I noticed recently, while watching a reality TV competition show that there is a strange phenomenon that the powerful now use in order to control the weak; the capacity to possess access to fabricated dream-fulfilment. It has probably always been rife but it suddenly struck me the other day when watching the X-Factor that the contestants in all of their delusion have completely missed the point. They talk about this being ‘all they’ve dreamed of since they were a kid,’ and how if they don’t reach the next stage their ‘dreams would be shattered’ etc.
It got me thinking, what exactly is their dream?
When is the cut-off point at which they can say it has been fulfilled?
And did the original dream have someone else in complete control?
I guess what happens to these contestants is actually very consistent with a real dream, you find yourself thrown around, arriving in different rooms with different people not knowing exactly what is going to happen next before eventually being chased, falling or worse being stabbed or punched by someone or something that you cannot control – it takes something like this to bring you back to consciousness, at which point you realise it was ‘just a dream.’ It is amazing how quickly a dream can turn into a nightmare.
It is not only X-Factor where we see this; programmes like Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice for example are exactly the same. You find people so desperate for the quick fix that they submit control of themselves and their ideas to authority in unprecedented ways. Look at the difference between a Dragon and an aspiring beneficiary of their money. Take Peter Jones for example, who tried and failed on several occasions before eventually doing very well out of his Phones International Group. He didn’t just stumble upon this; it took years of gruelling work, nights sleeping on his office floor and the loss of his house and cars along the way. I don’t know what his dream was, but I’m sure it was ever evolving and that it became more about the journey made up of little dreams rather than any particular end dream in itself. Whereas an aspiring beneficiary would swoon in, ask timidly for £100,000 and end up giving up nearly half of their business. I doubt you’d find many entrepreneurs similar to the Dragons having done the same thing – many work their way up the ladder, gaining vital experience and building meaningful relationships. It is however, also these people (dragon-types) who convince the rest of us that our dreams can only be fulfilled if we sit in a certain box, present ourselves in a certain way or submit to their way of thinking about the world. Remember, the number one priority of all these people is profit and those at the top want to keep people below them so that they can gain even more.
I don’t know what Simon Cowell dreamt of when he was a child but I think it is ludicrous that there are now silly numbers of people who see him as the gatekeeper to their ‘dreams’ – a dream that will last for ten minutes before they fall off the mountaintop into a devastating crater and the next set of freaks are rolled out in front of the blood-baying public. No, he is a profit-hungry businessman trying to make as much money as possible; he knows that the music being produced is as meaningless as the people singing it. He also knows that there are millions of people literally living for Saturday night so they can squander their money on phone calls to save these strange, insecure creatures. He might be living his dream yes but there’s nothing virtuous about what he is offering to his contestants.
As far as I’m concerned, ‘living the dream’ is about an ever evolving sustainable dynamism and being able to do what you love and feel drawn to do even when the odds are stacked against you. It’s about starting at the bottom and crafting something through trying, through failing, through investing your time and effort, and through experiencing everything that can be thrown at you, constantly re-evaluating/adjusting and not giving up. It is about forming relationships with others rather than obligations and indebtedness. It is NOT about being famous and it is NOT about making millions, when these are your priorities you become desperate, you become highly irritating and you will more than likely end up selling out. It is about taking control and not submitting yourself and your work to someone who full well knows you need them a million times more than they need you. We need to dream but we also need to learn to take control and lucid dream for if we don’t our dreams can quickly become nightmares and the fall can be much harder to get up from.
To sum up, lets stop watching so much TV and actually invest all our talent and time in meaningful ways. Don’t allow the powerful to box in and control how you view what you can do with the abilities you possess…
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