Billie Eilish: I Have an Opinion.

it's okay to admit to yourself
this is a virtue i don't have it's okay to look at a situation and think through what would a more virtuous person have done how would a more virtuous person have reacted then think about what particular virtue it was that you were lacking admit yourself i have some virtues and not others and this this happens to be a virtue i lack but you know what else this analytical process can lead you to consider the option of practicing particular virtues that you lack and you know if you try it out you might decide hey this is just not for me it's not going to work but you might find that you change you might find that actually those virtues can become more familiar it can become more easy for you to practice in difficult situations under pressure when you've put in the time and effort when you've tried it out for yourself but it all begins with recognizing what virtues you've got and which ones maybe are unfamiliar to you whether that is through lack of practice or something that is just in your nature a lot of video games i played when i was growing up as a kid would give you about four options on screen you know some some situation arises in the video game some calamity some challenge you know and there are kind of four options a b c d for you to fee to choose from a menu you know with a lot of these things in life one of the options we don't talk about we don't think about or maybe we don't think about enough because we don't have one word for it in the english language is to just be happy for others you know i wish we had one word for that in english because even even the adjective happy isn't quite suitable uh your best friend from grade school fell in love with and is now engaged to be married to a guy who you had a crush on through all of high school but you never told him what are you gonna do you might think there are only three options but a fourth one another option that's on the list that's on the menu is to just be happy for them can't you just be happy for her can't you maybe you can't maybe that's something lacking in you you really got to examine and really got to think about and philosophize about maybe try to practice and if you decide it's not for you if you decide you can't do it it's not in your nature or you're just terrible at it or something you got to think about what you're going to do instead you're going to have to come up with a new strategy you're going to have to come up with a new way of being a human being and relating to other human beings can't you just be happy for them it's not easy and i see this on a massive scale now on the internet and yeah sometimes it's about things that are tremendously shallow maybe because people are not ashamed to exhibit their jealousy about shallow things and maybe it's more difficult for them to be honest or go public when it's about something more profound okay billy eilish she's made a huge amount of money become very famous performing what i would consider absolutely terrible music but every year somebody somewhere is going to make a fortune performing terrible music okay can't you can't you just be happy for her i'm happy for if i met her face to face in real life i wouldn't lie and say that i like her music i wouldn't lie and say i like i appreciate you how would you say i'm happy for you i'm happy for you that this word i'm happy that you you know you're that one person in a million who performs this horrible music and gets to gets to live there gets to live their dream right billy eilish has enormous breasts we're going to see this huge array of reactions on the internet including interestingly other women with enormous breasts who seem to feel oppressed by society and are like imposing this onto billy eilish and claiming that she like symbolizes their sense of oppression as women with unusually large breasts and of course there's this other kind of discourse of resentment from flat-chested and small-breasted women i guess they feel disadvantaged perhaps not oppressed in a world that's obsessed with with large breasts you know not all of the reactions are of jealousy and envy and some of the reactions are just of a kind of peculiar sneering contempt some of the reactions are from people where i think i think their their point is not that she's unattractive i think there are people complaining that she is not attractive enough to have her position of kind of unearned fame like the expectation is that she ought to present herself like beyonce and either actually be as attractive as beyonce or some other icon of both beauty and the performing arts that she ought to be living up to the standard of being a legend a myth um not just in terms of her vocal performances but in terms of you know they have an expectation formed by not just a few but dozens of other women who have played this role publicly and have uh projected a certain kind of glamour and beauty regardless of how they might look when they're not wearing makeup or they're not making a public appearance or they're not wearing an evening gown you know this is sort of failed expectation that she should be more beautiful than she is or or be made to appear more beautiful than she is through a conspiracy of fashion designers and photographers and retouching and flattering angles and what have you right this whole range of reactions and i wish we had just one word in english for this this sense of can't you be happy for her there's an option on the menu there option number four is just be happy for her and i know that word happy is misleading you're not gonna be like wow i'm i'm so glad that this other person is living out this dream that i had i didn't get to live you're not going to be delighted you're not going to be delighted like oh yeah my best friend from primary school is now getting married to that guy i used to want to get married too in high school and i never like i i get it i get it that you're not going to be glowing with enthusiasm the type of happiness we're talking about here is that it's a kind of subtle appreciation you know that guy you had a crush on in high school somebody was going to marry him somebody all right it just it just happened to be her it just happened to me that girl you knew from so can't you be happy for her would you be happy or if it were beyonce would you be happier for a complete stranger who married that guy why so just be happy for her right somebody was gonna make a million dollars this year playing this ludacris pop music fame game right but it happened to be you even if i think it's completely undeserved right even if i don't think you married it or would it i can still be happy for you even if even if my opinion is because i listen to rap music that there are thousands of more talented rappers who upload their music to soundcloud and datpiff.com and they don't get the recognition i feel they should more they should be they're more deserving of this money and fame that's profoundly irrelevant there's an option on the menu here can't you be happy for her okay the other controversy uh surrounding billy eilish is the extent to which she does or doesn't represent a positive voice within veganism a positive voice for veganism all right and on some level we all know billy eilish is 18 years old and she's not an intellectual can't you just be happy for her like seriously she has somehow stumbled into this veganism thing and you know she may be the worst vegan in the world i'm happy that she stumbled into it there may be a lot of things that she's doing wrong i hope she figures them out one by one there are a lot of things she hasn't thought through where she doesn't have the most philosophical angle on i hope that in the years to come she recognizes those things and thinks them through and becomes wiser and a better voice for veganism and just a more articulate voice for herself frankly she's obviously someone who struggles a great deal with giving interviews or public speaking yeah criticism is an option anger outrage disappointment is an option disappointment right but do you not think it's possible that the reason why option number four doesn't come up here in your mind you not think it's possible that you're thinking on some level this was a dream you had that you wanted to be the voice for vegan activism and you think you could do better at it just like a whole lot of people on the internet they wanted to be the next beyonce they wanted to be the next famous singer and they have this sense of resentment that she's not doing it right that they could have done better there's this sense of resentment that you could have seduced and fallen in love with that guy you had a crush on in high school but some other girl got him and said do you not think there's a kind of undertow and your problem is that you can't feel happy for others because part of you still wishes that you could take their place