Have you ever noticed how being idle REALLY pisses off the masters and drivers of our economy? People like Edison HATED idlers (though he himself took naps ALL the time) If we were idle, what then would we consume? Not nearly as much, I wager. We might think, might eventually interact with each other in the real world, and might accomplish more than moving a few pixels about a screen or some metal and plastic from one place to another. Forfend!
And now... I'm going to go take a long, delightful snooze.
One thing I'd like to be sure isn't lost here is the clearly stated difficulty: Keeping a positive moment in mind long enough for it to go to long term storage. If we don't have enough time to stop and appreciate positive moments they are lost, obviously.
There is a body of literature on idleness and over the last few years I've begun to amass a collection of it. The more I follow idleness as an art, as a way of being, the happier I've become. It hasn't gotten rid of too many negatives, per se, but I find myself happier in general (though that might be due to any number of other factors, correlation/causation etc). It has even contributed to a little delinquency, for sure (hooray fun!), but seems on the whole a good habit.
It's been said many times, but this article bears it out: If we don't stop to smell the roses and really appreciate them, appreciate others and the gifts we bring each other every day, we are rushing blindly and headlong toward just physical death, but the death of the spirit too.
So you, yes you, the person with 4 monitors, a tablet, and an iPhone buzzing with facebook while the TV is blaring in the background, who feels all high off gadgetry (and maybe cheetos)... I dare you to try the hardest thing you'll ever do: Stop and do nothing for a day. Just sit, stare out a window, make a pot of tea. Just stop. and. be. idle.
Though if you do get antsy I can recommend reading "How to Be Idle", a fun read and an antidote of sorts.
Um... they HAVE studied the Gilded Age... and it was determined that the wealth inequity is *at least* as great now as it was back then. I'm sorry, I do not have a link.
What's happening here is that management is inventing more bureaucracy and processes to keep people busy. Meanwhile we charge more and more money for our services. it makes management LOOK like they're doing something and keeps us entering ever more data and more CYA notes.
whoa whoa whoa.... he didn't admit the government is incompetent... check your logic there, buddy. GP only said that we as a nation spend more on healthcare than any other nation. Most of that spending is private, dontcha know?
Personally? I *liked* pulling all my own stuff together and the difficulty of organizing it myself. Maybe "like" is a bit strong, but... I passed on camping with a group that had all the trappings. It was my first time and I wanted to do it myself, and it made all the difference. I was able to own the experiences there from start to finish, both good and bad, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Wait? WAIT!? That's what they want us to do. As a comment says below, drones and bots don't have a conscience.
This should get ugly (politically and socially, above comments mention that if there's enough people for violent revolution then there are enough for an electoral change) RIGHT NOW. Same way it's been for a while. We need some serious change.
Maybe things were getting too hot for her anyway? Maybe she just needs a long vacation. Why not just hand the site over to a worthy successor rather than shut down?
I've been thinking about this.... the whole "scared of everything" generation.
about 10-15 years ago the hubub was about Helicopter Parents (like mine), or maybe it was just media BS. Now I work for someone who is SO paranoid that she won't walk 20 feet outside our building (in a very safe area) after dark without an escort. I think the people who were insane about safety finally had their kids go off to college, now they've turned their insanity on the world.
People seem to be trading everything they can't understand (no time for introspection, there's real work to be done!) for one tiny mote of something they THINK they can understand (mmm safety). It's... very extreme, seemingly, almost maniacal.
Does it have to do with the fact that we live in Pleasant World now? If no one talks about bad things or death, they can't happen; we rationalize. We fear what we don't discuss/understand; has our fear of death risen to such a degree that we are actually trading OUR LIVES away just so we have an infinitesimally smaller chance of not dying? yikes.
What it sounds like is that you're working your good years away so you can have a bunch of money to be old and unhealthy. You have no hobbies? Any exercise? sex? any fun at all? You sound miserable.
What I'm waiting for is when the USPS makes it through this and actually funds the retirement. Then the Repubs will have their foot in their mouth, won't they?
Tangent: My favorite is the one headed south on the 2 in LA, a sign that says the highway is adopted by "Atheists United", but the reflective coating has been washed off with acetone or something so at night it says "Theists United" instead.
The assurances is that the big media companies already do this. Occupy should have turned into a nation-wide shitfest of riotous proportions. Know why it didn't? Big media got smart and said,"Yeah Occupy has made a BIG difference (wink wink) in the political landscape. Mission accomplished, guys! Wow, haven't they changed things so much?" and it died a slow death.
The NSA is the backup for when the shit REALLY hits the fan eventually.
Some time ago I seem to recall a/. poster mentioning that there is a pervasive sense of guilt over 9/11 hanging in the intelligence community. The sense that it could have been stopped, that all they needed was more power If that's continuing today, I see no reason why bureaucracy + guilt couldn't mean this kind of thing is happening. However, I know it's not over night. This stuff has been in process for 10-15 years, even longer one might argue.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoa there.
Switch that around.
If everyone in your group friends thinks it's immoral to lie, cheat, and steal... then you DON'T DO THOSE THINGS. You shut up and you play ball.
Everything in a group like that is about peer pressure, and the sea change has to start somewhere.
Have you ever noticed how being idle REALLY pisses off the masters and drivers of our economy? People like Edison HATED idlers (though he himself took naps ALL the time) If we were idle, what then would we consume? Not nearly as much, I wager. We might think, might eventually interact with each other in the real world, and might accomplish more than moving a few pixels about a screen or some metal and plastic from one place to another. Forfend!
And now... I'm going to go take a long, delightful snooze.
One thing I'd like to be sure isn't lost here is the clearly stated difficulty: Keeping a positive moment in mind long enough for it to go to long term storage.
If we don't have enough time to stop and appreciate positive moments they are lost, obviously.
There is a body of literature on idleness and over the last few years I've begun to amass a collection of it. The more I follow idleness as an art, as a way of being, the happier I've become. It hasn't gotten rid of too many negatives, per se, but I find myself happier in general (though that might be due to any number of other factors, correlation/causation etc). It has even contributed to a little delinquency, for sure (hooray fun!), but seems on the whole a good habit.
It's been said many times, but this article bears it out: If we don't stop to smell the roses and really appreciate them, appreciate others and the gifts we bring each other every day, we are rushing blindly and headlong toward just physical death, but the death of the spirit too.
So you, yes you, the person with 4 monitors, a tablet, and an iPhone buzzing with facebook while the TV is blaring in the background, who feels all high off gadgetry (and maybe cheetos)... I dare you to try the hardest thing you'll ever do: Stop and do nothing for a day. Just sit, stare out a window, make a pot of tea. Just stop. and. be. idle.
Though if you do get antsy I can recommend reading "How to Be Idle", a fun read and an antidote of sorts.
Give it a proper Kickstarter pitch and a little song and dance number... who knows, anything's possible!
And once again, JAVA fixes the problem!
So Slashdot, right?
Um... they HAVE studied the Gilded Age... and it was determined that the wealth inequity is *at least* as great now as it was back then.
I'm sorry, I do not have a link.
Or, you know, you could just ask. There are lots of types of coercion, not just hitting someone over the head with a club.
What's happening here is that management is inventing more bureaucracy and processes to keep people busy. Meanwhile we charge more and more money for our services. it makes management LOOK like they're doing something and keeps us entering ever more data and more CYA notes.
"Jobs isn't here, man!"
Indeed, there is no information today, it seems, that isn't like it's on a party line (for those who remember what a "party line" used to be).
Oh trust me... you will when this is all said and done. They'll make sure of that...
whoa whoa whoa....
he didn't admit the government is incompetent... check your logic there, buddy.
GP only said that we as a nation spend more on healthcare than any other nation. Most of that spending is private, dontcha know?
Personally? I *liked* pulling all my own stuff together and the difficulty of organizing it myself. Maybe "like" is a bit strong, but...
I passed on camping with a group that had all the trappings. It was my first time and I wanted to do it myself, and it made all the difference. I was able to own the experiences there from start to finish, both good and bad, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Yep. Count me one of those people.
Well, there are a lot of artists and trustafarians who go (from what I hear), but def. a lot who get to go out there and just let loose.
Woo! Leavin' tomorrow night. :D
Wow. "Every Breath You Take" was NEVER more true (and creepy) than now.
Shiver
Wait? WAIT!? That's what they want us to do. As a comment says below, drones and bots don't have a conscience.
This should get ugly (politically and socially, above comments mention that if there's enough people for violent revolution then there are enough for an electoral change) RIGHT NOW. Same way it's been for a while. We need some serious change.
Maybe things were getting too hot for her anyway? Maybe she just needs a long vacation.
Why not just hand the site over to a worthy successor rather than shut down?
Is it just hot flashes? (cackles, runs away)
I've been thinking about this.... the whole "scared of everything" generation.
about 10-15 years ago the hubub was about Helicopter Parents (like mine), or maybe it was just media BS.
Now I work for someone who is SO paranoid that she won't walk 20 feet outside our building (in a very safe area) after dark without an escort.
I think the people who were insane about safety finally had their kids go off to college, now they've turned their insanity on the world.
People seem to be trading everything they can't understand (no time for introspection, there's real work to be done!) for one tiny mote of something they THINK they can understand (mmm safety). It's... very extreme, seemingly, almost maniacal.
Does it have to do with the fact that we live in Pleasant World now? If no one talks about bad things or death, they can't happen; we rationalize. We fear what we don't discuss/understand; has our fear of death risen to such a degree that we are actually trading OUR LIVES away just so we have an infinitesimally smaller chance of not dying? yikes.
What it sounds like is that you're working your good years away so you can have a bunch of money to be old and unhealthy. You have no hobbies? Any exercise? sex? any fun at all? You sound miserable.
What I'm waiting for is when the USPS makes it through this and actually funds the retirement. Then the Repubs will have their foot in their mouth, won't they?
That vote wasn't for sanctions, they know it'll never happen.
It was a vote to keep them all in office by getting publicity.
Tangent: My favorite is the one headed south on the 2 in LA, a sign that says the highway is adopted by "Atheists United", but the reflective coating has been washed off with acetone or something so at night it says "Theists United" instead.
The assurances is that the big media companies already do this. Occupy should have turned into a nation-wide shitfest of riotous proportions. Know why it didn't? Big media got smart and said,"Yeah Occupy has made a BIG difference (wink wink) in the political landscape. Mission accomplished, guys! Wow, haven't they changed things so much?" and it died a slow death.
The NSA is the backup for when the shit REALLY hits the fan eventually.
Some time ago I seem to recall a /. poster mentioning that there is a pervasive sense of guilt over 9/11 hanging in the intelligence community. The sense that it could have been stopped, that all they needed was more power If that's continuing today, I see no reason why bureaucracy + guilt couldn't mean this kind of thing is happening. However, I know it's not over night. This stuff has been in process for 10-15 years, even longer one might argue.
One way or the other, this shit needs to end.