One of the most annoying acronyms I have ever heard found its way into the collective vocabulary this year, and it seems destined to annoy me for years into the future as hipsters and clueless, yet well-meaning sheeple (the first and last time I will ever use that word) repeat it ad nauseam with varying degrees of irony incorporated into their inflections.
YOLO, or “You Only Live Once,” finds its origins in Canadian rapper Drake’s song, “The Motto.” The idea behind YOLO is that you should live like there’s no tomorrow, or (probably more accurately) like there’s no afterlife, no reincarnations—no take-backsies. To wit: live dangerously.
Interestingly, this hasn’t ruffled the feathers of religious fundamentalists or people who really like mulligans yet; considering the immense power the former group has in politics and culture, I was really expecting a denouncement, at the very least. This, not to mention the considerable mental damage YOLO has caused to the younger elements of society, leads me to believe that Drake is in fact a Canadian intelligence agent trained in the art of brainwash and deception. his weapon: a sick beat, yo. His goal: to get everyone to try poutine—because YOLO! Ba-dum tiss.
All joking aside, I can’t stand modern YOLO or its mistaken practitioners. Culturally, I am 100 percent sure no one is going to go back and watch the 1774 play “Clavigo” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, where YOLO is first said to have appeared (as the phrase, “One lives but once in the world”). Certainly no one is going to see “Man Lebt Nur Einmal!” by Strauss. For these folks, YOLO is just a catchphrase, just an excuse to do stupid, reckless things.
The best revenge is living well…
A lot of people seem to think “living like there’s no tomorrow” is a call to be a jerk, or a jerk with a death wish. Truth is, from the perspective of a certain percentage of the population, the idea that we only live once is less of a saying and more of a given—and given that, we think we should treat ourselves and others well.
I’m an atheist. I was raised in a non-religious home, didn’t even know what function a church served until I was in the seventh grade, and legitimately thought Oklahoma was a totalitarian theocracy in the weeks leading up to my move here when I was 13. For me, the idea that death is final has never been anything other than a reminder not to waste time on things that might kill me and spend more time on things I find important.
And so, that’s what I do. I probably seem like a boring jerk (which, to be fair, is the worst kind of jerk) because I don’t drink or party. But I’ve managed to have fun—to live well—in my own ways, and I’m alright with that.
…but that doesn’t mean we have to keep up with the Joneses
Perhaps one of the most upsetting viewpoints I’ve seen related to YOLO is the idea that there’s any such thing as the “perfect” lifestyle. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect car, perfect home—these “ideals” seem to jump across cultural boundaries and take root in people’s heads, often more to their detriment than any sort of benefit. People use the idea of perfection as a bludgeon with which they beat any onlookers upon the head—often accompanied by words lessening said onlookers’ self-worth.
“Perfection” hollows people out. It turns them into shells of people, facsimiles of the real thing—Barbie and Ken dolls in flesh and blood. If YOLO should stand for anything, it should stand against this conception of perfection for perfection’s sake. It should celebrate our imperfections. We shouldn’t be saying, “I’m gonna drink a lot of booze and then crash my car at speeds of 100+ miles-per-hour because YOLO!” or “I must get everything absolutely perfect because YOLO!”
We should be saying instead, “I’m going to treat myself and other people with dignity and respect. Because YOLO.”