{"id":72300,"date":"2019-09-24T17:35:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T22:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/?p=72300"},"modified":"2019-09-25T12:03:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T17:03:51","slug":"art-having-nothing-to-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/2019\/09\/art-having-nothing-to-lose.html","title":{"rendered":"Trickster-Hero: The Art of Having Nothing to Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

(TMU<\/a> Opinion)<\/strong> \u2014 <\/span>Governing the precept that the <\/span>self is masks all the way down perceiving delusions all the way up<\/span><\/i>, it stands to reason that one of those \u201cmasks\u201d would embolden the self to question all delusions and break all masks. Indeed, one of those masks <\/span>should <\/span><\/i>embolden the self to the extent that it thinks it has nothing to lose. That mask is the mask of the trickster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When a person dons the mask of the trickster they becomes the personification of a trickster God in training. Playful yet ruthless. Foolish yet fierce. Contrarian yet cunning. Seductive yet demur. Enigmatic yet chaotic. Flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants yet free. The personified trickster is an anti-hero par excellence, a hero bound by neither code nor conduct, a hero with nothing to lose. Nonchalant, unruly, passionate, a dauntless maverick testing all boundaries and stretching all comfort zones, despite resistance from the petty, the prudish, the pacifists, from cowards and fence-sitters. Indeed. Despite even his\/her own resistance. For the trickster must first trick himself into thinking he has nothing to lose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trickster as Catalyst:<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cFreedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Martin Luther King Jr.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The task of a trickster hero is both Dionysian (passionate, artistic, ecstatic) and Sisyphean (unavailing and endless).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It takes a unique type of courage to be a catalyzing agent. Trickster as catalyst is a planter of unwanted seeds, of difficult truths, and brutal motivation. These are seeds that promise to outgrow the stagnant culture with its antiquated laws and outdated beliefs. These are the difficult truths that bypass convention and face a mirror in front of the fallibility of the human condition. The kind of brutal motivation that kicks us in the ass for being lazy, shoves us into the abyss for being pretend-forgiving, and drags us kicking and screaming into either the self-improvement or self-destruction of our own unique adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trickster as catalyst is an existential alchemist. He\/She bridges gaps from lead to Fool\u2019s Gold, from Fool\u2019s Gold to the Golden Shadow, from the Golden Shadow to the overman overcoming himself again and again. He creates and destroys God, and then rebirths God in so many forms that no human culture can keep up. He\u2019s made an art of it, just as he has made an art out of self-transcendence, self-annihilation, and rebirth. The trickster hero would rather be ashes than dust.<\/span><\/p>

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