People are Strange

[MantaRevan]

Got this idea when listening to the classic Doors song, general question here, how strange are *you*?

 

[Narz]

I don't consider myself all that strange, I'm pretty social/friendly, fairly normal in dress & appearance, get along with just about anyone and I don't think most people IRL would think of me as particularly odd.

However, I do think fairly differently from most people I think, I worry about different things & expect different things of the future. Certain things that seem to bother most people don't bother me much at all & certain things that don't bother others much at all drive me nuts (like television advertisements) if I'm exposed to them. I am more sensitive than most people, this has been apparent to me since I was a child. However, I've learned to cover that up pretty well (you learn that quickly in school, at least in the 80's, nowadays high sensitivity even among males seems to be envogue).

Catchy song BTW.

 

[madviking]

I'm really, really, really strange. Just ask my girlfriend.

 

[MantaRevan]

Hopefully this thread can turn itself into quite a few hilarious tales of people explaining about how buzzard they are.

EDIT: Buzzard? Ha! I meant Bizarre. But I like buzzard too. In fact, why don't we tell stories about how *buzzard* we are as well!

 

[Mr. Dictator]

If everyone is strange, how isn't strange normal?

 

[Narz]

If everyone is strange, how isn't strange normal?

Everyone isn't strange. Everyone has quirks but not that many people are aberrant in a majority of ways from the norm.

There's probably a test(s) somewhere to determine levels of weirdness.

 

[Narz]

Hopefully this thread can turn itself into quite a few hilarious tales of people explaining about how buzzard they are.

EDIT: Buzzard? Ha! I meant Bizarre. But I like buzzard too. In fact, why don't we tell stories about how *buzzard* we are as well!

Hate to disappoint you. I guy I met when I was staying at this ecovillage up in Massachusetts told me once, "For someone who spends so much time posting on the Internet you're remarkably normal IRL". I suppose I should take that as a compliment.

 

[Gamemaster77]

I am probably one of the strangest people in my grade. Though in a good way. I seem to be known as that guy that knows how to do the most random but cool things, is very smart, and has knowledge about a lot of random things that come up in conversation but aren't really very useful. I own very random things such as a couple shirts of mine that take batteries. I also do many crazy things that are extremely bizarre and sometimes stupid. Though I'm also very friendly and am on good terms with almost all of the people in my school.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I suppose I should take that as a compliment.

I am sure he meant it as one. But "normal" itself just means - as you surely know - what the peer pressure dictates to be the default state. And to view confirmation to that state as a compliment to me appears not thought through, but just animal instinct I kind of look down upon. Because stupidity is also the default state of human beings (lack of stupidity requires a very specific order after all, and order according to a conscious agenda is not a default state of existence at all), so an animal instinct will never be a source of wisdom, just emotional power.
Though I don't mean to look down on the merits of peer pressure in general. Humans need some kind of mutual understanding, which is established by a certain degree of confirmation. So confirmation is a necessary base for a healthy social life and with it inner life. But it should be followed by critical evaluation what such conformity means, otherwise one is a prisoners of shallow common rituals and well, peer pressure.

Anyway, I think in some ways I am very strange, but I value those strangenesses greatly and in my experience others will too if those strangenesses have decent reasons to be there others can profit from and are not just manifestations of inner unsolved conflicts.

 

[Skwink]

Like Narz I suppose, I'm a pretty normal teen for someone who spends so much time on an internet forum.

 

[Narz]

@ SiLL I don't think the default state of humans is stupidity/ignorance. I did feel that way in grade school (especially in my local public school) but not as an adult. When the guy told me I seemed normal I assume he meant well-spoken/groomed, not fidgety or socially awkward or inappropriate.

Frankly, I think most surface weirdness is more trouble/energy to maintain than its worth.

Anyone worth getting to know will see past the surface & realize you're more interesting than the average bear if you're not. The best type of strangeness is subtle. That way the true nuerotypicals will leave you alone but the perceptive interesting types will see that you can both function well in the world & yet are also deeper than average.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

@ SiLL I don't think the default state of humans is stupidity/ignorance. I did feel that way in grade school (especially in my local public school) but not as an adult.

I think we misunderstood each other hear. With default state I don't mean normal state. I don't think people are usually stupid (though there are a lot of people who are and in some manner everybody is, to think means to be stupid I would even say). I just meant that we are born stupid. That it is the raw state. Which means that people are only as smart as they are given the means and are putting the effort into being smart (of course within a frame of natural potency).

When the guy told me I seemed normal I assume he meant well-spoken/groomed, not fidgety or socially awkward or inappropriate.

Well that is not a bad thing of course. to be well-spoken I mean. Then I just find the word normal inappropriate in this instance.

Frankly, I think most surface weirdness is more trouble/energy to maintain than its worth.

Surface weirdness is - at least as this term appears to me - in deed useless (unless it is in an entertaining and pseudo-honest way, then it can be just play with some criticisms on society interwoven). Weirdness is only worthwhile if there is some bigger and thought-trough motive behind it.

 

[Narz]

I think we misunderstood each other hear. With default state I don't mean normal state. I don't think people are usually stupid (though there are a lot of people who are and in some manner everybody is, to think means to be stupid I would even say). I just meant that we are born stupid. That it is the raw state. Which means that people are only as smart as they are given the means and are putting the effort into being smart (of course within a frame of natural potency).

I pretty much agree though I'd change "stupid" to ignorant. I'd say most children have the potential to be fairly intelligent but often they are given the direct & indirect message that ignorance is safer than curiosity. Yeah, I think curiosity rather than knowledge is the opposite of ignorance because a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing whereas curiosity always spurns you towards more sophisticated knowledge.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

you glassy eyed sheep

The problem is not that people act like sheep as they think sheep act. The problem is people act like sheep and don't realize it because they lack the intellectual skills and/or motivation to do so.
To not be a sheep means to have an awake and focused mind and to just want to understand, and to be able to do so in an productive way. That is tough stuff, especially the last point. And it eats power, power not everyone has left to give. Not that no one does so. But I venture the judgment that most really don't, of course often without really realizing it.

I'd say most children have the potential to be fairly intelligent but often they are given the direct & indirect message that ignorance is safer than curiosity.

Absolutely. The problem is that the parents more or less pass on their ignorance/stupidity/whatever to their children. And it is always easier to pass on ignorance than smartness, because the former is the default state. It doesn't acquire any effort.

Yeah, I think curiosity rather than knowledge is the opposite of ignorance because a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing whereas curiosity always spurns you towards more sophisticated knowledge.

Well knowledge is all well and good, but it doesn't amount to much if people don't inherent the basic knowledge of obtaining knowledge. That is a mindset which struggles to actually understand things rather than to copy narratives. Which is a complicated matter because there is never complete understanding but always a point where we just settle with "alright let's assume so". So people need also be taught how to handle that. Which does not happen at all in a direct way except at some instances on university, when often nobody really cares, like epistemology. Which is a god awful shame. I think we could as a society achieve so much when we really put an emphasize on that. It can be quit empowering when applied to oneself and one's inner demons as well as applied on one's surroundings. But I guess I am getting carried away here ^^

 

[Narz]

But I guess I am getting carried away here ^^

Probably but that's half the fun.

I agree that the art of how to acquire knowledge is more important than any individual knowledge. Mostly what I learned in elementary school & even high school was how to scan books & documents for the information I knew the teacher wanted me to regurgitate for her/him. I feel like I really didn't appreciate the process of acquiring knowledge until my early twenties.

But I guess we're off on a tangent. Or are we? Is it strange to be this way? Watching television news certainly makes me feel that way.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Television news might be the ideal example of conveying a lot of knowledge without having people actually understanding the nature the matter.

 

[Narz]

Well the knowledge is pretty incomplete & much of it is wholly unnecessary (like reporting for 10 minutes about a lone rapist in a city of eight million while protests are going on involving thousands) or celebrity fashion instead of how the recent freak snowstorm before Halloween may be related to civilization changing climate change.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Jeez I didn't even talk or think about private news shows, but rather the glorious public news in Germany (which aren't that glorious, but in comparison still kind of are). Well with private news on non-news channels malt and hops are lost anyway as we say over here.

 

[Atticus]

If everyone is strange, how isn't strange normal?

Well, people are strange when you're a stranger, otherwise not.

I find it odd people calling themselves strange, since people are mostly aware of their inner motivation and thought process, and thus can't see it as strange. Although, I've found some of my former thoughts or habits, or those that are slightly changing strange.

 

[Tani Coyote]

-I routinely voice act scenes from games, theater, and books out loud. It creates the illusion of me talking to myself.

-I routinely talk about things, as if lecturing a class. My mother likes to just stop somewhere close by and listen in until whenever I discover her.

-I am able to recognise most Sonic tracks, know all the continuities and am in general just obsessive

-I'm told I'm strange politically by family members. I suspect this is because I refuse to be sorted into their far left liberal vs. hard right conservative worldview.

-Often say the wrong thing at the wrong time

-Dislike social norms. Tend to wear only my boxers when taking out garbage and the like. In 40 degree weather. At night.

If everyone is strange, how isn't strange normal?

About 90% of families are dysfunctional as I recall.

Clearly, there is a medical elite that defines what the ideal mind and social setup is, which completely flies in the face of reality.