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Is Everything Wrestling?

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Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#41

Post by chickenfries »

vox_mollis wrote: post #31
chickenfries wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apologia for the inability to control one's emotional outbursts. What makes you so angry about the idea that crying is normal and is nothing to be ashamed of?

There's no anger here, only frustration over a society that normalizes permanent childhood. Adult crying over trivialities - or worse, Bernays-style manipulation - is symptomatic of an inability to manage one's emotions. The defining characteristic of transition from childhood is cognitive mastery over emotional whim.

Frustrated, angry... same thing.

> The defining characteristic of transition from childhood is cognitive mastery over emotional whim.

Just because adults CAN suppress almost all emotional reactions doesn't mean that we should. Believing that certain emotional reactions should never be expressed, or that expressing them over 'trivialities' is bad, sounds like a very immature view of adulthood in my opinion. Shedding a tear when you are confronted with an image you find beautiful or poignant seems is one of the greatest things about being human. I'm only engaging in this conversation because engaging with my emotions rather than stifling them has been one of the most rewarding challenges of my life and required analyzinh a lot of my own programming. You have no idea what you're missing if you don't try.

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#42

Post by ArkyBeagle »

mitchtbaum wrote: post #5

Does anyone else yearn for life with what man has long called "wrestling"? Our ancestors used to cultivate their might, overcome deep physical challenge, and express useful skills in sanctified circles. Wrestling used to mean something profoundly real to human-kind, as it still does for many cultures who haven't taken a plunge into a commercial modernity. I remember when I was young reading of loud gasps when `Okonkw…

No, I don't yearn for that at all. This sounds like "Fight Club". "Fight Club" is, I think, a reductio-ring plot - it disproves its original premise ( through contradiction ) and ends up where it started ( is a ring ) .

So, no.

Our ancestors had no choice but to embrace harsh physical challenge. We ain't gotta do that no more. I have ancestors I have met who were like that. They weren't romantic about it. If anything, they were a bit embarrassed by it.

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#43

Post by ArkyBeagle »

Avshalom wrote: post #17
mitchtbaum wrote: post #5

Does anyone else yearn for life with what man has long called "wrestling"? Our ancestors used to cultivate their might, overcome deep physical challenge, and express useful skills in sanctified circles. Wrestling used to mean something profoundly real to human-kind, as it still does for many cultures who haven't taken a plunge into a commercial modernity. I remember when I was young reading of loud gasps when `Okonkw…

Not wrestling specifically, but you certainly wouldn't be the first to feel a sort of alienation from... I don't know: call it physicality. There's a general sort of malaise you can see present in the US at least, it's why (or possibly because of) we see so much shit marketed to us via faux authenticity. Maybe it's just a perspective thing but I really think theirs a growing number of people developing a kind of knee…

This is real - the agrarian-utopianist streak - but it's very sad. There is a middle course. Just unplug some and you'll be fine. If the TV has to be on, put it on CSPAN or something.

It's not reading (I'm verging on post-literacy myself ) , but one of the Adam Curtis films* has a treatise about an agrarian-utopian communes late '60s. And of course it fell apart.

*"All Watched Over", I think.

I recommend some measure of Dionysian ... exercise - just don't hurt yourself. I have a few beers and play honky tonk music in actual honky tonks ( and somebody else is driving ) . The beers are optional, so I can drive myself, but it's a little less great that way.

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#44

Post by mosdave »

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #43
Avshalom wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not wrestling specifically, but you certainly wouldn't be the first to feel a sort of alienation from... I don't know: call it physicality. There's a general sort of malaise you can see present in the US at least, it's why (or possibly because of) we see so much shit marketed to us via faux authenticity. Maybe it's just a perspective thing but I really think theirs a growing number of people developing a kind of knee…

This is real - the agrarian-utopianist streak - but it's very sad. There is a middle course. Just unplug some and you'll be fine. If the TV has to be on, put it on CSPAN or something. It's not reading (I'm verging on post-literacy myself ) , but one of the Adam Curtis films* has a treatise about an agrarian-utopian communes late '60s. And of course it fell apart. *"All Watched Over", I think. I recommend some measure…

> but it's very sad.

what makes it sad?

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#45

Post by ArkyBeagle »

mosdave wrote: post #44
ArkyBeagle wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is real - the agrarian-utopianist streak - but it's very sad. There is a middle course. Just unplug some and you'll be fine. If the TV has to be on, put it on CSPAN or something. It's not reading (I'm verging on post-literacy myself ) , but one of the Adam Curtis films* has a treatise about an agrarian-utopian communes late '60s. And of course it fell apart. *"All Watched Over", I think. I recommend some measure…

> but it's very sad. what makes it sad?

In a Louis CK "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy" way.

Because in a non-agrarian-utopian way, we've managed to eliminate food insecurity. I think completely. If we could actually move it all around properly, nobody need starve.

People starve because food is ... inconveniently located.

So I am an Okie. I got an orange every year in my Christmas stocking. Okay, so it's an orange. Only years later did it dawn on me - people didn't have oranges. My parents didn't have oranges. In my lifetime ( or perhaps theirs; don't get too detailed on me ) , this happened.

The sheer mass of human activity behind that symbol is .. terrifying. Throwing it away... I don't know how that works.

My uncles, granduncles all farmed. It like to killed 'em. Now, it's just ... button pushing.

We have no idea what we came from and what is at stake. And that is what makes me sad.

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#46

Post by PhasmaFelis »

vox_mollis wrote: post #31
chickenfries wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apologia for the inability to control one's emotional outbursts. What makes you so angry about the idea that crying is normal and is nothing to be ashamed of?

There's no anger here, only frustration over a society that normalizes permanent childhood. Adult crying over trivialities - or worse, Bernays-style manipulation - is symptomatic of an inability to manage one's emotions. The defining characteristic of transition from childhood is cognitive mastery over emotional whim.

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” --C.S. Lewis

Re: Is Everything Wrestling?

#47

Post by PhasmaFelis »

olb wrote: post #16

No mention of Idiocracy ?! This movie predicted our fate: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/ Edit: I read the IMDb blurb – ”… five centuries in the future …”. I guess we’re 500 years ahead of schedule.

You really need to read this: https://xkcd.com/603/
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