You know how
this goes by now….
For some strange made up reason you are being forced to make a decision that will have major ramifications on the rest of your life. In this case the choice you are required to make will effect how you communicate. You must choose between a lifetime of sarcasm or sincerity.
Once you have made the choice you will only be able to communicate in the manner you have chosen. Either everything you say will be sincere or it will be sarcastic. Does this sound like an easy choice? Well, like’s think about some potential consequences.
The first is that for all the lip service we pay to it as an attribute, people tend to be suspicious of folks who are overly sincere. We tend to assume they’re part of a cult of some kind or are merely pretending to be that way to try and sell us something. It’s why a lot of people don’t like Tom Cruise, because that smile always seems so heartfelt and genuine (and why shouldn’t it be? Dude is Maverick).
But the major impact on your life will be the fact that you won’t be able to lie. Since you will always say what you genuinely feel, you’ll run into a lot of ways to get yourself into trouble and you can only avoid so many of them before something unfortunate happens.
Also, it’s harder to be funny when you’re being sincere, since it’s the direct nemesis of snark, which is known to all right-thinking people as the lowest and easiest form of sarcasm.
So, a potential benefit of choosing sarcasm is that you might be able to score a freelance writing gig or two at Gawker, but the main disadvantage is that you will never be able to express what you really feel about anything. Once again, everything you say will be suspect, but this time because no one will ever have any idea what you really believe. They’ll assume that everything is a joke to you, so you can tell the truth all the want–most people won’t believe whatever you have to say.
I didn’t say it was an easy choice, but it’s today’s choice. Which one do you think you could like with more?
My sarcastic self wants to say, “Gee, I totally wanted to consider these choices and present an intelligent argument about my decision in the comments, but after finding that first glaring typo, my train of thought completely derailed and I had to skim and scan the whole entire piece!”
My sincere self instead poses the question, “What does ‘Well, like’s think about some potential consequences.’ mean?”
#selfrestraint
#youinspiredme