Open Letter To Kanye West

Dear Kanye West,

Recently, America was led by Donald Trump, while you ran for President during a pandemic and “The Black Lives Matter Protests” prompted many Americans to think “life in America sucks”. If this sounds like you, ignore your inner voice and instead, sublimate. Fortunately, we can choose a defense mechanism considered a positive strategy. People who rely on sublimation choose to redirect strong emotions or feelings into an object or activity that is appropriate and safe. For example, instead of lashing out at the government or peaceful protesters, you can choose to channel your frustration into an exercise routine you can do while you quarantine at home. I’m hoping you funnel or redirect these feelings into more wonderful music. As for myself, I sublimate through my writing.

I’m not claiming my approach is perfect, but life is too short for an infinite sequence of questionings, and questionings of questionings, and questionings of questionings of questionings…One must start somewhere. Fortunately, recognizing other people continue to lead productive lives while life seems underwhelming, is a step in the right direction. When the chips are down, we have to avoid the pull of counterproductive narratives/behavior that will inevitably hinder us in the future. Unfortunately, BLM has been monetized too. If the citizens of this country were looking for truths, politicians would be a lot more virtuous. Kanye, please help me. I’m finding out through my writings, truths are close to impossible to monetize. Yet, you continue to thrive promoting myths through distracting tweets and buffoonery (effectively) despite actions based on false beliefs usually going well only by luck. I believe your actions were your attempts to rationalize (explain) what I consider undesirable behaviors with your own set of “facts”, in order to avoid self reflection while promoting a narrative that allowed your supporters/fans to feel comfortable with the choice(s) you’d made, even if you knew on another level you’re actions were far from virtuous. If I’m way off, Kanye, please point out to me what I don’t see.

My other favorite rapper, (Tupac) was enamored with Machiavelli (author of "The Prince”). I want you to compare Machiavelli’s book with my free e-book (“The Stories I Tell Myself”) and point out to me what my limited perspective maybe overlooking. Despite its popularity (100 years after it was written), I think "The Prince” was probably the worst job application in history, since it did not succeed in its original purpose. Unfortunately for Machiavelli, he was not a very discreet person, but he did write about the world the way he saw it and did not sugarcoat the story trying to win over Lorenzo (the Prince), Lorenzo for his part, did not want to hear all kinds of unsolicited advice on how to maintain power.

Offering people well-intentioned advice is often counterproductive when the advice projects the adviser's weaknesses. Despite the best intentions, any advice has limitations regarding perception and enlightenment. The amount of information disclosed to the person from whom the advice is requested and the adviser's ability to conceptualize, describe and communicate the best course of action will determine the usefulness of the advice. The e-book I share with the world is free because I write for myself, in search of awareness, growth and enlightenment. I am not afraid of people benefiting from my ideas without being paid or validated. Yet, I believe most people show free rider behavior while waiting for externalities (other people) to do the work they need, or (if they do the work themselves) they don't share. The only hope is that more members of the community become educated through self-discovery. Part of the answer lies in the fact that we’re not merely in need of a lucid moment of self-awareness, we should strive towards ongoing self-awareness and avoid distractions. It’s rarely possible to predict when another person will have an epiphany. Once we realize that the reward of doing the work is enough, I hope readers see value in my approach (at that moment, the fact that everyone else did not participate in the effort becomes irrelevant). Being reactive just waiting for others to do the job, putting off thinking about issues rationally has no benefit. In fact, it incurs a future cost: you deceive yourself by using a "straw man" argument instead of an "iron man" argument. Instead of presenting someone's argument in its weakest form through introspection, we should try to present those we disagree with argument in its strongest form. So the reward of doing nothing is negative.

Presently, more than ever, many people of color feel alienated, cut off from others and themselves. Some mistakenly believe all white people to be contented, untroubled, ignorant or apathetic. They’re not! Fortunately, I’ve learned the ability to use language to communicate is an integral part of the human condition. We live within language, yet our way of life during a pandemic is something we’re finding hard to see. We start out relatively unconscious (mostly asleep) - as part of a collective. As we grow, our family, friends, school, religion, and culture shape our personality. Our experience holds specific guidelines of what we should believe, what things mean, and how we should behave. This conventional, outer world has structure and order. But within us is an entirely different world. And this inner world, for most of us, is as chaotic as what week day traffic in Times Square use to be like before COVID-19. We call this inner world the unconscious, of which we could say, is everything within us that falls outside of our conscious awareness—everything we don’t know or can’t observe within ourselves.

According to Professor David Logan, author of “Tribal Leadership”, 48% of the groups we belong to, at first, seem to be functional, with most individuals having a high regard for their place in the organization. However, many complain that they’re doing all the work. They form “dyads” – one-on-one relationships between two people – and have little communication beyond that. We find this behavior in most places where smart, successful people show up. Failure to confront our inability to continually and transparently communicate forces us to look for scapegoats to make up for when the story we’re telling ourselves doesn't add up. I believe it’s possible to show empathy through leadership. We can always accept the person, but sometimes refuse to accept the person’s effort as good enough. These values encourage dyads to become “triads” – groups of three people together with shared projects and common values. “Triads are the building blocks of Information that flows freely through networks and innovation enabling individuals to surrender. Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.

Kanye, there is room to go higher still. We should be able to be innovative to create new opportunities, allowing us to embark on history-making projects. This is how we end up changing the world for the better despite democracy’s many flaws - voting in an election is a skill, not a random intuition. And like any skill, it needs to be taught systematically to people. Letting the citizenry vote for Donald Trump or Kanye West in 2024 without proper vetting is as irresponsible as putting them in charge of a sailboat during a storm, with no sailing experience. In order to bring Americans together in 2021 and beyond, it’s necessary to agree the resistance we face is either conscious or unconscious. If well meaning citizens insist they have nothing to hide, understand what is involved and have strong motivation, we can only assume the resistance must be unconscious. I’m hoping your input bring attention to the things I don’t think I’m bad at and help me work through my unconscious resistance. This will involve a great deal of introspection and even then, it’s an extremely difficult job. One doesn’t usually have proper insight into ones own emotional makeup. Most of us spend our time trying to rationalize our behavior as a result of our lack of self awareness. Kanye, wishing you the same good health and happiness I wish for my family and myself. Peace and love and checkout Marc Rebillet.

Jose Franco is a self anointed Public Intellectual