn’t figure it out, and it bothered me. It was hard to suspend my disbelief. People just weren’t acting like they would if these worlds actually existed. These worlds were much more exciting than our own, and in such a world, why would someone be a farmer or shopkeeper? Poorly done fantasy, I thought.

Then I grew up.

I noticed that this is exactly the way things would operate in these worlds, as that’s exactly how they operate in ours. Most people are The Background. Very few are Heroes (or Villains).
In fact, we can call this Active vs Passive.

Most people are passives. They simply exist in their little sad bubble and never venture outside of it. The princess is too far removed, the dragon too strong, the monsters too many. It’s easier to just tend to sheep and mind one’s own business. Can’t get in trouble that way, no sir. No floggin’ fer me today, m’lord.

We live in an electrifying world, at an especially thrilling time. Never before in history has it been so easy to connect with like-minded individuals and fight for whatever cause you want. And never has the world needed change more. There exists no more promising fantasy for the Hero than our real world. We live in the best of all possible worlds. We often wish we lived elsewhere, though, since our daily grind is so tedious. We imagine ourselves to be heroes in fantasy because that’s the last thing we are in the real world.

If you find life boring, it’s because you are the Background. The Passive. In a video game or a movie, you would be a commoner that would go unnoticed by the main focus of the story. You would be a nobody, just as you are a nobody in this world.

If you aren’t contributing to the world in some way (no, I don’t mean by having a job and keeping the economy afloat), then you might as well be dead. You are serving no purpose whatsoever, and I shudder to think what low-quality thoughts pass through your mind each day.

If you have a job, but your ultimate goal is getting home to watch your TV or play your video games each night, cuddle your pet and snuggle up to your partner, then you are a waste of existence. You’re an insult to life because you’re not living it. You never dare to step outside and really look at the world. You never dare stand up to the Final Boss because you could never defeat him. He’d laugh at you as he tore you in half, sending you to your deserved end.

You are the villager in need of a Hero. The peasant groveling to a master, the beggar on the street, eating rats off a stick for sustenance. You are a joke. In a painting, you’d be one of the nameless faces—The Background—only providing scenery for the main focus of the picture—The Hero.

Are you happy with that?

You must be, since not a single person I know in the real world has ever offered to join me in attempting to overthrow or change anything. Not a single one offers any encouragement or support. Not a single one gives a damn about anything outside themselves and their bubble. Not only have they not offered, they actively refuse when asked. They spit in the face of knowledge, learning, self-mastery and world transformation for the greater good.

Some of the worst ones actually turn against me because I am too politically incorrect, or cause too much division in their “orderly lives” or whatever other bull. These people are the lowest of scum.

I can’t even see the difference between people and the products they attach themselves to anymore.

It’s too hard to learn. It’s pointless doing anything. We can’t change a thing. Excuses excuses excuses. Lies you tell yourselves so you can get on with your comfortable existence of lazing about on couches, eating garbage, and watching TV. That’s the sum of your lives. You are human Couches. Human Mars Bars.

So, this is a call-out. If anyone is interested, just hit the volunteer button, and you’ll soon find your work that will transform you out of the Background and into the Main Story. Do you want to transcend, and transform the world as a result? It’ll take hard work, and it won’t be easy by any measure. But hey, it’ll prevent you from wishing you lived in fantasy worlds.

The real world is a threatening, hostile place.

It’s controlled by the global elite: people who as individuals and a small group embody the concept of selfishness, the character quality of greed. What clearer definition could there ever be of evil than to ignore the blatant and preventable starvation and oppression everywhere while actively amassing the needed resources unto themselves and to their own progeny? What greater need could spark you to become a Hero? Equal Opportunity for Every Child is the answer, and the Millionaire’s Estate Tax is the way to get it. So let’s go!

But the Weak won’t. They are the Servile. The Pathetic. The Cowardly. They are the passive Background and that’s all they’ll ever be because they never seek anything else. They are chained in Plato’s Cave and refuse to see the light.

I love all those who seek to help themselves. I despise all the rest; my contempt for them is unfathomable. My People actively pursue Equal Opportunity for Every Child—in the real world. My enemies oppose this change, either actively or passively—in the real world.

Time for a new role?

by Jonathan Holm

Tags: background, change, child, commoners, dragon, equal opportunity for every child, final boss, games, global elite, hero, Millionaire's Estate Tax, monsters, play, pokemon, princess, real world, resources, role play, rpgs, teenager, transcend, transform, video games, work