Type A? Alpha? Beta? Main Character? What the hell are we as we try to own our stories again post Pandemic*?
I asterixed post pandemic, because the numbers of Covid infections and it’s itinerant variations show that we sure the fuck not are anywhere near out of the woods with this Matrix-like disease. We’re all in the Matrix now homies.
How we curate ourselves, particularly our public-facing selves on silly little apps designed to inflate our own egos *cough Instagram, Tik Tok cough* has definitely changed since 2020. 2020 was the marker in the sand. Custer’s last stand if you will. During the height of the pandemic, it looked really preposterous and self-indulgent to keep promoting a version of you that looked better than it actually was. You risked being called out or cancelled for posting pictures of you in far flung destinations, and still trying to hawk your snake oil; seemingly oblivious to the carnage others were facing. Since restrictions have lifted however, and there’s a return to overseas travel in particular, it looks like that pre-2020 ‘Main Character’ energy has returned with a vengeance. And it’s not even ironic. Some people legitimately get off on showing off their supposed luxury slash aspirational lifestyles, without having read the fucking memo:
I get it. I get that some people have chosen ‘influencer hustle’ as their main source of income. That’s cool, and they definitely have a market for it. There are people who look to them for relief, and they enjoy all that showy superficial shit. They want to live vicariously through the experiences these other guys are inviting them to witness. I have a family member who is a Beta personality down to a T, they copy everything they see influencers do, wear and buy. It’s kinda embarrassing but its their life and it brings them joy, so I leave them to it.
We’ve seen ‘main character energy tropes’ explode on tv, streaming service series, books and popular culture. Annoyingly, a lot of these manifest with messy straight white women. Fleabag anyone? After a while though, it’s a bit well vulgar ain’t it? Main characters are annoying AF. Their constant need to prove their individual quirks, low level criminality, style; tastes and not giving a fuckness is both boring and trite. Some ‘main characters’ are just plain stupid, Exhibit A: Erin from The Office:
Main characters are also inherently selfish. Yeh I said it. To a large extent, of course we’re all the main characters of our own lives, but I’d like to believe that lots of us balance our main characterness with being active, involved and engaged members of society, taking care not to trample over other peoples’ feelings or doing whatever the fuck we want to others. I’ve written about how my approach to life this year is choosing violence. That doesn’t mean I’m ambushing people as they sleep and stabbing them through the heart 47 times. It means, I’m correcting where I low-balled myself and asserting myself so that people do not underestimate me. I don’t have whacky ideas about how I’m living my life, I’m not interested in necking ayahuasca, or into some weird sub-genre of house music, trying to get to grips with my existential crisis by joining people who don’t wash and poop in open fields at EDM festivals in Bulgaria to prove how quirky or left field I am. I’m just trying to live.
Some people absolve themselves of their narcissism by claiming they’re just main charactering their way through life. BUT AT WHAT COST MF? Ghosters, repeat offenders, the Anna Delveys of this world; they’re effective PR people and are pulling the wool over our eyes by claiming they were hard done by at some point in their lives, and now they’re reclaiming/rewriting all that they believe was lost. Again: BUT AT WHAT COST.
Do we have to insist on assuming pathological identities and types? What if one day we’re Alpha, the next day we’re Beta. What if we’re neither Alpha or Beta, and we’re are actually just trying to live without harming ourselves or others in the living? I thought the pandemic was a reset, a chance to reset, restart, renew. For some, they’re now regressing, but I’m not sure everyone wants to drink that Kool-Aid anymore. Even the Kardashians, the best of the worst at living Main Character energies have twigged that they have aged out of the MC epoch.
I stay away from Main Characters. I think I told someone recently to fuck off and stop blaming your useless parents for why you turned out the way you did. Something along those lines. I’ve been around enough MCs to know that unless they eventually get tired of their own bullshit, they won’t change or yield. They’ll double down. It’s their desperate need to be seen as ‘out of reach’ that triggers my incredulity. You are not special Boo. You are in fact very very mediocre and average, your MC energy makes up for your lack of talent or specialness. For the love of God, quit with the need for validation and just try living without all the theatrics and ayahuasca.
