THOSE are my "peers"? no wonder i have a superiority complex

[tannish2]

"how are you supposed to protest an abusive authority when an authority figure has told you not to?"-steven colbert

i am not quoting the exact statement that inspired that one, because its not so eloquently phrased and just reading it would cause you to become stupider. but that seems to be the mentality of those around me in my age group(im not talking about the specific incident that that quote appeared in a segment on), now, i have to ask anyone slightly older... is this really something for me to be worried about? or did every generation act like this at some point? seriously, im scared. now this has great potential to turn into politics within 5 or 6 seconds, so remember to try not to. i just want to know if its actually something to be scared of (and to not go off on rants at people who insult people of whatever age group i happen to be in at the time) or if its something to be scared of, and be aware of in old people, or something that is just a phase that most people go through.

please, help, whenever im in public with large groups of people my age i have a tendency to try and think happy thoughts with my eyes shut and my fingers in my ears.

[Semidi]

Kids are stupid.

As true today as when it was first said. Kids will always be stupid, and have always been stupid. Yes that was a huge generalization, deal with it punks.

My best advice from someone who has experienced that special hell recently:
Do your own thing, to hell with everyone else and their thing that is so vastly different than your own. You might be shocked to discover that some of your peers' own thing coincides with your own nicely.

Hehe… thing.

[tannish2]

ok, thanks, thats generally what i do anyway, but it just occured to me recently that these people might vote soon. and if your right i WONT have to go insane.

[Serpentine]

I don't think I understand your problem. Are your peers just kinda bending over under authority?

[tannish2]

well, beyond the total stupidity (which ive noticed in just about everyone, they are just showing it in their own.... special... way) and they arent actually my peers, their just called that by many people because they are the same age as me. anyway ive noticed a lack of logic and definetly bending over to ANY authority no matter how ridiculous and following any rule no matter bow arbitrary, without questioning it. and finding the very thought of questioning any rule(or set of rules) appaling. even

Spoiler

Show

1. you will always place pickles on your head
2. you will deficate in your lunchbox, if you do not have a lunchbox then use the nearest tree
3. you will not recognize the existence of rule 4, and you will write rule 3 anywhere possible and use it as a greeting
4. you will not recognize the existence of rule 3, and you will write rule 4 anywhere possible and use it as a greeting
5. these rules are not to be questioned under any circumstances, and are all true
6. these rules are all false
7. your teeth are purple and green, but only on tuesdays
8. you love pie
9. you hate pie

as long as it was presented by someone with the proper authority. anyway its just unwillingness to question ANYTHING without being told to, then guided through the process. and i dont want to share a planet with too many of those people, basically, their not just beinding over under authority, their bending over backwards and asking if it would like anything to drink, and not just legitimate authority, any authority. not to mention... something i cant quite think of right now because i need sleep.

[Archonic Energy]

KidsPeople are stupid.

Fixed that for you!

here's a quote for you
"you're overworked, underpaid, unappreciated & you are surrounded by incompitent idiots... welcome to the world, it's just you & everyone else" Lois - Malcolm in the middle

[Pyrian]

I don't really think you can talk meaningfully about authority without delving at least indirectly into politics; I don't think the subjects are truly distinguishable, since there is no politics without authority and any form of authority will tend to end up involving something strongly resembling politics (thus "office politics").

That being said, I've always found the application of politics to be more effective than the application of defiance. It is the nature of authority to have more and/or larger guns.

[Winterwind]

Kids showing too much respect for authorities?
Huh. That's a new one. Usually, around here, all I hear about is the opposite.

However, a teacher with whom we (our class from back then) meet every year has been telling us that he noticed some... worrying tendencies about the children nowadays. Mostly, that they seem less happy than they used to be ten years ago. And that they are more cynical, more nihilistic, even, about life.

[Serpentine]

I do find it worrying if people unquestionably believe everything they're told... Say, if they assume that advertisers are telling the truth because there's laws about it, or that politicians wouldn't lie to their people. Annnnnnnd that's enough out of me. PM me for a rant on the Australian voting populace!

[Catch]

Conform! Do what you'e told! Trust authority!

Nothing to see here, move along.

--

Really though, people have been submitting to authority as long as authority has existed. It's part of our biology. Your dog listens to you because it sees you as the alpha male; You're not going to see Fido and Fifi staging a protest march. In nature, authority is taken, always by the most dominating animal in a group. Everyone gets along and keeps their respective noses down because there's a distinct pecking order in place.

The prime difference with people is that pesky notion of self-awareness and metacognition. We are the only species with the capacity to ask "why?", and we tend to use it for all the wrong reasons and at all the wrong times. We submit to authority by instinct and by social conditioning, but argue and protest over the right to yak on our cell phones while driving or to dress like streetwalker. By our nature, we submit to those more powerful than us, a concept which is distinctly different from the animal kingdom in that "power" is a far broader concept where humanity is concerned.

To cut my rambling short, I'll just make my final point.

Human beings conform because we want to. It's safe, it's comforting and it's normal. Baaaaaa.

---

Ditch the superiority complex, though. No one likes a smartass.

[Winterwind]

I'm still surprised. I meet people who are rebels for the sake of rebellion and without a cause much more often than mindless sheep. (Both of which are roughly equally stupid and dangerous)

[Rex Idiotarum]

You're smart, rather than fight it, abuse it. Lead the Revolution!

Please, look at every generation, as you get closer to the present, they just progressively given up. Hippies fought long and hard, hell, there's still some fighting it today. Kids of the Seventies have had quieter rebellions, but there were still many, then the eighties was about activism's deathcry, then you have slackers, grunge, goth, which was just grieving period of activism, and now, gen apathy. Generation Why bother?

So, is your generation just the out put of apathy and submission, or is it waiting for a voice to arise to revive the angry spirit and put them all to rise up against authority?

Well, that is for you to decide.

[Brickwall]

Good news! They don't actually get any better! You'd better find different people to be around, otherwise you'll have to deal with it your whole life! HOORAY!

[Trog]

1) Everyone follows one herd or another.
2) Everyone thinks that, on some level, they do not follow any herd
3) Everyone is wrong about #2
4) Everyone thinks that, on some level, that #3 does not apply to them
5) Everyone is wrong about #4

[Serpentine]

YES, WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS
I'm not.
SSSSSHHHHHH

[Winterwind]

YES, WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS
I'm not.
SSSSSHHHHHH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qANMjwLmo6Y

[Syka]

Mmm...nope, nothing new.

When I was in 9th grade, I remember coming home one day and telling my mom, "I fear for the future if the kids I'm going to school with are going to rule one day."

With me, it's the apathy that worries me. But what can you do other than make sure you do not become apathetic and try to encourage other people to do the same?

And yes...they are stupid. That can, potentially, change. But don't think you're any better. You might be slightly better/more mature/what have you than your typical person of your age, but trust me. Your still stupid. :) I know I still have my moments of stupidity. There are people I'm much more intelligent/whathaveyou than, and I know there are people that I know who are much more intelligent/whathave you than I am. It's life.

Cheers,
Syka

[Artemician]

But don't think you're any better. You might be slightly better/more mature/what have you than your typical person of your age, but trust me. Your still stupid. :) I know I still have my moments of stupidity. There are people I'm much more intelligent/whathaveyou than, and I know there are people that I know who are much more intelligent/whathave you than I am. It's life.

Cheers,
Syka

Hear, hear.

I pretty much used to think the same way as Tannish, albeit about different sorts of issues.

Basically, it was the standard "intelligence" thing.. why are people so dumb.. yada yada.

Then I graduated from Primary School and went to Secondary School.

MAN>, was it an eye-opener. I, the previous big fish in a small pond, was now a small fish in a big pond. There were people smarter than me in every way, people who worked faster and more efficiently than me, people who were better networked than me.. etc etc. I wasn't so intelligent after all!

I grew depressed. I felt like my life wasn't going anywhere.

And then I read up on real cases of depression. Real people, with life experiences that made my pitiful quibbles seem trivial in comparison. And I wasn't really so pitiful after all.

Likewise, I still think that I am more mature about issues than most kids my age, but when I move on to Junior College, I expect that viewpoint to change.

We can only look at the world from the bottom of our own little wells. It's important to know the big picture before setting yourself over anyone else.

[Thes Hunter]

I think apathy has been pretty common through the centuries. Look at history, there is example after example of oppression that people just suck up and take for generations. It wasn't until someone said the right words, who had the right connections, at the right time, were people able to be led against those who did them harm.

I think we only feel things should be different now because we have been taught oppression is bad and should be questioned and fought against. However, now we have TV, which is the greatest cause of apathy known to man.

[Fascisticide]

This has nothing to do with age.

George Orwell made a great case of it in his book 1984. The whole book is exactly that.

[Winterwind]

I think the point of people just following authority without question is made much more directly in Animal Farm and in Huxley's Brave New World than in 1984.

[Ganurath]

I thought Bread and Circuses explained it pretty well. Note: Not a real book to my knowledge. Referencing period of pacification in Rome's history.

[Green Bean]

1) Everyone follows one herd or another.
2) Everyone thinks that, on some level, they do not follow any herd
3) Everyone is wrong about #2
4) Everyone thinks that, on some level, that #3 does not apply to them
5) Everyone is wrong about #4

I totally agree with you in every way. Of course, these rules don't apply to me; I'm entirely my own person.

[CrazedGoblin]

Meh, life sucks for teenagers in society, higher car insurance (when we can drive) looked down on by society as in-human beings, but look on the brightside we get student rail cards and no we cant change the way we are treated because as my previous headmaster said "if one of you let the class down its everyone else's fault aswell" you have to love the wisdom there..........

[Raiser Blade]

I'm apathetic about apathy.


Seriously though i think Relient K sums it up.

Apathetic is a pathetic way to live.

[Vaynor]

Wait.. are you really 96 or am I missing something here?

[Crow]

Kids are stupid.

As true today as when it was first said. Kids will always be stupid, and have always been stupid. Yes that was a huge generalization, deal with it punks.

My best advice from someone who has experienced that special hell recently:
Do your own thing, to hell with everyone else and their thing that is so vastly different than your own. You might be shocked to discover that some of your peers' own thing coincides with your own nicely.

Hehe… thing.

This is all that needed to be said.

[tannish2]

no im not really 96. i just entered a random year that made me seem old. oldness seems to have weight, also, its part of an inside joke.

and its not too much respect for authority, its ALMOST the opposite. they just dont question it. and find the idea of questioning it completely alien.

well ive seen some stuff that reassuring and some thats... whatever the opposite of reassuring is.

and its not the people i hang out with, im noticing in almost ALL of them. which is ****ing scary, they dont question any statement made by anyone if they have authority on the subject. if someone with a shiny peice of paper that says they know about math walks up, shows it to a few of them, and says "1+1=x-7 x(=/<, i dont know how to make it on my keyboard)1 then it will be known as a fact to them for the rest of their lives.

[CrazedGoblin]

Kids are stupid.

As true today as when it was first said. Kids will always be stupid, and have always been stupid. Yes that was a huge generalization, deal with it punks.

My best advice from someone who has experienced that special hell recently:
Do your own thing, to hell with everyone else and their thing that is so vastly different than your own. You might be shocked to discover that some of your peers' own thing coincides with your own nicely.

Hehe… thing.

Sounds good to me

[Winterwind]

and its not the people i hang out with, im noticing in almost ALL of them. which is ****ing scary, they dont question any statement made by anyone if they have authority on the subject. if someone with a shiny peice of paper that says they know about math walks up, shows it to a few of them, and says "1+1=x-7 x(=/<, i dont know how to make it on my keyboard)1 then it will be known as a fact to them for the rest of their lives.

That doesn't change, though.
When I started studying at university, a co-student, meanwhile a friend of mine, was attending the same mathematics course as I did. One time, the professor wrote something blatantly wrong on the table (lim(cos(x)/x)=0 for x->0, if I remember correctly). Somehow, nobody noticed it at this moment. Later, when we were solving exercises, we noticed that, and began arguing about it. My friend maintained firmly that if the professor said so, it had to be true; me pointing out that this cannot be, since cos(0)=1 and 1/0 definitely is not 0 did not convince him at all. And I should note that said friend of mine is usually much better at math than I am.
Needless to say, the first thing the professor did at the beginning of the next lecture was to announce he had made a mistake there and corrected the equation...
The moral of this anecdote: Everybody, no matter how smart they are, can fall for the trap of too much belief in the infallibility of authorities.