As some of you know I jumped on a Koran three times at the age of seven. I was not ever much of a religious believer, and wanted to “test” if God would strike me down. I obviously am not sickened by the burning of a Koran, or any book. What I am sickened by is the loss of genuine knowledge, and the burning of one book is an act of symbolism without a great substance consequence, at least in the age of mass printings. Perhaps it is ironic that I have read more books than 99% of humans, but am less discomfited by the idea of physical destruction of precious books than most humans.
But I don’t extrapolate my own psychology to others. I think there is something somewhat off about people like me, at least in relation to the modal human. The readers of this weblog are mostly nonbelievers in gods, and also of a libertarian bent. The set of these individuals tend to be overwhelmingly male, and often of a technical orientation. We’re not representative humans, and extrapolation after introspection is a dangerous game for the likes of us. Dangerous at least if we want to model how the world of human psychology and sociology is as opposed what we’d want it to be. We are the sort who are not gifted with the full range of powerful visceral emotions that others are.
I think it might just be the complete opposite. Smart people who can be overwhelmed by powerful visceral emotions go Spock as a defense mechanism. That bothers the emo people to no end.
I do agree that most people fall into certain categories of personality type, and the "technical" types are as similar to each other as the people who actually get up in the morning, on a Sunday no less, to go sit on some wooden benches and listen to some bore drone on and and on about unicorns.
I tend to be uncomfortable in groups of people.. especially when I don't know most of them.. and more so when they are obviously the emo people. I've been to lan parties back in the days when online shooters were the rage, and was quite comfortable - even in my element, and had no problem not knowing who everyone was. Being a bit older than the other people was a little uncomfortable, but not a big deal ultimately.
The thing is.. at a lan, I never have to be irritated that I'm going to be trapped by somebody who would bore me. That feels worse than having nails pounded through my hands. At a lan, if somebody pushed into my space and started annoying me, I'd simply mumble something and put my headphones back on. Doing that is sort of an alpha gesture of dismissal, and you don't have to worry about their reaction because you don't really care. I have a hard time disengaging in an emo gathering though. I guess because I don't want to seem like a dick. I know I shouldn't care what they think, but I like to try and emulate what normal people behave like when I can.
I also disagree with the guy I quoted. There is nothing "off" about people like us. It's everyone else that is off. I don't think being an irrational emo loon, even if the majority of humans are that way, is the ideal version of the species. It's a flaw.. and a flaw that has caused untold misery since the first monkeyman grunted and figured out what a big piece of wood could be used for.
There's nothing "off" about me. It's everyone else that is crazy as fuck. I don't like having to "model human psychology" when I consider it undisciplined and counter-productive... but I do it when I have to. It sucks.
No comments:
Post a Comment