First of all, i'd like to note that this observation was first pointed out to me by the comedian Gallagher. If you've seen him you know what I mean, if not, go check out his work, excellent stuff for the intellectual.
This is a new feature on the website, and it's going to be solely dedicated to things i've observed in life, and how I like to think the world should be instead of that. Follow me? Good. Now i've noticed today and many other days, that although lots of people like to preach and protect their "individuality" and "personal opinions", there really isn't a lot of difference from person to person. If you take an outside look at most of the people you know, you will notice several things. These include but are not limited to, their talk. Most people will avoid talking about things society considers "taboo" and if mentioned they will either act offended or ignore it. One example of this is masturbation. We all know every man does it, and anyone who denies it is full of crap, but plain and simple, you don't talk about it. Why not? You talk about excersize, and i'm pretty sure more people masterbate than excersize. I mean, you'd think people would compare techniques, or share horror stories, or anything. I don't mean idly sitting at the dinner table with mom and dad, or the kids, and breaking out that story about how you got caught when you were seventeen in your room by your mom. I mean when men are around other men. It's not even MENTIONED let alone discussed. Maybe it's because society has made it seem "disgusting" or "wrong" but it's a fact of life, and to me, it's no more disgusting than Person A bragging to Person B about how smelly his fart was. But that is perfectly acceptable behavior amongst most circle. But i'm getting off on a tangent here. Lets continue.
Another notable thing, at least to me, is people's decisions aren't really based most of the time off of what they want. It is based off of what society expects of them. Be it their parents, friends, teachers, or anyone else who would have an impace on your decision making. Take for example an individual choosing a major for college. Alot of people would assume that the obvious choice would be what does that person want to do for the rest of their life as a job. Now it would seem an easy enough decision but for alot of people, it's the hardest choice they'll ever make. If you sit back and think about it, alot of people make this choice difficult by adding factors into that are a product of society. Like how much money does the job pay? How will people see me if I have this job? How easy is it to get a job in this field? Will I be ashamed to work this job? How easy is it to get this major? Is it too hard? How will people see me if I fail? It comes down to, aside from the fact that some of these would have a direct impace on YOUR life, that in the end, most of this decision is based off of other people's perception of you and your life, not directly on your own happiness. I knew someone in a long line of someones who chose to be a dentist. I'm a good judge of character and I can often tell things by assessing a situation. And I had known this person long enough that when I discovered their major, I assumed the following. They wanted to be a doctor, not because it would make them happy but because it would pay alot, they knew their PARENTS would be "disappointed" if they failed med school, and the course work for dentistry seemed much easier than all the work needed for a different field. Plain and simple I summed it up when I said, you wanted to make the money of a doctor, but you wanted to do so the easiest way possible and with the littlest work involved. The way I know this person, and having spoken with them on numerous occasions about this, I concluded that they would have been much happier in life with one of two things. Either not going to college, and marrying and having children and being a "house wife", or getting a business management degree and owning their own business. Plain and simple they chose the route that would make the most people in their lives happy without them being directly happy themselves because of it. But maybe i'm wrong, I often am.
Another minor annoyance of mine, is how people constantly worry about what other people think. Sure, it is considerate to sometimes step back and question if your judgement will effect the lives of others, but in general, does it really matter what that other person thinks? Does it matter in the end if you pissed of individual A but did something that made you very happy? If individual A truly cared about you they would have accepted your decision in the first place, not chastised you for it, or even criticised you for it. In the end your decisions are your onw, not other peoples. But society today has taught us that its all about "image". How other people perceive us. We worry more about what people think about us, than what we think of ourselves. Look at how many people you know have a self confidence problem, and I guarantee in some way shape or form you can usually track it back to them trying to make someone like them more/be more proud of them/impress someone else, or in general, improve someone elses opinion of them, and it backfired. Or on numerous occasions the other person was indifferent or had a different reaction than expected. Most of this pet peeve of mine comes from people's lack of self confidence because of parents who constantly punished them for doing things that would make them look bad, or would make them seem "slutty" or some other "bad" thing. In the end it's your decision to make, and if you do something you enjoy, or that makes you happy, you can't go wrong.
Which brings me to the whole point of this rather long drawn out writing. Style. Every person should have a style all their own. But in today's world, every individual person's style (for the most part) is determined by their surroundings. How many people do you see that will take a chance and form an opinion, be it about a movie, music, a book, anything in general an opinion can be formed about, and let the world know how they feel. Alot of people I know do have their own opinions, but in general more than seventy five percent of the people I know base their lifestyle and decisions off of what other people think, do, see, or care about. Alot of good things die because people are too worried about public image to have their own style. Some group of people who are apparently "cooler" than us, deem that this thing, isn't very good, even it if it exceptional compared to the rest of the garbage, and thus most people discard it, fearful of forming their own opinion that might differ from the norm. This in essence could quickly turn into a rant, but I thought it better an observation. I don't really go either way on this. I could care less what other people thing most of the time, and in the end I don't think the world will be a better or worse place overall if everyone turns into mindless drones of society. But I am getting a little tired of the phrase "but so and so will hate me" or "but so many people hated it, it can't be good". Yes, I myself need to take my own advice and watch a Jane Austin movie. Which I just might do one of these nights. If you've read through this and it made any sense good. I don't like to set out rough drafts and proofread my work most of the time, I just like to sit and let my mind flow. And I like ot think the end result is coherant. This might not make any sense, and it might be insightful, but in the end, its your decision to make, don't let me or anyone else sway you.
Jimmy