We recently had the chance to connect with Despues Green and have shared our conversation below.
Despues, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Easily the most important out of these three traits or values of an entity is integrity. Intelligence and energy can easily be manipulated and thus contextualized against someone’s actual character or values in order to fit into paticular contexts so that they can be perceived in particular ways to influence outcomes. Integrity on the other hand is related to being of a certain character in the first place and thus remaining as consistent as possible with those values. For example, if we say that as a nation or society (nations/societies are entities) we value freedom of expression, intelligence, and energy, then to have integrity would be to act in accordance with those values. Integrity supercedes both of these values because it speaks more holistically to the person as opposed to being malleable from context to context. A flexible integrity is oxymoronic.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Despues. I am on a mission to empower and encourage individuals, as a community, toward responsibility and conscientiousness to guide people to achieve their highest selves and thus create as cohesive of a community as possible. This is done through various forms of media including music and literature, and other copyrighted works. What makes my work special is that it is uniquely raw, thought-provoking, and insightful. People appreciate my work because not only do I say things that others struggle to articulate, but I also tend to say things that people haven’t thought about and have sound and strong integrity to accompany my beliefs and perspectives.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
I believe what breaks the bonds between people most is when there are insistent actions that contradict the values and principles that established such bonds in the first place. What restores those bonds best, if they are able to be restored, is communication. Such communication must address the reason(s) for the bonds, the thoughts and sentiments of the people feeling wronged, and the conduct and reasoning of the offender for breaching the values of the bond. This process helps those involved to reach determinations as to their future relations: whether there is a bond, if it should be maintained, and the understanding between the parties in what sustains that bond.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
No.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I could go on and on responding to this question, but at the highest levels, I believe that what smart people get totally wrong is the capacity to which commercial activities should be reasoned (that is, the rationale–not the extent to which commerce COULD be performed), and connected with that, smart people get wrong the extent to which we can or should communicate what is actually going on under the hood of what sustains the commercial landscape. By being honest and transparent with that discussion we encourage an environment of higher responsibility and conscientiousness generally. The underlying fabric of our social and personal relations precedes our capacity to commercialize its elements. That is to say that the IMMATERIAL absolutely precedes the MATERIAL. So for example, although we may rationalize the commodification of an object, we should also recognize the rationale that we are making for its effects (i.e. to support vacuousness, carelessness and recklessness, irresponsibility, etc.). Can people disseminate information and sell products correlated to absolutely any virtue or vice possible under the sun? Sure. But by encouraging this activity on higher and higher planes of socioeconomic activity, what are we thereby inspiring in our larger society?
This leads me to yet another thing that smart people get totally wrong in our society, which is the relationship between people’s feelings and what is objectively most consistent with a cohesive and efficient environment. In so many ways, smart people believe that they are protecting people by valuing short-term potential feelings over what our actual goals are and the actual results sought by way of our actions. For example, clubs don’t just let everyone in line enter their club–they have capacity limitations, they have dress codes and other prejudices about the types of people they want in their clubs. Some people may see this as fair, others may not, but the club is acting in accordance for what it deems to be best for their club. It has no concerns for the “feelings” of those who “don’t make it” into their club or those they reject. It’s interesting the places where we permit this behavior and consider it unjust in other certain, arguably more significant respects. Broadly, we consider a cornerstone of maturity to be one’s ability to have “control” over their emotions in order to make efficient decisions. I don’t see this being translated in so many important contexts where we use emotions to supercede effective decision making.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I see that generally people are remembered for very small, nostalgic things rather than as a holistic review of their contributions to society. My words will be quoted, but how many people will read the entire book or article, watch the entire article, to get it in full context and get a full representation of the message being conveyed? How many people will have heard the single but not the album? How many people heard the whole album and put it into context in review of it? I have come to accept much of this behavior as inherent and thus somewhat necessary to my efforts. but it is no less disappointing to my resolve. I understand that I am setting an example for the potential of what people can do. That just makes me feel that much more determined about what I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thosewithears.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsdespues
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsdespues
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/ascidzzfb
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChEYL2JSIgMuJ8wq_YqT9ow
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itsdespues
- Other: https://linktr.ee/thosewithears
Image Credits
Julia Muniz
