Why are so few people prepared to just stand on their own and, more importantly, be proud of that fact? Why do people have to subject themselves to some laughable idea of "community", rather than just be an individual who voluntarily interacts with other individuals when it's to both parties' benefit?That's actually an extremely important question. Wish I knew the answer.
And why am I regarded as a "beyond-the-fringe" nutjob for wanting to be this?
Tuesday, 31 August, 2010
Damn straight
Obo the clown makes a good point:
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2 comments:
I see two problems with this.
1) I have no job and I still haven't considered it worth my time to delve into the global warming debate because I just don't care. Instead, I repeat the opinion of the majority of climatologists which is that global warming is a problem. I sided with the scientific community on this one because I find it rational, barring any further evidence, that a climatologist is more likely to be correct on an issue of climate change than a GOP spokesman. I acknowledge the possibility of there being further evidence but like many, I just don't consider it worth my time and instead copy the opinion belonging to the side I respect the most.
2) Any opinions we hold are almost entirely based on data observed by others. There is no way I could base my opinion entirely on my own personal observations unless it was based on something I can actually observe myself. An example of this would be "I believe that if I drop this rock from my balcony it will hit the ground instead of shoot up into the sky." Something more sophisticated, such as my opinion that there is no relationship between a minimum wage increase and an unemployment increase is based on a solid week of delving into economic journals and labour force surveys. All of this information has been observed by others rather than myself and I have therefore just built my opinion on the opinions of others. My opinion on this issue and others like it will always be based almost entirely on the opinions of others.
The truth is that even the most independent and educated amongst us still base the majority of our opinions on the opinions of others. The best we can do is catalog our sources, investigate the sources they are basing their opinion on and question their motives in spreading their opinions to you.
My last objection to this argument is that Obnoxio is ironically venerating independence in beliefs which is ironically a popular belief. Conforming to societal norms while being just a little bit different has always been popular, which is exactly what Obnoxio is doing.
I wasted a lot of time trying to be different. Don't be like me or Obnoxio. Believe what you want to believe whether it's different or not. Sometimes ideas are popular for a reason.
I wasted a lot of time trying to be different. Don't be like me or Obnoxio. Believe what you want to believe whether it's different or not. Sometimes ideas are popular for a reason.
Good point. Sometimes I get the impression that some people just like to disagree for disagreement's sake - just to be different. Agreeing or disagreeing with a norm, as long as it's genuine, strikes me as hard enough, you know?
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