I admire celebrities. They have to tolerate people talking about them, behind their backs, in gossip columns and online, saying good, bad, or downright mean things. It takes a certain fortitude of spirit I think, and honestly I don’t know if I possess it.
But then I think: are all celebrities really that self-aware and consciously strong? They can’t all be, there’s just no way. Some of them are just idiots, it’s as simple as that, and if they can put up with the media’s attention, how hard can it be? Eventually everything blows over – doesn’t it?
Tags:
America,
Celebrity,
definition,
gossip,
opinion,
question,
societyOn taking more than we need
I hear the body pisses out whatever extra vitamins and minerals it ingests that it doesn’t need. I also read a few months ago about a study of an ape species that revealed that they only take what they need in the way of food, even if more is available to them.
Why can’t we humans, the smartest creatures in the world, think and live like that? To take only what we need and not more just because it’s available to us? I can understand the concerns of the World War II generation who didn’t know where tomorrow’s meal would come from so they would hoarde supplies. But for my generation, which has grown up in relative prosperity, what’s the cause of the greed other than monkey-see monkey-do?
Tags:
America,
apes,
definition,
greed,
life,
nature,
needs and wants,
Nutrition,
opinion,
question,
science,
society,
World War IIIt’s curious how only whites have the hubris to congregate and declare themselves supreme; that they form social organizations to keep land (and other resources) away from immigrants – land they themselves stole from others hundreds of years ago.
I’d like to see some Oriental or Latino supremacist groups. It would be nice to balance things out a bit. When my parents decided to leave India and move to N. America, for many years I was of the thought that we are in the land of others; that it’s a privelege I should feel grateful for and so on and so forth. I felt like the white people, by forming this great capitalist country, were doing me and mine a huge favor.
Only recently I’ve decided that I was utterly naive – I actually feel angry at myself for my former point of view, for being so innocent and foolish. This land is no more the white man’s land than it is mine or someone’s from Liberia or Chile; hell, you could even say that this land didn’t even belong to the Indians who the whites stole it from (to the extent that land can belong to someone).
As for doing favors, whose mental labor are the CEOs of America getting rich off if not immigrants? Who works the farms and meat factories that otherwise no one would touch if not illegal immigrants? Have they given us something by “letting” us be here, or are we funding their mansions and luxury cars and leisure time to harvest supremacist thoughts from our labor? The immigrants that are allowed in legally, are they allowed in because Americans are caring and compassionate toward all humankind, or because they can contribute to the coffers of the powers that be? Is money gain and greed not the bottom line?
My favorite bumper sticker of all time reads: “Sick of immigrants? Tell it to the Indians.”
A few years ago I was of the belief “Learn English or go back where you came from.” Now I say what the hell, let Latinos and Spanish take over – if it wouldn’t be them then it would be another racial group. The point is that what goes around comes around, and the white man’s “reign” is slowly on the decline. It might not happen in my lifetime, but to do my part, without violence, I can sit back and say “Fuck you” (with a smile, of course).
Tags:
America,
bumper sticker,
capitalism,
definition,
Discrimination,
Ethics,
greed,
immigration,
Latinos and Spanish,
N. America,
opinion,
question,
quotation,
Racism,
Social Issues,
society,
White people,
White supremacyOn positive thinking
Sometimes I get really sick of all this positive thinking that’s going around. Self-help and spirituality books and the general media tell us to think positive, feel good about our bodies, put family and nation before anything else etc. etc. I just feel like saying “Fuck you!” to them all sometimes.
But then where I get stuck is at the question “What’s the alternative?” If you’re not to think positively, what other choice is there? Think negatively? That won’t do anyone any good now will it. So then I end up back where I was, genuinely thinking positively about some things and resignedly about others.
Your own domain name – $6.99/year
Hosting your own website with unlimited e-mail accounts and storage – $36/year
Setting up your e-mail accounts – 30 minutes
Going through your Spam – 2-10 minutes/day
Not giving Google unfettered access to your personal e-mail by using Gmail – priceless
Tags:
computing,
definition,
E-mail,
gmail,
Google,
internet,
life,
opinion,
question,
society,
spam
This image was suggested by tagaroo as being revelevant to this post based on its content.
Blogging is already a form of hubris, but twitter-ing takes it to a whole new level. “Listen to me world. This is what I’m doing, this is where I am, this is what I’m thinking about something that doesn’t really matter or pertain to the world-at-large.” I know the whole argument of “if you don’t like it don’t listen to it” but it’s the act of broadcasting itself that gives away the self-importance and self-absorption we all feel – whether as members of present-day society or as biological creatures in a never-ending struggle (I use the term loosely) for survival.
But it’s good too. Whereas before a cartel of publishers (of books, music, and videos) decided that this or that person is worth listening to, now every Joe and Nancy has the opportunity to be heard. Let them stand on the merit of their words. But that brings me back to the point I started with: there’s not much merit to tweets of the sort “I’m at X location” or “I’m watching X music video by the latest pop star”. I’ve been lurking in the Twitter-sphere for the past few weeks and people write inane and self-absorbed things for the most part. I envisioned blogging and “social media” to be more about sharing thoughts on things and events we share and participate in together, as opposed to broadcasting to the world what I’m doing in my pajamas on a Sunday morning and thinking it matters.
I also see merit in Twitter’s inherent brevity. Reading an unknown person’s blog post is a big investment in time. I see Twitter as a good introduction to someone’s writing ability and sphere of interest. It’s easier to read, in 140 characters or less, what someone cares and writes about than visiting their website and reading an entire paragraph of (what I consider) nonsense and leave feeling annoyed and crappy for having wasted my time.
I guess my point is: Bloggers and twitter-ers should write about stuff that matters.
Tags:
blogging,
human nature,
investment,
opinion,
people,
random image,
rant,
social media,
society,
time,
Twitter,
World Wide Web
