We live in a society of instant gratification and impatience. We all want the youtube video to download faster and things we want done to be done yesterday. But that's not the worst part of it. We live in a society of right now but when I get there. It is becoming so acceptable to show up late.
Why do I say that? Go to a movie, at the local movie theater they actually have a screen that pops up saying "We;re proud to say we don't show commercials after the listed show time, now enjoy these previews of coming attractions"... They start the previews at the time the movie is listed to begin... this makes it perfectly acceptable to show up to the movie late and try to find a seat in the dark. I remember as a child you had to show up to the movies 15 minutes early to find a seat and see the previews. If you showed up a minute late for the movie you missed a minute of the movie.
It is a sign of disrespect to show up late. If you tell me you are going to show up at 5 pm and you don't get there until 5:15 you have shown me that you don't respect me enough to show up on time. If you are going to be more than a few minutes late for a get together it is polite to call and let the person know. I always do my best to show up on time because I know how much I hate to be left waiting. Fashionably late only works at large parties and that is still rude.
In the world of instant gratification there still needs to be respect for others.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monsters
The Psychology of Monsters
Zombies: Why do people fear zombies? Yes they fear the obvious mindless brain eating aspects but is that it? Zombies represent something deeper, they are the past coming back to haunt us. Who becomes a zombie? Our Ancestors. They rise up and in a mindless rage they try to make us like them, brainless. What is the one thing we have over them, the power of reason and logic. People fear their past cominc back to haunt them and take from them what they have gained.
Vampires: Yes they have sharp fangs and suck blood but is that all? Vampires are associated with lust and overwhelming passion. The vampire is the lust that comes for you in the middle of the night. That power is burned away in the light of day. This power is overwhelming and has super human strength. It draws on blood, what does blood represent? Vitality. The vampire is that lust for vitality that comes for us in the dark. When we are consumed by it we can either be killed by it or feel that we can live forever. In the old world it was considered a curse to be consumed by this lust was to be cursed. It was considered better to be killed by it rather than losing your soul by giving in to it.
Frankenstein/Killer Robots: This is possibly one of the oldest fears known to man. In ancient times when a man had wealth or power it was known that his son would take his power when he died. Fathers feared that their son would try and take this power as opposed to waiting for him to die of old age. Zeus' father consumed his children due to fear of them taking his power. That is the origin of this more modern fear. Frankensteins monster and killer robots are proverbial children of modern men. Men fear that their creations will rise up and kill them or try to rule over them. In IRobot or The Matrix men's creations rose up to enslave men as a son takes the crown from his father.
Wolf man: Feral bestiality and raw animal nature. Men fear giving in to that inner animal that is scratching to get out. Like a vampire it is giving in to some inner instinct that society tells us to resist. Giving in to the inner beast we become a monster that needs to be feared. Depending on what school of thought on Lycanthrope that one subscribes to this inner beast is unleashed at a full moon or at any given time. Man has always felt an inner influence coming from the moon. People that study crime have noticed a trend of the full moon's unfluence. How do you quell the inner beast? Silver. This could represent a sacrifice of something pure with high monetary value.
The monsters that we fear represent things that we fear in ourselves. That is why these monsters are enduring and so widely feared. They are found in cultures around the world because these fears are inherent in all of us. Fear of the past coming back to haunt us, our children taking power from us and the lust and the beast inside us taking us over.
Zombies: Why do people fear zombies? Yes they fear the obvious mindless brain eating aspects but is that it? Zombies represent something deeper, they are the past coming back to haunt us. Who becomes a zombie? Our Ancestors. They rise up and in a mindless rage they try to make us like them, brainless. What is the one thing we have over them, the power of reason and logic. People fear their past cominc back to haunt them and take from them what they have gained.
Vampires: Yes they have sharp fangs and suck blood but is that all? Vampires are associated with lust and overwhelming passion. The vampire is the lust that comes for you in the middle of the night. That power is burned away in the light of day. This power is overwhelming and has super human strength. It draws on blood, what does blood represent? Vitality. The vampire is that lust for vitality that comes for us in the dark. When we are consumed by it we can either be killed by it or feel that we can live forever. In the old world it was considered a curse to be consumed by this lust was to be cursed. It was considered better to be killed by it rather than losing your soul by giving in to it.
Frankenstein/Killer Robots: This is possibly one of the oldest fears known to man. In ancient times when a man had wealth or power it was known that his son would take his power when he died. Fathers feared that their son would try and take this power as opposed to waiting for him to die of old age. Zeus' father consumed his children due to fear of them taking his power. That is the origin of this more modern fear. Frankensteins monster and killer robots are proverbial children of modern men. Men fear that their creations will rise up and kill them or try to rule over them. In IRobot or The Matrix men's creations rose up to enslave men as a son takes the crown from his father.
Wolf man: Feral bestiality and raw animal nature. Men fear giving in to that inner animal that is scratching to get out. Like a vampire it is giving in to some inner instinct that society tells us to resist. Giving in to the inner beast we become a monster that needs to be feared. Depending on what school of thought on Lycanthrope that one subscribes to this inner beast is unleashed at a full moon or at any given time. Man has always felt an inner influence coming from the moon. People that study crime have noticed a trend of the full moon's unfluence. How do you quell the inner beast? Silver. This could represent a sacrifice of something pure with high monetary value.
The monsters that we fear represent things that we fear in ourselves. That is why these monsters are enduring and so widely feared. They are found in cultures around the world because these fears are inherent in all of us. Fear of the past coming back to haunt us, our children taking power from us and the lust and the beast inside us taking us over.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Words to Live By
Moderation in everything you do. This can be applied to literally everything. Moderation in fatty foods and in exercises. Moderation in your spending and saving. Moderation in compromise and in holding your position.
This is what Eastern Religions considered the Middle Way. A balance in life with out extremes. When you are extremely conservative you form Right Wing Militias and let tradition rule your life. When you're extremely liberal you lose any sense of tradition and throw everything to the wind. But if you allow for a middle ground you can still have traditions but allow for change.
When you consume high levels of fatty food you grow fat and endanger your life. But if you consume no fat and exercises obsessively you run the risk of hurting yourself and pulling and even tearing muscles.
Moderation is even important in your marriage. Spending time together and with friends in moderation. Sharing in each others hobbies and interests while maintaining your own.
Moderation in everything you do... words to live by.
This is what Eastern Religions considered the Middle Way. A balance in life with out extremes. When you are extremely conservative you form Right Wing Militias and let tradition rule your life. When you're extremely liberal you lose any sense of tradition and throw everything to the wind. But if you allow for a middle ground you can still have traditions but allow for change.
When you consume high levels of fatty food you grow fat and endanger your life. But if you consume no fat and exercises obsessively you run the risk of hurting yourself and pulling and even tearing muscles.
Moderation is even important in your marriage. Spending time together and with friends in moderation. Sharing in each others hobbies and interests while maintaining your own.
Moderation in everything you do... words to live by.
The Use of Fear.
If there was not evil in the world, it would be necessary to create it. The single best way to unite people is not a flag, a god or a leader, it is an enemy. People are most united when they have a common person/people/idea to fear, hate or fight against. We lived as a country for years fearing and hating “The Communists” and now it’s “Terrorists”. For as much as people need a god to thank for unexplained blessings, they also need a “devil” to blame the bad things on.
When we as a whole are without someone to blame we begin infighting more and start to fall apart. The “Red Scare” of the U.S.S.R. lasted for as long as that country did. But the “Radical Islamic” scare has not lasted in the same way because of the heavier media coverage and lack of clear definition of the enemy. After 9-11-01 we had a clear enemy in Osama Bin Laden and we all united under that banner. Contrary to popular sentiment we did not rally under the US Flag, in truth we united under a common enemy.
If you look at the Republican Party in the U.S. they are trying to keep that banner up in hopes to distract us. They try to bring up Terrorists and Al Qaeda to unite their party and anyone that will listen. They know that if we have a common enemy we will get tunnel vision towards anything else. They also use this technique during elections to unite their party around the common enemy of Abortion/ Homosexuals/ ”Big” Government/ illegal aliens/ taxes.
The Democrats try to go at everything from an “Intellectual” stand point and do not present a common enemy but hope to somehow unite people under common agreements. A group of 5 people can barely agree on pizza toppings let alone more complex ideas that are involved in government. For as much as Barack Obama would have us believe he united people under a banner of “Hope” in truth he united people under a banner of George W. Bush as a common enemy and the idea of “Changing” the status-quo. People did not unite under one set definition of what things should be changed to but rather the non-specific idea of change from the current state.
When it comes to actually fighting wars the idea of defeating a common enemy or evil comes to the forefront. Men do not die for “Freedom” but rather they die to defeat some evil/enemy that they are told threaten that freedom. We are told that our fallen soldiers did so defending our freedom but when we lost in Vietnam did we lose any of our freedom?
When you examine the Civil War, to President Lincoln we were fighting to keep the country united but that’s not what the people that fought the war were thinking. To the North they were stopping the evil of slavery and quelling a rebellion. But to the South they were fighting against the evils of Washington DC trying to infringe of state’s rights and take away a key element of their economy.
There is a psychological trait we all share from evolution that causes us to want to band together when we spot a common enemy. That same trait however causes us to become selfish when it comes to good things such as money or food. You might think charity is selfless but only people with enough food or money for themselves do acts of charity to stamp out the evil of hunger or poverty. People will generally make sure they are provided for before committing acts of charity. Yes there are examples of poor people committing charity but usually that charity is giving time or acting as an agent to collect charity from others that do have more.
Humans by nature unite under fear not love. This may be a Machiavellian way of thinking but in my observation it is true.
When we as a whole are without someone to blame we begin infighting more and start to fall apart. The “Red Scare” of the U.S.S.R. lasted for as long as that country did. But the “Radical Islamic” scare has not lasted in the same way because of the heavier media coverage and lack of clear definition of the enemy. After 9-11-01 we had a clear enemy in Osama Bin Laden and we all united under that banner. Contrary to popular sentiment we did not rally under the US Flag, in truth we united under a common enemy.
If you look at the Republican Party in the U.S. they are trying to keep that banner up in hopes to distract us. They try to bring up Terrorists and Al Qaeda to unite their party and anyone that will listen. They know that if we have a common enemy we will get tunnel vision towards anything else. They also use this technique during elections to unite their party around the common enemy of Abortion/ Homosexuals/ ”Big” Government/ illegal aliens/ taxes.
The Democrats try to go at everything from an “Intellectual” stand point and do not present a common enemy but hope to somehow unite people under common agreements. A group of 5 people can barely agree on pizza toppings let alone more complex ideas that are involved in government. For as much as Barack Obama would have us believe he united people under a banner of “Hope” in truth he united people under a banner of George W. Bush as a common enemy and the idea of “Changing” the status-quo. People did not unite under one set definition of what things should be changed to but rather the non-specific idea of change from the current state.
When it comes to actually fighting wars the idea of defeating a common enemy or evil comes to the forefront. Men do not die for “Freedom” but rather they die to defeat some evil/enemy that they are told threaten that freedom. We are told that our fallen soldiers did so defending our freedom but when we lost in Vietnam did we lose any of our freedom?
When you examine the Civil War, to President Lincoln we were fighting to keep the country united but that’s not what the people that fought the war were thinking. To the North they were stopping the evil of slavery and quelling a rebellion. But to the South they were fighting against the evils of Washington DC trying to infringe of state’s rights and take away a key element of their economy.
There is a psychological trait we all share from evolution that causes us to want to band together when we spot a common enemy. That same trait however causes us to become selfish when it comes to good things such as money or food. You might think charity is selfless but only people with enough food or money for themselves do acts of charity to stamp out the evil of hunger or poverty. People will generally make sure they are provided for before committing acts of charity. Yes there are examples of poor people committing charity but usually that charity is giving time or acting as an agent to collect charity from others that do have more.
Humans by nature unite under fear not love. This may be a Machiavellian way of thinking but in my observation it is true.
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