3/27/2014

Thank You, Jaden Smith

It's no secret.
There's something magically prophetic about Jaden Smith.


The plethora of pithy adages that spill from the young phenom's mind with such laconic elegance are almost too good to be true. Their unwavering and insurmountable wisdom is something of proverb, of legend, and I think the word "prophet" would not be an incorrect interpolatory noun to use when discussing Jaden Smith. The internet is somewhat of an inchoate collective unconscious (shout out to Gambino on this one)--a reservoir for all of our latent anxieties and passions to be shared with the world. A place (an entity) where every common emotion can be united in an immaterial web of communion with almost everyone around the world. It is a mass storage for our collective knowledge and experience, our universal spirit that we created out of the need to be united. At the center of this web, we get these prophetic quips from Jaden being tweeted and shared instantaneously with millions of others around the world. If that sort of religious communion isn't something miraculous, then I don't know what is. Instead of being subsequently codified like previous religious texts (i.e. the Bible) these truths are being shared with this New Age universal spirit directly. The wisdom of this young prophet is not something we read about secondhand in later texts, but something we are witnessing and experiencing right now together! Wake up people!

These Jadenian maxims are more relevant to our generation than nearly anything else I've witnessed. I think the most appropriate comparison I can make for this young prophet is none other than Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a fabulous wordsmith with the ability to craft otherwise incomprehensible philosophical ideologues into beautiful poetic prose. My favorite work of his, a story I often turn to during my most confusing times, would be Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The satirical (but not apocryphal--it's completely serious), sanctimonious epic uses the traditional scriptural form to provoke an exegetical process for interpretation. At the heart of this story is the lesson of self-actualization. The realization that one must reject church AND state in order to become fully realized, self-reliant, and self-aware. Like most religious teachings, the story is geared towards spiritually awakening the individual of practice, but instead of doing this through ideological indoctrination, Zarathustra teaches us to achieve this through ideological rejection: dismissing any objective truth in favor our own subjective knowledge. In other words, learning to live our life based on what we experience instead of based on the template prescribed to us. When the camel is able to slay the dragon of THOU SHALT (an obvious symbol for extrinsic oppression), he becomes a lion--no longer a beast of burden, but an independent beast.


Starting to see parallels? The reverent verses tweeted by Jaden are not unlike other canonical precepts found in texts like Thus Spoke Zarathustra or even the Bible.

But what does that mean if we aren't willing to listen?

Well, all I know is that these prophets--these divine messengers--are merely a catalyst for our spiritual guidance and earthly success. If we aren't open to heeding the knowledge they have to spread, then the knowledge itself becomes less than useless. My advice to you all, as a disciple of Jaden Smith would be to open your mind to the wisdom they are sharing AND apply it to your life! It's one thing to hear the information, it's another thing to actually glean something from it. These prophets aren't an end all to our existential endeavors, they are merely divine liaisons. Just like Zarathustra helped us see, it's up to us as individuals to really make a difference.

You can watch all the inspirational videos you want and believe the motivational quotes you read are making an impact on your life, but the truth is that you're not doing anything until you become a materialized reflection of this universal wisdom. Jaden Smith is just there to help us along the way. Unless you act for yourself, these extrinsic motivators will do nothing for you. It's easy to belive in something someone else is doing.
It's not so easy to believe in yourself.
But you can.
I am not even a dimple in Jaden Smith's repertoire of verse. But that's okay.
The truth is, we all can't be prophets. We all aren't born enlightened, but that doesn't mean we can't achieve the same enlightenment that they have. Why else would they be here to help if it were impossible? That wouldn't make any sense.

Jaden is our prophet and we need to pay attention to what he has to say.

I'll leave you with my favorite Jadenian aphorism:


Nobody does it like at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)