-> "An Important Reminder"
 -> by Mogel
 -> Taken from HOE #1000 (1/9/00)

	Expression is progression.  Please remember that.  Expression is
 your ability to interact with a THING and have something HAPPEN.  You
 will find, that it's particularly pleasing when the producer and the
 produced are the same thing.  Being yourself doesn't mean you can't be
 someone else, too.  You are not yourself, you are someone else--you.
 Get it?
	Expression is art, entertainment, media, thought, writing, ideas,
 sounds, images, uniqueness, listing things, self-awareness--living.  And
 if you're not living your life, you're living the life someone else
 handed you on a plate, smeared with some shit you can't identify and
 wouldn't want to, even if you could.
	And why are you doing that?  Does it make you feel you have power?
 Does it make you forget how empty your life can be?  Does it give you a
 BONER?
	What do those things really mean?  Sorry to be so off-base and
 confusing.  Can we pretend sincerity is "OK" if it's self-aware?
 I'm talkin' about bein' real, of course.
	I'm talkin' beyond the hedonistic urge of "WOW!".  Toutin' that
 "it's just entertainment!" ethos, where tasteless sucksters pretend that
 thought pulls the punch--but real punches do damage, no matter *how* you
 look at them.  I'm talkin' beyond the pretentious, the art fags--sittin'
 in their delusionary "cool lunch table", jerking off to a fancy camera
 angle.  I'm definitely talkin' way beyond the people that hide behind
 "cultural relativism" as a means to justify something fully intended to
 give Rico Suave a throbing erection.

	What I'm suggesting is this:  it's good to think about it.

	Here it is, real simple:  men with money make the media.  They
 demographically study you.  They decide what everyone likes in common.
 Those things are simple things (I LIKE DA BOOM BOOM BOOBIES).  They use
 their accrued money, money that you've flooded them with, and they
 produce the same time-tested, lowest-common-denominator bullshit over and
 over again.  Why shouldn't they?  It works!  You've proved it, by 
 throwing your money at them over and over again.

	They're banking on your bad taste.  They are us.  We all hear a
 lot of really shitty things getting praise.  In reality, it's because we
 don't know any better.  Chronic crap, Pavlov-style.

	I am not dissing you because you like crap, I'm dissing you because
 I expect more.  I'm only anti-establishment if the establishment just
 SUCKS.

	How many of you jackasses talk about the PeRFeCt SoURCe CoDe--so
 down on Microsoft, aren't you, but you still cried when you saw Liv
 Tyler's stunning performance in ARMAGEDDON, didn't you?  How many cliches
 do you NEED?

	One Man, One Gun, One Mission
	It Was A Clean Wound, The Poor Bastard Probably Never Saw It Coming
	The Killer Was A Pretty Scary Killer
	Isn't It Funny How Tragedy Brings A Family Together?
	Armed With A Wet T-Shirt, She Ran For Her Life
        High School Sucked Quite A Bit
        A Natural Disaster Can Certainly Be A Bad Thing
        Adorable Child Gets Murdered, Everyone Cries
        A Number of Bullets Are Being Fired, People Are Dying As A Result
        Misunderstood And Loving It
	Pretty People Who Do Zany Things And Shit Blows Up

	Originality is difficult, but if we keep apathetically embracing
 crap, we're like autistic retards, talkin' the same bullshit year after
 year.  Is that really what you want to be like?