Step right up to the greatest show on Earth, where hypocrisy is the main attraction and you'll find yourself entertained by the acrobatic twists and turns of self-righteousness. The trend of being 'high on my own supply' doesn't come from corner dealers hustling on street corners, but through the ever-so-sacrosanct sylvan of culture and ideology dominating our social landscapes. Back in the day, the phrase meant not dipping into your own product if you wanted to run a successful business, a straightforward warning against indulgent naivety. Nowadays, it seems some segments of society have perfected the art of staying high—and they're hooked on their own ideological supply.
Let's set the stage, shall we? We find ourselves at a time (today), in a place (Western democracies), where culture wars rage heavily. Why? Because various factions can’t drop their feel-good ideologies, addicted as they are to their own righteousness. What do I mean, exactly? Remember, ladies and gentlemen, virtues are like the finest of wines: enjoy them too fervently, and soon you're the fool stumbling through the streets, insisting everyone else's company is just dragging you down.
Consider the ever-expanding bubble of ‘self-love’ infesting all of our timelines like digital kudzu. Who needs personal growth or accountability when you can just declare yourself perfect and sell your 'authenticity' as the new currency? The problem is, my friends, that the line between self-love and self-indulgence is as thin as paper and about as stable as a celebrity marriage. As delightful as it is to advocate for self-improvement, one can't help but notice the irony when everyone in the room claims to be an expert without any formal education, declaring that their lived experience trumps your accumulated knowledge or historical fact.
Next, we march onto the battleground of climate change, where textbooks and personal agendas frequently clash. It goes like this: pontificate about saving the Earth, but ensure you’ve booked that extravagant eco-tourism trip that involves a long-haul flight, more environmentally friendly only because you tagged it #EcoWarrior on your Instagram. Between private jets and mega-mansions, the clatter of silver spoons is deafening, but who could argue with a million-dollar donation offsetting your kilo-ton carbon footprint? Pretty helpful that righteousness makes you prance around as if every solution just needs another bureaucratic layer, however ineffective—that's bound to save the world.
Education, too, finds itself not unscathed by this phenomenon. More and more campuses are turning into echo chambers where critical thinking, once a fundamental pillar, is overshadowed by ideological purity tests stricter than a semester at West Point. Offer an argument against the popular sentiment of the day, and you might as well be writing your own expulsion papers. Why face facts when, instead, you can demand them—and anyone who disagrees with you—to pack up and leave your safe space?
Let's not ignore the media empires, the bastions of ‘truth’ selling their delightful flavors of bias, each convinced their narrative is the panacea for the masses’ ignorance. The nonstop loop of confirmatory biases satisfyingly assures its viewers that they are indefinitely right and any contraposition to their argument is another daft viewpoint afloat on a sea of dangerous misinformation. This media makes sure their consumers not only stay conveniently misinformed but, just like customers to a suited candy man, come back for more and nod their heads in sage agreement to every spoon-fed notion.
All of this clinging to their high supplies leads to an intriguing paradox; we are more connected than ever through technology, but the divide between various viewpoints has grown exponentially. Ironic, isn't it? For those raising the banner of unity and connection through digital threads, it seems lost in translation as if throwing their proclamations into an echo-laden void. What's a worldview worth if it never comes down from its pedestal to meet reality on common ground?
Look around and it becomes apparent that most of what we see unfolding today isn’t just a trend but a spectacle. Pick a side, defend your post with righteous indignation dressed as value, and whatever you do, don’t question what’s in that syringe of dogma or else you’re just a stitch in this cynically wove tapestry. Try as they might to guide society with misguided principles cloaked in the guise of advancement, they’d do well to heed their own advice: stay off their own supply.