fanboys are wastes of life

[eclectica]

I happened to work around the Circuit City in Manhattan today which is located on 14th Street near Union Square. And I observed many people camped out hoping to be the first to get a chance to buy the Sony Playstation 3. There is an article relating to that here:
Tempers flare in NYC as PS3 nears (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6161889.html)

I've seen some long lines before where people hope to see some celebrity signing a book. But these lines were pretty long and took up a total of about three blocks. By three blocks I mean that three sides of the same block had a congregation of people: Broadway, 13th, and 4th Ave..

I recall such fanaticism in the 1980s for parents trying to buy the Cabbage Patch dolls for their children. Or the crazy lining up at mall doors that seems to occur on the day after Thanksgiving, though I've never witnessed such a thing myself. Don't people have anything better to do with their time?

It is because they don't have anything better to do, that I make the claim that they are wastes of life. For the very fact that they have their priorities so wrong, makes me wish I had godlike powers so I could switch their lives with someone else in the World who has to struggle daily with things we take for granted like for example getting clean water. Imagine if you are a mother who has to walk ten miles a day to fetch a few gallons of drinkable water. You would only wish you had the luxury to spend all day on a line for a silly game. But you probably wouldn't if you were given the opportunity, because life's harshness would have taught you not to have such poor values.

Or perhaps these fanboys could replace some of the soldiers in Iraq, who really get to appreciate life seeing how precious it is. And on that subject perhaps tomorrow's army will have many more of these gamers and fanboys operating Predator drones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQ-1_Predator) from the safety and comfort of their own countries, which actually kill people thousands of miles away, but to their operators are no different from playing a cool video game.

It is an injustice that such opulence exists. And while Society seems to teach certain values such as that sexual prostitution is wrong, the very prostitution of the person's character that occurs with fanboying is widely encouraged. I suppose it is because many of the people who set the rules and morals of society are themselves the recipients of fanboying. As authoritative figures, they receive prestige from fanboying and are reluctant to speak out against it. Ask anyone with a lofty degree that is piled higher and deeper if he would rather be called plain old "mister" or be called "doctor". It's likely he wouldn't think of trading in his lofty title for the greater good, and he may be offended if he is not referred to with his title.

In the same regard most experts and celebrities expect to be recognized for what they are. And the paparazzi who trail celebrities are representative of the worst in us, where we have no values and shame in the act of fanboying.

People should try humility and self effacement as ways to build good character. Those are the values that we should strive for in Society.

[nicobie]

People should try humility and self effacement as ways to build good character. Those are the values that we should strive for in Society.

Those are the qualitys that pols should try to emulate................

[kel]

nic, re: your sig...slow is sometimes good but sometimes it's really, really good. ;)

Hey, E, sorry to hear about you and Tata, you've been on my mind anyway since I read that but I heard a thing on the radio the other night on the way home from work that made me think of you again.

You came to mind because I thought you'd agree with him and this post kinda confirmed that. Maybe you won't agree, but I did. Anyway, he was ranting about how ADHD and ADD are not diseases, they are a behavioural issue. His point was that it is beyond ridiculous and borders on child abuse to medicate kids for this "disease" or "medical condition" when he sees it more as a way of making the children more easily controlled and so easier for the children's parents and teachers and other adults in their lives to deal with than their normal child like behavior.

He proposed that rather than a pyschological evaluation determining that a child has ADD or ADHD, the parents should just get one of those x-boxes or Play stations that you wrote about and sit the kid down with it. If they sit there for two or more hours, in his opinion, they sure as hell don't have any sort of attention deficit disorder. What they have is parents unwilling to make them behave in what is considered acceptable ways in a civilized society. Makes a lot of sense to me.

Saddest part was that there is, according to him, a growing interest in medicating even two year olds and younger. That made me take a big deep breath. First of all because what kind of doctor would prescribe pyschotropic drugs to a child that age and what the hell anyway???? Aren't two year olds supposed to be inquisitive and into everything and driving everyone in their worlds right straight up a wall with all of their trying to figure out their world and it's boundaries and just where they fit in? I never had kids but I always thought that was normal. Sort of frightening to think there is actually any credence given to the idea that medicating them would be a good idea but apparently there is.

Then what I wondered is what kind of grown people are these kids going to grow up to be if they have been medicated all their childhood and haven't had the opportunity to learn how to deal with situations since they are all zombie-ed out and don't and can't really have any reactions to things and have parents and teachers that have abdicated all of their responsibility in trying to teach them acceptable behavior. We'll have medicated adults or adults completely unequipped to deal with life.

That's scary.

[eclectica]

The doctors love prescribing and diagnosing things. They make hypochondriacs out of people. I am concerned too about the labeling of Attention Deficit disorder and think most of it is crap.

I myself am pretty stubborn and skeptical and have no high esteem of "experts" such as doctors. So if they said to put my child on medicine there's no way that would happen.

Good to hear from you Kel.

[kel]

Thanks, e. You know, it's always oddly reassuring to me when I click on my link to this place and it's still here. funny, huh?

I suppose it's 'cuz it seems like time goes so fast and everything else seems to change so quickly anymore but not here. You are still here, nic's still picking at you and it just wouldn't seem the same somehow if he weren't.

Hope you are staying warm, it's damn cold here. slx had the bright idea of bringing in a cast iron wood stove that we have had around here forever rather than having obscene gas or electric bills this winter. Nevermind that he almost gave himself a hernia dragging it into the house but it turns out that if you didn't plan on doing this and haven't gone out and cut up all those fallen trees that you have to go out in the frigid weather to chop wood.

Wanna guess what isn't happening?

[eclectica]

Well first of all let me say that if you are having trouble lifting something heavy, then drinking some beer will give you that extra strength to do it. I experienced that when I first moved in here and I had the furniture shifting all around, trying to find the best place for something. There was one heavy piece that I couldn't move. Then after a couple of beers I gave it another shot and was able to do so with that extra strength I got.

My father has a house in New Hampshire on 15 acres. It has a Federal Airtight cast iron stove which also burns coal, but he uses for wood. I found it hard to use without having the instruction manual. One has to first open the flue on it as the fire is building, then later close the flue to make the temperature rise.

Here today I found when I came home that the hot water and heat weren't working. I called the landlord and he said that maybe I could check the pilot lights in the basement. So I did that and they got lit. Then later the furnace pilot light went out again so I had to go back down there with the children. Since I'm the only guy living in a place where there are four other women in various apartments, that means I already know that I am the one who needs to take out the garbage and shovel the snow. And with the heat not working all those poor women were so cold and lonely and needed to be taken care of.

When it rains it pours.
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