This is gonna be a bit of a rant, so read it if you want, or skip it.

I feel like everyone thinks they can have everything now. I generally blame TV and the media as a whole, but when it really comes down to it, its simply a lack of determination and integrity. People think they can have every beautiful person they see. They think cheating is okay, simply because they can get away with it. They think going out "clubbing" and sleeping with some random stranger every week is a-okay because its not hurting anyone (which IS true, except that its diluting life).

No one wants to work for anything. If things get difficult in a relationship, the other person is crazy or something, and they just break up. No one is willing to sacrifice anything. You cant have everything...sometimes to get something great, you have to give up something else equally good. You will never have the freedom of being single, while having the perks of a relationship. Sometimes you cant have a beautiful AND smart girl/boyfriend.

There are simply some sacrifices you must make for someone else.

Often I console myself by saying that the people who dont work for the good things in life get that they deserve, by not having a full, good life...but rarely that helps because I end up living around those people.

No one trusts anyone, because they know they themselves are untrustworthy. I dont trust people because I know THEY are untrustworthy. This is not a "holier than thou" thing. I'm not putting myself higher than everyone else, or thinking that my way is the right way...I just feel like I give a shit, and put in effort while everyone else looks for another fast-food insta-gratification fuck.

I dont know if this was ever better in the past, or if its always been a big whorish pile of shit, but I am sick of it. Both in the frustrated sense, and the disgusted sense. Sometimes I go out places like "clubs" with my girlfriend because she enjoys the music and whatnot, and I literally feel ill looking at all the people trying to sell themselves. They arent people anymore...just fucking meat.

There are vital core attributes that I think universally matter. Of course there are tons of things that are variable and matter depending on the context...murder is generally something that is inherently "wrong", but in certain situations it can be justified (self defense, or protecting someone unable to protect themselves, etc). I feel that there are some things though, that just ARE. Truth, integrity, justice, sincerity, fidelity, determination...all these things matter no matter who you are, or what the scenario. There are some rules that I think always apply.

When talking about this with friends or family, I just call it "rightousness". Doing what you yourself KNOW is the Right thing to do. I know there are times when people do things that, somewhere deep inside, they are ashamed of. Things they know are just not supposed to be done. And thats where the determination and integrity apply...they do it anyways because it is easy, or available now, or whatever the case may be.

I hope those people feel that pain later in life. I delight in knowing that some days they just go home and cry alone because they feel so empty.

I dont believe in spiritual karma, but I DO think that everything has a consiquence, and I think that everything eventually comes back around. The punishment for leading a shallow life is that there is never going to be any depth. The pain for never applying yourself to a single cause is that you will never be able to when you need to.

I want to see more people outraged at the whorish, justifying behaviour of pop stars and TV shows. "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado?? Are you FUCKING SERIOUS? I'm not talking about censorship in the traditional sense. I'm talking about good taste and morals...sincerity and...well...god damn righteousness.

Sometimes I feel like I should see someone professional to figure out why I hate everyone, but other times I'm glad that I have the clarity to feel that way.

Anyways, I think I'm pretty much done.

/rant

Oh i totally agree, i was one of those people for well over a year and one day i woke up and was like, "man im a fucking bitch get a grip" haha, and now i feel so much better, and natural i think, being natural is the awesomest feeling ever. I guess im on the internet ALOT, but thats only cause of all the human contact you get through it.

that was a good rant.

quote:Originally posted by Lala:

that was a good rant.

Thanks...

And also, I dont feel like most of those people can recover. When you get ingrained enough into that, you're fucked forever. Either you're a ridiculously strong individual, or you werent as bad as most of the people I feel this hatred for.

Should you hate them? Or should you simply not do what they do?

You speak of justice. What justice is there in judging others for their ignorance?

They are sheep, being led by the shepherd of selfishness - they are proud; they believe they are not doing wrong in chasing their carnal desires while ignoring their hearts.

Instead of hating the proud, why not just be humble and live in your own peace? If you believe 'what goes around comes around', then these people do not need your hatred; they will collapse upon themselves, one by one. This is the way of human freedom; we destroy ourselves until we've had enough; if we are still alive, we seek a more peaceful and sincere way of life.

If you happen to be Christian, or any 'redemption' religion: They all start with harmony, slowly turn to discord and sin, then a saving force is entered into the equation and peace and sincerity are found through working towards atonement. Religious texts may be a bit fruity, but they do hold quite a few truths about life.

quote:Originally posted by Lala:

Oh i totally agree, i was one of those people for well over a year and one day i woke up and was like, "man im a fucking bitch get a grip"

See...people can and do grow out of all that. Maybe you'll grow out of your 'hate' too. It's probably a phase.

I suppose "hate" might be the wrong word...I think "frustrated" is more accurate. I certainly TRY quite hard to just live my own life, and ignore the disgusting excess and lack of self-respect (or respect of others, for that matter), but I find it so hard sometimes. I mean, most times I'm able to just say "its okay, they dont realise what damage they are doing to everything they touch", but sometimes, usually when it directly reaches my life, I cant contain it. I have far far too much self control and restraint to ever do anything violent as a reaction, but I often find myself wishing bad things upon those people. Not like "I hope you get hit by a truck". Closer to "I hope you burn your tongue on your next coffee". Just a mild karmic slap in the face to assert itself.

Though I also find myself less and less concerned with the well-being of the general public. Again, I would never try to cause anyone any physical harm, but if something...well...

nevermind. I know that goes against some of my own "rules" in some ways...sacrificing my own patience, time and respect for people too stupid to realise what they are doing shouldnt be a problem for me.

Anyways, I'm going to sleep. Thanks for discussing this. Keep talking about it, and I'll check back in the morning.

Well you only live once so you might want to look through their eyes. They're just doing their thing. Still, I agree with most of it, but it sounds like you need to surround yourself with more quality people, cause they're out there.

quote:Originally posted by BluryVision:

Well you only live once so you might want to look through their eyes. They're just doing their thing. Still, I agree with most of it, but it sounds like you need to surround yourself with more quality people, cause they're out there.

I've discussed this many times before with my people...I'd love to be surrounded by awesome righteous people...but you have to wade through the shit to get to them. You have to filter out the morons and the sluts before you find the great people.

I've gone on some rants on some similar subjects, and have since come across many others writings on the matters.

There most definitely is a commodification of sex, and ourselves in general, along with a seeming vacuum of immorality. The culprit? As you said endocrination at the hand of mass-culture: MTV morality, Mcdonalds diets, and Walmart exchange value. Cheap, fast, pointless, and leaving you feel a little dirty afterwards. The super speed of these entities has also added a symptom of ahistory to the structure of everything.

Amnesia is the heart of America.

We hardly have a choice any more; it's extremely difficult to maintain yourself today. News should be about something substantial, instead we have celebrity weddings, and book of the month club having lies in it bombarding our senses as we look for what condition our world is under.

In fact...right now I'm trying to ignore the television which my room-mate is watching. On the television is a commercial for sex texting. What the fuck is sex texting? We're so lazy, and full of instant-gratification, as well as complete and utter cowardice, that sending text messages in order to receive sexy text messages in return for much of your hard earned capital has a stable existence.

Is this what human contact has come to?

We live in a post-modern world, where meaninglessness and the death of god has presented us with a world that has no Reason with a capital "R," and right and wrong are fictions of the baseless text that is our lives. This is, ironically, true. This does not mean, however, that it is a healthy way to live, nor an authentic way to live. Simply because, socially, there is no correct path to take doesn't mean that, physically, sleeping around is much more likely to give you a nice big case of the HIV than refraining from the club scene.

This notion of freedom is an important one, and could set the stage for a new kind of human relations free of the constraints of victorian, and other extremely restricting ethics. It has, however, been coupled with an isolating, cookie-cutter construction of culture, and, as a result, has given us a country full of baby's-first-thong bratz, the ammoral morons living lives hedonistally without substance, or thought, and, generally an obscene lack of humanity.

So what do we do about this? Revolutions of thought in this era seem all but impossible as everything that inspires a group of people to gather around an ideal it is packaged and sold back to us, and when this revolutionary idea is one against the mass production of an ideal in the interest of currency it renders this thought impotent. In addition to this, any significant change must involve a person being realistically involved with their lives, and their thinking; and this simply isn't a possibility coming from our current means of mass communication. So what do we do?

We have to instil individual affirmation on a mass scale, but on a personal level. Communications like this one would be a good venue, but it is constantly infested with morons; the universities used to be an excellent source for open, and productive creation and debate of new ideas, but now is usually the main provider of all of this filth we wish to rid ourselves of.

We need to take our world back. Best selling books should have content, cinema shouldn't have to be the same regurgitated nonsense, Music TeleVision should. Fucking. Play. MUSIC!

A society in which artists, philosophers, and thinkers in general are marginalized is a diseased culture.

I'm tired, so very tired.

wow. i lack the sophistication to fully comprehend/respond to you guys, but keep this discussion going..

We're just animals, and like animals that have too much time on their hands, we spend it all pleasuring ourselves to the exclusion of everything else.

It often takes disasters to bring about a reality check and interrupt the selfishness.

I find my favorite people and partners are the ones that have experienced this hardship and woken up.

It doesn't mean they're cold, it just means they value sencerity, loyalty and love, knowing that when times get hard, those are the things that hold.

Well I'm glad someone else is as...upset about it as I am. I'd be happy to see people simply stop doing it, but open opposition of such a bland mini-life is what is necessary.

I agree that a huge problem is the commercialization and regurgitation of "movements" and attempted social reforms. "Bush Sucks" calibur t-shirts, catch-phrase mall vendors, etc... You cant make a point without someone printing up a bumper sticker of it, and selling 10,000 of them to people who are trying to be fringe.

I hate to admit that I am at least a cog in the machine...I work in a music store, distributing all the horrifically basic template-pop to 14 year old girls who are dressed like hookers. While I feel guilty about being somewhat of a provider, I also see this as an opertunity to steer people back towards quality material. "What can I get for my 16 year old son?" pretty much makes my day. I just love when people actually ARE open to new things that are a little bit of a change from the norm.

Really, that is another one of my largest issues with "modern" society, though I suppose its been happening since we learned to speak: intollerance and obtusiveness (sp?!). Along with never putting genuine effort into anything, people are also totally unwilling to try anything new, or different. But thats getting into a totally different topic.



Anyways, TV bad. Radio bad. Internet REALLY bad.

quote:Originally posted by Hexadecimal:

If you happen to be Christian, or any 'redemption' religion: They all start with harmony, slowly turn to discord and sin, then a saving force is entered into the equation and peace and sincerity are found through working towards atonement. Religious texts may be a bit fruity, but they do hold quite a few truths about life.

Why can't he be the saving force? Or me? Or you?

This is my major beef with most religions: they rely on some "force", be it God, karma, the gods, the stars, the balance of the universe, whatever to make everything better. Where's the initiative to make life better for us all in that? Where's the responsibility in this freedom you speak of? Where's the solace in this assumed benevolence when you take a look at history and observe that the human species is getting bigger and worse?

I used to think like you as well, that there was a balance to existence, and that life tended to fix itself. And it does. When you observe nature there is a cyclic tendency; you can see it in the seasons; you can see it in the weather; it can be found in the life cycles of plant-life, and certain animals untainted by human existence. It's even in humans a little bit.

A little bit.

There is a cycle of empires in which people come in to power, conquer, exploit, a revolution is had, those who are new to power become corrupt, conquer, exploit, a revolution occurs, etc. There's a difference in this "redemption" cycle and the one to be found in nature, and this, I repeat, is that humans are getting bigger and worse!

We're at 6 billion people and counting, compared to half that size a few short decades ago, and only a few hundred million a meager 10 thousand years ago. In what other animal population has this happened? In the past few decades technology has increased tremendously, and most of the things we play with today were created in the past 100 years.

We're growing quicker, and we have to do something about it.

Not karma, not "somebody else", not God. We do, right now.

But, all in all, you're right. You're exactly right. Life will find a way to balance itself out when human existence becomes intolerable, and, like you said, we destroy ourselves. Then, and maybe only then, some years down the line the Earth will become inhabitable again. As for now the prevailing attitude towards existence isn't restricted to the youth culture of booty shorts, shortened speak, internet laziness, non-imaginative, mass-culture obsessed (and I use mass-culture instead of pop-culture because 'pop' implies that it comes from somewhere within the population rather than the nigh-assembly line production of substanceless shit) idiots in the club scene.

These people are but the progeny of this same attitude towards life, but are merely applying it to the post-modern world. They will grow up to rule the world, and their children will have the same attitude towards life, then these children will apply it to their post-post-modern life which will be quicker, more hollowed out, even more full of stupidity, and, in all likely hood, dying.

Or dead.

There's hope in that you, as well as the original poster, seem to still have the capacity for critical thought, and this implies others do as well. This is useless, however, if we assume "something else" will make life better.

I get really bothered by most people too, but for different reasons. Like I live on a military base, so I know a lot of housewives and unfortunately most of them are totally LAZY. They don't take care of their kids, they don't cook or clean their houses and they actually hang out and moan about how much WORK they do and talk about how hard everything is for them! I know two of these women who are so damn lazy they don't get up to take their kids to school in the morning. These same women expect their husbands to come home and do housework and cook because they are "so tired from watching kids all day." It makes me sick, I mean these women also get WELFARE because they spend all of their damn money on stuff for themselves and have none left over to feed their kids! If I say anything about it to them, they're all like, "Well you're husband's an officer and YOU only have one child, so you don't know what it's like!"

But I do, because my husband used to be enlisted and we NEVER got welfare or had help from anyone! I just hate people who feel such a sense of entitlement and who are just so disgustingly lazy.

I'm always getting irritated at people on welfare being lazy and stuff, when in a way it's the system at fault.

You get £2000 for being dyslexic, on a test that's fakable. I mean, I don't know.. I'm damn tempted to fake it. If it's there why not?

To be honest, I think society has gone to shit in a way but people have always been thinking that. Samuel Peeps was commenting on the way youth has gone down the shitter, centuries ago.

It's not like I'm a great person or anything.. I'll have casual sex if I can get it. I like to drink, smoke pot and party any chance I get. Course, I don't hurt anyone deliberately and in some ways I try my best.

I'm hugely lazy as well.. whether that comes from lack of ambition, hatred of hard work or fear of failure I don't know. Though I would never be like the above mentioned mothers and I would never go on the dole.. I want to do as little work as possible.

Thank you all for taking this seriously.

quote:Originally posted by Xiao Mei:

I get really bothered by most people too, but for different reasons. Like I live on a military base, so I know a lot of housewives and unfortunately most of them are totally LAZY. They don't take care of their kids, they don't cook or clean their houses and they actually hang out and moan about how much WORK they do and talk about how hard everything is for them! I know two of these women who are so damn lazy they don't get up to take their kids to school in the morning. These same women expect their husbands to come home and do housework and cook because they are "so tired from watching kids all day."

Those women you refer to are probably bored, depressed, and feel stuck with their lives...yet don't know how to fix it. But, they must be married to some very wonderful men.

Of all the military people I've known, those types of women were in the minority. In fact, most of the women I knew who had a number of children home-schooled them, and that takes a lot of time, energy, and planning.