Shake it December 4, 2005
Posted by mythoughts in Uncategorized.trackback
“shanti poon-nani all night”
“i won’t bite… hard”
these are some of the slander that pours out of Brian’s mouth. How lovely. Shada-lay!
This is finals week! Ah this semester passed so quickly. So many things have happened, so many changes, it feels good to change, or to know that I myself have changed. Last night we had some people over and Cat said that Jacklyn asked “What is Jon like drunk, because he’s so weird when he is sober.” I asked Cat if she thought I was weird, she said that “at least I’m not boring”
“In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.”
– Peter Ustinov
I read this quote today, and I think that it’s very true. In our quest to be different, we become the same. As Americans, we don’t have any perspective on things, it’s so hard to be original, if your examples of originality are homogenous. We need to get out of this freakin country to realize that there is more to life, to experience something greater, that changes your world view on things. The way you look at houses, the way you eat, the way you choose shoes, stuff like that. Experience that makes you think differently. I think we lack that in America. The freedom has turned this society into a cultural prison.
The Big Sleep 
I love your blog… wish you wrote more!
Just wondered how it’s been working out for you. I just bought Zickerman’s book and I’ve been looking to find a real person who has taken it on.nThanks Come on http://tropaadet.dk/melonieskinner4916081830
“In our quest to be different, we become the same.” Yes, it is a good idea for advertising after: I hinks different.
😉 Nice to meet you.
Elena
Much enjoy your blog 🙂 thanks for visiting mine!
I agree, I studied aboard in college and that was an eye-opening experience.
“The freedom has turned this society into a cultural prison.” This line really resonates with me. Just the other night I was at a party listening to a woman talk about her impending trip to Europe. She was saying that she almost couldn’t go because her boss wouldn’t give her the time off she needed. I made a comment in passing, that we think we’re free in the United States of America, but how free are we really when our boss has more control over our time and schedule than we ourselves do? Another woman took offense to this for some reason and challenged my definition of freedom. The whole scene was so bizarre. This post makes me feel less alienated, as I did at the party at that moment. Anyway, that was rather long-winded. Thank you, by the way, for following my blog!
Thank you for the follow. I’ll follow you and hope to see more of your writing!!!
I think this true for all young people – education and the shelter of the familiar can only go so far to expand our awareness of the world as a whole. Travel and the willingness to experience outside one’s comfort zone are necessary if we ever going to embrace a more enlightened viewpoint.
Thanks for visiting and following my blog! Blessings!
nice very nice
agree with your thoughts. Great blog! 🙂
“In our quest to be different, we become the same.” How true. I often imagine a world, not just America, where everyone has the same hairstyle, same clothes, same shoes, etc. and they all think and believe they are “with it”.
Good point, but I’m not sure its just America. I think that the internet has spread the seeds of conformity in general world wide.
Totally agree! Some people never travel beyond their own culture and honestly think all cultures should be like theirs. Through travel I have grown a true appreciation for the strengths, intricacies, and differences of some other cultures.
Thank you for liking my post, ‘The best Christmas gift ever,’ as well as another one. 🙂
But I do want to push back, just a little, against your argument here regarding American conformity. Someone else thought it was not just America that had this problem, with which I agree. But I don’t think it can be laid at the feet of the internet, because I remember a time before the internet when people still tended to conform to their own society’s norms. I think that this tendency is an inborn human instinct to be accepted within the peer group you find yourself in.
I do agree, though, that travel can be very mind- and norm-altering. To discover viscerally through experience that people elsewhere do things differently, and carry different values, changes you forever, or at least I hope that it does! There’s always the danger that once you return home, you might sink back into the cushion-y mindset from which you started. 😛
Loved it. All wanting to be different become the same – – differently 😇