It’s Not That Bad Bro

2018. I had just finished a recording session for an undergraduate composers final project. The band was on a smooth high from the music & we decided to go down to the Keg & Brew for a beer. The night was warm & inviting & I wanted a cigarette. So I proposed we drink outside. The outside dining space was a pitiful sight with only just enough chairs for the four of us to sit. I lit my cigarette as did two of my mutual sonic travellers, before a tall, bearded true-blue bartender came out & informed us that we were not allowed to smoke in the dining area.

I asked him how this could be considered a dining area, with a table barely able to fit our beers on. He dismissed me to something of the tune of “rules are rules.” Frustrated I remarked to my fellow smoker,
“man, this shit is ridiculous.”
He scoffed “It’s not that bad bro.”
“Depends on what you’re comparing it to.” I said & put out the cigarette as per the man child’s request.

So why am I subjecting you to this story that so clearly paints me as a bad guy disturbing the peace & polluting the world with my second-hand smoke? Because of that one remark.
“It’s not that bad.”

This phrase I hear out of the mouths of happy-go-lucky under achieving yuppies instantly sucks the momentum out of any experience. As the words come out of their mouth, the horrors of the 3rd world slam into my psyche to contextualize our sorry little mediocre moment that has just been ended by yet another boring Aussie colloquialism.

What I am trying to get at here is hard to argue against, because it is true. Thing’s are pretty damn good overall when you compare the extremes of poverty overseas to Australia. I can’t argue that “it’s not that bad.” But this logic is the perfect justification for never needing to strive for something more. Something bigger, better, more exciting. We are so privileged, — obscenely so — that the most benign achievements are seen as such an event as to be praised & admired. The underlying emotion of this phrase is denial. it offers the same kind of naive sugarcoating that the term “nanny state” provides so that we can all agree that it’s not as bad as a police state. Which is what it is.

It always seems to be the government’s responsibility to achieve anything. There is no Australian Elon Musk that has the means to build an east-coast bullet train, because the “it’s not that bad” mentality sees to it that no one can be bothered to become the next Musk, Einstein, or Hendricks. At the same time, the Australian public seems to constantly miss-fire its hatred of the rich towards foreign billionaires instead of its own oligarchy. Decrying the evils of coal mining companies while not even realizing their own dependence on it, & without any intention to do anything aside making a placard & showing up to yet another disappointing protest.

Really, collectively we can’t even begin without enough individual people becoming self-aware of the fact that they are monsters & angels simultaneously. In one way or another, the lineage that got you from your bacterial origins to right here involved the killing of competitors. Accept this, & you can then accept that you, like me, like everyone is a hypocrite. We all have a hypocrisy budget, so spend it wisely, give generously to those you can, & for the love of God stop saying “it’s not that bad” as an excuse to be a lazy, underachieving, spineless Jono.