I was returning a pair of sneakers purchased during the holidays to a sporting goods store called Finish Line. The attendant at the register requested my phone number for the return. I said “No.” You didn’t need my phone number to sell me the shoes, so you don’t need it to return my money either…” He sought to explain he needed it to create an account profile that included my phone number to refund my purchase. I repeated my “No” whereupon he requested his manager. When she came over espousing the same party line, I repeated my “N” but this time with a question: Which one are y’all having a problem with, the N or the O?
We live in a world of Creeping Competitive Authoritarianism. No less an authority than Webster describes Competitive Authoritarianism as “… A regime that is democratic in appearance but authoritarian in nature or a civilian regime in which democratic institutions exist in form but not in substance because the electoral, legislative, judicial, media, and other institutions are so heavily skewed in favor of current power holders…” When our No isn’t sufficient or our Yes is unacceptable, we are dealing with Creeping Competitive Authoritarianism.
I deal with people In These Rooms every day that suffer from the effects of Creeping Competitive Authoritarianism. They see themselves as bad people needing to become good or sick people to needing to get well. Me, I am a badass becoming a more beautiful child of the Most High God every day. I categorically refuse to accept any authoritarianism or anybody that makes me in anyway feel less than or does not accept my No as no or my Yes as yes.
“…We are all fallen, flawed and fallible. We all have our demons. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. Most of us sit down to shit and we all have gangster proclivities. No one is better than anyone else for everybody has some shit going on and the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all trying to get home the best fucking way we know how…”
Hunter
In the biblical book of Genesis, there is exchange between the biblical character Adam and his God.
“…Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?”
Genesis 3:9-12 | NIV
When I hear people In These Rooms describe themselves as a “…selfish, dishonest piece of shit…,” I want to ask them, who told you or taught you that? What authority told you that you were anything other than a beautiful child of God? That is the voice of that damn Creeping Authoritarianism BS. Unfortunately, sometimes that voice is in our own damn heads. BTW, I got my refund without giving up my phone number. Just saying…
Read more about Hunter and tell your story. Listen to Hunter’s Podcast. All on wreckedamerica.com. In Wrecked America, #CompetitiveAuthoritarianismMatters
The Struggle Continues…
