misery only pretends to like company
I think I finally figured out why it always seems to be the assholes who run everything. It's because the people who care—who honestly want to do good—are far more likely to give up in disgust, or become overwhelmed with the stress of doing what's right in the face of an indifferent or ignorant majority and a select few who live only to cause misery in others. The assholes persevere, simply because they don't care.
As you might be able to guess, I didn't have a very fun weekend. I didn't even suffer the brunt of it. Just sitting at the sidelines, thinking of the things I should do or would like to do and realizing that nothing I could do would really help, and, if anything, I'd only succeed in making the situation worse. In the end, it wouldn't really matter, and I'd end up miserable either way.
So I went home.
Saturday was the 39th anniversary of Doctor Who. I marked the day by watching Ribos Operation. That made me feel a little better. It's a great little episode, with lots of witty banter, fun characters and a good story. It amazes me, watching some of this stuff, how it can be so good, but also so impossible to do today. It's all played for drama—archetypal characters and archetypal plots which would be lambasted as being horribly cliche nowadays. Not "realistic" enough. I've never understood people's obsession with realism in their fantasies. What's the point of a realistic fantasy? Why not just stick to reality, then?
comments:
|
tinkerer
writes:
Fantasy requires imagination, which most folk possess but few are willing to use. After all, imagination needs focus and attention, which takes energy and discipline, plus it requires a person to draw off their inner substance, which can be scary for those who have only viewed that substance in a narcissic way (eegad, what might crawl out? Is it socially acceptable? Will it make me look stupid? Sick? Er, maybe I should just side step this one...) Be courageous? Actually *think*? Ha! Not when I can be spoon-fed my fantasy in the form of multi-million dollar graphics parcelled in immediately accessible visual and audible bites. The reality is the connection--ya gotta add an element of "real" or else people stay too distanced, and then it is b-o-r-i-n-g. Since they won't invest themselves through imagination, they need to anchor to the plot *somehow*...
We live in a culture of fear, Squirrel. Take a good look at the ruling generation of the day. "ME ME ME", but the echo is "TOO TOO TOO". That's why they all look and sound the same. I just don't get their objection to cloning, do you? I guess that would be *too* much realism...
Submitted 2002-11-25 22:49:52
|
|
Eric
writes:
You're completely right about assholes running everything. It would really be nice if the majority wasn't indifferent. That would solve a lot. I wouldn't worry about things going badly over the weekend. There's been a lot of shaking up, and things will settle for the better. You've done your time, and you did well during that time. Things'll work out. I think I can safely speak for more than just me in saying: It's good to know you care, trust me.
Submitted 2002-11-26 14:06:23
|
|
Yvon
<yvon_> writes:
People spoon-feed me reality every day.
Submitted 2002-11-28 11:04:40
|
|
Yvon
writes:
Ack! Posted that by mistake. What I was trying to say was that I hear ya, and I can totally relate to what you've figured out.
People spoon-feed me their own recipe of reality every day - and there's never one that suits my fancy. These people are out to cover their own asses, mess up everybody else's, and so they arange realities accordingly. They're back-stabbing, ass-kissing pricks with chronic cases of Cranial-Rectal Inversion. They pass the buck, pass the blame (in order of convenience) and even when they're caught in lies in front of higher powers when putting the screws to somebody - they are protected by those higher powers. These people get the raises. They get the high-paid positions that decent people (aka peons) bust their asses for. They're getting paid to shit down innocent peoples' necks, humiliate and keep people down. It amazes me how they can they sleep at night or even have functional families.
It's bad enough to be on the receiving end, but it's even worse to see my close friends and collegues getting the shaft - without any valid reason whatsoever. Especially when they're trying to help someone. I think it's reasonable to admit you're wrong only when you're wrong. In today's world, with the right managment - you're wrong even when you're not - and trying to prove yourself innocent will get your sorry ass nailed for "being difficult".
So far whenever I've gotten involved in helping someone out (vouch for them etc), that's usually made things worse for them, and myself. I still make my opinion known, but I will still remain in a position to having to sit back and watch someone decent get the screws put to them. Putting a pounding on the responsible parties will only make life worse for myself, unfortunately, so I tend to steer clear of that option.
I think most of us decent people give everyone a fair shake and treat people with respect. There's no expectation for anything incredible in return but at least some respect is in order.
I donno, the only escape for me is at the end of the day, at the end of the road home. Stuff is where it should be. There's no politics, no pricks with attitudes. What's better is that I can immerse myself in whichever fantasy that I want by flipping on some anime, a radio show, or a movie. Living in the moment of someone else's fantasy. Because I can. I got my own recipes for making realized fantasies at home. I can choose who I speak with. I can always hang up when i've had enough. Since my reality is fabricated for me throughout the day, and I'm stuck living in it - I'm really glad to be able to come home and create my own. A bit of fantasy is just what I need. Some people have suggested that an on-hand hitman would do quite nicely, too.
Even if going home doesn't solve the problem, at least it lets me think about the problem clearly. There's something to be said about going home. Eric Cartman had the solution to life's nagging little problems of life, the universe and everything (tm).... ages ago:
"Screw you guys... I'm going home."
Squirrel, sorry to hear about the crappy weekend. To the assholes who ruined it for you, I wish the fleas of a million camels on their underwear drawer. Drop me a note or something.
Submitted 2002-11-29 11:53:13
|
|
Yvon
writes:
Hey Squirrel if you're bored, I got the FreeBSD box up and it's hosting irc.loves-chii.com, in case you're interested in anime discussions... and not-so-anime-discussions. Cheers
Submitted 2002-12-01 07:27:32
|
This post is archived. Comments are disabled.
Feel free to send me email if you have something to say.
|