5/22/2008 11:53:14 AM

Well then. I need a goal.

I should compete on Ninja Warrior. THAT would fulfill all my life goals!

5/22/2008 6:50:17 PM

I just saw the movie "King of Kong" about two guys competing to get the world high score in Donkey Kong

At one point someone said, "sure it's dorky. But how many people know someone who is the best in the world at something?"

5/22/2008 7:45:56 PM

Quote :

"What, we work and toil and struggle our whole lives to produce and raise children, who then work and toil and struggle their whole lives to do the same with the same results, ad infinitum? Or, if you are successful enough, you raise kids that don't have to work or struggle...in which case they turn out to be insufferable asshole rich kids."

Evidently you've never heard of the "middle class".

5/22/2008 8:14:16 PM

Under capitalism our lives end up revolving around things, as if happiness is to be found in possessions rather than in free actions and pursuits. Those who have wealth have it b/c they spend a lot of time and energy figuring out how to get it from other people. Those who have very little have to spend most of their lives working to get what they need to survive, and all they have as a consolation for their lives of hard labor and poverty are the few things they are able to afford to buy - since their lives themselves have been bought from them. Between these two social classes are the members of the middle class, who have been bombarded from birth with advertisements and other propoganda proclaiming that happiness and meaning in life are to be found in possesions and status symbols. THey learn to spend their lives working hard to collect these, rather than taking advantage fo whatever chances they might have to seek adventure and pleasure.
Thus capitalism centers everyone's values around what they have rather than what they do, by making them spend their lives competing for the things they need to survive and achieve social standing. People might be more likely to find happiness in a society that encouraged them to value their ability to act freely and do what they want above all else.

~days of war, Nights of love
A crimethinc publication
http://www.crimethinc.com

[Edited on May 23, 2008 at 10:52 AM. Reason : *]

5/23/2008 10:52:18 AM

^ Hell yeah. Anarchism for the win.

5/23/2008 10:54:30 AM

yeah, its some of my favorite reading material

some pretty convincing arguments

5/23/2008 11:09:29 AM

Quote :

" Really dude, shut the fuck up and be grateful."

5/23/2008 8:09:59 PM

Quote :

"Evidently you've never heard of the "middle class"."

Class don't enter into it. If you're a parent, you work to support your kid so that he can grow up to work to support a kid so that he can grow up to work and support a kid and Jesus Christ it's already gotten old and I've only described three generations.

5/23/2008 10:54:32 PM

That's understandable, it just sounded like you broke it down into either people who struggle and toil for no reward or people who do well and have asshole kids with no work ethic. It just sounded like something that an aggravated 1880s factory worker would say.

[Edited on May 23, 2008 at 11:19 PM. Reason : .]

5/23/2008 11:17:44 PM

Well, and hell, if you're middle class and raise a kid who goes on to be rich, all that's happened is that you've skipped a generation before you get to the insufferable asshole.

Generally though we seem in agreement.

5/23/2008 11:21:11 PM

We do.

I for one am glad that social mobility goes both ways.

5/23/2008 11:30:47 PM

I wish it did often and appropriately enough to maintain my faith in it.

5/23/2008 11:36:09 PM

so.....if you want to effect the world....whats the best way to go about it.

Politics?

I mean, it seems the classic way to go about is to get a law degree, get into politics and try to improve something.

6/14/2008 8:28:19 AM

no one gets into politics to fix anything

they get into politics in an attempt to be remembered in the history book

wars, controversies, and assassinations are a dime a dozen

plus, the sex, drugs and power that comes along with it

6/14/2008 9:28:48 AM

hmm, what about the way the NY governor did it.

He was all about buisness and somehow got into politics.

Him and arnold seem to take very aggressive actions to get shit done but came out of nowhere to do it.

6/14/2008 9:47:49 AM

Private sector.

Government's far too slow an actor.

6/14/2008 2:39:18 PM

"The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

~ John Adams 1780

6/14/2008 4:02:30 PM

if you have to think about this kind of shit you're going about life completely wrong.

6/14/2008 8:03:44 PM

^then enlighten me, what is your secret? how have you solved life?

6/15/2008 7:50:56 AM

Most people striving for "meaning in life" are just trying to feed an ego.

there is your problem.

6/15/2008 8:33:50 AM