Why is it that you are so busy fretting about what you haven't got, that you totally forget what you have got?

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Well?

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

http://children.ofthenight.org/albums/images/4433f.jpg

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

I blame capitalism and modernity: our whole culture is based on constantly lusting for new things - otherwise the whole system would collapse. Call me a romantic, but I think in the pre-capitalist societies people weren't thinking all the time about what they don't got. Unless they were starving, of course.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I just tend to think that when you have a life where most things are going just fine you tend to obsess more on what doesn't.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:42 (twenty years ago)

Don't it always seem to go...

― Huk-L, Monday, 6 June 2005 14:42 (twenty years ago)

The Shaggs to thread!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

beat me to it, ken.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

In my anthro class last fall the prof told us about something I forget the name of (there goes MY credibility) - anyway, the idea was that in societies without incentives to do otherwise, people's production levels off to just-above-subsistence because it just doesn't make sense to put in extra work when you can get by without it. Production goes up when you add things to the system like big men who get people to give them their surpluses so that later they can redistribute favor and rewards, or more centralized religious and governing structures that build up wealth or redistribute surpluses within the community. Don't blame modernity, blame the rise of tribal government, that's where the ball got rolling.

My aim is to do no more work than I have to.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
My friend Jason and I used to do a full-on Danny Ray intro for them - "Standing on the center stage are three young ladies who have given us such hits as 'My Companion,' 'It's Halloween,'- latest million seller, 'My Pal Foot-Foot.' Put your hands together and let's all shout and shimmy, for without no doubt, THESE are the Shaggs."

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

http://www.musicmatic.de/O/OConnor1a.jpg

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

It was actually supposed to be a serious thread & I wasn't really talking about "I really want a/an [insert latest materialistic fad] & I'm gonna scream til I get it" kind of thing.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

This thread is me. I am this thread.

I always feel like I'm lacking something. If I just did this or bought that I would feel satisfied. But right now I don't even know what I want next for myself and it's very frustrating. I really wish I could just relax and stop worrying and enjoy my life now while I'm still young and have so much to be happy about.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

Indeed Sarah!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

Sorry Pink. I think the answer is a lack of novelty. Novelty is a big thing in our brains, apparently, and we react very differently to things, people, sex, fear etc. because of it (or the lack of it).

So even if we're content and comfortable, we will still long for novelty. We just need to fill this desire with attainable goals, and then, um, attain them.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Life's about growth and transformation, it's not about staying the same forever.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

We also get a lot of conflicting messages through the media about what's important, and even if you do settle on one path/goal/project/activity for a while, there's someone telling you that no, THIS is the really important thing in life. Capitalism seems to be about selling lifestyles now, not products.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

I see your point Arch, but I'm not sure that that applies to me directly.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

Well, it would kind of be a subconscious thing I think. But some of us are just more predisposed to fretting than others I guess - join the club :(

Actually I know damn well I am miserable when I *haven't* got anything to worry about. Not sure that helps with the WHY though.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

I think the joke answers are more serious than you think, Pink.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah the 4 Non Blondes cover sums up how I feel right now. But it's more just 'so things are going quite well, all things considered, but we know they can be 'better'/I can do better'. I don't think there's anything that wrong with that attitude as long as it doesn't become an obsession at the expense of everything else, people you care about etc. I just hate feeling like I'm being held back, and that happens quite a lot - but sometimes it's good as things could go too far. Just know the balance, become the balance etc.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

-- Archel (slightlyfoxe...), June 6th, 2005.

Archel, as always, is RIGHT.

Desire is based in what you haven't got (obviously, or you wouldn't desire it, because you already had it - that would be satisfaction).

We need to desire things before we buy them. And, as our society thrives on us purchasing more and more of what we don't already have (or in some cases what we do already have) we need to be made to feel constantly dissatisfied with what we already possess.

Advertising is the obvious way in which this is done, but its also maintained through social and peer pressure.

Consumer culture requires that we are unhappy with what we have.

I don't think desire or greed are new things, we just live in a culture that manipulates those urges extremely efficiently.

There's a Buddhist answer to this somewhere..

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

"i want wot i get", one of my former classmates was wont to tell when we were still at school together. well the said calssmate's a diplomat now. and i wonder how often he still repeats that phrase...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

"My aim is to do no more work than I have to."

Excellent attitude, seriously!

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

The way I see it, and this could read like Manic's lyrics, anxiety is an essential element of the capitalist system. If we're not worrying and striving to get that better job, promotion, that better house, that better lifestyle (the product lifecycle has just been applied to our lives), we're not greasing the wheels of capitalism + the anxiety makes us tired and stops us from revolting. Action through inaction, or something. I'm not totally against capitalism myself, but I do think people should try and worry and work less, and spend more time taking it easy and getting by on whatever.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:08 (twenty years ago)

Inaction in Acton?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

Or Ealing or West London in general! 25 hour working week! Siestas mandatory!

(I suddenly had Servotron lyrics on my mind..."no inaction, action for annihilation" which has totally nothing to do with this thread.)

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

There's a Buddhist answer to this somewhere

"WHY can't I attain nirvana? Why?? I deserve it, dammit! If anyone deserves nirvana it's me. Fucking nirvana. Bet it's crap anyway."

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

B-b-but I haven't got anything yet!

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

not even milk?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

clothes?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

Ha: for the time being my clothes all have holes in them and I can't afford food. I guess I'm not homeless or anything.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Man what's with all the poverty on this bitch? It's not as if we don't spend our days being productive...uh...

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

But you've got your talent, nabisco! Sounds to me like you're just about where Knut Hamsun was when he was living the life he later depicted so brilliantly in Hunger, and look what happened to him. Oh wait.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

My current excuse: post-post-grad interval. Also: NYC.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

It's like a jungle sometimes.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

Italo Disco CDr of DOOM

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 6 June 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

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