Daedalus

I had this talk with my friend Richard earlier today, the catalyst being my brutal schedule of 19 hours this semester, and impending graduation:


Richard: you're going to have to work eventually
Tim: yea I know that
Tim: I'm cool with working
Richard: and you're probably going to have a shit job
Richard: once you graduate, you'll still be in the system
Richard: you're a slave to the system
Richard: that sucks
Tim: not a slave
Richard: you shouldn't be
Richard: you acquiesced
Tim: either you can buy into the slave mentality, or you can take control, and milk it for what its worth
Tim: it’s all about perception
Richard: you've given in to the material
Tim: its immature to think success is a bad path
Richard: you're not going to milk anything, except for your dick being rung into three kids who'll also be stuck in the machine
Richard: success is a bad path. Cause it's planned. No risk, only checking your mind and personality at the door.
Tim: you are weak because you can't see how optimism works
Richard: success is for people with four cornered minds
Richard: I don’t' believe in optimism
Tim: you’re an emotional invalid
Richard: you have to make your dreams come true, outside of the system
Tim: don’t think about it in terms of "system"
Richard: emotion is for people who get headaches thinking
Tim: if you do, you're fooling yourself
Richard: it is a system
Richard: it's a manufacturing plant
Richard: and when you're dead
Richard: you'll have a modest ceremony
Richard: and you're life is over
Tim: so complacent Richard
Richard: game over
Richard: complacent?
Tim: and your depression is so high school
Tim: I can understand the appeal of anti-system manifestos, and frankly it’s boring and overdone
Richard: your mediocrity is so 1980s
Richard: it isn't over done
Richard: there is a system
Tim: it’s a pathetic excuse for some sort of anti-establishment creed
Tim: its been done before
Richard: you used to believe that
Richard: you fit a mold
Richard: how you going to break the mold?
Richard: no way
Richard: you can't
Richard: unless you rebel
Tim: there are two types of rebellion
Richard: the system takes out all your color, gives you a number, tells you to march to your grave
Richard: and that's the truth
Richard: okay, tell me, what are the two types of rebellion?
Tim: one where you irrationally attempt to destroy the establishment
Tim: and one where you work to make changes
Tim: along with what exists here and now
Tim: destruction is nothing to be proud of
Richard: I don’t' want to destroy the system
Tim: it’s not the banner I want to follow anymore
Richard: I want to survive outside of it
Richard: so that others see that I can
Richard: and will want to join
Tim: maybe back in 11th grade listening to Propaghandi and anti-flag
Tim: but I'm beyond that, happy to do something productive
Richard: cause the current system is just a fad
Tim: it’s not a fad
Richard: people will wake up one day and understand it
Tim: it is what it is
Tim: it doesn't have any perceptions or goals on its own
Richard: you're a fuckin' George bush zombie
Tim: I'm sorry Richard
Tim: if I like what I do
Tim: and wouldn't mind working to make good money
Tim: and creating something interesting
Richard: you won't create anything interesting
Tim: I don’t buy into your far-reaching stereotypes that are nearsighted and pathetic
Richard: don't you understand that?
Richard: you can't
Tim: you aren't worth my time Richard because your arguments are shallow
Richard: all right, how are you going to be creative?
Richard: tell me that?
Tim: if you're being satirical and facetious …
Richard: how are my ideas shallow?
Richard: I’ve got to eat the goddamn system every day, I see how it runs, it is shoved down my throat, people and cattle
Richard: rebellion is the realization that a change is needed
Tim: that’s reality, you can either be bought by it or rise above, ignore it and do your own thing
Tim: but seriously
Richard: what are you going to be? How are you going to approach it?
Richard: how are you going to rise above the system by buying into it?
Tim: it annoys me to no end when you belittle the things I'm interested in, and tell my goals don’t count
Richard: you've adopted the dreams of the nation
Tim: I plan on working for a small development company first of all
Richard: individuality, that's all there can be
Richard: development?
Tim: I plan on doing interesting innovative work
Richard: such as?
Tim: computer development, game programming, and engineering
Tim: web design, Internet projects
Richard: you have to make the company, you can't work for it
Richard: you have to work on your own terms
Tim: there are a lot of good companies out there I appreciate and I would want to work for
Tim: lots of smart people out there with similar goals and ideas
Richard: why'd you call me complacent earlier?
Richard: I’m complacent?
Tim: in a way
Tim: because you aren't willing to change
Richard: complacence is being hypnotized into mediocrity by superiority
Richard: because I fit in, I am better because we have the will of the people
Richard: the will of the people is "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
Tim: a complacent person doesn't have to fit into the majority
Tim: they can be a rare minority living on "the edge"
Tim: but if they stop re-evaluating their beliefs, and become a tired and old preacher of some creed, they are complacent in my mind
Richard: all human interaction is eventually unimportant - but, if you believe you have something to prove to yourself and you seek out to that, then you rise above it all, if only for a brief section of history
Tim: all your sheep metaphors, your mechanical gear metaphors, please its sooooo old
Richard: it's true though
Tim: it’s close-minded and above all a vast simplification
Richard: people can be manipulated and turned into something "domestic"
Richard: it isn't closed minded
Tim: and therefore it’s complacent
Tim: it is very close-minded to call the entirety of society automatons
Richard: I’ll let you think me complacent
Richard: no it isn't
Richard: have you watched prime time TV lately?
Richard: have you seen the ratings for prime time TV?
Tim: yes, its bad, but its worse to judge the majority of the country on the quality of TV programming....
Tim: and just because people say they watch something does not mean they live it
Richard: in order to develop conscious individuals
Richard: self-aware
Richard: and I am self-aware
Richard: but I work as an individual
Tim: you are, like I've said before, an elitist
Richard: I don't see myself as something that should be or can be pumped out as another "family man" just keeping to each his own
Tim: thinking you’re so special and it gives you a right to criticize vast cross-sections of society
Richard: I am an elitist
Tim: what’s wrong with having a family?
Richard: I do think my ideals are better than other peoples because I haven't let myself me blindsided
Tim: and that sets you up as unable to compromise
Richard: there is nothing wrong with having a family but there is something wrong with having a family because it is "the right thing to do, that time in a man's life"
Richard: you get married and have a family when you feel like it, when it all works out
Richard: not because you are 23 and single
Tim: well lets think about this realistically
Tim: that’s probably the age when getting married makes the most rational sense
Richard: people in history who compromise are the people you never hear about
Richard: I believe that I have within, the ability to do great and wonderful things
Tim: you're not an island though
Tim: you'll have to work with other people
Richard: and I don't have to ask the outside world for re-affirmation of this, I don't have to depend on my dad's buddy circle to get a job, I will make my own world
Tim: either you have to make them do what you want through power, or convince them through persuasion
Richard: no man is an island
Richard: but a man can be a continent, a fuckin' huge island
Richard: you convince them
Richard: I’m no fascist
Richard: you show them that the world is better where you don't have to answer to a squad of supervisors and management students
Tim: you fail to realize all the innovation and inspiration in the world amounts to nothing without practical solid action
Tim: you can dream all you want
Richard: management, it makes me sick to hear a world like that
Tim: but it does not create reality
Richard: it is using people to make something
Richard: you rely on people and trust people
Richard: you don't manage them
Richard: that's fascism fuck-o
Tim: I'm not saying I agree 100% with what exists now
Richard: you're too smart to get dragged into a mold
Richard: you have good ideas
Tim: Richard: I don’t like corporations
Tim: I hate them as much as you
Tim: I don’t like big government,
Tim: or big military forces playing ethical policeman with Middle East dissidents
Richard: it just pisses me off when you say, hey, I will compromise and work for a company in order to get good marks on my resume
Tim: why?
Richard: and by subscribing to the law of the masses, you become part of the mass, and thus, perpetuate the mass
Tim: why are you going to school
Richard: it is hard to change something from within
Richard: it is most importantly, an outside force that brings change
Richard: I’m going to school to learn
Richard: I like STAC
Richard: I wouldn't be here if I didn't
Richard: believe me
Tim: school is only half about learning
Tim: its might crush your idealistic hopes of education
Tim: but it’s the truth
Tim: getting a degree is a certificate that you have the dedication and will to finish the program
Richard: I have fun in class, most of the time
Tim: it’s not about learning every single thing you were presented with
Richard: you are right, I do have to make some compromises, but I don't make many
Richard: it's important to have perspective on life before you attack it, and I feel that's what college is for
Richard: and afterwards or towards the end, you bite the system in the ass so bad it won't know whether to scream or piss its pants
Tim: you also have to realize
Richard: I don’t' live a modern lifestyle, never really have
Richard: I’ve never had much money
Richard: I know how to survive
Tim: you live with running water and heat and electricity
Richard: if you mean water and electricity
Richard: Tim, that's not modern life
Richard: that's fuckin' 1940s life
Tim: you are on the Internet
Richard: the Internet is a great tool
Tim: of course it is
Tim: but it was created through the massive corporation that is the telecommunications industry
Richard: I’ve signed petitions and go to lectures on the rights though
Richard: privacy is a needed right
Tim: and supported a great deal by advertisement tie-ins with other media forms
Richard: I support the company when I buy the product
Richard: not when I watch TV
Richard: I’m not on any Nielsen rating
Richard: plus, I mainly watch PBS and Turner Classic Movies (and turner is a much better corp. than most)
Richard: with no advertisements
Tim: but someone is paying for it
Tim: most likely GA Tech cable service
Tim: which is paid in turn by massive alumni giving and government grants
Richard: I understand that I’m in the system now
Richard: but not much
Richard: I’ve done what I’ve wanted here
Tim: Richard: its a slippery slope
Richard: it is a slippery slope
Tim: if you create some paradigm of control, you'll fall immediate victim to it
Tim: no questions asked
Richard: all the words I say mean nothing unless put into action
Tim: but you should read the Unibomber’s manifesto
Tim: it’s a lot like what you are implicating
Richard: I have read it
Tim: and there are certainly things in it I've contemplated
Tim: a return to nature, a return to the basic units of society, a purification of sorts
Richard: oh, I know I’m a little crazy, and paranoid, but if you can keep that and not let it destroy you, it helps you
Richard: I don’t' believe in a return to nature
Richard: you can't return to nature
Richard: you have to live on what has been built before
Tim: what is here now will decay
Tim: because it is not self-replicating and self-sufficient
Tim: buildings will crumble, but forests will grow back
Richard: not completely Tim, there are still the history books, we can't turn back time to 1492 and re-establish America as a wildlife colony
Richard: I think that's where you and me differ
Richard: our idea of "change"
Richard: change happens everyday, on some level - we are the past, and that's the truth, we are even trapped in the past
Richard: but if you understand your past and your mistakes, you have an edge over the future and not getting caught in the same old traps
Richard: and the same goes for America
Richard: America is her citizens
Richard: we make her up
Richard: and right now, America is a 15-year-old blonde girl popping gum in the food court at the mall
Tim: maybe that’s some idea you have
Richard: and that's our change works, human change in society, introduce new ideas, see society mutate
Richard: and I believe I have ideas that would benefit America
Tim: but America's youth is plagued with the same problems our generation was
Richard: I understand the need for order but it is thin line between order and fascism, control is something that should be kept to a minimum
Richard: or at least a medium
Tim: I agree
Richard: but you have to be able to trust society
Tim: I'm a big proponent of local governments, small companies, close families, etc
Tim: a societal modularity
Tim: a distributed system where there is no head
Tim: only a vast field of individual pieces interacting'
Tim: that’s the core of capitalism right there
Tim: that’s the core of natural selection
Richard: you have to have a head, but that head needs to be a true mirror of that society, the goals of that society, which should be change
Tim: I disagree
Richard: and that is not our current viewpoint
Tim: there's no "head" of the Internet
Tim: and that’s what keeps information free
Richard: but humans are different from animals, humans are the keepers of the planet
Richard: humans have a responsibility
Tim: nothing inherent, only what we establish through power, naturally
Richard: if not a God given or deserved responsibility, then the want to be responsibility, human will
Richard: but it shouldn't be about power
Tim: it shouldn't
Tim: but it will be
Richard: it should be about thought, ideas
Tim: ideas are power, or can be
Richard: yes, but different
Richard: and yeah, there is no perfect world, but that shouldn't stop us from trying to make it so
Tim: and I think if every individual realized the only law was power (not force mind you), it would be a better place
Richard: and I truly believe that
Richard: we should want to change life on earth
Richard: to make it better for those who come after us
Tim: of course, what’s "better" is always up for debate