Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy
Yes, I'm not happy. Why? <b... (Below threshold)
April 7, 2010 4:09 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Yes, I'm not happy. Why?
F-ing computer makes my life easier for worse.
What do I want? What should I want?
Help?
Score: 8 (12 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 5:24 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Naked (Mile Leigh, 1993)
Louise: So what happened, were you bored in Manchester?
Johnny: Was I bored? No, I wasn't fuckin' bored. I'm never bored. That's the trouble with everybody - you're all so bored. You've had nature explained to you and you're bored with it, you've had the living body explained to you and you're bored with it, you've had the universe explained to you and you're bored with it, so now you want cheap thrills and, like, plenty of them, and it doesn't matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it's new as long as it's new as long as it flashes and fuckin' bleeps in forty fuckin' different colors. So whatever else you can say about me, I'm not fuckin' bored.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkNIlf9-8OI
Score: 14 (18 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 5:45 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Nice misdirection.
Question from the previous post remains:
Who are you?
Who are you to be telling us how to live our lives?
Score: -35 (45 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 8:38 AM | Posted by : | Reply
And who raised this generation that doesn't appreciate technology? I mean, we didn't raise ourselves. Someone was feeding us and changing us but ultimately, we are a mirror, a reflection of what y'all instilled in us. And I bet it is easier to blame us than yourselves.
Score: -4 (10 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 9:04 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
JD,
Who are you to be listening to anybody telling you how to live your life? If you're watching it, it's for you. (I hope that a footnote for this reference would be superfluous).
Can't reach the 'off' switch?
As for anonymous's passing the buck up a generation, I bet it's a lot easier to blame your parents than to take responsibility for what you think and do. A beloved teacher of mine used to quote Confucious a lot: "Man who makes mistake and does not correct it makes two mistakes." Are you condemned to operate as programmed? Can't reach the 'off' switch?
Score: 8 (12 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 9:44 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I'm happy. And I don't have an iPad or iPhone, even though I desperately want one. What's wrong with me?!
Score: 3 (7 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:17 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I have no idea who this guest is, but he is white, he is commenting on how self-focused younger people are, and he remembers dial phones like I do, I see no tattoo, so he must be at least nearing 50 yo,...wait!! It is Alone! right in front of our eyes! Just like Keyser Soze!
Score: 9 (19 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:18 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Was that a description of cultural narcissism?
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:26 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Love this clip. Definitely a bit of much needed perspective.
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:36 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
He's not telling anyone how to be in their lives.
Who Alone is, is irrelevant.
The power is in the message, not the messenger.
If we are reading this blog and it hits a chord, then I suggest we could do some introspection. Thus the phrase, "If you are reading this, it's for you." At least that's how I understand it.
Score: 9 (9 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:42 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I just want to say that it's bizarre that you have these commenters (thought it's probably like one or two guys) demanding you reveal your identity, as if that would make a difference.
I'd imagine they're just angry that you're pointing out exceptions to their worldview that, if internalized by enough people, they fear would disrupt it. They fear the social animal spirits. They're reality compliance officers, where reality is defined by what the majority of people are up to at the moment.
Keep it real and keep it anonymous... so you can keep keeping it real. If your opinion had no value, you wouldn't have an audience. I know you know all this, but I feel some motivation to say it anyway, if only to promote my similar downtrodden worldview as often expressed by you.
Score: 8 (12 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 10:50 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
It's Louis C.K., a comedian.
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 12:13 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Perhaps when aireal sprayings of birthcontrol become more prevelant and less people exist to bitch to or about in the first place, we may then refocus our energies rightfully where they belong: ourselves. Until then, the only easy day was yesterday as far as containing narcisissm is concerned. It seems that its power lay in numbers and short of a global pandemic, the violence associated with narcisissm may be its own undoing.
Score: -1 (7 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 1:02 PM | Posted by : | Reply
these comments have gotten so funny!
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 1:07 PM | Posted by : | Reply
This generation doesn't appreciate technology...
They say it's their parents' fault. Their parents say it's the kids' fault.
But what is the point in establishing fault at all? Our parents are too busy trying to deflect fault to maintain their fragile narcissistic view of themselves and they could not have failed as parents, and we are all angry at them and trying to make it their fault.
But regardless of whose "fault" it is, we will shoulder the results. Blaming our parents, regardless of whether we're right, just ends up being an excuse to apathetically accept the situation in which we find ourselves.
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 2:01 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Mmm fault. How much time in the course of history has been dedicated to the pursuit of determining fault? Before you ask the Jews, stop caring. I'm pretty sure that's your point, TRF?
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 2:33 PM | Posted by : | Reply
There's a "TLP" embossed on Starbucks coffee lids that reminds me to check this site. Also, Starbucks reminds me who I am, har har.
Score: 4 (6 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 2:46 PM | Posted by : | Reply
That
was
GREAT!
"It's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots..."
Gold.
Score: 4 (6 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 2:58 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
They want the identity so that they can find the flaws in the individual and thereby negate the message.
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 3:29 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I've never thought TLP was trying to tell me how to live my life... the major foci I've noticed in his articles deals with our (cultural) way of thinking and our self-deceptions. I am free to agree or disagree. So is everyone else. These are opinions, not edicts from Mount Olympus.
For heaven's sake, it's a BLOG on the INTERNET! Talk about a world of illusion... It could be Kim Jong-Il or Joe the Plumber writing these posts. It could be Dr. Phil's evil twin brother. Even if he/she coughed up biographical info, would you be 100% certain it was true?
Doesn't matter. You're the one reading the articles, and you can buy into TLP's viewpoint or pooh-pooh it in the comments. Turn things around. It doesn't matter who TLP is - but it doesn't matter who YOU are, either. You could have two PhDs or be a high school dropout... but if you have a cogent argument, you're on equal footing.
Score: 9 (11 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 4:12 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Has anyone ever seen Alone and this "Louis CK" at the same place at the same time?
I didn't think so.
Score: 6 (8 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 4:33 PM | Posted by : | Reply
You sure she's not Lucy Van Pelt, all grown up?
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 5:34 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I've seen reactions to the loss of the use of gadgets that were similar to the reactions of people, without food or water after a hurricane. This isn't good, since the two events are not the least bit equal in severity.
Life doesn't end when the cell phone is broken, or the broadband isn't working, but if you could isolate the reactions, you couldn't tell the difference.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 7:14 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Well that's just a natural out growth of human nature. we get used to certain things being there, and then when it's not, you feel distressed. The Buddhists call it attachment. You get to thinking that you NEED things that you actually don't. Unless you live as a monk away from tech and all these people other wants, you'll be like that too.
I think some sort of techno fast might actually benefit society. Something like Sundays used to be for Christians or the Sabbath is for orthodox Jews. It would be a day or an hour to turn it all off, and stop and think about the world, visit face to face, paly with the kiddies or whatever. Plus, it's helpful to know that you can survive without facebook for 24 hours. Or Xbox.
Score: 4 (6 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 7:47 PM | Posted by : | Reply
A concept which stands free of the heavy hand of moralizing on this site is also useful when dealing with issues like this. The concept is described by the word habituation. No need for a sermon.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 8:44 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Jaydub-
He's some dude, and he's telling you how to live your life (although really I'm not so sure I agree that he is) because he thinks he has some insight on the matter.
Do you need any more information about his identity and motivation? Think about what he's got to say if you want, you don't have to though.
Score: 4 (6 votes cast)
April 7, 2010 11:26 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Keep it real and keep it anonymous... "
And keep it that way. This board is so so rich. Wouldn't want to change it for anything.
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 3:57 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
You shouldn't be judging the validity of advice by who is handing it out. You should judge it's validity by sitting down, applying it to your own life and evaluating whether it fits into your moral belief system
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 10:19 AM | Posted by : | Reply
technology doesn't advance fast enough for me. I want to live on Mars and hang out with alien friends NOW.
I want to have a baby by creating it in an artificial womb NOW.
I want to surf the internet by jacking into it with my robot brain NOW.
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 11:34 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
"For heaven's sake, it's a BLOG on the INTERNET!"
What planet/decade are you living on/in where blogs (on the INTERNET!) are unimportant and shouldn't be taken seriously?
"Oh it's a BLOG on the INTERNET! What idiot would take that seriously?"... is that how you actually think? What if it said "cnn.com" in the url, then would it be ok to seriously consider the ideas presented here?
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 12:24 PM | Posted by : | Reply
The truth about life is that, in the best of times, we have a very narrow set of things that we can control. At the worst of times, we have control over nothing. Modern life gives us more control over our own lives and fewer limits, but at a cost. In order to feel in control, we are dependent upon things that we mostly can't even begin to understand. When those things don't work, our sense of control is revealed to be an illusion.
So people get angry at someone because "if I can yell at someone, then I must be in control of the situation." The simple truth is that we're all barely hanging on and the rope could snap at any moment. You can drive yourself crazy denying it or go crazy realizing it. You know, whatever.
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 12:55 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I admit I've been guilty of this. Thanks for the little refresher in perspective. He's right - much of our technology is deserving of more wonder than annoyance. That said, a little annoyance can be good too, if it drives you to try and improve the technology or how it's being used...
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 1:14 PM | Posted by : | Reply
It's useful to apply this kind of thinking to more than just technology - most of us live in homes and eat meals that are more luxurious than those eaten by royalty living in a medieval castle (with machines doing much of our grunt work instead of human servants, though we have simply moved some of our grunt work off-shore to the serf nations that serve our master nations). It's really a matter of pessimism, optimism and realism when applied to comparing ourselves, our lives and what we have to others. Or we could focus on our needs instead of our wants inspired by seeing what other people have or don't have...but that doesn't seem like it will be happening on a mass scale soon and it would definitely run counter to advertising/industry's needs and desires (which trump both individual and collective human needs in our culture at this point in time).
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 4:28 PM | Posted by : | Reply
this is why Jerry Seinfeld's standup sucks (especially about planes)
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 4:43 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Agree, this is worth repeating, thanks for sharing it.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 5:31 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Hey anonymous 8:38 here, can you make it so that people have to put in SOME kind of name before they can comment? The flood of anonymouses makes it hard to follow the conversations.
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 5:33 PM | Posted by : | Reply
What's wrong with being anonymous?
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 5:43 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Shut up, imposters! I'm the real Anonymous 8:38. It really hurts me when people claiming to come up with my fantastic and original ideas pretend to be me so as to claim credit for their dazzling and irrefutable insight. I'm not a superhero by any means, though... just a guy who likes posting anonymous comments at very specific times. See you guys in about three hours.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 6:08 PM | Posted by : | Reply
What I find most interesting is that JayDubb looks for an answer for no question at all. It's you who's coming here and you who's reading. Nobody tells you to read, nobody tells you to believe, except yourself.
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 7:20 PM | Posted by : | Reply
This is amazing. We all have the luxury, for the first time in human history, of true means of dissent, speaking anonymously ideas to be based on nothing but face value, premise, and reason without fear of repercussion, physically or socially, and we find something to complain about. Hu-man-race! Hu-man-race!
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 8, 2010 7:39 PM | Posted by : | Reply
What's your Matrix? Check your RSS feed.
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 4:24 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Louis points out the self absorbed behavior of modern Americans, but fails to point out the irony of his doing so on NBC just before The Tonight Show cuts to a commercial for the newest phone and then a car that is the very image of luxury.
Just because you appreciate his culturally subversivemessage doesn't mean you are out of the Matrix.
If you're watching, it's for you.
It's an amazing thing when even a critic of the system is guaranteed his place on the stage that is the system.
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 8:44 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Being anonymous has bugs and features, right? I have been bothered/annoyed/turned off by the fact that author of this blog is anonymous. Partly, it's because I glean a lot of information from reading a person. (What they say, how they dress, what the do... etc.) And partly because I just don't trust someone who isn't willing to be identified with their opinions. And I can think of a lot of negative reasons for someone to hide in anonymity, but few positive reasons. Even after reading the last post I think the negative reasons outweigh the positives. But I am still processing this concept and could find myself favoring the other direction. AND, more importantly, it's not my blog.
In the meantime, do we just call you "TLP" or do you have another moniker you prefer?
And back to the other topic at hand... I really appreciate this Louis CK clip. It reminds me that one of the ways I stay happier is to note what is going "right" in my life.
On the topic of the Matrix... have you read the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson? A friend of mine complained that the only real drawback to the movie The Matrix was that it would have made more sense to show the people as "having done it to themselves". They hooked themselves up to the matrix. They weren't victims, they were eager participants. Knowing people, that scenario seems much more realistic.
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 10:32 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Aron - "Just because you appreciate his culturally subversive message doesn't mean you are out of the Matrix."
Well said - in fact, our resistance may not only be futile but make The Matrix stronger (to resist is to engage and, in turn, to become part of the Matrix and is an acceptance of that narrative regarding reality). Besides, is Louis CK really against the Matrix or does he just thinks we should be happier in it and more grateful? He's not drawing back the curtain on the wizard, he's saying enjoy the spectacle.
I must say, Alone's posts about perception, reality and cognition (and visual illusions) are a nice compliment to his posts about the Matrix.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 1:15 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Laisez-faire Matrinomix with an open opt-in opt-out policy is much more realistic, yes, but this is, I think, the heart of what Alone is getting to. The Matrix is warm and fuzzy, kind of like religion, and the community participation makes the addiction that much more potent.
"But it's not an addiction. I can opt-out anytime."
Sure, but the debt accrued throughout the foray may prevent you from ever realizing that posibility, and besides doesn't everyone look so happy around you? Everything is amazing!!! And the bitching Louis talks about is a part of what drives innovation and industry... furthering the shinny of The Matrix that catches one's eye in the first place.
Good or bad, at least those participating in the Matrix gives our minds something to focus on Besides killing eachother over debts or arguments like our ancestors. A slave may be a slave, but the conotation has changed dramatically over the course of time. I'll take being a slave to Ikea living versus cleaning the master's horse stables or worse.
"I'm not a slave. I chose this existence."
The first month, sure, maybe. But your soul is in a contract to be deducted by EFT until you realize it. By then you'll probably be too much in debt to cut yourself off from the system to travel, detox, and come back with a fresh perspective or the capability of having one independent of your media-diet.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 2:44 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Louis CK explaining the clip... turns out the pissed off internet guy was him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNgNDZzH5o&feature=related
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 3:44 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
The Alone Effect: what matters more, the message or the person presenting it?
If you read it, it's for you... http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1978591,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-polar
Was the initial clip an example of narcissism in that he did not want to admit to it being him or was it just a TV interview on late-night where the viewer expects the entertainment to outweigh the moralizing message behind the laughs?
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 9:14 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Navel gazing is a luxury, I think we forget this.
I have not seen Alone and Louis CK together, ever.
When I have problems like I have to manually select the next audio segment on the NPR phone app while driving and think: driving fail. I then think: First World Problem of the Now, and lol at myself.
Also, I like that I have no idea who Alone is, only what he writes, it makes me like him more and question my sanity. MMMm navel gazing.
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 9:16 PM | Posted by : | Reply
. . . and STILL I am not grateful that I even have an NPR app to complain about. Although I am grateful that is my problem, and not like, OMG earthquake.
ha.
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 9, 2010 10:40 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
There's a way to escape the kind of thing Louis C.K. is talking about. If you only consume stuff, you inevitably become an entitled asshole. To avoid that, be the guy who's making stuff people feel entitled to. No one is immune to the pernicious social effect of airplane WiFi like the engineer who designed the network.
Life is like a Jerry Springer episode. Don't be the guests, or Jerry, or the audience. Be the sound guy.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
April 10, 2010 2:23 AM | Posted by : | Reply
A jerkass who goes to my college made a shrine to himself on the interwebs.
http://www.benjones.us/about.html
He went so far as to make the above fake interview video.
Narcissism: catch the flavor!
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 13, 2010 12:26 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
People that make stuff can be assholes too. They feel they are entitled to recognition and idea credit. Everyone is an asshole sometimes.
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
April 14, 2010 8:29 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Interesting article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8419756.stm
"I" was man of the year! Can you believe it?
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
April 23, 2010 4:37 PM | Posted by : | Reply
All this technology has unfortunately destroyed the sense of community which is essential to human happiness. If we can't manage to keep community along with the technology then we would be better off riding donkeys. Just looking at the comments section of this blog for example, what kind of people really bother commenting here? What sad isolated individuals you woule have to be, to be regularly commenting here. And furthermore to bother being angry with the anonymous blog owner.
You're looking for communty, but you're on the internet, you'll find nothing worthwhile here.
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
April 23, 2010 5:42 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Anonymous - I wouldn't say this blog is a community but technology of all kinds can be very useful in community building and maintenance. Phones and the internet can be mediums of communication and exchange - the basis of community - and there all kinds of communities that use the internet as a hub. Technologies are just tools, what we use them for is up to us and lots of people use the internet to build communities that extend into the real world or to complement real world communities. Whether you or I can make a real connection with another person more to do with us than it does the tools we use.
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
April 24, 2010 4:06 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Cell phones don't send signals into space.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
October 26, 2010 8:24 PM | Posted by : | Reply
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2035#comic
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
March 21, 2012 9:32 AM | Posted by : | Reply
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Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
March 22, 2012 11:14 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I enjoyed reading through your posting. I need to say that it was the 1st article on your blog I genuinely enjoyed and in which I had a feeling of agreement, know what I mean? In any case, keep the posting and I’ll be back once again.
Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
March 26, 2012 8:00 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I enjoyed reading through your posting. I need to say that it was the 1st article on your blog I genuinely enjoyed and in which I had a feeling of agreement, know what I mean? In any case, keep the posting and I’ll be back once again.
Score: -2 (2 votes cast)
March 29, 2012 11:36 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
That reminds me of Charles Manson: "You made me!"
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
March 29, 2012 11:49 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
do you really believe this, seriously?! "for the first time in history"?!
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
March 29, 2012 12:01 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Your list of what to judge an idea on reminds me of the French, and of a number of people who are fans of this blog. Specifically a clip I saw that made me laugh, people standing around talking about the possible passage of some legislation or something in France, and the speaker said in a critical and serious tone, "We understand how this works in reality, but how does it work in theory?"
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
May 10, 2012 1:48 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I enjoyed reading through your posting. I need to say that it was the 1st article on your blog I genuinely enjoyed and in which I had a feeling of agreement, know what I mean? In any case, keep the posting and I’ll be back once again.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
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