The Gospel According to the Selfie
The Modern Age of Preachers, from Life Coaches to Influencers
Let's talk about these social constructs for a moment, shall we? Money, time division, the American Dream, invisible borders, laws—you know, stuff that only exists in human minds and not in the physical world.
Now, back in the day, you had your good ol' fashioned religion, right? You know, your priests, your rabbis, your monks – they were the original influencers, preaching their gospel and selling salvation like it was the latest iPhone.
But fast forward to today, and we've got a whole new breed of preachers on the block. Consider the ‘life coaches’ and ‘influencers,’ strutting around like they've got the keys to the kingdom…I mean success.
Life coaches?
More like modern-day messiahs, am I right? They'll sell you the secret to happiness for the low, low price of your soul.
Works for them. So why not you?
And don't even get me started on ‘influencers’ the euphemism for what used to be called, ‘actors’ or at best, ‘entrepreneurs.’
Back in my day, an entrepreneur was someone who actually built something, not just someone who took selfies and called it a business. But hey, who needs a real product when you've got a personal brand, a soul to sell, am I right?
Don't forget to ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’, by the way.
See what I did there? Ha!
It's like we've swapped out the pews for Instagram feeds and the sermons for sponsored posts. But listen, the message is still the same – buy this, follow that, and maybe, just maybe, you'll find meaning in this crazy world. Or at least be distracted from the looming idea of eventual certain death.
But wait, there's more – these modern-day preachers, they don't have a monopoly on authenticity, on truth. They sell themselves. They are the brand reading from their own gospel.
Yet at the end of the day, real wisdom isn't something you can buy off a shelf or double-tap on a screen. And I don't think you can pray it into existence either. That's like thinking the door will open itself—you can stare as hard as you want, but it won't swing open until you get up off your ass and grab the handle.
Authenticity, truth, materializing, that's something you gotta dig deep for, something that comes from living, from struggling, from failing, and getting back up again.
So next time you're tempted to drink the Kool-Aid of the latest life coach or influencer du jour, just remember – the only person who's gonna save you is you. And that's the gospel truth, my friends, straight from the book of Joseph Allen Paine.