Several excerpts from Lidia’s diary regarding her ideas surrounding Sociology, economics, and philosophy.
Sociology
Diary: May 3rd, 1994
I went to sociology today and Dr. Clark was giving a lecture on modeling behavior. To categorize types of people is one thing but to me, it seems a real stretch to think that behavior can be modeled or even really described over time on a large scale.
My problem is that you have to make assumptions that people will make or have made consistent decisions. Guess what? They don’t. Group-think scares the crap out [read more=”More” less=”Less”] of me, I think it’s far more powerful then Dr. Clark is willing to believe. Humans are assholes, we’re animals, I’ve seen it. Waiting tables slinging beers to those reptilian wankers at Schleppies taught me that.
Get one drunk asshole and likely they’ll behave — I can even kick their butt if I had to. But get three or more? They’ll tell me some nasty sexual comment — as if that would woo me — even worse — it wasn’t until I slapped the living crap out of that frat boy that he apologized for grabbing my butt. I’ll guarantee if I called his mother he’d be a crying baby…because as many will say “they know right from wrong.”
So b.s. I say. We are animals that vary our behavior based on time, place, our life experiences all of which get altered by those around us – i.e. “group-think.”
It isn’t just men either. Women too. Get one or two together and you can be pals. Sometimes even 50 together and it will all be cool. Add a 51st? She may be the one that starts shit. “Megan told me that Brenda told her that Andrea thinks she’s prettier than you.”
Stupid crap like that — that means nothing. Who cares if Andrea is prettier? Is she curing cancer or feeding stray puppies? That I can get behind and applaud and possibly change my own decisions to maybe be more like her or alter her perception of me. But what if she’s super pretty but an enormous bitch? Personally, I’d find her revolting but some would gravitate towards her – one bitch with a pretty face can alter those around her – with no real reason…again, group-think that is void of all rational thought. Get hundreds of thousands of people together that includes a few drunk frat boys and a few Andrea’s? The popular jocks and ample bitches with the pretty faces? You get sociology.
Maybe I have a superiority complex, thinking that I’m above such things, that if push came to shove I wouldn’t follow the herd. Maybe I would, but I’d like to think that I really am above that. I’m not even remotely close to as good a person I could be, yet my time with Tim, a boy who stuttered so hopelessly and had terrible acne proved to me every day that I was blessed to be with him. Within an exterior package of awkwardness and disproportionate features can reside the heart of a lion and genius of immense proportion.
Of the several thousand members of the Fort Collins High School student body, only a handful knew Tim. If you were to organize a society using real sociology to repopulate the earth based on the student body, cooler heads would not prevail. Tim would not have been put in charge. He wasn’t pretty and displayed no outward skills. Such a society would deserve to be doomed. We don’t learn from mistakes, we don’t live in a meritocracy and we certainly don’t strive for our best. Why is that?
You already know the answer, Lidia. It’s because by in large we’re filled with reptilian asshole DNA. [/read]
Economics:
Diary, February 1st, 1996.
I sat through another lecture given by Dr. Dead today. He was explaining how a person who gets paid $200 an hour should never try to do their own home repairs. That if that person could hire a plumber for $80 an hour to replace a shower then the $200 an hour earner would “be a fool” to do the work himself.
Piss off, you pretentious asshole. There are several externalities that are far more powerful than the $120 an hour Delta.
- Pride of work – doing it yourself
- Knowing it’s done to your specifications
- Not having a stranger in your home
- Maybe you enjoy sweating pipes
- Maybe you are idle for those hours, in which case you’re actually saving $80 an hour
Economics, like sociology, is an oversimplification of complex events; life.
If you aren’t willing to account for externalities such as emotional drivers then stop wasting my time trying to teach me how accurate this stuff is…
Philosophy:
Diary: April 2nd, 1994
There was a pretty good discussion going about perception vs. reality and the conundrum about existence today in Philosophy. Then Greg Canter chimed in.
I swear, that guy can’t go a single lecture without trying to convert the entire class. Okay, I get it, you believe in Jesus. That’s great for you but let me learn philosophy in peace for Christ’s sake! Ha ha…
Why is the burden of proof so much higher for everything but religion? I tried asking Greg just some basic questions about his beliefs and he was genuinely insulted. Why?
I’m just trying to understand his position and passion. I’m not trying to attack his ideas anymore than I’m attacking his beliefs. I’m simply trying to see if I can see where he’s getting his support for such a leap.
Okay, so it gets down to a leap of faith. That’s cool, it associates a higher purpose — great. I’ll extend you a courtesy accepting your belief in your faith — all I ask in return is that you accept my lack of your faith with the same openness without judging me.
Any talk about religion always gets weird…too bad too.
Because I’d seriously like to ask God, Zeus, Buddha, Satan, or whoever would listen a lot of questions.
Unfortunately though, since the talk would be religious in nature, it would get very uncomfortable and immediately be too fricken weird to be useful.
Of course — thanks to philosophy — I’m left with the possibility that my own existence isn’t even real. My own ideas aren’t my own at all, they’re just figments of someone else’s imagination.
If that’s the case — hey asshole? Any chance you could at least do me a solid to make it so the dogs don’t crap so much when I’m cleaning cages at the animal shelter? It’s the least you could do. Thx as always, Lidia.