Life Sucks, Then You Die
Q: Why does anyone, do
anything? I mean, when you think about it,
why do we do
anything, why do I speak for example, why do I
write on
nodes?
A: Recognition,
acceptance. People do things so they can feel
accepted,
wanted, like they have
worth. People also do things for
material gains.
Example:
I tell
jokes. I am
sarcastic when I make these jokes and often am a, to give the technical name, a
smartass. People sometimes say that I am
nice,
considerate, and very
funny. However, do they ever consider the people who are the ‘
butt’ of these jokes I tell? Not all of the jokes I tell are
pointed at
people, certainly not, but
some are. Some is enough. I tell these jokes so I feel
comfortable with myself by ‘
lowering’ the people around me, and so I feel
accepted by
flashing my fast
wit.
Q: If that is true, why have people acted
selflessly? Why have people occasionally given their
lives for their companions?
A: Oh, such as the people who died of
the Donner Party? Oh, not them, but some other
instant I’m sure. Well, one main fact about people is that they want to be
remembered. What better way to be remembered then to give your most
valuable possession, your
life, for those around you.
Score! You are on your way to being remembered. That would be some people have died ‘
giving’ their life, for no
reason, the
problem could have been solved in
other ways besides someone
losing their life.
Q: So, for
example, why am I writing on
nodes? Don’t I have something
better to be doing?
A: Well, I, for one, am not a good
person for
answering this. I spent all
freshman year playing on a
MUD, and only stopped playing because the game shut down. (I had a level 64 channie I had tooled items with a
theme and my air flow hit a whopping 74 before it maxed out. Just about to get guilded). But that’s another
story. Well, sure, we all have something
applicable we could be doing. When I was on the
MUD, I worked, I did things that would only
advance my
character. So, right now I should be learning a new
language (several actually),
studying for next year,
working out, getting a
job,
preparing for the
future. Only I’m not. I’m writing for an Internet ‘node’, which has no real world
purpose, to earn the ‘
respect’ of people I do not know. In
reality, I am
frightened by the people who have 657 write-ups, I think that is
scary, how about talking to
friends, or
family, or
someone, but I am
certainly not one to
stress this, I am as
bad as any, in other ways though.
We all want to be
loved, and
accepted, but when you come down to it, everything we do is
selfish and
calculated. I am such a total
loser (Oh, LOOK at my write-ups, I wrote many write-ups yesterday that were
stupid,
pointless, and
insulting to the purpose of Everything2.com, and made sure they didn’t appear on the new write-up list. I wanted to become level two for
petty revenge, so I could
downvote those who
displeased me. Of course, my well versed and carefully planned node on downvoting got many downvotes, and this one will also, I’m sure.)
It may become easy for some people to look over all of what I said
previously, and just say ‘
Humanity has achieved
greatness’. Okay. That’s great, so a word humanity made up with no real set
definition. We can
work with that, here we go…
Greatness: Something a
species can
achieve once they have done
all of the following at least once:
Kill three hundred or more of another species. Create impersonal
weapons of mass destruction, able to destroy half the
world in seconds. Destroy an entire
geographic area (i.e. ruin a mountain face, destroy a river).
Forever damage the world that gives the species life (i.e. destroy the O-zone layer).
Exploit the
earth and other species on the earth for gain of the species in question.
I could have added a lot more, you know it, and I know it. So I guess we have achieved greatness, huh?
Q: But what about all the
good things humanity has done? We have
saved many species, made
beautiful things in nature (Mount Rushmore), created beautiful
art(Starry Night), beautiful
music, wonderful
technology…
A: Well, first off. We
destroyed a mountain to make
Mount Rushmore, and in any case, no matter what type of thing we made, we in all likelihood made a
query for the stone, thus
efacing the land, and then
ruining the land again by placing that
monument in the middle of what was a beautiful field, forest, etc.
Secondly, all those so called ‘
beautiful’ things? Why are they
considered beautiful? One
man (it was a man, you ladies, sorry, but you women didn’t matter till recently when males found out that oppressing people was ‘
wrong’, anyway),
a long time ago, made something. A score for an
opera, a
painting,
whatever. Then, somebody saw that
creation, and wanted
recognition as the first to ‘
appreciate’ it for it’s ‘
true’ value. They said it was
great. The idea that this creation was great caught on like
wildfire, then, suddenly, it was a
masterpiece. But it wasn’t a masterpiece
originally, someone had to say it was. It was only an
opinion. Now it is generally accepted that these things were ‘wonderful’. That means jack. An opinion is all, every culture has it’s own
expectations, it’s own beliefs on what is beautiful. So these
masterpieces are nothing except the results of a
conformist culture. Sure, I think
Van Gogh is great, and
Mozart is absolutely fantastic. But I can’t help but
wonder if I only
believe these things because I, deep down inside, am a
conformist. Of course, on the outside I like to
fancy myself a
nonconformist. Doesn’t every
teenager? But when you come down to it, no one is, by being a nonconformist people are trying to be seen as
different and ‘
cool’. They say ‘to
hell with this, I don’t
care what you
think’, and that is ‘
cool’. By being ‘cool’, it is being accepted, which means it is
conformity at it’s best.
I’m tired, way too tired. The
point of this
stupid node being? Well,
obviously I am just trying to grab at
attention, I want to be
accepted, so I write a node so everyone will love me. Or maybe they will feel
sorry for me. Or maybe they will think it’s
stupid, but that means
someone will feel sorry for me. Score! I have
finally done what is
required to be
human, make a
selfish effort to be
accepted. Be accepted for who I am? Certainly not, what do you think I am,
crazy?
And of course, we all know by now, that people work so they can get
money, so they can get a nice
apartment/
house, so they can get a
husband/
wife, so they can
procreate. Some people don’t do this because of
mental conditions or just not wanting to, being able to. I live in
Texas, and as a child I heard, and still here, many
horribly racist jokes about
Mexican Americans. I am a quarter
Puerto Rican, which is almost nothing compared to full-blooded
Hispanics. But I still take
pride in the fact that I am part
minority. Do I say anything about those jokes? No. I
conform, I don’t stand up for what I
believe in. Now, in
High School, it is ‘
cool’ to be anti-conformist so of course, I can say ‘I can’t believe the phrase ‘Indian Giving’, that is so
horrible.’ or can
protest against our school banning
camouflaged clothing.
I’m anti-conformist now! I’m cool! Yeah! Life Sucks, Then You Die.