I need to write about this cause it’s beginning to make me sick. So many people live their entire lives with the fear of what others will think about them. This is so deeply wrong and perverse that even Berserker is a child’s game confronted with this idea.
The only way to get rid of it is to realize that it is bullshit. You are thinking bullshit yourself and you are thinking that other people think something else than bullshit.
This is the same as the fear of being percieved as arrogant. People won’t step out of their comfort zones and go after the thing they want because of the belief that you shouldn’t be overly confident or arrogant. “People that say and do what they want are dicks and assholes. I don’t want to be like that, I want to be good and accepted. I will forget about my dreams and desires only to be accepted and loved by EVERYONE. If a random douche on the internet calls me a ‘bastard’ I will cry myself to bed for a week. I don’t want that pain, I will never reach out, say what I feel and do what I want. Being an asshole is bad and I will never become one. I’d rather die having a miserable life than be called an ‘asshole’ by ‘random douche on internet #37′.”
Lately the common theme for some people is to call me and Sigvatr arrogant or assholes. I know where it comes from. I write that my games are best and I will conquer everybody that doesn’t agree. Of course this is what I write and it is arrogant, but I myself am not actually arrogant! I am nowhere near it. So what am I? I’m writing this blog so it holds as a reference point, for anyone that wants to discuss assholeness with me.
Every mammal on this planet that lives in social groups lives in a group hierarchy. It is also called the pecking order, you can imagine chicken doing it. Can you imagine humans doing it?
From Wikipedia:
Pecking order is a system of organization among a flock of poultry [..]. In this system, a bird pecks another bird who is of lower rank, and submits to pecking from a bird of higher rank.
It is a basic concept in social hierarchy that has its counterpart in other animal species as well, including humans. Among mammals and other animals, the term “dominance hierarchy” is used. [..]
The basic concept behind the establishment of the pecking order among, for example, chicken, is that it is necessary to determine who is the ‘top chicken,’ the ‘bottom chicken’ and where all the rest fit in between. Consequently, this also determines which chicken gets to eat first or which chicken gets to peck on any other chickens they want. The top chicken is one which can peck any chicken it wants. The bottom chicken is one that lets all the other chickens peck on it and stands up to none. There are chickens in the middle, who peck on certain chickens but are, in turn, pecked on by other chickens higher up on the scale.
Simple right? Now how do you think this works? How do these chickens establish who is higher and who is lower in hierarchy?
Is there a Judge chicken which analyzes all chickens and throws them on a scale? Each chicken wanting to know where it is in hierarchy asks the Judge?
Maybe there is something like a NASDAQ stock market index, where all chickens are evaluated and there’s a chart. All chicken can then clearly see the Top 10 chicken from it?
Absurd. So how does it work? The pecking order of course is not centralized and it is not objective. It is working in each and every chicken.
There must be a special delegated brain circuit whose sole purpose is to evaluate and define the chicken in the group. The chickens brain is actually placing itself in the hierarchy. Probably based on a number of subjective inputs like own size compared to other, well-being, age, current health etc. as well as basing it on subjective experiences and memories.
What is the moral of this?
Your brain establishes a social role for you and places you on an artificial social hierarchy so you are obedient to the groups system, hence preserving the continuity and evolution of the group.
What does it mean in simpler words?
Your brain fucks you up.
It will place you on a social ladder based on some arbitrary and completely subjective idea of what it thinks the current social hierarchy looks like. It will make you feel better than some people. And it will make you feel bad and inferior to other people. If you feel worse than your boss, the President, a police man, a Playboy model, it is because you have placed yourself lower in the hierarchy. If you feel better than a bum, hippy, ugly girl or a Counter-Strike player, you have placed yourself higher in the hierarchy.
And this does not have anything to do with what you THINK!
You may think your boss or teacher is a prick, analyze and rationalize all day about why you are superior to that person. But when you actually come into contact with him/her and you don’t feel like yourself, you don’t act normal, say what you want – you are the ‘bottom chicken’.
Now if the idea that your brain, your own precious brain does this to you, does not make you mad I don’t know what does.
The critical thing to know is that there is no social hierarchy nowhere written down. It is not defined anywhere, written in stone or on Wikipedia. What is percieved as higher in one culture is percieved as lower in another. It is 100% subjective. Each chicken defines its place in the pecking order by using a subjective scale.
If nothing clicks inside of you now I can’t do much more. This is a book subject and I can’t fit it in one blog. I’ll get to why I am not arrogant in a second. For now I want to explain that you can transcend or deactivate the ‘pecking order’ brain circuit.
If you transcend it, it loses power over you. You will have freedom of action, thoughts and feelings in situations in which you didn’t have before.
If you do something embarrassing publicly and you feel bad about it, you are not feeling bad because what you did is objectively wrong. You are feeling bad because you make yourself feel bad. You make yourself feel bad because you believe you have dropped on the social ladder because of the thing you did. You unconsciously processed what it means to be high in hierarchy and decided that tripping over for example is not something a person like that does. Based on that subjective interpretation you lower yourself on the social ladder, trying to make up for it by nervously laughing (lowering yourself even more on the ladder because you’re now begging other people to accept you).
If you don’t believe the lies this brain circuit feeds you, you won’t ever feel embarrassed by anything ever again.
So once you deactivate this brain function and you stop believing in the pecking order do you feel better than other people?
No. If you think like that you are not there yet. Realize this: whenever you compare yourself to somebody, you are analyzing people in order to place yourself in the pecking order.
When comparison ceases, then and only then you are independent.
If you don’t compare, you don’t feel better and you don’t feel worse than anyone. You just ARE, living aside from the social ladder, as an observer.
So am I arrogant?
Definition: ar·ro·gance [ar-uh-guhns]
“Offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.”
Superiority and self-importance imply comparison. You must be superior -to something. More important -than something.
If I write I will make the best game in the universe. I’m writing it because at that moment that’s how I feel and I’m being honest. If I say you are the ugliest person in the world does that mean anything besides me being honest with my perception at the moment? How can I know how all people in the world look like. It’s just my subjective opinion. That statement does not automatically imply that I am the prettiest person in the world as well as saying my games are the best does not imply all other games are crap. I’m not comparing, I’m just stating a feeling. Don’t think so much, feel more. If I say to a girl I love you to death, that does not mean I will actually love her until I die, it just says how I feel at that moment…
This is beginning to be long, but I still have one important thing to say. Probably the most important and optimistic part. I’ll leave it for a second part of this blog.
Hey, when i started reading i was thinking: “WTFrog? He’s baing arrogant right now!” but now in the end of the text, i can see taht you’re just showing what you fell and that you’re not arrogant, ,specially the part where you say that just because you said something it is true. Makes me think about the people that do an statament like that and think that it’s truth.
Thanks for the light MM =]
Deep stuff MM. I always thought I’d be coming here for news about soldat, but what i really end up coming here for is motivation. And whats my motivation today? Fuck what other people think. Arrogance? Perhaps.
Keep up the good work MM, I really enjoy reading these.
There is a confliction in your text on the one side you say that you dont care about what people think about you, on the other side you write this text to clarify your position.
Thanks guys.
xst1le: I wrote it mostly for myself and because I care what other people think about themselves. Read the first two sentences.
Ive always felt it wasnt the words that matter but the meaning behind the words. Think of how many rude, arrogant, and insulting things can be said with no real hostility behind them whatsoever. however we cant control others takin things the wrong way. btw relating to a different topic Michael youre tha man. so few people notice that feminism is ruining things in modern media like how every action movie nowadays is actually a love story
jet li shouldve stayed in hong kong..
If you look up to someone is it because your brain puts them higher in the social system or is this to do because of something else? If it is your brain that puts them higher on the social ladder, isn’t it good because it gives you motivation to be like them because you want to be like them. Part of your goals could be to be a honest person and therefore your brains sees a very honest person to be a role model so that you will be motivated by them. On the other side your brain puts people lower than you so that you want to be less like them. But then the negative part is that your brain sometimes categories something stupid like tripping to be bad and then the system doesn’t work like it was intended to work anymore.
Just random thoughts
Extremely good post, I agree with it almost entirely and have myself forced myself to stop comparing myself to other people, and I can understand the “Best game in the world” thing now because of this post, however..
Although it may not be ‘arrogance’ as such, letting somebody know that you think they’re they ugliest person in the world could be a serious blow to their self esteem, not everyone is able to disregard that kind of thing.
I still think it’s a better idea to avoid that one, not for one’s own ‘status’, but to avoid hurting other people who aren’t as capable of ignoring their poor brain circuitry, when what they really need is help to overcome that.
Plus, they might buy you a beer if you help ’em.
I can’t wait for the second part , really, deep thoughts yet so motivating , thank you for sharing them with us . Please, continue being an “asshole”
“Your brain establishes a social role for you and places you on an artificial social hierarchy. Your brain fucks you up.”
It only fucks you up if it’s not in 1:1 correspondence to physical reality. If you are less confident than you should be, you don’t advance on the ladder. If you are overconfident, you will get a beating. It’s simple social dynamics.
“Offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride. Superiority and self-importance imply comparison.”
Self-importance does not imply comparison. You ARE being arrogant. But ultimately, talking the talk is insignificant. The only crucial element is walking the walk.
Divan: yes it is necessary to see a distinction. It is simple actually. If it feels good it is good. If you aspire to someone and you feel good looking up to that person, there is nothing wrong with that. Problems arise when that person makes you feel bad, that is the social hierarchy working against you, and you feel it.
Cellshot: yeah of course it’s better to not say that. But if you do say it, there is no reason to feel bad about it. They have wrongly interpreted your words. You can’t seriously control everything you talk about and think about all the consequences. Like… if I write:
You suck.
Of course there might be a person out there who reads that and takes it seriously and personally. I can’t control that, it is not my intention to hurt him. Ultimately actions show your intentions. The value you put out in the world, not what you talk about.
Michal:
That’s fair enough, and I’m glad to see that you’re not just some cuntbag on the interwebs. Onwards to the best games ever!
While we’re here.. Will sniping in Link-Dead involve longer ranges than before? will another class perhaps be able to mark targets off-screen to assist in this range boost? Are you willing to drop any hints to get us sniping enthusiasts drooling? XD
Humans are social animals and there nothing with feeling bad. Only then it is a good idea to create an imaginary person, an alter-ego per say, to rationalize your actions according to “physical reality”.
that was verry motivating now i have the atitude of “you might be better then me at sich and such but it doesent mean your better then me” kinda atitude
great post!
You are right MM. Excellent post, you are a god.
michal, whens the soldat sourcecode coming?
im workin on a 2 team weapon system( you really should put this in linkdead, aswell als different teams, il send u some art soon )
There -is- something that defines the pecking order nowadays. The amount of money you have.
Being an asshole is one thing, and a thing I can understand. Insecurity and a hidden inferiority complex make one a braggart, often arrogant. If you can’t be better, you need to convince everybody else around that you are. Suppose someone believes you – that does in fact make you feel better. However trying to justify that with some bullshit – that’s just pathetic.
Be an asshole, but do it honestly.
Great job, again a topic to which I can only say “wow, THAT is a good point!”. Still, there is one thing though that doesnt fit in the logic of your description. It’s our born instincts and thus our feelings that give us an automated role in the society. And still in the end you say “Don’t think so much, feel more.”.
I think that really can’t be considered right, since feeling more would imply you allowing your natural behaviour to fuck you up again and make you feel inferior, for example, to a guy with big muscles. Feeling more implies fear or and random feelings that play a role on the way you see yourself compared to others.
Besides, for more than 2000 years all philosophers answered all of their questions (how can you be happy in life, how can you behave morally and so on…) with the same word: “RATIONALITY”. To be happy or to act morally, you have to use your brain and THINK instead of FEEL, and do everything you do not by feelings, but by rationality. Read any philosopher from the greeks up until kant and later on and they all say the same thing.
Why do you think, that that should be wrong and “Don’t think so much, feel more” should be right? Awaiting explanation.
Wow, random douche on internet #37?
That guy’s been around for quite a while.
jeez does anyone read ur long topics? maybe because they have nothing else to do.
sry if i was rude i was just saying…
pain is beautiful, suffering is next to godliness.
i agree with cosmin. Id rather die then think needlessly.
“To be happy you have to use your brain and THINK instead of FEEL”
Happiness is controlled by the amount of dopamine in your brain. Thinking CAN lead to dopamine release, but it’s usually actions that trigger this: aggression, sex, food, drugs, are much more common sources of happiness than thinking.
Thinking becomes important for happiness only for the long term.
The “feelings or thinking” dilemma is largely irrelevant. The methodology or motives that lead to an action are only important as predictors for further actions.
I think it’s important to not only feel to become happy, it’s extremely important if not more important to also know how to relativate the things that really shouldn’t matter to any person.
If people say ‘screw you, you’re a jerk for what you are’ then that’s simply their opinion. People should simply think about the fact that it’s nonsense to become totally emotional about such an opinion, regardless of whether it’s true or not. Especially if it’s said by people that you don’t even really know or don’t personally care about. You can simply disagree and that’s all there is to it. In a lot of cases when such ‘haters’ show up, it doesn’t even make sense to respond to them and explain why you think that you aren’t a ‘jerk for what you are’ or whatever they had said to you.
Personal happiness shouldn’t be defined by what other people think of you and that does require a great deal of thinking instead of feeling. People will feel offended pretty quickly and tend to get angry or otherwise emotional over every little ‘you suck’ comment posted on blogs, youtube or wherever. It’s really just a matter of thinking about it, realizing those people simply have their opinions, they have their reasons for having their opinions perhaps but that’s it. People just shouldn’t care about it. Period.
If someone is arrogant for the wrong reasons or a real wannabe with a very big mouth but can’t make things happen, then there will always come a time where these people will realize they aren’t as good as they thought they were. It’s inevitable.
“jeez does anyone read ur long topics? maybe because they have nothing else to do.”
Yes, and so did you. :p
@bigbossSNK:I’m not talking about happiness that lasts about 2 minutes, i’m talking about Eudaimonia, a good life in total. When you lie on you dieing bed you dont think about how great sex and food was in your life, but about what you achieved. THAT is what i meant.
Besides, thats not even the main topic, stop trying to just prove people wrong 😛
“When you lie on your dieing bed you don’t think about how great sex and food was in your life, but about what you achieved”
Drugs, trips, sex and all sorts of indulgences are what I’ll be looking back to when the day comes. My achievements are what other people will remember me by. They are are means to more pleasure, from me and those under my protection, not an end.
“stop trying to just prove people wrong”
I’m not merely trying, I’m succeeding 😛
Michał teraz ten tekst trafił do mnie jak żaden.
Pytanie : wierzysz w system ?
Cosmin: that’s an important question. In order to defeat your enemy, you must first know him. And the only way to know these instincts or feelings is to feel them. Not just feel but fully embrace them, that’s how you learn about them.
For me emotions are the most real thing there can be. It is like direct input from the body. You can think and imagine stuff all day, but in the end it is what your body reacts to that counts. Your body reacts to the external world and creates emotion. It is the closest you can get to reality. So are those emotions real? Most likely no. Like if you’re afraid of heights, logically you know there isn’t much to be afraid of, you just must not lean over the edge, but the body is full of fear. The thing is, for the body it is real. And that is what really counts. And you can’t like force it, rationalyze it, ridicule it. That won’t stop the fear, the body will rebel against that. What you must do is actually befriend the body and its reactions. Accept the feelings and identify them as real. Then you will see what the body fears of and you will be in a position to get rid of it. It’s easier to change something if you’re friends and you have rapport with it.
I’m not saying don’t think at all. You can think. But never put it on a pedestal. Never put it on top of emotions. Because thinking is more far away from reality (from the bodies perspective). You can rationalyze but only after you have embraced the feelings. For example you are scared to death of clowns. This may sound extremely absurd but you will have to accept this as real. Only then can you rationalyze, because it will come to you: “Of course I’m afraid of clowns cause when I was 3 they were bigger, they looked nasty and smelled”. But you can’t go the other way around, it won’t go away like that.
I’ve said about deactivating this social brain circuit and it can’t be done by thinking about it. For most of my life I tried and failed, it doesn’t work that way. What you must do is go against your intuition and actually feel the bad emotions more. If you’re afraid of something feel that as much as you can. If you hide it and rationalyze it, it is just dust swept under the carpet, it is still there. And it will unconsciously drive your life. You won’t even know that you feel bad in the presence of some people and you won’t know that you’re not living your life to the fullest because you’re scared what other people might think of you. I’ve had literally tons of fears and thinking never made them go away. Only after I started meditating, embracing every feeling, and accepting it – I have changed. That’s how I became “arrogant”, not because I feel better than somebody, but just because I have no fear and I have freedom of action and words.
If you understand this or just practically see that it works you will want to push out of your comfort zones. Because the only way to deactivate it is actually learning about the enemy more. Feeling the bad things more. You will want to put yourself in embarassing situations for example, on purpose. Just to get those emotions out there and accept them. When that happens, it will let go and you will be free.
“Never put thinking on top of emotions.”
Your house is on fire, your dog is choking and the only way to save yourself is to diffuse the bomb that’s on your desk. Solve that with emotions.
Both emotions AND rational thinking are part of you, part of your brain’s mechanism. The trick is to know when to let each function guide you. You have a romantic dinner, you use your emotions. You have to protect yourself or a loved one from harm, you cast emotions aside and follow reason (you push past the adrenaline).
Social fear of other people isn’t hardwired, it’s not biological programming. It’s social programming, an action you mimic from people around you, or you ‘ve imposed upon yourself through faulty reasoning. For an existing social programming to dissipate, you have to trigger inhibitory neurons towards that programming. Meditation is congruent with this activity.
bigbossSNK is fag.
Just doing what Michal said =)
actually I never read it I just went to the bottom and posted.
PS this is the first time I saw Michal reply to other peoples comments! btw I have the same name!
“bigbossSNK is fag. Just doing what Michal said =)”
Have you ever entertained a woman, teh_ham? Held her breast, and felt her heart beat fast? Or do you still live in your parent’s house? Ask yourself this next time you feel the urge for an uninformed comment.
“Social fear of other people isn’t hardwired, it’s not biological programming.”
Do you think that the activation of hormones isn’t hardwired in your genes? Do you think that loosing fear of death is only a problem of thoughts?. It is the biological mechanism to create social contacts and lead them to sex or gain social status to get more sex.
I am married and love my wife and son. I like my work and i have succeeded many times in mylife and reached many big goals. OK, i have only one good friend to talk with. But i don’t think that is the problem.
My biggest fear is not to be alone in the present time, rather to loose control of myself and my genes and therefore loose influence on the social system after death. After that, no direct forming of sociality is possible. I think that is the fundamental motivation behind evolution.
If it is hardwired, you can only cut the wire. After that, there is no connection.
“Creating social contacts, or gaining social status that leads to sex is a biological mechanism”
No, it’s an emergent behavior based on the fundamental biological hardwiring of dopamine and endorphin release through social interaction. Creating social contacts is in no way hardwired in the brain.
I might enjoy playing football, but playing football isn’t hardwired in my brain. What’s hardwired is neurotransmitter release in response to specific physical actions.
“Do you think that fear of death is only a problem of thoughts?”
In layman’s terms, the brain consists of three parts:
the reptilian brain, responsible for involuntary movement (heart beating, breathing etc), sensory input etc
the emotional brain, responsible for generating happiness, fear so on
the logical brain, responsible for higher cognitive functions as object recognition, learning yada yada
Of these, only the reptilian brain is hardwired. However much you try, it will not change it’s behavior.
The emotional and logical part of the brain, however, are hardwired to exist, but the code can be changed. By jumping from an airplane a dozen times, you get used to the adrenaline release. You overcome that initial fear.
“If it is hardwired, you can only cut the wire. After that, there is no connection.”
Yup. Once the reptilian brain stops functioning, you’re dead (that’s also the legal definition by the way). On the other hand, if a stroke disables the logical or emotional part of your brain, you keep on living.
“Do you think that the activation of hormones isn’t hardwired in your genes?”
Of course it’s hardwired in people’s genes. But genes aren’t the only factor. Hormones release is triggered by a physical or cognitive event. The extend to which the hormone release is based on biological or social programming depends on the specific activity.
To clarify, you can teach an elephant to be afraid of fire. The effect of the elephant’s fear is the end result of both biological and social programming, a mix of his neural circuitry responding to pain with repulsion, and creating a correspondence in his brain between fire and pain.
I’m too tired to read all those long comments (i’ll make up for it tomorrow SNK, promise), but the answer to the fag thing is just great. Laughed my ass off over here.
teh_ham, I’m really dying to see a reply to that!
Have you ever entertained a woman, teh_ham? Held her breast, and felt her heart beat fast? Or do you still live in your parent’s house? Ask yourself this next time you feel the urge for an uninformed comment.
Yes, yes no, yes…maybe.
It was a joke, I got tired of reading your long posts.
I know a trick to keep emotions in control and not thinking, drink massive amounts of alcohol!
Fuck meditation, I want some medication….lol
“Social fear of other people isn’t hardwired, it’s not biological programming. It’s social programming, an action you mimic from people around you, or you ‘ve imposed upon yourself through faulty reasoning.”
Behavior in a social context is a very tricky subject, mostly because we tend to adapt to other people’s behavior (whether for fun or necessity) and learn from it too, no question about that. Still the roots of what any person would do in any given situation in a social context will still be based mostly on biological programmed behavior for sure. I don’t believe children are born ‘shy’, it doesn’t quite work thát way, but your actions will define what kind of person you are. Your actions might be based on previous actions and assumptions, but it’s still largely up to your own ‘personality’ to decide. People make mistakes all the time and use experience to change their behavior, but at the core of the thought process it’s your biological programmed behavior that decides how you will react.
Needless to say in any given social situation there are usually at least two options of behavior, YOU are the one making the choices, not the people around you… Perhaps not everybody is aware of that, some might not be very dominant in nature, but that’s exactly what I mean with the influence the biological programmed behavior will have. In a way that may sound contradicting actually, but it’s not.
Off course it’s common sense that EXPERIENCE defines your abilities to actually BE social, but your character has to kind of want to learn becoming socially experienced and involved. If you’re not a social person by nature you will have a hard time gaining experience because it’s likely that you won’t train yourself by engaging in conversations, doing social stuff and so on.
that’s why beer is so good, you don’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks when you are drunk-
“Still the roots of what any person would do in any given situation in a social context will still be based mostly on biological programmed behavior for sure.”
Clearly, as most day to day interactions have no influence on social dynamics (or survival). Your biological programming is like an autopilot, it’s the path of least resistance you can fall back to when little thought is necessary. However, for events that can influence social dynamics, social programming and introspection become more critical in your decision making, as they can custom fit your actions to the situation.
perro: that’s why beer is so good, you don’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks when you are drunk-
True. Beer lets you feel… normal. Loss of fear is one of the reasons why being drunk feels so good and liberating.
PHeMoX: There is no other way to learn behaviours then to mimic others. But still it is or was your decision which type of behaviour you choose. I believe most of your personality was formed when you were 1-3 years old, because that is when you made the most critical decisions. After that it was auto-pilot. Mostly because we are trained to think that personality is something fixed, that we are born with and can’t influence, change it. That labels such as shy, lazy, motivated etc. are personality traits. It’s nothing definite, it is just a set of decisions. Mostly decisions from a very early age, from my experience.
So if it was you that decided how you will behave, you can go back in time and change that decision, and you will literally become somebody else.
“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.”
Stop caring about what other people say – without alcohol, ’cause drinking in fact just shows how weak you really are. Wake up and discover that you are your own god, with nothing/no one above you.
This is NO arrogance.
Keep it up, MM.
oops, forgot my name. 😉
One more: “You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength, and say, “I’m proud of what I am and who I am, and I’m just going to be myself.””
“I’m not comparing, I’m just stating a feeling.”
You *are* comparing. When you use the word ‘best,’ you are invoking a comparison. That is how the word is defined and what it means to most people.
It seems to me as if you don’t feel you’re being comparative or putting on airs of superiority, but there is a communication breakdown which leads people to this conclusion. If you don’t want people to misinterpret your meaning, perhaps you should change the words you are using to describe your feelings instead of asking people to accept an alternate definition of a well-known and commonly used word.
It might make things less confusing, is all.
Apropos of ‘what other people think,’ a lot of these comments come across to me as privileged, adolescent self-congratulating. We live in a social setting where we are forced to deal with other people on a daily basis. Furthermore, other people have a similar right to an opinion as ourselves (note that this includes a right to disagree with our opinions and vice-versa: I’m not suggesting that simply because everyone deserves an opinion that we have to treat all opinions as correct). It’s one thing to refuse to participate in a meaningless and inequitable social hierarchy, but it is another entirely to approach everyone with an “I don’t care what you think” attitude.
What sort of person is capable of acquiring their basic needs with a blatant disregard for the thoughts and feelings of others, or capable of dealing with the world solely based on their own feelings without any rational basis or empathy? It is a person of privilege who can adopt an air of general unconcern for the opinions of others while still making use of them to meet their needs (I don’t suppose many of us grow our own food). Because the majority of us are middle class, we are perfectly capable of affecting this kind of attitude without damaging ourselves, unfair as it might be. Can you imagine if everyone did the same? That wouldn’t be a society: it would be a piracy.
If you proceed through your life with a total disregard for everyone else, you aren’t denying a social hierarchy. You’re simply placing yourself at the top and everyone else below you. You are doing nothing more than further entrenching the stratified social structure you claim to oppose. I would recommend abandoning nonsense about ‘being your own god.’ If you really don’t believe in a pecking order, why not just state that you are equal to others, no better and no worse?
After all, if that’s what you really mean, what’s the harm in saying it?
$able: where are you citing that from?
I Like Cake: If I were to be logically correct I would not write “This is the best game ever”, I would write “I FEEL this is the best game ever”. Maybe I should write like that, but on the other hand it removes the emotional impact of the sentence. To be honest I give a fuck about logic, all I care about is effect. If writing something produces a movement, I am content, my job is done.
If you really don’t believe in a pecking order, why not just state that you are equal to others, no better and no worse?
I already wrote that here – http://mm.soldat.pl/?p=40. I wrote that “Everyone is average”.
“Everyone is average”
Then how come I can kick your ass, but not vice versa?
Anything you write is obviously considered to be your opinion. There’s no need to differentiate between “This is the best game ever” and “I feel this is the best game ever,” because the second is implied from the first.
I think you’re missing my point. My point is that if you write that your X is the best ever or that you feel that your X is the best ever, you are making a comparison. If you don’t mean to make a comparison, don’t say that. Say something else that better communicates your intention. You can’t blame other people for assuming you mean the things you say, because this is how we communicate as human beings.
You state that you write to produce an effect. This is the only reason anyone writes, but typically the intended effect is to communicate one’s feelings or ideas. I really just don’t see why you’d write something intentionally misleading and then go back in an attempt to redefine commonly used words to change your initial meaning. Is your intended effect to constantly contradict yourself?
MM, just google for these quotes. 😉
I Like Cake: Propose a better way for me to write about my feelings, maybe I’ll consider it. I’m just starting my adventure with writing, maybe I can learn something from you?
$able: Mother Theresa and Mariah Carey, seems like you got that from the same book :D.
No book, I just found them in a youtube video I watched recently.
Hey, I’m Amanda. I friggen agree with you 110%!
This sounds exactly like something I’d write if I had the time to!
Thanks for standng up for what’s true!
You ish sooooo my idol!
I AM THE GREATEST.
Aiming gun at people causes a movement too. Does it not matter whether the movement you cause results in positive (e.g. happiness as cliché as it may sound) or negative things (sadness, frustration, fear, uncomfort)?
It smells like you are trying to prove yourself free by overcompensating e.g. by making Berzerker. You are also making it with someone you may attractively observe as really being free (but who might just be overcompensating even more or simply be nuts).
To me e.g. Eric’s comics are useless self amusement: trying to be controversial and provocative for the sake of that being something worth admiration, sneering with feeling of privilege for making people frown. You can easily cause strong ripples into the pond with appalling work but its useless for anything but amusing yourself at the cost of others. Its much more admirable to do something that ripples for being a truly positive influence.
Soldat is an awesome game. I hope someone, e.g. Eric, has not convinced you to make crap from now on just to prove yourself free.
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on spirit matter
“20 mins to walk and 10 mins of sitting is my desire.”
thats along time out for anyone