On Tuesday 07 June 2005 07:52 pm, Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > > As for my opinions, I do believe that we, as a society, have become too > caught up in money. However, I do not believe we should throw away much > of modern society to move back to a simpler time when people paid more > attention to familial relations. More attention to familial > relations--fine.
Let's for a moment focus on what we agree upon and back off from the rhetorical wars. More than just familial relationships. All of our relationships with other people. Here we are individualists to an extreme. We just don't give a damn what people think. What I take away from my experience in the Philippines is how there are very different views of who we are and how culturally dependant they are. They are far more careful of relationships there. This conversation would be damn near impossible there. When I am in the Philippines I spend a lot of time arguing how this point of view, "you are your relationships" causes a lot of their problems, e.g. nepotism, cronyism, corruption, etc. It causes people to dissemble and ignore incompetence, etc. Someone there always says, Well if the USA is so great, why are you here?" Sound familiar? > However, time has dulled what people remember about > the "simpler" past. They remember the good things--local food, pleasant > people, shorter commutes, etc. They forget about the bad--people dying > at their jobs, diseases which crippled, rampant bigotry, etc. I don't forget nor ignore the bad things. I just have not been talking about them just as you have not talked about the bad things that are unfortunately corollary with modern times. > We got where we are today because at each step folks chose to walk this > direction. The majority of people seem to agree that this is what they > want, or they would chose a different path. Nothing in this country > stops an individual from choosing that different path--as Bob so clearly > demonstrates. A lot prevents people from choosing alternative paths. Simple economic reality for one. I do not for a moment think you are so naive as to believe otherwise. As to the majority beliefs and whether that determines the path of history, well I would really like for you to explain to me just exactly why you think that might be what is going on. I damn sure do not think that. I can assure you that I pay a significant cost for going against the stream. Freedom ain't free. Never was, never will be. > I should not (and do not) expect to change Bob's opinions. Happiness is > measured on a personal level, and he has found his. I have found a measure of happiness. But then it comes easy for me. I do think part of it is a genetic gift. I am not depressed even when all of the facts suggest I should be. I just wonder, "What should I do about this?" I am surprised though by how much the details of my opinions do change. Often just when I think that I have settled into a groove, an understanding of reality that is fundamental and fixed something comes along that changes my point of view radically. It is rarely an individual that causes this but rather an encounter with a culture, a language, or occasionally a book, that causes me to say, "Aha, I never saw things that way before." > However, don't expect that I am going to allow an attempt to proselytize > me about how I should be living my life to go unchallenged. Of course not. We are much alike in that respect. I would not characterize our discussion as proselytizing. In my case it is bitching as much as anything. I am really sick of SoCal but seem to be stuck here for while longer. boblq BTW, I have been playing SCRABBLE with my "ignorant" Filipina wife. I played SQUEEZE on the triple words for a score of 76, pretty good normally, but she comes back with an S which wraps it to another triple word and gives 243 points! Duh. So much for any advantage I thought my natural intelligence, superior education, and native English gave me. Then to add to my humiliation she shows me how I could have moved it over one letter so the Z landed on the double letter and the S would not have been an issue ... Oh well, I concede, Alexander, my wife, hell probably even John Oliver and Goofy, are all smarter than I am, probably better people as well, but dammit ... I am the best damn Bob La Quey there is. That is my story and I am sticking to it. Now though I am gonna go to bed and get some sleep. To hell with all of you. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
