We need a little controversy

[vovat]

First of all, happy birthday to petie_s! His birthday is actually tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll make any posts then.

Two nights ago, I had a dream that I was participating in some bizarre scavenger hunt that involved travel to a lot of different places in the Philadelphia area. Mysterious phone calls also played a part, as did mixing all of the things I found together. I never actually got to do this last part, since the midnight deadline was coming soon, and I still hadn't gone to all of the necessary places. It seemed deeply involved and kind of creepy within the dream itself, but not so much when I woke up. I also remember a dream from last night where I was interviewing at a store, and for some reason I brought in a pot pie to eat, but left it behind when I was called for the interview. When I returned to where I'd left it, there were a bunch of other people eating, and I think one of them might have taken my pot pie.

And, for the rest of this post, here are some things that have been bothering me recently:

• A Hotmail sub-headline: "Are cable TV, bottled water & Botox really necessities?" What a stupid question. I love it when someone says something like, "Hey, you know, people don't NEED cell phones to live!" like it's some kind of revelation. No, really? Is that why, in elementary school, they taught us that our needs were food, water, and shelter? Personally, I don't drink bottled water. If I'm going to pay for something in a bottle, I want it to be something with more flavor.
  
• How people will always say that you can't discuss religion and politics (and, according to Linus Van Pelt, the Great Pumpkin). I don't know that this is true. I've had civil discussions about these topics with people who've had quite different viewpoints on them. And I've occasionally gotten annoyed at people I basically agreed with, but who didn't seem to put much thought into their conclusions. I think the real issue is that you can't really discuss ANYTHING, no matter how innocuous, with people who aren't open-minded enough to consider looking at something a different way. The flip side of this is when people say controversial things that they apparently don't even REALIZE are controversial, and just expect everyone listening to agree.
  
• People who hardly ever express opinions at all. The weird thing is that these people can often be quite opinionated, but it's difficult to find out what these opinions ARE. At least with someone who's open about their thoughts and biases, you know where you stand.
  
• The constant media references to "the American people." Isn't this supposed to be a country of rugged individualism? So how can so many politicians and talking heads refer to "the American people" as a collective? It's also annoying when they insist that "the American people" are smart, when I'm inclined to think that most of us really aren't.
  
• The expression "You only get out what you put in," or variations thereof. Maybe I'm being overly literal (hard to believe, huh? :P), but wouldn't it make more sense to say that what you get out is RELATIVE to what you put in? If what you get out is THE SAME as what you put in, then why bother putting anything in? Well, maybe in the case of a safe deposit box, but not that of a college course, which is when I heard the expression used the most often.
  

Comments

[petie-s.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm having dental work done tomorrow. It's going to be the best birthday ever!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

One of my early clues that the Honors College was full of really unique people was that, contrary to the accepted "don't discuss religion and politics when you first meet" rule, I was with a group that got into quite a heated religious debate our first night there, and we all went on to become friends, and I later heard that in other places in the dorm that same night there were MORE heated debates going on between people who quickly became good friends. And I thought, Yeah, that pretty much sums up why I finally feel like I belong here.

I never liked the "American people" thing either, particularly when people talk about wars long past. "Did we win that war?" "I don't know," I said, "I didn't fight in it. I wasn't there."

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I never liked the "American people" thing either, particularly when people talk about wars long past. "Did we win that war?" "I don't know," I said, "I didn't fight in it. I wasn't there."

Yeah, I guess I'm the same way. I just don't feel connected enough to any group to say that "we" did anything without my having been personally involved.