I couldn't agree more. I like my eccentricities. I play war games on my computer when I have time. I started taking a couple of photography classes just because I could. Why not? I'm a senior citizen, a veteran and the local community college offered to let me audit the classes for free. What's not to like? Am I the oldest one in the class? Who cares. I think the teacher and I are close in age so that may be why she's being nice to me.
As for the future, I'm well aware that I seriously doubt I will see 2050. I will be lucky to get to 2040 or so. Meanwhile, I plan to do as much as I can to protest the government, climate change deniers, and anything else I feel like yelling about. All the while preparing for what's coming. Your research has been invaluable and I look forward to a continuing partnership as we head into a future full of extreme weather and a wannabe mafia don/dictator, not dictator that can't figure out what day of the week it is half the time. But he wants to use soldiers to police the cities and help clean up the trash.
Well said. What is our prepping and protesting for if we're also not going to fit in a game or a photography class when we can? As I've learned myself, denying those things is a recipe for misery.
My confession is that I like hanging out at home, listening to music, reading stuff online, watching dumb TV sitcoms, and talking with my wife about whatever strange topics happen to entertain us. I don't like socializing, participating in group activities, or basically interacting with others unless I really have to. It is very tempting to feel guilty about this situation, since the general American pop culture consensus seems to be the entire reason we're alive is to spend as much time as possible with friends and extended family -- eating at restaurants, having picnics, blowing up fireworks, driving long distances in American made cars, buying tons of plastic trinkets at various big box outlet stores -- and the only alternative lifestyle is one filled with depression or "fomo."
I say screw 'em. I like being weird, and so does my wife. I think this makes me the luckiest person I know.
Same for me. I'm also into solo role-playing games when I can make the time. So, I'm mostly anti-social and an intellectual misfit - so was my father & he lived a very happy life.
You framed the expectations so well. For years, I did more of that than I wanted and now I'm in the same groove. I just want to hang out at home with my family or go for walks or work on various projects. It's nice to hang out with people a few times a year, and that's all I need.
When I was 22 I lived in a cheap three story in pre-gentrified Wicker Park Chicago. Across the hallway were 2 women who had started a radical feminist group called Sister Serpants. The guy who lived on the floor below us was an artist who made terrariums with buried strange objects in them. And my roommate and I were trying to start a satirical religion called The Temple of Industrial Leisure.
Weird, outsider, original, strange were all big compliments back then.
But “weird” doesnt play well in corporate boardrooms. And it’s harder and harder to tell the difference between neoliberal American “content” culture and boardrooms.
To those wanna-be millionaires out there, I wonder if it's ever occurred to them that nobody wants them there, including the millionaires that they are striving to emulate.
I was thinking about this just yesterday. The billionaires seem to understand on some level that they are merely parasites, that they have pretty much single-handedly destroyed the planet and the future for billions, and it's making them rather...figidity.
My favorite hobbies are dance lessons and writing sappy letters to people. The dancing is fun because I get wear the glitzy costumes and participate in the recital like I'm a kid again. This post resonates well, however, about prioritizing how to our free time in way that is meaningful, regardless of incoming doom. My goal is to stop doomscrolling/mindlessly scrolling on the internet. Reading scientific articles is good but I'm trying to break my reddit habit.
My family and I are also going to expand our garden, after five years of me fighting to have one, because they love it. My thoughts on extinction are that if humanity goes extinct, it won't matter because nobody will be able to tell. Midcentury is concerningly soon though, hope it doesn't happen, but we'll see.
I used to be down with Donkey & Shrek (“fly your freak flag”) but over time I’ve become *far* more honey badger (“it really doesn’t give a shit”) tbh 😹
Do your own thing, consenting adults and all that notwithstanding, as well as “don’t do shit that fucks other people (up or at all)”.
My weird thing has been going on for decades. I have a ongoing series of journals, always with a pink cover, blank, sometimes lined, and I write predictions. The predictions might be related to something happening in the world or not, often they have nothing to do with anything - just statements - revelations - a lot total nonsense. Until they aren't. Years ago I mentioned that I did this at a dinner party. Everyone laughed. Interestingly they all talked about 'getting it right' but this prediction writing is not about getting anything right but rather creating something out of nothing, getting your left field brain free to write, think, say anything. No holes barred. Nothing off limits. Sometimes I'm asked to grab one and read out some of the absolute garbage out. Quite a few of my friends regularly me a text or email, "something for your Nostradamus book". Imagine writing Donald Trump will be US President a couple of decades ago, damn it, maybe we would have had some warning.
I wish my hobby could be stalking and harassing MAGA types but that definitely wouldn't be healthy. I really should focus more on writing and creating music.
The oppression of individual expression is about how a society creates adherence to a strict set of rules that confines and defines the marketplace of ideas. The more restrictive the marketplace of ideas is, the easier it is for mass media and pop culture to set the range and ideas of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. It goes far deeper than this non-verbal freedom of expression because we think with words as well as images, so it is a way to control the language of expression we use. Thus, it controls how and what we think and it becomes invisible.
There is economy in this from a consumption perspective, and there is expediency in this from a political economy perspective. This all supports the reality that the choices a person has in a restrictive society is not restrictive at all. This of course is a deception, but when everyone embraces the limitations because they have already been conditioned without knowing it, it becomes invisible. People know of no other way.
The marketplace of ideas is barren of these other ways, they have been discarded and to give rebirth to them then threatens the individual with being socially ostracized and this is instinctually very dangerous to us. The threat of being seen as a social outcast creates a negative emotional response within us because we want to be accepted for who we are, so we comply with this artificial limitation, largely unaware that we are being controlled.
This is foundational to the creation of ideas that can be used to separate us and turn us against each other. The outlier must be outcast, they are "less than" they are "less able" they are anything but "normal", they are alien and strange and as part of our desire to protect the social group, we will turn against them.
Thus, we create our own fences, limitations and our own cages. We are the wardens of our own prisons that work to destroy our individual creativity, our own ability to transform our thoughts into reality. The ability to transform thought into reality is the most dangerous ability of all to a restrictive society.
The notion that you can imagine something as simple as a way of dressing yourself with clothing, that reflects you uniquely, that is essentially an expression of art is not allowed. If we have children, we, as conditioned adults, work to suppress their freedom of expression because we have been conditioned to do so.
The end result is a population that is more manageable, more compliant, and more willing to give up their individuality. This confines the marketplace of ideas to a manageable area. We have been disciplined and have accepted it. This stunts our imaginations, our words and thus our creative ability to solve problems. It confines our minds to be able to even see other solutions to problems that, if we were allowed the creativity, would be easily solved.
You may protest, but this is the dark arts of how the few rule the many. It is sublime and saturates the whole of every society through different means to reach different goals. Controlling the marketplace of ideas is an absolute imperative in the heirarchy of methods that the few must employ to control the many.
I couldn't agree more. I like my eccentricities. I play war games on my computer when I have time. I started taking a couple of photography classes just because I could. Why not? I'm a senior citizen, a veteran and the local community college offered to let me audit the classes for free. What's not to like? Am I the oldest one in the class? Who cares. I think the teacher and I are close in age so that may be why she's being nice to me.
As for the future, I'm well aware that I seriously doubt I will see 2050. I will be lucky to get to 2040 or so. Meanwhile, I plan to do as much as I can to protest the government, climate change deniers, and anything else I feel like yelling about. All the while preparing for what's coming. Your research has been invaluable and I look forward to a continuing partnership as we head into a future full of extreme weather and a wannabe mafia don/dictator, not dictator that can't figure out what day of the week it is half the time. But he wants to use soldiers to police the cities and help clean up the trash.
Well said. What is our prepping and protesting for if we're also not going to fit in a game or a photography class when we can? As I've learned myself, denying those things is a recipe for misery.
The fact that I got this shortly after feeling hurt after being called "weird" is a balm to my soul.
Perfect timing. :)
My confession is that I like hanging out at home, listening to music, reading stuff online, watching dumb TV sitcoms, and talking with my wife about whatever strange topics happen to entertain us. I don't like socializing, participating in group activities, or basically interacting with others unless I really have to. It is very tempting to feel guilty about this situation, since the general American pop culture consensus seems to be the entire reason we're alive is to spend as much time as possible with friends and extended family -- eating at restaurants, having picnics, blowing up fireworks, driving long distances in American made cars, buying tons of plastic trinkets at various big box outlet stores -- and the only alternative lifestyle is one filled with depression or "fomo."
I say screw 'em. I like being weird, and so does my wife. I think this makes me the luckiest person I know.
Same for me. I'm also into solo role-playing games when I can make the time. So, I'm mostly anti-social and an intellectual misfit - so was my father & he lived a very happy life.
You framed the expectations so well. For years, I did more of that than I wanted and now I'm in the same groove. I just want to hang out at home with my family or go for walks or work on various projects. It's nice to hang out with people a few times a year, and that's all I need.
When I was 22 I lived in a cheap three story in pre-gentrified Wicker Park Chicago. Across the hallway were 2 women who had started a radical feminist group called Sister Serpants. The guy who lived on the floor below us was an artist who made terrariums with buried strange objects in them. And my roommate and I were trying to start a satirical religion called The Temple of Industrial Leisure.
Weird, outsider, original, strange were all big compliments back then.
But “weird” doesnt play well in corporate boardrooms. And it’s harder and harder to tell the difference between neoliberal American “content” culture and boardrooms.
For a little while, weird was celebrated in our culture. Seems like it's back to just being a slur now.
American culture is becoming a Uni-culture. I’ve never seen it so narrowed.
To those wanna-be millionaires out there, I wonder if it's ever occurred to them that nobody wants them there, including the millionaires that they are striving to emulate.
I was thinking about this just yesterday. The billionaires seem to understand on some level that they are merely parasites, that they have pretty much single-handedly destroyed the planet and the future for billions, and it's making them rather...figidity.
My favorite hobbies are dance lessons and writing sappy letters to people. The dancing is fun because I get wear the glitzy costumes and participate in the recital like I'm a kid again. This post resonates well, however, about prioritizing how to our free time in way that is meaningful, regardless of incoming doom. My goal is to stop doomscrolling/mindlessly scrolling on the internet. Reading scientific articles is good but I'm trying to break my reddit habit.
My family and I are also going to expand our garden, after five years of me fighting to have one, because they love it. My thoughts on extinction are that if humanity goes extinct, it won't matter because nobody will be able to tell. Midcentury is concerningly soon though, hope it doesn't happen, but we'll see.
I've openly embrace my inner weirdo for many years. I remember at one job, a friend would tease me by calling me a nerd - I always replied thank you.
Those willing to be weird are less worried about following the crowd.
Yeah! I love it! Share your weirdnesses!
Once again, you hit the center of the dart board.
Yeah baby!
I used to be down with Donkey & Shrek (“fly your freak flag”) but over time I’ve become *far* more honey badger (“it really doesn’t give a shit”) tbh 😹
Do your own thing, consenting adults and all that notwithstanding, as well as “don’t do shit that fucks other people (up or at all)”.
My weird thing has been going on for decades. I have a ongoing series of journals, always with a pink cover, blank, sometimes lined, and I write predictions. The predictions might be related to something happening in the world or not, often they have nothing to do with anything - just statements - revelations - a lot total nonsense. Until they aren't. Years ago I mentioned that I did this at a dinner party. Everyone laughed. Interestingly they all talked about 'getting it right' but this prediction writing is not about getting anything right but rather creating something out of nothing, getting your left field brain free to write, think, say anything. No holes barred. Nothing off limits. Sometimes I'm asked to grab one and read out some of the absolute garbage out. Quite a few of my friends regularly me a text or email, "something for your Nostradamus book". Imagine writing Donald Trump will be US President a couple of decades ago, damn it, maybe we would have had some warning.
I wish my hobby could be stalking and harassing MAGA types but that definitely wouldn't be healthy. I really should focus more on writing and creating music.
The oppression of individual expression is about how a society creates adherence to a strict set of rules that confines and defines the marketplace of ideas. The more restrictive the marketplace of ideas is, the easier it is for mass media and pop culture to set the range and ideas of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. It goes far deeper than this non-verbal freedom of expression because we think with words as well as images, so it is a way to control the language of expression we use. Thus, it controls how and what we think and it becomes invisible.
There is economy in this from a consumption perspective, and there is expediency in this from a political economy perspective. This all supports the reality that the choices a person has in a restrictive society is not restrictive at all. This of course is a deception, but when everyone embraces the limitations because they have already been conditioned without knowing it, it becomes invisible. People know of no other way.
The marketplace of ideas is barren of these other ways, they have been discarded and to give rebirth to them then threatens the individual with being socially ostracized and this is instinctually very dangerous to us. The threat of being seen as a social outcast creates a negative emotional response within us because we want to be accepted for who we are, so we comply with this artificial limitation, largely unaware that we are being controlled.
This is foundational to the creation of ideas that can be used to separate us and turn us against each other. The outlier must be outcast, they are "less than" they are "less able" they are anything but "normal", they are alien and strange and as part of our desire to protect the social group, we will turn against them.
Thus, we create our own fences, limitations and our own cages. We are the wardens of our own prisons that work to destroy our individual creativity, our own ability to transform our thoughts into reality. The ability to transform thought into reality is the most dangerous ability of all to a restrictive society.
The notion that you can imagine something as simple as a way of dressing yourself with clothing, that reflects you uniquely, that is essentially an expression of art is not allowed. If we have children, we, as conditioned adults, work to suppress their freedom of expression because we have been conditioned to do so.
The end result is a population that is more manageable, more compliant, and more willing to give up their individuality. This confines the marketplace of ideas to a manageable area. We have been disciplined and have accepted it. This stunts our imaginations, our words and thus our creative ability to solve problems. It confines our minds to be able to even see other solutions to problems that, if we were allowed the creativity, would be easily solved.
You may protest, but this is the dark arts of how the few rule the many. It is sublime and saturates the whole of every society through different means to reach different goals. Controlling the marketplace of ideas is an absolute imperative in the heirarchy of methods that the few must employ to control the many.