Your Dreams Are Stupid

It’s ok to make fun of someone’s dreams if their dreams are stupid.  Most people’s dreams are.  Almost all dreams are about wanting money.  People with dreams about families and home and hearth and all that have a goal that involves large amounts of money and many years of work doing very undreamlike things.  And when someone says he wants to be an actor, a writer, a musician, a comedian, a chef, et cetera, what he means is that he wants to be a professional actor, writer, musician, comedian, chef, et cetera.*  A person can be any of those things while earning a living another way.  Of course, there is a point where that “dream” is given up and the life the person has is retrofitted in his memory as something it is not, his dream.  Or at least some sort of acceptable alternative dream or life or what have you.  In either case, it’s something that the dream is seen as detracting from.  It’s also sometimes called “growing up”, which is just a way of validating what is essentially an oppression.  Freedom exists in only two places, the grave and the mind.  Accepting the validity of the “growing up” argument acquiesces a measure of this freedom.  It is an acceptance of the semi-arbitrary dictates of reality, or society, or structure, what have you.  None of this of course means that the person can no longer be an actor, writer, musician, comedian, chef, et cetera, just that it is no longer a vocational pursuit. 

The gears need to keep turning.  There is nothing wrong with that.  We need farmers and tradesmen and office workers, butchers and bakers and candlestick makers.  Dreams should be detached from physical security.  They are about freedom, autonomy, sanity, contentment.  Bully to all who make their living through their dreams.  But do not commingle your dreams with your sustenance, for you gut them if you do.  You can chase carrots or you can chase dreams.  The carrot wins if you try to do both.  The carrot mutates the dream into not wanting to work for a living, and little more.

Draw a picture, paste copies on telephone poles.  Write a story, publish it online.  Join a community theater.  Write some jokes, perform at open mic night.  Cook a gourmet meal, serve it to your friends and family.  Do it even if you are already getting paid to do these things.  Otherwise, your dreams are stupid. 


* If your dream is to be a dancer, it is categorically stupid, even if you are not trying to make money doing it.