You hear something off in the distance -- a fuzzy, monotinic, familiar sound. The sound continues, steadfast. The pulsating rhythm is slithering, writhing towards you. You know it. You know you know it. You know it like the face of the elementary school bully who'd hit you real hard in the arm and never got caught by the teacher. The injustice of it all! Suddenly, you jerk up. Your hair is tangled, sheets knotted. The pillow has made its seasonal migration to the foot of the bed. It's 7:30, read, flashing. It's morning. It's a weekday. Off you go! It's a workday! You bash the plastic box and let out a deep, morbid, existential groan.
Two hundred odd days in the year, forty odd years in our lives, we go round and round. Any respites are temporary by definition, brief by choice. The playback options to the tapereel of our lives consist of a "PLAY" button and a "FAST FORWARD" button. Someone has removed the "BACK" button, and the "PAUSE" button looks like one of those big, red, "DO NOT PUSH" charicatures, complete with plastic safety box and all.
We don't have to keep churning this giant, heaving contraption that is our lives. That big, red, plastic, protruding, monstrosity of a button is there, waiting. But when we inch our fingers towards it -- pointy finger, middle finger, pointy finger -- we notice something. The plastic casing is taped down with an unholy amount of scotch tape. Someone has scrawled all over the clear plexiglass: "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!?" We look closer, leaning in. It's our handwriting! No one else would bastardize the language by mixing cursive and print in this haphazard way. Then it hits us. We can't do this. We back off. We slide our chairs back so hard that we bump straight into the wall. We can't do it. We just can't. We know we can but we know we can't -- we shouldn't -- we mustn't!!.
What would happen if we took off all this tape, opened up the lid, and slowly, gently, pushed the crimson protrusion? If we took a break -- some serious, unadultered, brain-dead, vegitating, sublime, subbatical? WE HAVE NO IDEA! It paralyzes us, this, unknown. We ask our friends, and they urge us on, saying it's a great idea. Well if it's so great, why has she not taken a single break longer than ten days over the last five years!? We desperatey want to stop; look around; smell the roses; hell, plant some roses and tend to their finicky needs! We know! We know its' right! The logic is undeniable! And yet, the fear! It grabs all four of our limbs and slams us to the floor. Can we really stop chugging? When our peers keep turning their grindstones day and night? When twelve million people in this country are unemployed and will do anything to take our place? When we know we have it so good, and when others just like us have it so bad? If we take a seat, take a break, will we be able to get back up? The sure thing to do, the riskless option, the sickening, roiling, detestable choice, is to keep going, keep turning, keep grinding.
We live in the most plentiful era in history, in the most prosperous nation on the planet, and find ourselves slaves to it all.
so in other words we need to become the machine never ending 24/7 consuming,learning,reproduction for maximum productivity. No need to have a break .......
Whoa, well-said haji. I've often felt the same kind of this...need just to pause, think, and ponder. Too much mindless "doing for the sake of doing" and not enough introspection. Not based on a true story, but yeah, I definitely think being able to pause and just...think...is so, so important. The NY minute is overrated, as are the NY hour, month, and year.
or...you can just press the button. im sure you took a risk before,just flip a coin until it tells you to take a break,youll feel like you didnt make the decision.(currently on a 4 years hiatus from the grindstone,ill get back in....soon).
Most people probably wouldn't press that button. We might think that we would, but at the end of the day I doubt that's the decision that would've been made. Consequences are scary, of course, and the lack of consequences is even scarier...
Wow, you managed to make me all philosophical after reading that :p It was a very good read though, I appreciated it a lot.
Also, I finished reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami yesterday (technically today -- it got pretty late) and holy shit the resemblance to his literary style is uncanny in most of your writing. I know that's been said before, but since I'm really pissed about the last few sentences in Norwegian Wood I've sort of had Murakami in the back of my head all morning.
tl;dr 5/5 will read again while I'm having breakfast
edit: Reading it again it feels somewhat less Murakami-esque, especially the fourth paragraph, which has a somewhat aggressive tone. I'm sort of interested in writing myself, which makes reading this text all the more interesting and seeing some detail you missed on the first or second read feel all the more rewarding.
Disagree. No matter how relentless your juggernaut of a life might be, if you're observant and willing enough, you can smell as many roses as you want while you're still on the ride. The trick is learning to look.
On February 02 2013 21:33 TehRei wrote: Most people probably wouldn't press that button. We might think that we would, but at the end of the day I doubt that's the decision that would've been made. Consequences are scary, of course, and the lack of consequences is even scarier...
Wow, you managed to make me all philosophical after reading that :p It was a very good read though, I appreciated it a lot.
Also, I finished reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami yesterday (technically today -- it got pretty late) and holy shit the resemblance to his literary style is uncanny in most of your writing. I know that's been said before, but since I'm really pissed about the last few sentences in Norwegian Wood I've sort of had Murakami in the back of my head all morning.
tl;dr 5/5 will read again while I'm having breakfast
edit: Reading it again it feels somewhat less Murakami-esque, especially the fourth paragraph, which has a somewhat aggressive tone. I'm sort of interested in writing myself, which makes reading this text all the more interesting and seeing some detail you missed on the first or second read feel all the more rewarding.
I feel you man, those last few lines in Norwegian wood fucked me over good.
Very nicely written. I have lived most of my life in the slow lane, smelling the flowers, metaphorical speaking, and find when comparing myself to those my age, they look weary, tired, worn, wrinkled, close to being robotic, yet fuller of energy, than I. I also find, they are completely without any idea of life, indoctrinated by opinion of media, in short, they experience a lot, but fairly obvious they have never stopped for a bit, and analyzed their opinion(s) and experiences, while I have observed and analyzed theirs.
On February 03 2013 19:55 Dracolich70 wrote: Very nicely written. I have lived most of my life in the slow lane, smelling the flowers, metaphorical speaking, and find when comparing myself to those my age, they look weary, tired, worn, wrinkled, close to being robotic, yet fuller of energy, than I. I also find, they are completely without any idea of life, indoctrinated by opinion of media, in short, they experience a lot, but fairly obvious they have never stopped for a bit, and analyzed their opinion(s) and experiences, while I have observed and analyzed theirs.
i used to be one of those people, but i never realized it until i started living by myself in my own room. its pretty nice sometimes. i say u definetly need a pause button in life.
I definately take the time to smell the roses, do/say what I want, and most importantly, not do what I don't want to do.
The end result of this is being called lazy, unmotivated, unproductive, uninspiring, boring, being left by the person you've cherished the most and wanted to spend the time with to smell the roses, with a useless degree in a difficult to crack profession with a freelance business that's dying slowly and no job prospects in sight except for copping out and doing something that only relates to your interest through 1/2 of it's name. Oh yeah and If I didn't have a family who believed in my dream and saw potential in me that I have never fulfilled in my entire fucking life I would probably be a hobo right now, possibly a crack addict, possibly dead.
And all I want to do in life is find someone who I love who loves me, and live a simple existence, have children, be good people and die together. Hard to do with the above as a stigma on your personality.
You realize how enslaved we are if you are ever to try to escape the system. 1. money? haha good luck with that, gotta grind to get that cheddar unless you are set for life, which either means a. you won a really lucky birth lottery b. you have already grinded in the meatgrinder of society.
What the fuck are you supposed to do to escape? You can't feed yourself, everyone around you incuding your closest friends, family, lovers, anyone and everything you ever cared about, will slowly but surely turn against you as you try to escape the system because they have all been programmed to chase these theoretical needs instilled in us by society. Ok so you can live in the forest eating wild animals, great. GL HF with that m8, not a great internet connection for Bnet(yes bnet is part of the system, see even I am beyond pureness. There is a corruption for everyone). Although I would love to tear down the system in a hail of gunfire and fucking slay everyone who stands in my way, realistically I know that I would be made out to be a monster, because as posted by OP, everyone is scared of this "void" where our stupid, useless human lives and interactions mean absolutely nothing.
I'm sure you will call me crazy/stupid/ignorant etc. for my reply but it's simply how I feel. I believe being born as a child is a curse because those are your truly "free" years before you get programmed. It's hard to imagine myself going Unabomber in the woods for years because my "free" years were spent developing a love for video games. And those sick fucks use what you love against you. I guess what would really save us is a vigilante for our whole planet like the Dark Knight, but that shit is just for the movies yo. Just like absoul said "if all the gangs in the world unite, we can fight the military tonight". Thats the kind of stuff we need to get into. TL Mafia for real. Roving the streets fighting for our freedom, incapacitating those in charge of national security, taking CC of key strategic structures such as ports, highways, influx of food and water. But lets face it, never going to happen, the easiest way to prevent revolution is to keep the masses stupid, ignorant and distracted. And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US IS EFFECTED BY THIS.
TL:DR revolution is needed but unlikely, I want to enjoy my life not to burn 40% of it as a slave in an institution.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
On February 04 2013 03:25 GaNgStaRR.ElV wrote: And all I want to do in life is find someone who I love who loves me, and live a simple existence, have children, be good people and die together. Hard to do with the above as a stigma on your personality.
It seems tragic and pointless that all these things come with a price tag attached, doesn't it?
Finding someone who loves me - where you gonna go meet someone without money? If you're a guy, you better have a job, or it gets much harder.
Live a simple existence - unless you call "simple" not having a home, it's only simple if you have enough money to not have to budget too strictly. Good luck with that.
Have children - with crappy health care, you're likely to pay a couple grand for someone to pull the kid out of your wife. It doesn't get less expensive from there.
Be good people - if you're like most of us, you eat the meat of factory-farmed animals who never are allowed to stand in their lifetime, and wear clothes sewn by 8-year-olds in third world countries. You want morally obtained goods? It'll cost you.
Die together - even death costs money, and if you don't pay it, your loved ones will.
The end result: we spend so much time pursuing the money to make these things happen that we don't actually have time to enjoy them until we're so old that enjoying things is harder anyway (if you live that long).
You can't live like this without the money from a job and you can't live like this while sustaining a job. Could be worse, though, eh? You could live the life of that Gold 'n Plump chicken you ate last night.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
The thing about only 20% of Americans families having meals together, as opposed to 60% doing so 20 years ago, that was pretty crazy. As someone who sat down to eat dinner with my family pretty much every weekday as a child it's hard to imagine never doing that and how that would impact my life.
On February 04 2013 03:25 GaNgStaRR.ElV wrote: And all I want to do in life is find someone who I love who loves me, and live a simple existence, have children, be good people and die together. Hard to do with the above as a stigma on your personality.
It seems tragic and pointless that all these things come with a price tag attached, doesn't it?
Finding someone who loves me - where you gonna go meet someone without money? If you're a guy, you better have a job, or it gets much harder.
Live a simple existence - unless you call "simple" not having a home, it's only simple if you have enough money to not have to budget too strictly. Good luck with that.
Have children - with crappy health care, you're likely to pay a couple grand for someone to pull the kid out of your wife. It doesn't get less expensive from there.
Be good people - if you're like most of us, you eat the meat of factory-farmed animals who never are allowed to stand in their lifetime, and wear clothes sewn by 8-year-olds in third world countries. You want morally obtained goods? It'll cost you.
Die together - even death costs money, and if you don't pay it, your loved ones will.
The end result: we spend so much time pursuing the money to make these things happen that we don't actually have time to enjoy them until we're so old that enjoying things is harder anyway (if you live that long).
You can't live like this without the money from a job and you can't live like this while sustaining a job. Could be worse, though, eh? You could live the life of that Gold 'n Plump chicken you ate last night.
Or we could rebel against the system, move towards a new system of human self-sustainability, rather than this inflated bullshit of a bubble we call the 20th and 21st century captilist/facist systems.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
The thing about only 20% of Americans families having meals together, as opposed to 60% doing so 20 years ago, that was pretty crazy. As someone who sat down to eat dinner with my family pretty much every weekday as a child it's hard to imagine never doing that and how that would impact my life.
They did say "sit down at a table and have dinner together". I wonder if meals in front of the TV counted for this study.
Interesting video - but it doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. People have no attention span (and a high pace of time) and they tend to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Can anyone really say that present hedonism was less prominent back in the 1400s or even the 1900s than they are now? Or is it possible (dare I say, even likely) that while the man of 100 years ago indulged in present hedonism by other means, but not necessarily less.
The video makes it seem as though the Id (the basic part of you, conceptualize first by.... Freud - or someone - which avoids pain and seeks pleasure) is a new concept and is a biproduct of technology. It isn't. It's changing the way we pursue these urges, but it's not like people are fundamentally after different things than they were 100 years ago. Instead of dirty magazines and brothels, we have the internet. In place of overindulging in drink and food (by eating a LOT), we have overindulging in drink and food by WHAT we eat and drink. Instead of being worried about falling down a well or something, we're worried about getting hit by a car. People have not made themselves nearly as different as they'd like to believe - but every generation seems to want to think something about the "kids" are fundamentally different so that they don't have to admit that it is their perspective (and not people in general) which are changing.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
The thing about only 20% of Americans families having meals together, as opposed to 60% doing so 20 years ago, that was pretty crazy. As someone who sat down to eat dinner with my family pretty much every weekday as a child it's hard to imagine never doing that and how that would impact my life.
They did say "sit down at a table and have dinner together". I wonder if meals in front of the TV counted for this study.
Interesting video - but it doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. People have no attention span (and a high pace of time) and they tend to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Can anyone really say that present hedonism was less prominent back in the 1400s or even the 1900s than they are now? Or is it possible (dare I say, even likely) that while the man of 100 years ago indulged in present hedonism by other means, but not necessarily less.
The video makes it seem as though the Id (the basic part of you, conceptualize first by.... Freud - or someone - which avoids pain and seeks pleasure) is a new concept and is a biproduct of technology. It isn't. It's changing the way we pursue these urges, but it's not like people are fundamentally after different things than they were 100 years ago. Instead of dirty magazines and brothels, we have the internet. In place of overindulging in drink and food (by eating a LOT), we have overindulging in drink and food by WHAT we eat and drink. Instead of being worried about falling down a well or something, we're worried about getting hit by a car. People have not made themselves nearly as different as they'd like to believe - but every generation seems to want to think something about the "kids" are fundamentally different so that they don't have to admit that it is their perspective (and not people in general) which are changing.
My 2c.
As far as the traditional family dinner table stat goes that's what I meant to say, and its still very surprising for me. I'd assume familial TV dinners weren't counted because the behavior is completely different.
As for the rest of your post I'm not sure what you're arguing for. You're making a bunch of broad assumptions as to what that guy's thoughts would be on this topic's relation to Freudian psychology when there was no mention of this in the video. Other than that you're 2 cents seem are completely compatible with what is presented in the video. You seem to be acknowledging that the world, our perspective within this world, and our behavior is changing. At the same time you assert that "people in general" are not changing. What is the phrase "People in general are not changing" supposed to mean? That's a rather broad and undefined assertion to make.
On February 04 2013 03:25 GaNgStaRR.ElV wrote: And all I want to do in life is find someone who I love who loves me, and live a simple existence, have children, be good people and die together. Hard to do with the above as a stigma on your personality.
It seems tragic and pointless that all these things come with a price tag attached, doesn't it?
Finding someone who loves me - where you gonna go meet someone without money? If you're a guy, you better have a job, or it gets much harder.
Live a simple existence - unless you call "simple" not having a home, it's only simple if you have enough money to not have to budget too strictly. Good luck with that.
Have children - with crappy health care, you're likely to pay a couple grand for someone to pull the kid out of your wife. It doesn't get less expensive from there.
Be good people - if you're like most of us, you eat the meat of factory-farmed animals who never are allowed to stand in their lifetime, and wear clothes sewn by 8-year-olds in third world countries. You want morally obtained goods? It'll cost you.
Die together - even death costs money, and if you don't pay it, your loved ones will.
The end result: we spend so much time pursuing the money to make these things happen that we don't actually have time to enjoy them until we're so old that enjoying things is harder anyway (if you live that long).
You can't live like this without the money from a job and you can't live like this while sustaining a job. Could be worse, though, eh? You could live the life of that Gold 'n Plump chicken you ate last night.
Or we could rebel against the system, move towards a new system of human self-sustainability, rather than this inflated bullshit of a bubble we call the 20th and 21st century captilist/facist systems.
On February 04 2013 03:25 GaNgStaRR.ElV wrote: And all I want to do in life is find someone who I love who loves me, and live a simple existence, have children, be good people and die together. Hard to do with the above as a stigma on your personality.
It seems tragic and pointless that all these things come with a price tag attached, doesn't it?
Finding someone who loves me - where you gonna go meet someone without money? If you're a guy, you better have a job, or it gets much harder.
Live a simple existence - unless you call "simple" not having a home, it's only simple if you have enough money to not have to budget too strictly. Good luck with that.
Have children - with crappy health care, you're likely to pay a couple grand for someone to pull the kid out of your wife. It doesn't get less expensive from there.
Be good people - if you're like most of us, you eat the meat of factory-farmed animals who never are allowed to stand in their lifetime, and wear clothes sewn by 8-year-olds in third world countries. You want morally obtained goods? It'll cost you.
Die together - even death costs money, and if you don't pay it, your loved ones will.
The end result: we spend so much time pursuing the money to make these things happen that we don't actually have time to enjoy them until we're so old that enjoying things is harder anyway (if you live that long).
You can't live like this without the money from a job and you can't live like this while sustaining a job. Could be worse, though, eh? You could live the life of that Gold 'n Plump chicken you ate last night.
Or we could rebel against the system, move towards a new system of human self-sustainability, rather than this inflated bullshit of a bubble we call the 20th and 21st century captilist/facist systems.
People enjoy being slaves...it's part of our mind
Ain't that the goddamn truth.
But if we were slaves to ourselves(ie had to grow or atleast help to manage part of our own food supply), and the world was forced into a more community-centric economic system rather than major corporations and businesses being the be-all end-all of success, I think we could actually be happy instead of most people being ignorant hamsters on a giant treadmill. But the sad fact is that most of these "slaves" enjoy being so because of the money they receive that they value so dearly.
Here's to figuring a way to bringing about the end of the current economic system peacefully. The only way I can think of logistically is for every single investor in the world to pull out of every share, bank, loan, mortgage they own which helps to finance big business.
EPT
