herd mentality

[JaBlue]

Nowadays 2p2 is almost always secondary to whatever else I'm doing. I post while playing poker, reading email, etc. I try to be on the computer as little as possible. A few years ago I posted and read on 2p2 way, way more - that's why I have so many posts - but I thought about what I was doing, came to the conclusion that a lot of it was wasteful, and have made an effort to change my habits.

Again, I'm NOT saying that there is a universal standard for what's worth liking. All I'm saying is that people should be more aware of the reasons that they do things, and that this knowledge would be useful. It seems Ahnuld and Gump think that there is little reason to think about this, but that seems obviously wrong to me intuitively.

[ZeTurd]

Embracing individualism and being contrarian is the new conformity. Consequently, to avoid becoming just another sheep in the flock you need to conform. And thus become a sheep. It's quite the puzzle really.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]

Again, I'm NOT saying that there is a universal standard for what's worth liking. All I'm saying is that people should be more aware of the reasons that they do things, and that this knowledge would be useful. It seems Ahnuld and Gump think that there is little reason to think about this, but that seems obviously wrong to me intuitively.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're muddling a couple of different things here. Thinking about things to try and understand why you like or do them can be plenty good for a few reasons. If helping you understand why you like something gets you into doing more things that you like, then that's great. Similarly, if you're doing things that aren't really bringing you much happiness just because you've been doing them forever, being reflective about that can have some merit, too.

But I don't think this is what you're talking about. What I don't think has much point is internal reflection about the worthiness of one's tastes, precisely because it's a recursive process that goes nowhere. (I'd also argue that overanalysis of oneself can lead to some crazy rationalization which doesn't have much resemblance to truth anyway, but that's a different story.)

[cianosheehan]

In conforming we find it easy to find the next distraction that gives us temporary pleasure. And we are always trying to fulfill ourselves with the next distraction, the next pleasure source.

Since we are social animals, we can instinctively seperate our fellow men into various categories and can pre-judge people quite accurately for the little information we have about the person (usually visual). This is especially more relevant today, with mainstream media and globalisation.

Everyone is a target audience.

Thus I think it's easy to point the finger at 'the others'...kinda like, anyone who doesnt fall into my category obviously doesn't dress like me, enoy what I enjoy, think like me etc etc. But this assertion is fundamentally flawed because it is trying to examine elements of a persons life and livelihood that really dont matter.

People base their identity on external illusions of pleasure...and we tend not to identify ourselves and others based on much more than easily obtained external pleasure sources.

So much importance and focus is placed on these illusionary elements that are supposed to tell us so much about someone. But in essence they are distractions from gaining a true feel and connection with a person...and thus should be completely disregarded, even though this is really really difficult to do.

[Sciolist]

[ QUOTE ]
Embracing individualism and being contrarian is the new conformity. Consequently, to avoid becoming just another sheep in the flock you need to conform. And thus become a sheep. It's quite the puzzle really.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nah, it's easy. Just don't worry about it. Who cares really? We aren't in the school playground anymore.