He (inconsequentially): So, if you could be anything in the world that you wanted to be -
She (interring a decent pause): Ahaan?
He (rolling his eyes): D-uh! What would you be?
She (flippantly): I dunno. Maybe an astronaut.
He (with knowing condescension): Over-hyped profession. It just looks all gadgety and cool. Betcha it's totally uncomfortable under that space suit thingamajig. And you probably won't even get to go to space. Besides they seem to let psycho bitches become astronauts these days.
She (after some consideration): Hmm. I suppose it would be interesting to be an author.
He: Hehe (rudely). What? One of those chaps with long hair and inky fingers? The ones who never have anything to say but take a prodigious amount of space saying it? And take themselves oh-so-seriously. Might be quite appropriate actually, considering.
She (irritably): What dya mean might be appropriate? And anyway, I wouldn't be a chap! Maybe an actress then. You can't accuse me of wanting long hair and inky fingers that way.
He (smirking): Ahh. Of course. Fame and riches. Lots of people fall into that trap. Me, I've never needed that sort of validation from millions of people who don't even know me, jerking off in front of my picture. Such a silly sort of profession. No disrespect, of course. I'm sure for vulgar blondes with a weakness for diamonds it's quite the thing.
She (venturingly): Gardener?
He (dismissively): Bah!
She (quickly): Teacher.
He (quicker): Tsk.
She (lightning quickly): Scientist.
He (still quicker): Phooey.
She (despairingly): Social activist.
He (in between snarky sniggers): With a big red bindi? And cotton saris. Heheheh. You're going to save the world?
She (bitterly): Well, it's better than sitting around on a rather big backside, asking people stupid questions and laughing at all their answers.
He (reproachfully): The backside comment hurt. And it's not better! At least I'm not actively harming anything. That's the only thing you can do with one of your so-called "careers". Harm people. Or animals. Or things.
She (witheringly): Oh! So Einstein had a so-called "career" that harmed people?? Picasso??? Monet?? Shakespeare??
He (triumphantly): Course. None of them did anything worthwhile. Relativity? It's not even a theory. Mumbo jumbo that doesn't change anything. The world doesn't change it's fabric just because we give a name to the fabric. And weird shapes and blurred colors are nothing to crow about. Besides encouraging young twerps without a jot of talent to waste time and paint, while mercilessly killing millions of trees. Don't even get me started on mooning heros and crooning sheep. Think about all the men who never had a chance with the girls once they (the girls, that is) got a crack at Shakespeare. After 'I'll follow you and make a heaven out of hell, and I'll die by your hand which I love so well.' who wants 'Umm..so..err..how about it..mumble..tonight..'? Damnable behavior if you ask me.
She (baffled): Crooning sheep?
He (hastily): I thought we decided to not get started on it! The point is-
She (incredulously): There is one?
He (perseveringly): The point is that there is no way any individual life can actually matter in the grand scheme of things. Say there's a big river that's going somewhere. And every now and then there's a boulder in it's path or a mountain. The river has to either move around it or drill through it, right? But it doesn't matter which way it ends up choosing. To the river. The boulder might erode and become a mere bump, the ground over which the river moves might become fertile and green, life might flourish there. But it makes no difference to the river. Pointless is what it all is.
She (argumentatively): -
He (pre-emptively dismissing): I know what you're going to say. That it *does* make a difference. That maybe the river will move around the mountain and in the process tumble into a deep hole and become an underground spring. Or the river might be stopped by the mountain and become a lake.
She (futilely): No, I wasn't going to say that.
He (waving a careless hand): That's what you ought to have said. Of course I can counter it by saying that whether the river becomes a spring or a lake matters this much(snaps fingers). Whichever way you look at it things will happen. Maybe not the same things. In the same way. To the same cross-section of the world. But things will happen nevertheless. The river is a spring today, an ocean tomorrow or a dried up river bed the next. It doesn't matter. If I ceased to exist today, this second. It wouldn't matter to anyone.
She (heartfelt-ly): It would to me.
He (disregardingly): The point is noone makes a difference and things happen regardless. It's like Russian Roulette, except the outcome doesn't matter really. Ergo, it doesn't matter one whit what you think you want to become. Or would become if you could. In the context of the world, you're a blip that noone can even hear.
She (unimpressed-ly): That was a point?
She (grudgingly after pause induced by excruciating inner struggle): So, if you could be anything in the world you wanted to be?
He (superior-ly): Ahaan?
She (sighing): Yeah, yeah funny. What would you be?
He : Scared. Maybe depressed. Probably both.
Disclaimer: Any resemblance to real world supercilious arrogant existentialists is unintended, non-existent and solely in the mind of said s.a. existentialist. Any resemblance to any other He Said-She Saids denied vehemently. It happened by itself!
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Since I cannot think of a single intellegent thing to say right now, I'll keep it simple. I like.
Scared. Maybe depressed. Probably both.
which is why i'd go for astronaut, writer, social activist or anything else whatsoever. live your life, be happy. what matter what difference you make to the grand scheme of things? im too selfish to care about that.
@Confused & Baffled:
But aren't we all scared and depressed inside, (pushing those feelings deeper and deeper till they recede into the inky shadows of one's mind) doing all these superficial things, telling ourselves that they matter, that we matter, just to feel okay? All because we don't know otherwise... Life would be far easier to accept if we knew one way or the other if we mattered or not... the problem lies in the fact that we don't. And that scares us. A lot more than anyone would be willing to admit.
So we hum a little la-da-la-la and go ahead and work, we push ourselves, and we achieve.... for what?
At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian Proverb.
Well one is tempted :
In defense of the supercilious Arrogant existentialists everywhere one would have to begin at the beginning by asking...what exactly dost thee mean by saying one is a supercilious arrogant existentialist? :P
Nip it in the bud..I say!
@wiseling :
"At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian Proverb. "
Perhaps...but the question moot is who gets the queen? :P
@anon & wiseling: throw away the chess-pieces please. keep it simple.
if we mattered or not... the problem lies in the fact that we don't.
to whom? the problem only lies if we feel the need to matter to everyone else, above the need to matter to our own selves.
go ahead and work, we push ourselves, and we achieve.... for what?
not to make others happy and come pat our heads. but to myself happy. and since we're going for quotes here - i swear by my life and my love of it, that i will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine
@confused and baffled :
I will give you possibly 3 to 4 years before you come out of the Ayn-Rand-has-got-a-point-phase :)
Don't quote Rand to me....I have been there done that....:)
I am pretty sure you wont understand what I am saying. You aren't expected to....but three to four years later you will ;)
@TMWWT:I am pretty sure you wont understand what I am saying. You aren't expected to....but three to four years later you will
N you ask me what I mean by supercilious, arrogant existentialists! *sigh* (Heh @ the Queen comment though :P)
@Wiseling: Ty. And I'm glad you understand (And don't accuse me of illogical non sequiturs). But I still believe (as I said in earlier post) that the problem is that there *are* answers and not that there arent :).
@C&b: It's true that it would be easiest if we only mattered to ourselves. Though the question I suppose is how does one matter to oneself alone if one is not yet sure about one's place in the world? You have to peg your existence somewhere, right? Maybe the point is to concede that it doesn't matter at all?
@revealed : no no you do me much injustice. That was more like a quondam superfluous pseudo objectivist rather than a supercilious Arrogant Existentialist :D:D The latter would have just sniggered...
We (that is me and Him) object to the term Pseudo! And He *did* snigger. I put in the snigger cos i *knew* u'd expect it. So there!
@revealed : "We (that is me and Him) object to the term Pseudo! And He *did* snigger. I put in the snigger cos i *knew* u'd expect it. So there! "
Perhaps on a date dost thee care to elucidate ? :|
:D
You called Him pseudo objectivist, which term he objected to (and rightly so, one feels; of course He here implies the He of the He Said-She Said bit). I do wish you wouldnt make me elucidate. I so prefer the obscurity of mystery. Wasn't it Wilde who said that it was the sworn duty of intellectuals to obfuscate (i paraphrase loosely here)?
@DM: :)
No you "miss" intrepet me...that comment was with respect to this :
"@TMWWT:I am pretty sure you wont understand what I am saying. You aren't expected to....but three to four years later you will
N you ask me what I mean by supercilious, arrogant existentialists! *sigh* (Heh @ the Queen comment though :P)
"
Isnt this what Martha said to Goldstein on his return?
Anyway I pretty much doubt a S.A.E. would have had such a discussion...I will post what could have possibly transpired...If I get around my lazy bones to do it..:)
@tmwwt: I inspired you to post???? Awwwww, how touching :P. No, but seriously, plssss do! I'd love to know what a S.A.E actually thinks :D.
And you should have italicised!
To quote myself: Life would be far easier to accept if we knew one way or the other if we mattered or not... the problem lies in the fact that we don't. And that scares us.
Well, that didn't quite come across as I meant it to. What I was so eloquently trying to say was that we don't know because we cannot accept. (Wouldn't acceptance just cause us to either lose purpose or go mad? We are inherently selfish beings and the thought that we matter not a whit is terrifying.) And that is what scares us.
I'm going to stop rambling before I get even more articulate. *sigh* I really should sleep more.
@wiseling: *claps and cheers loudly* My point exactly. Thank you :)
(though I have reason to believe that the pervasion of that knowledge in society is both imminent and inevitable)
I do what I can... And maybe it is the seeping in of that knowledge that causes so much disillusionment? Or maybe once the knowledge is fully realized, we'll just start back at the very beginning... the very best place to start?
@wiseling: I like that thought. Fingers crossed and all that :)
oh maybe one of these days...but wondering how many real life SAE's do you really know? ( though not to forget if one SAE agrees with another then he probably isnt one..)
The information here is great. I will invite my friends here.
Thanks
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