Originally posted by debbiejo
freakazoids.??? cryI thought we were all just special.......
*hogs chicken wings*
Don't make me beat you over the head with a drumette dripping with nuclear fusion buffalo sauce! No, you're officially freakazoids.
DEBBIEJO, STOP CHANGING THE TOPIC!!!!
heehee, I love doing that to her.kisss
Originally posted by The thinker
For those that say that they dont care what others think, then you will never learn in life.
How do you figure?
Originally posted by The thinker
You learn from your mistakes, learning happens through interaction.
If you dont listen to people then you are very arrogant.Humans are social beings, we learn through interaction.
When I was a kid, I burnt my finger on the stove. I learned from that, but I wasn't particularly interested in what the stove thought.
Re: Caring what others think.
Originally posted by KharmaDog
More than one person on this forum has proclaimed that they don't care what others think about them.I believe that to be complete bullsh*t.
As social beings we can't help to care how we are percieved by others. Some may fret about it more than others, some may go out of their way to change the perception of themselves by others and some may care about it somewhat less then others but I believe, that to a degree, it is only human to care how others perceive you.
In fact, I believe that those who proclaim loudest that they don't care how other's percieve them, in fact, are those that care the most and desire the greatest levels of acceptance.
Anyone care to agree, disagree or comment?
i care too much what others think... 😬
does it stop me doing what i want to do? No...
i tend to care more about their perception of me as a person, rather than their opinion on subjects like homosexuality, abortion or whether wolverine can beat spiderman...
but, like all things, there are exceptions, and there are plenty of people who's opinions arent worth a damn to me...
There is an excellent book of literary criticism out there by French author Rene Girard called "Deceit, Desire, and the Novel" that touches on this anthropological issue better than almost any I've seen. Although the book focuses on the novels of Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Stendahl, and Cervantes, it also focuses on the broader question concerning the path of human desire. Citing the narrative terrain of the above mentioned authors and philosophers like Hegel, Girard argues that, contrary to common perception, human desire isn't linear but triangular. That is to say, our motivations are both consciously and unconsciously framed by the need to be desired by others.
To illustrate linear motivation, hunger may be used. The craving for food is an appetite. I'm hungry so I reach for an apple and eat it. The motivation to eat is linear. I consume the apple. My appetite is appeased. Simple.
Desire is different. Perhaps the best way to put it is desire is the craving for self-validation--prestige, esteem, honor, respect are familiar manifestations. Human beings are funny creatures. Our identities are precarious and piecemeal, equally based on both our own perceptions and the perceptions of others. We desire the desire of others because at the foundation of our own humanity is a radical insecurity. We need to be validated. We need others to see us as we wish to be seen and reflect that perception back to us. This is why desire is usually triangular and caught up in arcane symbolism that we only scarcely notice. We want a car to get from point A to point B. However, we also want a particular type of car because of what we think it symbolizes about us. An SUV--rugged toughness. A hybrid--thoughtfulness and sensitivity. And, more particularly, we want the same type of car that the person we esteem has because we believe that by sharing an experience of possession with that person, we enter into a bond of vicarious intimacy. Or possibly, we're just keeping up with the Jones' and want to get the car that one-ups our neighbor. However, even this is a type of self-admitted admiration. Because to keep up with the hated "Jones" is to admit secret respect and admiration for them and, therefore, slavish imitation as well. All of this is to say that human desire is based largely on envy and, therefore triangular in geometry. We don't move in a straight line to buy our new car, but rather cast a simultaneous look to what our neighbor is doing.
This is also, incidentally, why we hate--when we come face to face with our begrudging envy of another's status and know that we desire the desire of the one who we also wish to supplant.
As human beings, we love to reconstruct our origins and reinvent ourselves, but truth be told, we are all a confused mess of self-defeating irrationalities with compromised histories. Our psyches are fragile. We look to others to direct our actions and form the basis of our own desires and self-perceptions. We look as well to the artifacts of culture: books, paintings, architecture, music. In the objects we see parts of the fiction we claim as our identity.
From this I think we can draw two separate conclusions. Either we become nihilists believing in the meaning of nothing. Or else accept our special role as meaning-makers and artificers. The first Genesis account of creation is interesting in that is says God created man in his image. Like the creator, the creature need objects around which to fix his otherwise naked self-perception. If our humanity is indeed a fiction, it is also one that we must cobble together and hold onto at all costs.
Originally posted by Dr. Zaius
This is also, incidentally, why we hate--when we come face to face with our begrudging envy of another's status and know that we desire the desire of the one who we also wish to supplant.
You should keep that in mind when you use all your complex language skills to condemn other people in other threads.
Originally posted by Capt_Fantastic
You should keep that in mind when you use all your complex language skills to condemn other people in other threads.
Capt Fantastic, I know you think I'm probably an ogre or something, but can you please tell me who I've ever condemned on this board?
If you imply that I hate. You're right. I hate plenty. But certainly no one on this board...yet. ;-)
Originally posted by Capt_Fantastic
I didn't imply you hate. I SAID you condemn. And you've done to gay people and blacks so far.
What?!
1. I haven't said a single thing about homosexuals on this board. Ever.
2. All I've said about blacks is that I sympethize with their plight, which is difficult.
What I've had to say about blacks living in projects applys equally to others of diffrent ethinic makeup. The projects are the problem, not the people. Projects are created by our government and, quite frankly, by people like you who wish to perpetuate their exisetence.
I sincerely hope and believe in the ability of blacks in this country to better themselves. That's why I get so upset by liberal pandering to an agenda that seems hell bent on keeping them helpless and without dignity.
Finally, if you don't think people living in the projects intend to do nothing but sponge off the government forever, you're crazy.
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
YOU'RE crazy for making such an assumption. The ghetto is full of hard-working parents busting their ass just to feed their kids.
Yes, there are always exceptions to every generalized statement. But "full of people busting their ass"? You can't be serious. This statement certainly didn't describe the people inhabiting the pre-Katrina projects in New Orleans. Maybe your projects are the lone exception in the universe--chalked-full of industrious, hard-working people. For all of our relative backwardness in Louisiana, at least the whole state here knows and acknowledges the human degreadation caused by these things.
And guess what? As New Oreleans recovers, the projects are not being rebuilt. Good riddance.
Originally posted by Dr. Zaius
Yes, there are always exceptions to every generalized statement. But "full of people busting their ass"? You can't be serious. This statement certainly didn't describe the people inhabiting the pre-Katrina projects in New Orleans. Maybe your projects are the lone exception in the universe--chalked-full of industrious, hard-working people. For all of our relative backwardness in Louisiana, at least the whole state here knows and acknowledges the human degreadation caused by these things.And guess what? As New Oreleans recovers, the projects are not being rebuilt. Good riddance.
What part of LA are you from?
And why is it a "good riddance"?