Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Meatshield]

I know it's the typical rebellious youth to be all pissy and negative about "society, pop culture, the government" (aka THE MAN) and all that other shit, but I don't know how to accept all of the stupid, annoying, anti-individual attitudes, policies and rules that come with the world of people.

I honestly wish I could just go into the woods and live like the "survivalist" lifestyle, and I have researched it thoroughly, but I don't see much opportunity to do it without other people butting in.

But, straight to the point, what do?

[TheBiggerFish]

I have absolutely no idea, but I'll provide moral support.

[Sonlirain]

Question.
What do you actually mean by society's BS exactly?

Maybe you are just a left winger surrounded by a right wing environment (or vice versa) and simply moving somewhere less retarded would solve your problems with society.

If that's not it... well you could try setting yourself up in a shack somewhere in the woods if you have the means (mainly money and a gun) to but that's far harder and there's a rather large chance you will come crawling back to society after less than a year of running your IRL hermit fortress.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

To both be an enlightened self and not give into the tide, you have to be able to stand in spite of society. What I mean by that is not to double down on anti-establishment attitudes, but to free your personal identity from the whole struggle in the first place.

If that's not very clear, consider the following: Ultimately, you are but one person and cannot change the entire world. There's no possibility, no matter how much power your accrue over your life, of chaining down the inherent chaos of humanity. It is our curse to both be unable to effectively cooperate while also easily getting swept up in collective hysteria. However, you also do not need to do that. If you really want to subvert the bullshit, then start living as if you were already in a world not so afflicted with stupid. You don't have to strike down the system if you can be at least your own local fulcrum of right and wrong.

Stand up for what you think is right, argue for it passionately when you're subjected to the authority of other motherfuckers, and never live by others' standards when you aren't. This will sometimes fail, and you will inevitably be caught up in the train wreck of blatantly wrong decisions, but you can take solace in knowing you told them so and what happens then isn't your responsibility anymore. You did all that you can be accountable for.

While that all might sound like a grim scenario, keep two things in mind. Firstly, that as long as you can answer to yourself you can answer to anybody. Secondly, that people respect living by your own strength. If you can do that and be your own weird self without turning into an edgelord about it, you will find that others will begin to see you as a person worth listening to. Not only that, but you will find your own limitations and failings in the process, and so grow your individual sense of the world as well.

TL;DR You do you, live that personal madness because you are the center of your own world even if you aren't the center of the physical one, and don't be an asshole about it.

[Truean]

Generalizations only without specific details....

Society is individuals who can't think or control their emotions: i.e. a godawful mess. They drown themselves in booze, drugs, sex, and violence; recently, the glorious salvation known as "video games" made that list virtual without real consequences, thankfully. Tragically, too many people shoot others in real life rather than a computer screen. All hail the video games, the not fully embraced savior of humanity.

Question being, how do you or any individual deal with your own issues and everybody else's issues? Answer, inward control of your mind; outward control of your actions (responses). Humanity is lost in a storming sea of emotions, battered by waves they can't see, but still quite wet and cold from them.... This is the source of everyone's and thus society's BS; the tragic irony is that everyone is a victim and victimizing everyone else. Nobody really knows to to deal with it large scale. For the most part all, you can do is recognize the cycle, react to it as best you can and not be part of the problem. Thus, find what peace you can.

Examples abound:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Think of any situation where it isn't fair. Could be dealing with an authority figure, or another person. Doesn't matter, that's society. Assess and find course of action most likely to get you through it in the best shape possible.

Guy cut me off in traffic yesterday, actually nearly forcing me into a guardrail, causing serious accident. My initial reaction was (not doing it but ...) wanting to find and beat the daylights out of him for his stupidity. Fact, he nearly killed or crippled me and others. Initial reaction thought was retaliate. Actual action was assess situation (including wheels slipping and car trajectory, as well as positioning of cars around me.) Actual response was taking foot off gas, very gently and repeatedly tapping break (for break lights to alert driver behind me while sounding horn for same reason), then steering car while coasting. This prevented a skid and / or multi car wreck.

Did I WANT to flick him off, scream at him, and beat him if possible? Yes. Did I? No. It's a results focused issue. Was he an unfair jackass? Yes. Doesn't matter, because there are too many jerks in the world and I could spend my entire life smacking them and still not get through 10% of the jerks who need smacked. All that would get me is a sore hand and a wasted life.

Traffic is a societal problem from collective decisions on where to put certain infrastructure and venues (housing, work, etc). It's a pretty physical and experiential example.

Basically, stay calm and rational. Think of the best course you can take, or failing that, the course that will lead to the least damage. We're pretty much all of us suffering, unable to meet our needs and lashing out one way or another.

[BigD145]

Where would you be right now without society? Half starved, drinking fish urine, and gut full of parasites? You'd likely end up with lyme disease. Anything you'd take with you "into the wilderness" would all be thanks to society. All that info you looked up? Society. This here conversation avenue you're using? Society. Humans are social animals. Deal with it. We amass knowledge and pass it around. Some of that knowledge is pretty fecking useless and distracting. Filter it out. I will give you one thing; it's crowded right now.

[nenjin]

I honestly wish I could just go into the woods and live like the "survivalist" lifestyle, and I have researched it thoroughly, but I don't see much opportunity to do it without other people butting in.

But, straight to the point, what do?

What is stopping you? Answer: you lack the courage of your convictions. As was already pointed out, you like society fine when it serves you in a manner you appreciate.

Live in the world a few years. As an adult. Then, if "The Man" is still getting you down, abandon society. But point in fact, "society" is what allows you to use the Internet and complain about said society here, instead of spending your time hunting or farming to survive and trying not o freeze to death.

It is the universal hypocrisy of youth to resent society while both benefiting from it and contributing little to it.

Society's requirements and BS never stops being frustrating. Ever. But eventually you face enough hardship and suffering in life that the benefits are worth the negatives.

Put another way. Paying for Full Coverage Auto Insurance sucks ass. But when someone hits you and does $10,000 of damage? Suddenly paying a grand a year for full coverage doesn't seem so bad.

[BigD145]

It makes me love to hate all the climate change deniers. "Scientists are all just running a scam." I'm sure those same people love all the electricity and clean running water and roofs over their heads, all thanks to science. Live with dysentery for awhile and you'll soon learn to love society and science. I'm not sneezing smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis all over you because society and scientists decided that would be bad.

There's quite a few nonhuman animal diseases out there that cross species, so don't think you'll get away by running into the woods.

[Bumber]

It makes me love to hate all the climate change deniers. "Scientists are all just running a scam." I'm sure those same people love all the electricity and clean running water and roofs over their heads, all thanks to science. Live with dysentery for awhile and you'll soon learn to love society and science. I'm not sneezing smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis all over you because society and scientists decided that would be bad.

There's quite a few nonhuman animal diseases out there that cross species, so don't think you'll get away by running into the woods.

Sounds like you're lumping all science and technology into one group. Climate change is different because it can't be thoroughly tested in a laboratory (unless someone's got a perfect model of the Earth somewhere) and happens over decades. The only thing that comes close in controversy is human evolution, and we have fossil DNA to back that up.

Not all science is equally proven. Everybody thought they knew how electrons behaved until they didn't.

(*Doesn't believe strongly one way or the other about anthropogenic climate change.* Obviously our CO2 output and deforestation is not helping things.)