While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

[Eltain]

I don't like the way skinny jeans look, personally.

 

[Terrance888]

Skinny jeans damage my trouser titan.

 

[TheLizardKing]

As a sales associate at a clothing store, I must confess you are being silently judged when you buy skinny jeans.

 

[Angst]

As a sales associate at a clothing store, I must confess you are being silently judged when you buy skinny jeans.

Yet they sell.

 

[talonschild]

Yet they sell.

That is an excellent argument for their continued production. It is not, however, proof of their good sense.

Personally, I equate skinny jeans to those Shakespearean tights. Bizarre and intriguing, but ultimately too impractical.

 

[Angst]

I can sincerely tell you they are practical for their purpose.

I don't see any of you yelling at girls for prancing around in high heels or make-up or removing their body hair. All of that is highly impractical to their movement and money. But there's no reason to judge it; it's fashion and it gets the boys. So perhaps it's not a waste of energy or comfort after all.

I similarly buy the jeans required to hook up with the right people. When it stops working, I'll lose the jeans and everybody will be happy, and you'll have another fashion sthick to yell at to demonstrate your overwhelming manhood and comfort in that you need no fashionista.

 

[Terrance888]

don't see any of you yelling at girls for prancing around in high heels or make-up or removing their body hair. All of that is highly impractical to their movement and money. But there's no reason to judge it; it's fashion and it gets the boys. So perhaps it's not a waste of energy or comfort after all.

I do. When it annoys me. Like when a girl sees me coming, runs into a restroom to put on high heels from her purse, stumbles out and asks me for a date.

Gross. Bleh.

 

[Angst]

 

[talonschild]

Most of the time I think their effort is wasted, too. But the subject was not brought up. I suspect my problem is that, to understand, I must approach from a different angle. As you so succinctly put it, they are practical for their purpose.

 

[Terrance888]

I don't judge people when they use them. I judge in how they use them. If I saw a girl I like (which will never happen) and run to the rest room to change into my skinny jeans when I see her walking down the road. That's worth some heavy judgement. Negative judgement.

EDIT: Welp, Just felt defensive there. Just sleep deprivation talking.

 

[Terrance888]

On the topic of "Nationalism" being unrealistic in fresh starts, what about "Culturalism". Is this valid or is this Nationalism renamed? Do groups actually unite consistantly when an obviously different group joins the fray? How different is the new group to incite such a reaction?

EDIT:
terrance Culturalism "I want to preserve/protect American values."
terrance Patriotism "I'm proud to be an American because of their values"
terrance Nationalism "I'm proud to be an American because their values are the best values"
terrance Jingoism "I'm proud to be an American because we have the best values, and we deserve anything we want because anyone else have worse values than we do"

 

[talonschild]

Could someone bring a newbie up to speed on why nationalism could be thought unrealistic?

 

[Terrance888]

For Fresh Starts? I dunno, but I remember reading rants and stuff about it before.

I personally start a player within a region of similar culture.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Could someone bring a newbie up to speed on why nationalism could be thought unrealistic?

Because the idea of a nation-state is a relatively new phenomenon. That's the simple form of the answer.

For a slightly more indepth look, nationalism is unrealistic in many settings because the modern, Europe-based concept of a nation emerged over only the last few centuries or so. The vast majority of history, which includes basically every fresh start setting, exists in a world that precedes such states. People may certainly be motivated to fight, but they'll be motivated to fight based on bonds of kinship, zealotry, fealty, greed or countless other causes, rather than by the rather abstract concept of 'nationalism'.

I could also make some statements about how the idea of sovereign states didn't even become codified until the Peace of Westphalia, but I'll be entirely honest in saying that history is not my strong suit, especially in comparison to many of the more-educated history buffs in this subforum.

 

[talonschild]

Okay. So a more acceptable idea might be "provincialism" - "me, mine, and the stuff nearby".

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Depending on the setting I'd say most likely are religious zealotry, if you happen to have an organized religion, or loyalty to various chains of authority figures. I'm not entirely sure what you'd mean by 'provincialism', beyond protecting things you're immediately familiar with.

 

[Grandkhan]

Religious zealotry seems like a pretty recent invention, its one of those things that seemed to come with monotheism and religions that actively proselytise. That doesn't seem very accurate for a fresh start, as if I remember correctly the general vein of thought for religious differences around this time period is "You've got your weird gods, I've got mine."

I think Judaism is the first religion (in the west, at least, I know nothing about hinduism) to go "No, all your gods are wrong and don't exist." And even they didn't proselytise, it seems like something that came about with Christianity and monotheism.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, I don't know a huge amount about early civilisations - just a fair bit about Judaism.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Well, the Egyptians made use of religion to justify their system of government, and thus an argument could be made that religion indirectly serves as a motivator for conflict, even if zealotry as we know it is only a relatively recent invention. Again, history of religious expression is not something I could say a great deal about without doing some research first.

 

[talonschild]

You've nailed provincialism pretty well exactly - as long as the armies raze the next village over instead, many would neither notice nor care. They're not theirs.

This, if I remember correctly, is coupled with a dislike of anything obviously foreign. Racism runs high. Etc.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Sounds like bog standard tribalism then- provincialism would seem to imply a wider scope than 'just my village and my close relatives'.