Clown World, it is oft lamented, is beset by Karens. Middle-aged women with deep feelings of entitlement are making everyone’s lives harder, but there seem to be more and more of them as society decays further. These Karens are avatars of Karen herself, the Elder God of the Negative Feminine.
A Karen is typically a middle-aged woman with a fashionable haircut and aggressive clothing. She is demanding, aggressive, bossy and rude. She is seldom violent, but that’s precisely why she’s so terrifying – the damage she wreaks is in the invisible, metaphysical realm, and so is harder to defend against.
Retail workers, more than any other, fear the Karen. She will complain that her coffee wasn’t made right, and if you’re not apologetic enough she will ask to speak to the manager. Like a spoiled princess, the Karen thinks the world revolves around her, and she expects others to behave accordingly. A failure to do so is met with rage.
The nightmare scenario is to have a Karen as a boss or a wife. Her vanity is such that one cannot engage with her without becoming drained.
Karen is one of the Elder Gods. Her realm is the space beyond the Roastie on the negative feminine axis. The fundamental energy of the negative feminine is narcissism, and Karen shares with the Roastie a deep self-absorption. If a Roastie continues on her path of manipulating and self-obsessed attention whoring, she is liable to grow into becoming a Karen.
In Clown World terms, the Roastie transforms into a Karen once Chad is no longer interested in fucking her. Normally, by this stage, a healthy woman will have developed enough devotion to transition into a Waifu. The Karen has failed to do so. She is not devoted to a family – it’s still all about her.
The root cause of Karen’s shitty behaviour lies in her dismay that she doesn’t attract male attention like she used to. Instead of moving on gracefully, she exerts herself to remain the centre of attention. She hasn’t figured out that the attention she once received was a consequence of physical characteristics that are now irrecoverably lost. As such, she cuts a tragic and terrible figure.
None of this is to imply that Karen is despised. To the contrary, Karen is both feared and revered, much like the goddess Kali in the Hindu pantheon, and much like the Roastie who is her younger manifestation. Her good will is strenuously courted by the citizens of Clown World, who know that she is the favoured daughter of the Merchant.
A widespread belief holds that good fortune can be had by appeasing the Karen. After all, the majority of followers of the Clown World pantheon are young, and so they are likely to have Karens as managers. Karens are often promoted into managerial roles on account of that the company is often owned by the Merchant. This relationship is one of the Five Alliances of Pain.
The difference between the Karen and the Waifu is stark.
The Karen is fundamentally opposed to the Waifu, who is the Elder God of the Positive Feminine. The Waifu is the metaphysical representation of devotion, and as such is selfless. The Karen is the exact opposite. The Karen cannot find, or is unwilling to recognise, true rectitude. Absent rectitude, she has nothing to be devoted to. Absent devotion, she becomes something bestial.
The Karen is also fundamentally opposed to the easy-going Boomer, who is the Elder God of the Positive Masculine. The Boomer has demonstrated physical rectitude in his chadly youth, and now he demonstrates spiritual rectitude by going with the flow and not clinging to his desires. The Karen is the exact opposite here, too.
In summary, the Karen is a spirit that represents the energy of the divine feminine if it becomes twisted towards egotism as it ages. She is an almost demonic figure to anyone who becomes stuck with her, but can deliver great blessings of fortune to anyone manly enough to win her good favour.
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This article is an excerpt from Clown World Chronicles, a book about the insanity of life in the post-Industrial West. This is being compiled by Vince McLeod for an expected release in the middle of 2020.
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If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.
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