3 ms·

Being socially celebrated gets you all the things people teach you mean success as you're growing up: Money, probably a beautiful wife, the admiration of your p

Being socially celebrated gets you all the things people teach you mean success as you're growing up: Money, probably a beautiful wife, the admiration of your peers. I agree with you that doesn't have to matter but I don't think you should underestimate how much that flies in the face of what most people have been taught matters most.

watwut 9y ago
Which is why I am objecting against knee jerk labeling of people who resisted the temptation as "mediocre" and knee jerk celebration of those who did not resisted as "the others are mediocre anyway". It is tempting even without that. The beautiful wife will get old as any other women, unless you exchange her ever few years. Being wife merely as a social status trophy is not the kind of relationship I would find attractive at all. I know that some girls are raised to believe that is what they are supposed to be, but that is another category of things I would rather avoid.
musage 9y ago
Teached by whom? My parents teached me a million things but none of what you said ever came up. Same for school. Hollywood movies certainly "teach" that, gangsta rap does, but what else? By the way, spectator sports is the original "if you're not paying, you're not the customer" -- so people get paid a lot to be good at sports, cycling in circles, kicking a ball back and forth, that sort of thing, to shovel eyeballs in front of advertisements. Nietzsche said all there is to say about money and those who need it, and as for the admiration of peers, that too is the consolation price for those who don't have confidence, who don't know themselves. What you're describing isn't some sort of elite person, you're describing people who are the best and work the hardest at being perfectly mediocre. Which, by the way, is a detestable thing, and a wasted life.

3 ms·

Being socially celebrated gets you all the things people teach you mean success as you're growing up: Money, probably a beautiful wife, the admiration of your p

by krageon 9y ago

watwut 9y ago
Which is why I am objecting against knee jerk labeling of people who resisted the temptation as "mediocre" and knee jerk celebration of those who did not resisted as "the others are mediocre anyway". It is tempting even without that. The beautiful wife will get old as any other women, unless you exchange her ever few years. Being wife merely as a social status trophy is not the kind of relationship I would find attractive at all. I know that some girls are raised to believe that is what they are supposed to be, but that is another category of things I would rather avoid.
musage 9y ago
Teached by whom? My parents teached me a million things but none of what you said ever came up. Same for school. Hollywood movies certainly "teach" that, gangsta rap does, but what else? By the way, spectator sports is the original "if you're not paying, you're not the customer" -- so people get paid a lot to be good at sports, cycling in circles, kicking a ball back and forth, that sort of thing, to shovel eyeballs in front of advertisements. Nietzsche said all there is to say about money and those who need it, and as for the admiration of peers, that too is the consolation price for those who don't have confidence, who don't know themselves. What you're describing isn't some sort of elite person, you're describing people who are the best and work the hardest at being perfectly mediocre. Which, by the way, is a detestable thing, and a wasted life.