by sandy82 » July 2nd, 2005, 1:24 pm
Some great posts and some great targets! Funny and/or perceptive.
I hate people who make long posts. (Used sparingly--> :) ) That said...
Great variation here in the meaning of "hate", if the examples are any guide. L_M clearly does not hate Corn Pops, although I can see he might be tempted. Luigi, I agree with you on emoticons and on your being the only one who tries to sleep between 11 AM and 1PM. I hate bologna unless applied to a city.
I think I have about five gradations on the hate scale. First, hatred itself...which can be exhausting, but sometimes necessary. Second, dislike. Third, contempt. Fourth, condescending pity. Fifth, genuine pity. Sometimes, a little humor can take the edge off all of them.
Who or what do I genuinely hate. Two-faced, ill-educated, fundamentalist Southern crackers, who want to impose their shallow prejudices on others...all without being spoken to first. I'm sure I could think of a few other items, but that one comes readily to mind.
Then there's a subtle, yet undermining attitude which receives a combination of mild dislike and genuine pity. Those who try to turn a personality flaw into an overarching asset. They see themselves as great because they associate with those whom they deem to be even more afflicted than themselves. They offer no assistance to the afflicted, for the association is purely an ego feed. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. If you tell someone like this that you have a problem, the answer is something like "get over it" or "live with it." But if that person then has the identical problem, all heaven and earth are moved to solve it. Conclusion: don't go to such a person for advice, or even with advice; for they will see your concerns either as a weakness on your part or as an insult to them. Nothing more--until the problem happens to them. A genuine apology? Unknown. Phony apologies? I remove my shoes to count all the higher.
That was the "dislike" part. Here's the pity. Few people will give such a person useful advice. The person is unable to comprehend that, sooner or later, others will see him quite differently from the way he sees himself. A disrespectful attitude occasionally shows through to those in authority above him, and the person can't hold a job: supervisors take a quick measure of their subordinate. And, in the end, what is the person left with? Illusion.
In some respects, the illusion can be very funny. Picture yourself as a 14-year-old making extra money by mowing the neighbors' lawns. You see some little yellowish-white insects swarming around the wooden base of Mr. Smith's house. You ring the doorbell. "Mr. Smith! I think you have termites!"
His surly answer to you: "Live with it." ....And even at 14, you think ironically to yourself, "Okaaaaay."
Moral of the story: listen to the reasonable observations of others, especially when they're intended to be helpful---or you may suddenly wind up in the basement.
Enough of that. Jerm, you have hit on the issue that will affect the future of this country and its entire democratic system. "When did our population become so dense and easily led?" Combine that with the rapidly shortening attention spans, and there's a critical problem. People can't remember the last lie they were told, even as they're believing the new one. Nature abhors a vacuum, and someone or some group will step in to fill it.