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"Why bother?"

Exams, assessments, test, whatever you want to call them; we take them in order to obtain a grade in a field of speciality. A grade is measured by comparing your result to everyone else who took that exam and ranking you, then giving the top 15% or whatever an A* grade. Based on the results, doors are opened for you, the better you do, the better your options become. A* - Brain surgeon, U – Shelf stacker.

Hold on, what if we have the greatest brain surgeon potential lying in a man who isn’t a very good analyser of the English literature of Shakespeare, Mary Shelly and Charles Dickens? He didn’t spot the alliteration, he wasn’t aware that god was personified in the wind; he didn’t see the metaphor behind the word. He is never given the opportunity to perform surgeries on brains, as he was not deemed ‘smart enough’ for the training.

So we bust our nuts to get these grades and earn our place in this so called society, trying desperately to gain respect in civilisation, but why bother? Do you really want to earn a rank in a place that’s full of narrow-minded, naive, ignorant people?

Take a step back and look at the culture we accustom ourselves to so easily. Question it, examine it, and test it, is it really worth all the effort? It is if you earn the rank, if you can pull yourself too the top and commend the respect you’ve ‘earned’ by beating all the rest. But what about the others, the ones who try but fail, who don’t meet the requirements of your ideal world, who aren’t the criteria your looking for? You need those people though, otherwise how will you look good? How can I be good at something if you have no bad to compare me to? The weaker ones are there to justify the strong. You can’t have a winner without a looser, a hero without a villain or damsel to save.

So I ask myself, why should I bother with all this, why try to earn the position I want, and how many people must fail for me to achieve it and how many must I fail for in order to make look good?

Who are you to disagree with me? Feel free to have your own opinions, but I’m sure if you think I’m wrong, or I’m an idiot, its just because you have a higher rank than me. I wouldn’t bother trying to convince me I’m wrong, because if you succeed, that’s one less person below you, you look fractionally worse.

If we all believed the same, performed the same, achieved the same then life would be very tedious, everyone would be bored, and there’d be very little to live for.

I guess what I’m really asking is why can’t I be good at anything? Anything significant in your social order. And If I am already good at it, why don’t I enjoy it. Why must I always be the one justifying the strong? Proving the great, demonstrating the talented. I suppose this all seems a little melodramatic ay? Well, if everyone acted like I am right now then this would be seen as normal, melodrama would be something completely different.

In a hundred years no one will remember me, they probably wont remember you. But I don’t think I want to be remembered. I think I’d rather be forgotten, just a spec on a playing field.

Back to where I started, and where I’m going to finish. Why bother trying so hard for you world? Why waste my time when the day after I die, no one will care, my ranking will be removed, I will be replaced, I will serve no purpose, justify no one, well except maybe make someone else’s grave look better by comparison. To any thinking I’m about to top myself, I’m not, I’m far from it, if I did then I would have succumb to the empire of filth that is mankind. To any, and more specifically one, who might suggest religion, the greater being of god; I propose you shove that in someone else’s face, I don’t need to hear about a greater being, he wouldn’t be so great if we weren’t all so bad by comparison. I suppose the total of about 3 people who are reading this final line having read all that I said, I should thank for showing five minutes of contempt in your lives.

"Why Bother?"

I'll tell you why I bother. For my own personal satisfaction and no-one else’s.

Mumbai Duck wrote:
> In team pool events (local league and county) I sometimes find myself
> hoping that my team-mates will fail so that I'll be less likely to be
> dropped, or more likely to win man of the match (in county).
> And I immediately feel like scum because of it.

Why? For craving the victory? that's not a bad thing. Realising that there is no victory, thats the difficult thing.

Well, everything is relative, even truth.
Mob rule - if enough people decide something should happen, there's jack you can do about it.

But then again, only people who've broken away from the mob, done things differently, on their own have really changed things. Although whether you're marked as a genius, or an idiot is again entirely measured by the mob.

You can't escape judgement. Most of the world-know geniuses were regarded as crazy until some other people - already marked by society as 'special' took an interest.

Did any of that form an actual point?

In team pool events (local league and county) I sometimes find myself hoping that my team-mates will fail so that I'll be less likely to be dropped, or more likely to win man of the match (in county).
And I immediately feel like scum because of it.

But it happens, and I largely agree with Pinko, we judge ourselves in comparison with others.

Where i disagree is the bit about not bothering to try in exams, not to try to squabble for anything where 'achievement' is so shallow.
These things you can achieve are worth more than just a ranking of 'importance'.
"Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life"
Sounds about right to me, and while exams may be a bit unjust in their reflection of ability or potential, they're still important in opening the doors to many jobs, so they're still important in giving you options and opening doors in your quest to find a job you can love.


I'm generally get the opinion that a change and difference in something is more important than the quality itself.
It fits in with what Pinko was saying, the 'change' in one person, from the average you compare them to is more important than their actual status.
The difference between this post and other less melancholy stuff dictates how people perceive it, as Pinko says, if everything else was of a similar tone then this wouldn't be thought melancholy at all.

If the death penalty wasn't the status quo in america, you probably couldn't introduce it, here canabis and alcohol laws create a moral juxtaposition in the law based on a logical argument about the damage each does, but so many people still support the status quo of our laws (and those proposing change usually compare cannabis and alcohol laws to support their argument, so they're also rooted in the comparisons).

It seems that there is a problem. People think 'I'm nothing unless someone else notices me', it's the star syndrome.

You try because you try to be noticed and recognised by others. People need to realise that fame is fickle and that you need to do things for yourself, not for anyone else.

That sounds selfish, but it's not. Self control, motivation and even success come from you, they come from wanting to be better than you are at something, but not because of someone else, because of you. Yes, it is better to do this with the support of someone else, but YOU need to do this for you.

Exams seem like the most important thing in the world when they loom in front of you, but they're not. Do you know how many people fail exams and then go on to succeed in what they want to do? They don't even matter so much in getting a job at the end of the day. I failed maths, I failed English lit, I just couldn't do exams. I did some random, but interesting, jobs for a while and learnt about life then went to college and did far better, partly because everything was modular rather than exam based. Now I'm in finance. So, yeah, if passing my Maths exam was so important, why am I now working on bonds for large stock exchanges? It just doesn't work in those black and white terms.

I know what you mean.

The system isn't perfect but it's as good as we have for now.
Sure, a Brain Surgeon doesn't need an A* in English Literature, but a C should be a piece of cake for anyone who has that capacity for study.

It's not about successes and failures, it's about who's capable and who's not. Some jobs you need certain ability for, expecially when lives are on the line. It requires a certain amount of self discipline and perfectionism to do such a job.

If you can't handle all the pressure of examinations and testings, then the sort of job it leads to probably wasn't for you anysway.


Not to worry about it.
There's jobs more suited to you that you CAN do with your qualifications, because that's what your qualifications say - you are capable.


Me?
I got four A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computing, getting an A in Maths and B's in the rest.
People have been telling that I HAVE to go to university and do something important. That's just not the way I'm feeling right now.
I've also had enough of all this education malarky and have decided to get an idea of what and why I want to learn before carrying on.

People have been telling me that I'd get a better job with a degree.
But is it the sort of job I'd want?


I'm not sure where I'm going with this but... I'm guessing I'm saying don't feel pressured by people about getting qualificatios just for the sake of qualifications.

Think about what you'd want to do, why you'd want to do it, and what you'd need to learn to get there. Then instead of being "pass this paper to be qualified" you'd be approaching it with a "learn this to become capable" attitude, which makes things easier, more interesting to learn and takes a lot of pressure off your back.

I breezed through maths, not simply because I'm good but because I was genuinely interested in most of it so it came natural to want to understand it and all I had to do to prepare for the exam was bring my notes together onto a side of A4 for last minute crams.

If that means anything to anyone... but anysway... :-)

Do you have something or someone that is the most important aspect in your life?

I don't have one. I am a being without direction.

El Pinko, what is your focus in life?

I feel sick really, I don't think I'd like to eat.