There is a pervasive attitude based upon pride and a hidden weakness that undermines the ability to be great and erases the path towards it. There must be a word for it as it comes in many forms. It is found in typical places, where the weak and the prideful mingle and hover.

It is empathy gone awry. It is a bloated sense of importance concerning personal endeavors and interests. It is both humble and braggart in the same voice and is spoken with a smile or a “concerned” look. It comes from those who do not do hard work or are not accustomed to discomfort. They are blatant in their ignorance but thinks themselves wise.

They are not lazy, and so the thing is not laziness. It is not the same as the arrogance found in those familiar places. It is, perhaps, fear of the unknown and a grasping at a self-satisfactory savior. But all things are fear of death in the end, even this thing. But it is more than that. It is a fear of ego. It turns away from the unknown and despises the difficult.

The strong often bow to it because it is easier to do so than to fight. “It” is unending and blind. It turns the world beige and normalizes the lowest common denominator. It is soil in which only the genetically modified, the typical, the unspecial and spoiled can grow. This is the empty-eyed stare of the future.