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[Parsely]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, that smacked me round the face.

Goddammit, I suddenly feel a lot worse.

Meh. Comfortable place t'live, enough means to do stuff he/she enjoys, work that apparently isn't that terrible, if they're still sticking around. No noble prize? No great contributions to humanity? Big goddamn deal. Not living up the expectations others had of th'person? T'hell with 'em. Sounds pretty decent t'me.

Stuff like that just gets on my bloody nerves. Great honkin' mass of humanity does worse off than that and suddenly you're a lesser person because you could, maybe have done better? Somethin' about it just gets under my skin. Y'aren't some kinda' waste just because you're not the bleedin' ubermensch. S'almost worse because the bugger in question starts buying into that tripe. Only thing wrong with the critter's that it hasn't figured out that its measure of happiness doesn't have to be set by comparison to someone else.

Right now I just want to hug you Frumple. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Xantalos]

...
Frumple, you da bes.

[ChairmanPoo]

And then I say. "Those people who are successful, who live doing what they want to do. There's nothing special about them, they're the same as me, human, lazy and as smart as I am, so why can't I achieve what they did? Determination, steadfastness and a willing to move through difficult times is what I need. Maybe a bit of luck too, but I need to create opportunities for that luck to happen, it won't happen sitting on my arse."

Quoted for truth


"There is nothing impossible  to him who will try"  -Alexander the Great

Also:

Everyone sucks at everything. Until they don't. Not sucking is a product of time invested.

[Knight of Fools]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, that smacked me round the face.

Goddammit, I suddenly feel a lot worse.

The problem with this thing is that it addresses the problem but never acknowledges that there's a solution. Heck, I wouldn't even say that the comic is really all that accurate: Having a job that pays enough to rent and decorate your own place is a heck of a lot better than barely scraping by on minimum wage, and even having a job that scraps by on minimum wage is a heck of a lot better than not having a job at all.

The situation that it portrays as terrible and mindless is really something that I'd love to have right now. Really? Your own decorated apartment and $35k a year? I've never made more than $10k a year, and am currently unemployed and living with family. Oh, and I actually made decent grades on my degree, so I don't even have that as an excuse. You want depressing? It doesn't get much worse than that.


It gets worse. The author is essentially pointing at anyone who's ever had anyone tell them that they had potential in their lives and deriding them for ending up in the middle ground, as far as income for a single adult goes. If you're making $35k a year, you're making more than 36% of entire households in the US. If you were to marry someone who made the same amount as you, you'd be making more money together than 64% of households in the US. That's pretty dang good and nothing to be ashamed of.

And who cares if you dropped out of college? You know who else dropped out of college? Bill Gates, AKA the guy who could buy enough lottery tickets to have a reasonable chance of winning the lottery and still have enough money to buy himself a Ferrari to pick up the check. Sure, he was pretty dang lucky and had the right skills to do make something that was in demand at the time, but we're looking at a guy who if you earn 1% of 1% of his annual income, you're set for life.


That's why this comic pisses me off. It does nothing but depress you without inspiring you to actually make something of yourself or improving your attitude or situation.

And the attitude is the big one.

You want to improve your lot in life? You want to get up and feel like you're doing something? Then go freaking do something. You don't need the approval of a comic to feel good about your life, and you shouldn't use a crappily made one to feel bad about it either. Take a stand. Want a better job? Submit applications, find opportunities to get to know people that can get you into those jobs. Take some college courses. Didn't do too well in college? Try harder this time. Study more. Work harder. Do things.


You aren't going to get by in life you see your pretty dang comfortable situation as pathetic. Even if you're making enough to rent a crappy apartment and keep food on the table, there's at least a quarter of the United States that would love to be where you're at, and I'm part of it. You've got it pretty dang good compared to other folks, no matter your situation, and don't let anyone tell you any different, especially some stupid comic by an ignoramus who should be castrated with a rusty wood ax.


This rant has been brought to you by the festering rage that I've always had for that comic and sleep deprivation.

[ChairmanPoo]

Worth noting that the comic author can't even spell "nobel"  correctly

[Dutchling]

The third panel confuses me. Highschool grades matter in (presumably) the US?

[ChairmanPoo]

Here in Spain the system takes into account HS grades , they used to be averaged with the Selectivity exam (akin to SAT)

[Knight of Fools]

GPA has no bearing on what classes you can take in college, it's only used by a few stuck up universities that want to avoid students that get into the university and drop out their freshman year. It hurts their numbers, causing them to get less funding.

Really, you can get a degree for just about anything just by going to a school that has a degree plan for what you want to do. Only particularly snobby jobs want Harvard students or whatever, but not many colleges will prevent you from taking a certain course just because you had bad high school grades. So, yet again, the comic is bullcrap.

[SalmonGod]

Another point that should be made is the world requires less-ambitious people working on the middle ground.  Personal ambitions, even well-intentioned, are to blame for a majority of the world's problems. 

Maybe an example nobody else will get, but it's one of the most central points of one of the most influential stories in my life:  it took a hobbit to destroy the one ring because hobbits don't have ambitions to corrupt.  They just want to lead modest, simple, fulfilling lives, spending their days appreciating their loved ones and hobbies.  Everything bad that ever happens in middle-earth is caused by people wanting more than that.

And I'm not saying ambitions are inherently bad.  It's good that there are people driven enough to elevate all of society.  However, it's good to be aware that comes with its costs, and it's the hobbits of the world who are content to simply go about their days not causing trouble that do the most to make it a decent place.  Though, every once in a while they have to get off their asses and sacrifice to keep it that way, against the misguided machinations of less content people.  Ordinary people really do deserve to be appreciated more simply for being those who keep the day to day world turning.

[scrdest]

Another point that should be made is the world requires less-ambitious people working on the middle ground.  Personal ambitions, even well-intentioned, are to blame for a majority of the world's problems. 

Maybe an example nobody else will get, but it's one of the most central points of one of the most influential stories in my life:  it took a hobbit to destroy the one ring because hobbits don't have ambitions to corrupt.  They just want to lead modest, simple, fulfilling lives, spending their days appreciating their loved ones and hobbies.  Everything bad that ever happens in middle-earth is caused by people wanting more than that.

And I'm not saying ambitions are inherently bad.  It's good that there are people driven enough to elevate all of society.  However, it's good to be aware that comes with its costs, and it's the hobbits of the world who are content to simply go about their days not causing trouble that do the most to make it a decent place.  Though, every once in a while they have to get off their asses and sacrifice to keep it that way, against the misguided machinations of less content people.  Ordinary people really do deserve to be appreciated more simply for being those who keep the day to day world turning.

I disagree.

A hobbit cares too much about not causing trouble to care about making the world a decent place. A hobbit is complacent, he passes by a dying person and pretends not to see because he has an internal censor against anything that might force him to be anything more than a hobbit. A hobbit is neither a hero nor a villain, but if you face evil and decide to face away, you lost by walkover.

Watch this and enjoy (age verification needed, and for a good reason):
http://youtu.be/EaUf-lFWgUc

See all those people? Those who turn away or, worse yet, keep on driving straight through? Yeah, they don't want trouble, they want their modest, simple, fulfilling lives to be undisturbed. The existence of the last person is a bit comforting, at least.

[quinnr]

I've had to use the bathroom all the time the last two days. My bladder shrunk or something.

Possibly too much information for you, but it makes me sad nevertheless.

[Vector]

Yes, the world needs hobbits for more than capital-H heroes.  I am not a hobbit, I cannot be a hobbit, and in a world where everything was fine and dandy with no need for production of Great Art or whatever I would probably kill myself, because I just couldn't deal.

That said, I recognize my utility is very limited.


I'm sad today because the kids were little nightmares and then I had to wait half an hour at the bus stop with someone who decided I needed to be interrogated about my ethnicity.  Here's how it went:

(I was reading)
"Are you from Israel?"
"No."
"Are you from Germany?"
"No."
"Are you from the Americas?"
"Yes."
"Are you Jewish?"
". . . No."
"You look Jewish."
"I'm not Jewish, sir."
"But you look Jewish."

*sigh*

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I will never understand why people think it is alright to bother people whom are reading, especially with extremely frivolous subjects. I'm not sure why you didn't just tell him to fuck off, though.

Anyway, I am sad because one of my wisdom teeth is in the last stages of emergence and dear god, I now have sympathy for teething babies. There's this one part of my gumline that has become, for lack of a better word, a nub due to the thing rising up. It's been like that for almost a year now, but now it hurts pretty much constantly. Hopefully it stops hurting and subsumes soon, because even when it didn't hurt it was annoying.

[Vector]

Because I was about to have to ride the bus with him.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

So?