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Xeogaming Forums - General Chat - Life's lessons: the things you learn people-watching | |
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Rogue
If you're reading this... You are the Resistance











Since: 08-17-04

Since last post: 395 days
Last activity: 204 days
Posted on 11-08-07 06:32 PM Link | Quote
Honestly, I'm not much of a people-watcher, per se, but being in southern California where there are so many people of different cultures, backgrounds, colors, creeds and so on all jammed into one place you are sometimes privy to the strange things people do or say.

Feel free to add your own societal observations.

It's just that after the past few years of going to festivals, shows, conventions, and other public places, and now getting around to driving along with seeing how people write on the Internet, you begin to pick up on the patterns people have.


These are just things that I've actually seen, coupled with some opinions on the matter.

- Wealthy (usually white, and usually old, though anyone over 30 can be applied to this) people will go to free arts events geared toward the less fortunate in a community who don't usually get to experience art, and complain about EVERYTHING. This observation came while I was at the L.A.'s Grand Avenue Street Festival where the museums in the area were giving free admission that day and the L.A. Phil Harmonic was doing free shows in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Throughout a chamber music presentation, at least 5 older, white folks who were sitting around Zoso and me were complaining loudly about the choice of music (as in the musicians were playing "mainstream tripe" like Mozart's Serenade No. 10. Yes, they really were complaining about this) as opposed to sitting back and enjoying a free show in a theater that most never get to go to.

I've since boiled this observation down to "People will get things for free and still complain about it." While at a free film festival that was being thrown for Tar Fest, half of the aging scenester-filled audience threw a fit about screen not being big enough, there not being enough art films, and how there wasn't enough to brag about to their avant-garde friends.

Ugh.

- People will eat (or at least order) anything if you give it a fancy enough name or pass it off as trendy. There are really no specifics for this one. I'm sure you can figure it out or have seen this going down before.

This also applies to things shown on TV. Example: Pinkberry yogurt places have been sprouting everywhere and often people go because they saw the girls eating it on "The Hills."

- Most people don't look servers/waiters/waitresses in the eye.

- Whenever people are walking along a lawn or grassy area, even if it would make their trip shorter to cross onto the grass, they still make a point in taking the long way, walking on the pavement and around the lawn. I see this at school A LOT.

- A bit of an adult observation: No one ever questions why in porn, the man pulls out and either ejaculates on the girl or has her perform oral while he's orgasming. This was brought up by an actor friend who included this at the end of his one-man show where he discussed the world's idiosyncrasies. He also mentioned that there is the possibility that young people who are too afraid to ask about sex and intimacy will watch porn to teach themselves about it and will find the degrading act a part of the normal intercourse routine without questioning it.

He definitely words it better than I ever could. When he mentioned it and how young people might take the wrong things as role models, the idea was somewhat more depressing in the way he detailed it.

- Everyone is a victim in their diary.

- People can quote The Simpsons better than the Bill of Rights.


Again, I say that you may add what you've observed. This is a completely open list.

I'll post more as they come.
Cteno

Super Shotgun
Moderator








Since: 01-11-05

Since last post: 1602 days
Last activity: 722 days
Posted on 11-09-07 01:18 PM Link | Quote
I learned a lot from Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. There is so much truth in these that its not even funny. I have found that they were 100 percent true when I observe others.

Wizard's First Rule:
People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.


Wizard's Second Rule:
The greatest harm can result from the best intentions; It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough. Violation can cause anything from discomfort, to disaster, to death.


Wizard's Third Rule:
Passion rules reason, for better or for worse; Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you.


Wizard's Fourth Rule:
There is magic in sincere forgiveness, the magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, but more so, in forgiveness you receive; Forgiving and being forgiven are powerful elements of healing, not for your body, but your soul. Forgiving others is healthy for you, but being forgiven is even more powerful.


Wizard's Fifth Rule:
Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie; People will lie to deceive you from what they truly mean to do. Watching the actions they take will prove their true intentions.


Wizard's Sixth Rule:
The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason; The Sixth Rule is the hub upon which all rules turn. It is not only the most important rule, but the simplest. Nonetheless, it is the one most often ignored and violated, and by far the most despised. It must be wielded in spite of the ceaseless, howling protests of the wicked. Misery, iniquity, and utter destruction lurk in the shadows outside its full light, where half-truths snare the faithful disciples, the deeply feeling believers, the selfless followers. Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are a virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.


Wizard's Seventh Rule:
Life is the future, not the past; The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew. As rational, thinking beings we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices.


Wizard's Eighth Rule:
Deserve victory; Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what you desire.


Wizard's Ninth Rule:
A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole; To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy--to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were. A thing is what it is, it is itself. There can be no contradictions. In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess: your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake.


Wizard's Tenth Rule:
Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self; People who for whatever reason don't want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it. They frequently turn their venomous antagonism on whoever dares to point out that truth... To those seeking the truth, it's a matter of simple, rational, self interest to always keep reality in view. Truth is rooted in reality, after all, not the imagination
Katana

Dark Wizard
\"She said tonight...come on come on collide...see what I fire feels like..I bet its just like heaven.\"








Since: 08-15-04
From: Philadelphia, P.A.

Since last post: 1316 days
Last activity: 1134 days
Posted on 11-13-07 12:26 AM Link | Quote
For starters, not only do I agree with the points Rogue has posed, but I also confess that I am guilty of some things that people may witness while "People Watching." Such as the whole food thing. When it comes to something edible, subliminal messaging is my Kryptonite. >.o

And for Darth Nelrith's contribution...well, for one, the only reason why I wouldn't go as far as to say "100% correct" is because I don't call anything 100%...simply because there are other opinions out there.

But the author, in my little opinion, is a genious. The first rule goes right for the kill. Grabs the attention of the reader by attacking a typical human insecurity. Another thing I have observed....People talk a big game about being right, but most talk to big to cover up their fear of being wrong...ignorant to something. So right there, by addressing that point, Mr. Goodkind has caught his reader, and if it is something they can identify with, then he has established himself some credibility, and thus, continue to be heard.
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