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Because all you've ever wanted is to know what you're supposed to be doing.
That's the thing with people having no religion, no belief system anymore. That’s the problem with people having access to the internet and having access to views other than that which the government give. They have no-one to tell them what to do. They have no clear conception of right and wrong - there is nothing that they can definitely say is wrong or right. There's always the opposite argument to be considered, the argument that the guy on the message board used.
Because every argument has two sides, and if you are exposed to a well presented version of both you can only conclude that they are both right.
Knowing more is not necseserily a good thing. It's eaisier to be a sheep - if you never question your world then you wil never have to change. The scariest thing in the world is having to accept that you are wrong, that what you have fought and lived and sacrificed for is not worthy. Because when someone knocks your world down from around you, the defensive wall of your beliefs is gone and you are cold and exposed and vunerable.
The thing is, the internet, knowledge - it can expose you to the forces that can break the world down. Fight Club says that violence is not necesserily a bad thing - it either knocks out the brick pacifism that you've had since childhood television, or it chips at it. It places doubt in the things that you take for granted, and the doubt will always be there, festering, undermiming your original belief. Making you question yourself.
Words, said Kipling, are the most powerful drug known to mankind. He's right. Read a well written argument against anything, absolutely anything, and IT WILL AFFECT YOU. You might be able to argue it down, but well made points will chip at that brick in the wall. There will always be that question of - what if they are right? What if I'm wrong?
You see, I'm 15, and I'm much smarter than the average ape. This means that I read.
You see, I read, and I question and wonder why, and I have notions of love and spirit and good and evil. I've learnt already that the people who shout the loudest are not necesserily right, and I've learnt that the most popular ideas are not necesserily the best. This is really not something that should be learnt until you're old. Because if you learn things like this now, and you try to make sense of them and understand them? Your head explodes and you're really sure of nothing at all because you question yourself at every turn you make.
Sometimes, I can't bear to listen to music because I wonder why I like it. I wonder what attracts me to it. I wonder if I just like it because it's obscure. I just keep questioning and trying to make it rational and make adult choices. Because adults are the ones that argue the best. Because being adult is the aim.
The point is, growing up before your time just isolates you.
The point is, any teenagers reading this?
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
You can listen to punk and you can have second-hand opinions on politics, and you can believe yourself above everybody, and you can have these half arsed ideas of life and of sex and of spirituality. But in the end, you're just a kid trying to be like the bigger boys. And when someone in the future actually calls you on the things you rant about, when they actually make an informed argument back? You're going to realize that you are out of your depth. And your world will come crashing down around you because someone will quite innocently take the bottom brick out.
That's the thing with people having no religion, no belief system anymore. That’s the problem with people having access to the internet and having access to views other than that which the government give. They have no-one to tell them what to do. They have no clear conception of right and wrong - there is nothing that they can definitely say is wrong or right. There's always the opposite argument to be considered, the argument that the guy on the message board used.
Because every argument has two sides, and if you are exposed to a well presented version of both you can only conclude that they are both right.
Knowing more is not necseserily a good thing. It's eaisier to be a sheep - if you never question your world then you wil never have to change. The scariest thing in the world is having to accept that you are wrong, that what you have fought and lived and sacrificed for is not worthy. Because when someone knocks your world down from around you, the defensive wall of your beliefs is gone and you are cold and exposed and vunerable.
The thing is, the internet, knowledge - it can expose you to the forces that can break the world down. Fight Club says that violence is not necesserily a bad thing - it either knocks out the brick pacifism that you've had since childhood television, or it chips at it. It places doubt in the things that you take for granted, and the doubt will always be there, festering, undermiming your original belief. Making you question yourself.
Words, said Kipling, are the most powerful drug known to mankind. He's right. Read a well written argument against anything, absolutely anything, and IT WILL AFFECT YOU. You might be able to argue it down, but well made points will chip at that brick in the wall. There will always be that question of - what if they are right? What if I'm wrong?
You see, I'm 15, and I'm much smarter than the average ape. This means that I read.
You see, I read, and I question and wonder why, and I have notions of love and spirit and good and evil. I've learnt already that the people who shout the loudest are not necesserily right, and I've learnt that the most popular ideas are not necesserily the best. This is really not something that should be learnt until you're old. Because if you learn things like this now, and you try to make sense of them and understand them? Your head explodes and you're really sure of nothing at all because you question yourself at every turn you make.
Sometimes, I can't bear to listen to music because I wonder why I like it. I wonder what attracts me to it. I wonder if I just like it because it's obscure. I just keep questioning and trying to make it rational and make adult choices. Because adults are the ones that argue the best. Because being adult is the aim.
The point is, growing up before your time just isolates you.
The point is, any teenagers reading this?
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
You can listen to punk and you can have second-hand opinions on politics, and you can believe yourself above everybody, and you can have these half arsed ideas of life and of sex and of spirituality. But in the end, you're just a kid trying to be like the bigger boys. And when someone in the future actually calls you on the things you rant about, when they actually make an informed argument back? You're going to realize that you are out of your depth. And your world will come crashing down around you because someone will quite innocently take the bottom brick out.
Page:
Cyclone wrote:
> Indeed. Ideas are true, but its how you see them that falsify them.
Again, too true ! Last year in my Human Geography course, we did a few lectures on this guy called Ratzel, a geographer in Germany around the 1920's. Had this idea that states naturally expanded territory and that this process was bound to happen if the state was strong. Twenty years later German armoured divisions go bounding across the French border....true story. His ideas didn't advocate killing everyone who didn't fit the masterrace ideal, nor did it say that Germany should invade Europe, but Hitler used Ratzel's work to partly justify his early plans and rise to power.
Like Nomad says though, at one point everyone has to believe something or they become forever stuck in opinions and indecision. The only real problem is that most of us don't, or didn't, have opinions on certain things until certain events bring them to our attention. How many people really cared about the threat of terrorism pre 9/11 ? Yet, a day after the attacks nearly everyone was a self proclaimed expert... Iraq ? Most of the world has sat by content for 11 years whilst we patrolled no fly zones and gathered intelligence, yet as soon as America wants to act the instant experts come out of the woodwork again. This Russian theatre rescue, where people are condemning the use of gas for no reason other than it's Russia (mostly), can anybody say how else they could have got those people out ? On too many things people rely on what they are told by people whose interests are biased or self preserving rather than go find out themselves.
~~Belldandy~~
> Indeed. Ideas are true, but its how you see them that falsify them.
Again, too true ! Last year in my Human Geography course, we did a few lectures on this guy called Ratzel, a geographer in Germany around the 1920's. Had this idea that states naturally expanded territory and that this process was bound to happen if the state was strong. Twenty years later German armoured divisions go bounding across the French border....true story. His ideas didn't advocate killing everyone who didn't fit the masterrace ideal, nor did it say that Germany should invade Europe, but Hitler used Ratzel's work to partly justify his early plans and rise to power.
Like Nomad says though, at one point everyone has to believe something or they become forever stuck in opinions and indecision. The only real problem is that most of us don't, or didn't, have opinions on certain things until certain events bring them to our attention. How many people really cared about the threat of terrorism pre 9/11 ? Yet, a day after the attacks nearly everyone was a self proclaimed expert... Iraq ? Most of the world has sat by content for 11 years whilst we patrolled no fly zones and gathered intelligence, yet as soon as America wants to act the instant experts come out of the woodwork again. This Russian theatre rescue, where people are condemning the use of gas for no reason other than it's Russia (mostly), can anybody say how else they could have got those people out ? On too many things people rely on what they are told by people whose interests are biased or self preserving rather than go find out themselves.
~~Belldandy~~
Indeed. Ideas are true, but its how you see them that falsify them.
I think what you've written ends up saying quite a lot.
Words are incredibly powerful. I'm virtually convinced that any argument can be justified applyng the clever use of language.
Questioning everything is all well and good, and should be encouraged, but becoming lost in the blur it produces can be dangerous.
There always comes a point when words become meaningless, and only action will do.
Words are incredibly powerful. I'm virtually convinced that any argument can be justified applyng the clever use of language.
Questioning everything is all well and good, and should be encouraged, but becoming lost in the blur it produces can be dangerous.
There always comes a point when words become meaningless, and only action will do.
That was a good read, and quite right too. Nothings ever going to convince me that Chomsky is anything other than a jumped up socialist US hater though....his books read great, but only if you know before reading them that what he's going to say in them will be what you think. In other words they are the kind of books that someone reads to reassure themselves they are right.
Books are the key to learning though, however boring some might find that.... three of my favourites (non-fiction) are Fighting The Future by Ralph Peters, and The Real War by Richard Nixon, and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Fighting The Future maps out what the implications are for conflict in this century, and so far (written in 1999) has been very correct.
The Real War predicted the current problem of terrorism, and the dangers of liberalism gone out of control.
King Leopold's Ghost should be read by anyone who criticises US foreign policy whilst pretending Europe is saintlike. It details how Europe, and in particular Belgium, was responsible for around 3 million deaths in Africa, a european slave trade, a mass robbery of land and goods, and dividing Africa in such a way that it would be causing conflict a 100 years later.
Read books that are challenging what you think is best, because if you can still defend your point of view on something having read the other sides argument then your own belief will be stronger.
~~Belldandy~~
Books are the key to learning though, however boring some might find that.... three of my favourites (non-fiction) are Fighting The Future by Ralph Peters, and The Real War by Richard Nixon, and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Fighting The Future maps out what the implications are for conflict in this century, and so far (written in 1999) has been very correct.
The Real War predicted the current problem of terrorism, and the dangers of liberalism gone out of control.
King Leopold's Ghost should be read by anyone who criticises US foreign policy whilst pretending Europe is saintlike. It details how Europe, and in particular Belgium, was responsible for around 3 million deaths in Africa, a european slave trade, a mass robbery of land and goods, and dividing Africa in such a way that it would be causing conflict a 100 years later.
Read books that are challenging what you think is best, because if you can still defend your point of view on something having read the other sides argument then your own belief will be stronger.
~~Belldandy~~
Because all you've ever wanted is to know what you're supposed to be doing.
That's the thing with people having no religion, no belief system anymore. That’s the problem with people having access to the internet and having access to views other than that which the government give. They have no-one to tell them what to do. They have no clear conception of right and wrong - there is nothing that they can definitely say is wrong or right. There's always the opposite argument to be considered, the argument that the guy on the message board used.
Because every argument has two sides, and if you are exposed to a well presented version of both you can only conclude that they are both right.
Knowing more is not necseserily a good thing. It's eaisier to be a sheep - if you never question your world then you wil never have to change. The scariest thing in the world is having to accept that you are wrong, that what you have fought and lived and sacrificed for is not worthy. Because when someone knocks your world down from around you, the defensive wall of your beliefs is gone and you are cold and exposed and vunerable.
The thing is, the internet, knowledge - it can expose you to the forces that can break the world down. Fight Club says that violence is not necesserily a bad thing - it either knocks out the brick pacifism that you've had since childhood television, or it chips at it. It places doubt in the things that you take for granted, and the doubt will always be there, festering, undermiming your original belief. Making you question yourself.
Words, said Kipling, are the most powerful drug known to mankind. He's right. Read a well written argument against anything, absolutely anything, and IT WILL AFFECT YOU. You might be able to argue it down, but well made points will chip at that brick in the wall. There will always be that question of - what if they are right? What if I'm wrong?
You see, I'm 15, and I'm much smarter than the average ape. This means that I read.
You see, I read, and I question and wonder why, and I have notions of love and spirit and good and evil. I've learnt already that the people who shout the loudest are not necesserily right, and I've learnt that the most popular ideas are not necesserily the best. This is really not something that should be learnt until you're old. Because if you learn things like this now, and you try to make sense of them and understand them? Your head explodes and you're really sure of nothing at all because you question yourself at every turn you make.
Sometimes, I can't bear to listen to music because I wonder why I like it. I wonder what attracts me to it. I wonder if I just like it because it's obscure. I just keep questioning and trying to make it rational and make adult choices. Because adults are the ones that argue the best. Because being adult is the aim.
The point is, growing up before your time just isolates you.
The point is, any teenagers reading this?
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
You can listen to punk and you can have second-hand opinions on politics, and you can believe yourself above everybody, and you can have these half arsed ideas of life and of sex and of spirituality. But in the end, you're just a kid trying to be like the bigger boys. And when someone in the future actually calls you on the things you rant about, when they actually make an informed argument back? You're going to realize that you are out of your depth. And your world will come crashing down around you because someone will quite innocently take the bottom brick out.
That's the thing with people having no religion, no belief system anymore. That’s the problem with people having access to the internet and having access to views other than that which the government give. They have no-one to tell them what to do. They have no clear conception of right and wrong - there is nothing that they can definitely say is wrong or right. There's always the opposite argument to be considered, the argument that the guy on the message board used.
Because every argument has two sides, and if you are exposed to a well presented version of both you can only conclude that they are both right.
Knowing more is not necseserily a good thing. It's eaisier to be a sheep - if you never question your world then you wil never have to change. The scariest thing in the world is having to accept that you are wrong, that what you have fought and lived and sacrificed for is not worthy. Because when someone knocks your world down from around you, the defensive wall of your beliefs is gone and you are cold and exposed and vunerable.
The thing is, the internet, knowledge - it can expose you to the forces that can break the world down. Fight Club says that violence is not necesserily a bad thing - it either knocks out the brick pacifism that you've had since childhood television, or it chips at it. It places doubt in the things that you take for granted, and the doubt will always be there, festering, undermiming your original belief. Making you question yourself.
Words, said Kipling, are the most powerful drug known to mankind. He's right. Read a well written argument against anything, absolutely anything, and IT WILL AFFECT YOU. You might be able to argue it down, but well made points will chip at that brick in the wall. There will always be that question of - what if they are right? What if I'm wrong?
You see, I'm 15, and I'm much smarter than the average ape. This means that I read.
You see, I read, and I question and wonder why, and I have notions of love and spirit and good and evil. I've learnt already that the people who shout the loudest are not necesserily right, and I've learnt that the most popular ideas are not necesserily the best. This is really not something that should be learnt until you're old. Because if you learn things like this now, and you try to make sense of them and understand them? Your head explodes and you're really sure of nothing at all because you question yourself at every turn you make.
Sometimes, I can't bear to listen to music because I wonder why I like it. I wonder what attracts me to it. I wonder if I just like it because it's obscure. I just keep questioning and trying to make it rational and make adult choices. Because adults are the ones that argue the best. Because being adult is the aim.
The point is, growing up before your time just isolates you.
The point is, any teenagers reading this?
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
You can listen to punk and you can have second-hand opinions on politics, and you can believe yourself above everybody, and you can have these half arsed ideas of life and of sex and of spirituality. But in the end, you're just a kid trying to be like the bigger boys. And when someone in the future actually calls you on the things you rant about, when they actually make an informed argument back? You're going to realize that you are out of your depth. And your world will come crashing down around you because someone will quite innocently take the bottom brick out.
Page: