There are people in our country that insist they have "great and unmatched wisdom," when I don't really see it. However, (and in that same vein) it has encouraged me to say about myself that I feel I am exceptionally observant of human behavior, which (then) leads me to this blog post. These are things I've "observed" and come to understand about adults in America (and human behavior in general). It's all personal opinion, and I'll leave it up to you to decide whether I'm right or wrong.
1) People who are grandiose narcissists admire authoritarians and dictators. They also support authoritarian rule, even if they (themselves) are subjected to it. In other words, they have no problem with giving over personal freedoms to a grandiose narcissist in charge of everything.
2) People believe a ban on vaping due to vaping-related illnesses and deaths will save lives. However, many of these same people would not ever use the same argument with regard to guns, because "the issues are completely different." Only...they aren't. But, whatever.
3) A lot of people want something for nothing. Free labor, volunteer work, callings, lending a helping hand, and it's getting harder and harder to come by because people are saying "no" in record numbers. Why? Because "free labor" is an indignity (see item number 6 below for more information).
4) The average person believes their opinion is way more important than it actually is within the scope of a nation. Example: getting a protest together of some 10,000 peeps for issue "X" in one city in America (or maybe several) means there's going to be change and signifies a movement. Then when this doesn't happen, depression and anxiety and hopelessness set in. The cause? They never realized that 10,000, as impressive as it might look in a photo, is nothing as a percentage of an entire population. This world has billions of people on it. That's a number that is hard to comprehend. It can be done, and I for one can grasp how big it is, but a lot of people fail to do so.
5) Most people are terrible at small talk. They try desperately to remember the last time they spoke with you and to think of something to say, and it just ends up awkward (or triggering in the case of reminding a person of things they might have done deep in the past but it's the only thing a person can remember to talk about). It would honestly be best if nothing was said at all with an admittance to the fact that they don't care enough to stay current with what's going on in your life. I've heard it said that the truth shall set you free. It just doesn't make you any friends. More people should just embrace this.
6) Beauty has been glamorized to the point that people don't feel beautiful or pretty if they are subjected to any indignities. And indignities abound in the human race. Taking out the garbage from your house is an indignity. Scrubbing your own toilet, let alone someone else's toilet, is considered an indignity now. Having to drive a used car or mow your lawn is considered an indignity. Caring for an elderly parent is an indignity. Working a low-wage job is an indignity. Not being the head manager is an indignity, and the list goes on and on.
So people who are faced with the prospect of doing any of the above behaviors (and countless others) which used to be perfectly normal are now trauma-inducing. Self-esteem plummets, depression and anxiety set in, and it becomes a huge snowball that just keeps growing until the person bottoms out in society and goes on SSDI or seeks out drugs to assuage the pain that they aren't "beautiful."
I'm actually seeing these behaviors everywhere, and people who are physically pretty and handsome think they are ugly because they must go through the indignity of schoolwork or the indignity of a job. "If I were truly beautiful, then I wouldn't have to do any of these things." And what's even "sadder" if that's even possible...is that one of these people "dating" a person who has accepted an indignity "such as a blue collar job" is in itself an "indignity," which makes the person feel ugly. So yeah...vicious circle there for which there is no escape.
I think this idea of mine is at the root of why there is so much fame-seeking these days. People see fame as a portal/exit out of having to be subjected to any indignities that are just natural to life. "I will never have to scrub my own toilet again which proves I'm a beautiful person." Ugh...if I'm right...the human race just sucks.
7) A lot of people don't know what's actually good until someone of status tells them that "X" is good. This goes for art and food and other things. It's almost like "Status Popular" is a real living and breathing entity. "I'm going to ask Status Popular what they think of this art piece. Oh you don't like it? I don't either...." Or another example: "Hey Status Popular...what do you think of this particular car? Should I get it? No? Oh you're so right, I thought it was frumpy too." There are actually few people who (in a vacuum) have legit opinions regarding anything. Additionally, people who get their opinions from "Status Popular" become missionaries in the Cult of Status Popular. In other words, it becomes their mission to point out to others why "Status Popular's" opinion on anything is now the bar by which all things shall be judged.
8) Some people will never be grateful for your mercy, intervention, or help and will resent you for it. No matter how horrific a thing, there is at least some person in the world that legitimately wants it (and in many case there are lots of people who do). So making sweeping generalizations like "everyone craves freedom" is absolutely wrong. There are people out there who actually crave slavery. I'm convinced of this. There are people out there who want to be lied to. And doing the opposite of what a person wants is "trauma-causing" to these people. So yeah...figure that one out. It's honestly something difficult to wrap my head around, but whatever.
9) A lot of people are not comfortable with what they are. Me saying this twists the old adage of "You've got to love yourself before love can enter your life," which I think really means what I said in the previous sentence. "You must be comfortable with what you are, before you can find happiness," is what I think that old adage means. So how is this applicable? If you are a monster, accept that you are a monster. If you are addicted to sex, then admit it, and maybe find a career someplace that allows you to indulge that. If you want to play video games for the rest of your life, then find a career that allows you to play video games. If you are lazy and don't want to work then you probably should try to be a manager of some kind so you can boss your wage slaves around all day and take long lunches and lots of time off on someone else's dollar. Either that or get good at robbing people. My point is that you should embrace what you are and stop fighting against it. Maybe you'll find some kind of happiness; just my two cents. You know how much that's worth.
1) People who are grandiose narcissists admire authoritarians and dictators. They also support authoritarian rule, even if they (themselves) are subjected to it. In other words, they have no problem with giving over personal freedoms to a grandiose narcissist in charge of everything.
2) People believe a ban on vaping due to vaping-related illnesses and deaths will save lives. However, many of these same people would not ever use the same argument with regard to guns, because "the issues are completely different." Only...they aren't. But, whatever.
3) A lot of people want something for nothing. Free labor, volunteer work, callings, lending a helping hand, and it's getting harder and harder to come by because people are saying "no" in record numbers. Why? Because "free labor" is an indignity (see item number 6 below for more information).
4) The average person believes their opinion is way more important than it actually is within the scope of a nation. Example: getting a protest together of some 10,000 peeps for issue "X" in one city in America (or maybe several) means there's going to be change and signifies a movement. Then when this doesn't happen, depression and anxiety and hopelessness set in. The cause? They never realized that 10,000, as impressive as it might look in a photo, is nothing as a percentage of an entire population. This world has billions of people on it. That's a number that is hard to comprehend. It can be done, and I for one can grasp how big it is, but a lot of people fail to do so.
5) Most people are terrible at small talk. They try desperately to remember the last time they spoke with you and to think of something to say, and it just ends up awkward (or triggering in the case of reminding a person of things they might have done deep in the past but it's the only thing a person can remember to talk about). It would honestly be best if nothing was said at all with an admittance to the fact that they don't care enough to stay current with what's going on in your life. I've heard it said that the truth shall set you free. It just doesn't make you any friends. More people should just embrace this.
6) Beauty has been glamorized to the point that people don't feel beautiful or pretty if they are subjected to any indignities. And indignities abound in the human race. Taking out the garbage from your house is an indignity. Scrubbing your own toilet, let alone someone else's toilet, is considered an indignity now. Having to drive a used car or mow your lawn is considered an indignity. Caring for an elderly parent is an indignity. Working a low-wage job is an indignity. Not being the head manager is an indignity, and the list goes on and on.
So people who are faced with the prospect of doing any of the above behaviors (and countless others) which used to be perfectly normal are now trauma-inducing. Self-esteem plummets, depression and anxiety set in, and it becomes a huge snowball that just keeps growing until the person bottoms out in society and goes on SSDI or seeks out drugs to assuage the pain that they aren't "beautiful."
I'm actually seeing these behaviors everywhere, and people who are physically pretty and handsome think they are ugly because they must go through the indignity of schoolwork or the indignity of a job. "If I were truly beautiful, then I wouldn't have to do any of these things." And what's even "sadder" if that's even possible...is that one of these people "dating" a person who has accepted an indignity "such as a blue collar job" is in itself an "indignity," which makes the person feel ugly. So yeah...vicious circle there for which there is no escape.
I think this idea of mine is at the root of why there is so much fame-seeking these days. People see fame as a portal/exit out of having to be subjected to any indignities that are just natural to life. "I will never have to scrub my own toilet again which proves I'm a beautiful person." Ugh...if I'm right...the human race just sucks.
7) A lot of people don't know what's actually good until someone of status tells them that "X" is good. This goes for art and food and other things. It's almost like "Status Popular" is a real living and breathing entity. "I'm going to ask Status Popular what they think of this art piece. Oh you don't like it? I don't either...." Or another example: "Hey Status Popular...what do you think of this particular car? Should I get it? No? Oh you're so right, I thought it was frumpy too." There are actually few people who (in a vacuum) have legit opinions regarding anything. Additionally, people who get their opinions from "Status Popular" become missionaries in the Cult of Status Popular. In other words, it becomes their mission to point out to others why "Status Popular's" opinion on anything is now the bar by which all things shall be judged.
8) Some people will never be grateful for your mercy, intervention, or help and will resent you for it. No matter how horrific a thing, there is at least some person in the world that legitimately wants it (and in many case there are lots of people who do). So making sweeping generalizations like "everyone craves freedom" is absolutely wrong. There are people out there who actually crave slavery. I'm convinced of this. There are people out there who want to be lied to. And doing the opposite of what a person wants is "trauma-causing" to these people. So yeah...figure that one out. It's honestly something difficult to wrap my head around, but whatever.
9) A lot of people are not comfortable with what they are. Me saying this twists the old adage of "You've got to love yourself before love can enter your life," which I think really means what I said in the previous sentence. "You must be comfortable with what you are, before you can find happiness," is what I think that old adage means. So how is this applicable? If you are a monster, accept that you are a monster. If you are addicted to sex, then admit it, and maybe find a career someplace that allows you to indulge that. If you want to play video games for the rest of your life, then find a career that allows you to play video games. If you are lazy and don't want to work then you probably should try to be a manager of some kind so you can boss your wage slaves around all day and take long lunches and lots of time off on someone else's dollar. Either that or get good at robbing people. My point is that you should embrace what you are and stop fighting against it. Maybe you'll find some kind of happiness; just my two cents. You know how much that's worth.
That's a really cheery post to start off the day. I hate small talk. 90% of human conversation is just pointless BS no one cares about and yet we have this need to fill the silence.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if scrubbing the toilet is an "indignity" but with my toilet it's pretty pointless. The thing is older than I am and no matter what I do there's still grime in it. Some people like to mow their lawn though I don't have a lawn to mow.
Anyway, a good title for this entry from a British sitcom: People, what a bunch of bastards.
I guess I should have tried better to define what an "indignity" is. I'll leave it at this: it will be different depending on the person.
DeleteAnd with regards to my post being "cheery," I think I wanted this to spark a philosophical discussion. So I wasn't aiming it to be negative or positive but to perhaps flourish into an intellectual discussion regarding things that I've been thinking about.
For example, today I've been thinking of dignity and indignity quite a bit. Here's my latest hypothesis:
I think that privilege flows from concepts of dignity and indignity, and I think "privilege" has become a measuring stick by which people measure outward beauty and thence, their own self-esteem.
I also think that pursuit of beauty either through diets, exercise, plastic surgery, or through fashion is ultimately the pursuit of privileges.
"If I do this thing (lose 100 pounds for example) I will gain more privilege (whether it be choice of sex partners or being asked to be a manager at work as opposed to the janitor)." The point is that the more privilege a person has access to, the fewer unpleasantries (of life) one has to endure (and again...unpleasantries are subjective and entirely dependent upon the person). If a sample person wants only to play games or have sex, then anything outside of those two things is going to be considered an indignity, etc.
Here's where I think I can test my hypothesis in real life:
I think that I can look at any one person, examine what privileges they enjoy, and tell you whether they feel ugly or beautiful (and I would ask them, "Do you think of yourself as beautiful or ugly?"
I should lose 100 pounds for medical reasons, but if I ever could do it (and get new teeth and hair) then maybe I'd get some benefits.
DeleteSo does that mean you agree with me? Or do you disagree?
DeleteProbably a little of both.
DeleteSome food for thought. People are weird. I'll leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, if you break it down into people are driven by either fear or love...
DeleteGee, are the first few points inspired by Trump?
ReplyDeleteI agree with several of your points, but it does sound as if you know almost a disproportionate number of people who are obsessed with looks and privilege. I'm lucky, perhaps, for knowing a fair amount of grounded folks. But I'm also convinced that social media, selfies and the like have greatly aggravated our society's obsession with looks and beauty, and that's not healthy at all.
For point #6, anyone who can't deal with those things is spoiled. I do all of those on a regular basis. Never thought anything of it. #6 describes my life. A lot of parents in my generation spoiled their kids too much. Now these young adults can't avoid the real world forever, and they're finding it depressing because yeah, you actually have to work.
ReplyDeleteHmm... Well, it's probably obvious from how delayed my response is that I have been really busy lately. And am still incredibly busy.
ReplyDeleteI have thoughts but no time. I'll try to come back to this when I have a chance, but I probably won't remember to. :(