RESISTANCE AND SELF-DRAMATIZATION
Creating soap opera in our lives is a symptom of Resistance. Why put in years of work designing a new software interface when you can get just as much attention by bringing home a boyfriend with a prison record?
Sometimes entire families participate unconsciously in a culture of self-dramatization. The kids fuel the tanks, the grown-ups arm the phasers, the whole starship lurches from one spine-tingling episode to another. And the crew knows how to keep it going. If the level of drama drops below a certain threshold, someone jumps in to amp it up. Dad gets drunk, Mom gets sick, Janie shows up for church with an Oakland Raiders tattoo. It’s more fun than a movie. And it works: Nobody gets a damn thing done.
Sometimes I think of Resistance as a sort of evil twin to Santa Claus, who makes his rounds house-to-house, making sure that everything’s taken care of. When he comes to a house that’s hooked on self-dramatization, his ruddy cheeks glow and he giddy-ups away behind his eight tiny reindeer. He knows there’ll be no work done in that house.
抵抗与自我戏剧化
把肥皂剧的剧情带入我们的生活是抵制的一种症状。当你带一个有犯罪记录的男朋友回家就能得到足够的关注，那为什么还要花几年的时间来设计一个新的软件界面呢?
有时整个家庭都无意识地参与到一种自我戏剧化的文化中。孩子们给坦克加油，大人们装备相位武器，整个星际飞船从一个令人毛骨悚然的情节过渡到另一个。机组人员知道如何让它继续运转。如果戏剧的水平下降到某个阈值以下，就会有人跳出来提高它。爸爸喝醉了，妈妈生病了，珍妮带着奥克兰袭击者的纹身出现在教堂。这比看电影有趣多了。这很管用：没人能完成一件该死的事情。
有时我认为抵抗是圣诞老人的罪恶孪生兄弟，他挨家挨户地巡视，确保每件事都得到妥善处理。当他来到一所痴迷于自我戏剧化的房子时，他红润的脸颊容光焕发，在他的八只小驯鹿后面蹦蹦跳跳。他知道在那所房子里什么工作都干不成。
