People in my neighborhood
Jan. 16th, 2004 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rorqualI left work early today because it was so very cold. The heat wasn't working right in the trailer, and though I had three space heaters in my office, it was still only about 56F. One of the guys in the other trailer went out and dug the third space heater out of a warehouse, because I usually only have two, and he felt bad for me. I love the guys at my job.
But then, I don't know them very well. And that's probably for the best. If there's one thing I've learned here on lj, is that often people you like when you meet them and chat socially, can turn out to be Hidden Idiots when given a public soapbox from which to air the meanderings of their interesting little minds. No, not you, friends of my friends list. You are on my friends list because I find you uniformly entertaining, and not just in the "Oh man, you won't believe what Ted did *this* time" kind of way. Well, some of you are like that too. But mainly, it's the other people I know, mostly only socially...the people about whom I've said, "Oh yeah, X is a really nice person, I like talking to him/her". And then they get on lj and I'm all like, "What? And you what?" And then when I meet them in public I smile, and then sidle away...because I now know they are Hidden Idiots.
Then again, maybe that's the beauty of lj, being able to out your Hidden Idiot side in semi-public. Maybe it's liberating, the freedom. Then again, who was it that said it is better to be believed to be ignorant, than to open your mouth and prove you are? Wilde? Someone smarter than me, certianly.
Hm. Am I being an idiot now? I'm sure someone will tell me if I am....
But then, I don't know them very well. And that's probably for the best. If there's one thing I've learned here on lj, is that often people you like when you meet them and chat socially, can turn out to be Hidden Idiots when given a public soapbox from which to air the meanderings of their interesting little minds. No, not you, friends of my friends list. You are on my friends list because I find you uniformly entertaining, and not just in the "Oh man, you won't believe what Ted did *this* time" kind of way. Well, some of you are like that too. But mainly, it's the other people I know, mostly only socially...the people about whom I've said, "Oh yeah, X is a really nice person, I like talking to him/her". And then they get on lj and I'm all like, "What? And you what?" And then when I meet them in public I smile, and then sidle away...because I now know they are Hidden Idiots.
Then again, maybe that's the beauty of lj, being able to out your Hidden Idiot side in semi-public. Maybe it's liberating, the freedom. Then again, who was it that said it is better to be believed to be ignorant, than to open your mouth and prove you are? Wilde? Someone smarter than me, certianly.
Hm. Am I being an idiot now? I'm sure someone will tell me if I am....
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Re: Sigh...
Date: 2004-01-16 12:28 pm (UTC)2) It is a good question, to which I will write a short essay:
I am a fan of the "there is no *real* you/all of it is *really* you" dichotomy. In that, unless you are deliberatly seeking to mislead someone completely, most of the faces you show people are to some degree yours. You show what is appropriate to the situation, or what you feel comfortable with, or what you think will best convey your intentions, or what have you. Yet no face is *all* of you, and as you get to know someone, you see more of their faces and create them in your mind into a (relatively) unfragmented whole. But like I said, unless you're trying to decieve someone, all of them are real, for the purposes of this discussion.
Because of this, I tend to not be very tolerant of lj idiots. By which I don't mean people who are ignorant, or say stuff I disagree with, or anything benign like that. But sometimes lj, or any anonymous/non face-to-face speech, brings out the worst in people. You and I have both seen a person, posting something either in ignorance, or in a misunderstood attempt to be funny, get torn up by rude replies, out of proportion to the offense. People who, standing right in front of you, would say, "Are you sure you meant that?" or, "Well, I disagree," seem all too happy to call you an uneducated, petty asshole on lj. And that's another face of them, the face of their own arrogance or sense of entitlement or what have you. I don't buy the "when I'm a jerk on lj I am not really being myself" argument; no, you're just being rude in an arena with few repercussions, as opposed to being a jerk to my face in public where anyone can see it, and I can easily reply.
Not that "being the real you" means everything you do or say is at all times true. People do rant and vent and say things they may not entirely mean, or mean at the time but don't mean later, and that's fine. People are by nature self-contradictory; that's the cool thing about them. Rambling is fine, all that is cool. But on lj, unlike a personal diary, people will read what you say, and have no choice but to add it to the store of info they know about you. If you come off as a whiny idiot (for example), even though you're not *really* a whiny idiot, or *always* a whiny idiot, if I only know you through lj, well, that's what I see.
We end with a quote from Nietzsche (and yes, this one I know is correctly cited), because I miss him more than I miss anything else about grad school:
"Morality of truthfulness in the herd. 'You shall be knowable, express your inner nature by clear and constant signs - otherwise you are dangerous...' Thus: the demand for truthfulness presupposes the knowability and stability of the person." --Will to Power # 277
There. That will teach you to reply to me!