Consider This: Maybe Kanye Isn't Actually a Genius

Sure, he could be a genius, more than likely, he's just chaotic and irresponsible?

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Do you watch “The Office?” If not, you should. It’s a show about the staff at a local paper company (Dunder Mifflin) and how they deal with the constant chaos that is their manager (Michael Scott). The show is excellent for its entire run, but seasons 2-5 are arguably its peak. Anyway, this essay isn’t about “The Office.” Technically, it is, but not really; mostly, it's about Kanye; we’ll get to that later. For now, just follow along. 

Towards the final episodes of season five, there was a storyline where Michael Scott is pushed out of his role, as Manager of Dunder Mifflin. This happens after he spends an entire episode bumping heads with the new Regional Manager, (Idris Elba). At first, Michael quits and is working his final two weeks. After realizing that he’s entering a depressed job market, he decides to start his own business and then tries to recruit his colleagues. As you can imagine, this goes very poorly, and Idris almost immediately fires him. What happens next is amazing. As he’s being walked out by security, Michael gives a mostly incoherent but partially inspiring speech that compels the receptionist (Pam Beesly) to quit her job and join him. The two of them venture off to start a competing paper company.

If you have watched “The Office” you can probably guess where this is going. Michael doesn’t have an actual business plan, and he is so unprepared that his grandmother refuses to invest in him. Things get so bad that Pam begins to second-guess her decision to join him. The episode ends with Michael somehow getting it together, and they launch the “Michael Scott Paper Company. Things go well for a while, and they’re even outselling Dunder Mifflin for a small period, but after a few weeks, the “Michael Scott Paper Company” can’t pay their bills and are on the precipice of bankruptcy. It is at this moment that Pam acknowledges the error of her ways, sure, Michael was a bad manager, but she was the one who made the error of trusting someone who was clearly so unfit to lead. That brings me to Kayne.

As Kanye continues his public implosion, there remains a coalition of supporters who insist that losing multi-million dollar contracts, spewing antisemitic remarks on radio interviews and on social media,  and being escorted out of the office of Sketchers is all a part of some “master plan.” And if, for some reason, you can’t see that, it’s because “you’re not paying attention” or you’re not a “free thinker.” I understand the desire to believe Kanye has thought deeply about his actions, but if you have been listening and watching, it should be clear that there isn’t much thought happening. It isn’t grounded in logic, facts, or reality; if somehow I’m wrong and he’s thinking about the crazy things he says, those thoughts are fueled by the purest lines of coke money can buy.

This man claimed that George Floyd died because of a Fentanyl overdose, said: “Slavery was a choice,” called Donald Trump his “daddy,” and just last week proudly called himself a Nazi.  There’s nothing methodical or intentional about this at all. The ugly truth is Kanye is an attention-hungry egomaniac with severe mental health issues and the IQ of a pizza bagel. Like Michael Scott with the paper company, Kanye flew too close to the sun, and the people around him decided to let it happen because it seemed like a good time. The big difference between Kanye’s situation and the storyline from The Office is that The Office is fake. They were able to turn his disaster into a happy ending. I’m not so sure that Kanye will have the same luck.