Monday, April 17, 2006
Happy Endings
So.. first of all. If your reading this, and you have not read my previous post entitled heroes and responded, then you need to go and do that first. Go ahead... I'll wait.
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You back? Good. Now I'm actually going to get to the point here in a roundabout way, so bear with me.
Depression is a big thing in this world. People don't feel they do enough. People are disappoint in the amount of difference they make in the world. They feel that they could be doing more. They feel that the little they do is not enough.
In my experience, the majority of people think of themselves as failures. Or at least, not the successes they could have been/be.
They look at what they have done/are doing with their lives and they think... If only I could do more. If only I could BE more. If only I was making a REAL difference.
I may be wrong, but I think this is the attitude of many, many people these days. Even if they don't admit it.
Now I'm going to point my finger. I'm going to lay the blame on someone for this. Its our fault. Each and every one of us. But its not quite that simple. See its INDIRECTLY our fault. The mechanise I wish to blame for this is popular culture. The books we read. The movies we watch. Hollywood. And the Hollywood Effect. We have come to see (And now you see, I come back to my original point) heroes (and by that I mean these fictitious hero's not real hero's.. more later) as the kind of people we are aiming to be.
We want to be Luke Skywalker, Triumphing over both his own doubts and fears, and his enemies.
James Bond, who gets the bad guy, all the girls and saves the day. (Not necessarily in that order), or Neo, gaining a complete understanding of the truths of the world, and saving those he loved.
We want a happy ending.
Fictitious Hero's always get happy endings. BOCTAOE (But of course there are obvious exceptions) They have a destiny out there waiting to be fulfilled. They have a place that their life is going and the story will (eventually) take it there.
The real world is not like that. Out here in the real world there are no “real” heroes. No heroes who can obtain happy endings.
Mother Teresa would look back on all she did, and think of all those she failed to save.
Martin Luther would look at the people he was unable to convince, and despair.
Winston Churchill would look at all those that had to die to stop the Third Reich and be convinced there should have been a better way.
We don't get, and cant expect happy endings. What we need to expect, plan for and live with is at best almost happy middles.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You back? Good. Now I'm actually going to get to the point here in a roundabout way, so bear with me.
Depression is a big thing in this world. People don't feel they do enough. People are disappoint in the amount of difference they make in the world. They feel that they could be doing more. They feel that the little they do is not enough.
In my experience, the majority of people think of themselves as failures. Or at least, not the successes they could have been/be.
They look at what they have done/are doing with their lives and they think... If only I could do more. If only I could BE more. If only I was making a REAL difference.
I may be wrong, but I think this is the attitude of many, many people these days. Even if they don't admit it.
Now I'm going to point my finger. I'm going to lay the blame on someone for this. Its our fault. Each and every one of us. But its not quite that simple. See its INDIRECTLY our fault. The mechanise I wish to blame for this is popular culture. The books we read. The movies we watch. Hollywood. And the Hollywood Effect. We have come to see (And now you see, I come back to my original point) heroes (and by that I mean these fictitious hero's not real hero's.. more later) as the kind of people we are aiming to be.
We want to be Luke Skywalker, Triumphing over both his own doubts and fears, and his enemies.
James Bond, who gets the bad guy, all the girls and saves the day. (Not necessarily in that order), or Neo, gaining a complete understanding of the truths of the world, and saving those he loved.
We want a happy ending.
Fictitious Hero's always get happy endings. BOCTAOE (But of course there are obvious exceptions) They have a destiny out there waiting to be fulfilled. They have a place that their life is going and the story will (eventually) take it there.
The real world is not like that. Out here in the real world there are no “real” heroes. No heroes who can obtain happy endings.
Mother Teresa would look back on all she did, and think of all those she failed to save.
Martin Luther would look at the people he was unable to convince, and despair.
Winston Churchill would look at all those that had to die to stop the Third Reich and be convinced there should have been a better way.
We don't get, and cant expect happy endings. What we need to expect, plan for and live with is at best almost happy middles.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Heroes
So this is just a short post. Its purpose will be explained shortly, but for now, I need you all to answer a question.
When I speak to you of heroes what does it make you think of. Let me be more specific. List the first 5 individuals that come into you mind when I say heroes.
Bear with me, the reason for this will be explained in my next post.
*edit* -- added the below.
Please try to respond before reading other peoples comments if you can.. So as to give me your first reactions, rather than your reactions to other peoples reactions.
*edit2* -- Removed ''s at behest of grammer natzi's 8-)
When I speak to you of heroes what does it make you think of. Let me be more specific. List the first 5 individuals that come into you mind when I say heroes.
Bear with me, the reason for this will be explained in my next post.
*edit* -- added the below.
Please try to respond before reading other peoples comments if you can.. So as to give me your first reactions, rather than your reactions to other peoples reactions.
*edit2* -- Removed ''s at behest of grammer natzi's 8-)
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Minor Housekeeping
I've (hopefully) added an rss feed, in addition to the atom feed. Link on left.
