Beautifully Eccentric – Poppa Neutrino & Simple Complexities

There is much to our lives and how we define “self”. Some require median circumstances, whereby they purchase new vehicles and manicure their lawn, or buy boutique things – coffees, food, artisan candles, and every once in a while (probably more often than thought) a few reject the median and go to the extreme. Poppa Neutrino (b. William David Pearlman) is an example of extreme.

The highlight to the documentary Random Lunacy is the raft, not boat (don’t call it a boat), that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The raft was composed entirely of garbage, designed by Poppa, and crafted with the help of like minded individuals. What strikes me most out of documentaries are the wills of focused people.  When people act upon a piece of desire, it might not be a life calling (but a desire nonetheless), they manage to achieve expansive goals and find fulfillment. The obvious message of Random Lunacy is to do what drives you, and to reject all notions of conformity. This idea permeates all forms of media and it’s not entirely accurate to reality.

By the nature of personality, there are only so many ways to exemplify self. Although Poppa Neutrino rejects the material world, he still exists within one. He still wears clothing, has a sense of pride, creates objects to keep and use, covets success, and most of all, has children. Neutrino’s definition may be different than the suburban family unit, but in many ways holds the same ideologies and prejudices. There seems to be the pervasive notion that by rejecting, or replacing, mass culture, we somehow change for the better, that somehow because things are free, we too are free. It’s still a definition, just a difference of mind.

Within our culture, counter-culture, non-culture, framework, we seem to think that we differentiate ourselves as unique. By adopting a lifestyle different from our neighbors we find distinction and individualism. But reality is different. Because of the limits of life (there are only so many ways to live) we in many ways will never be so different beyond what we perceive  This is the problem with our culture. By identifying true individualism (a unique self) as a possibility, we fail to see the constraint of similarity, that no matter what, you have something in common with your neighbor. Quite simply, if your neighbor can eat, and you can eat, you’ve found a median.

Although we’re similar (more similar than we perceive), this doesn’t mean that we don’t have ambition. Ambition is greater than individualism. Ambition creates and destroys. It’s the separator of success and failure. It’s the precursor to action. One could even argue that ambition is action, after-all it does change a thought process. If we begin to focus on ambition as freedom, instead of individualism, we will create a more collectivist society. Ambition requires the help of others to achieve a goal. Understanding that it isn’t I that moved forward, but we, our goals will become similar, as it is by default, but recognizing our successes as our ambition, instead of individual conquest, our standard of living might raise.

P.S. These statements obviously lead into an entire other discussion of who accomplishes what, and that it was you that did the work for your goal, but the aim of the article was to focus on our similarities as compared to our differences, and that in many ways it requires more indians accepting that we’re all chiefs, but chiefs that should work in unison for a similar objective.