I apologise for the last few days sabbatical with regards to posting, but it seems that I am spending more and more time battling my computer and it's unpredictable ways!
I tried to follow up on my promise of a recent post by experimenting with saying whatever I wanted, regardless of if I didn't believe others would find it funny. I spent a night out with friends not so long ago determined to see how this theory worked when put to the test! I discovered that despite the fact that it seemed, within reason, that my friends didn't take any particular offence or even notice that much of a difference (slightly worrying!), the only major problem I encountered was my own sense of guilt when I woke up the next morning and considered that if I had been out with ME, I would have been rather irritated by ME! My sense of conscience, how I saw myself in the eyes of the world, had been altered slightly.
I had been as outspoken as I possibly could have been within the circumstances, I had said things I shouldn't have said within the parameters of the company I was keeping and I had told jokes that were very close to the personal comfort zone even within my close group of friends. And the only person I seemed to have really offended was me! This seems to draw at the very least myself to the opinion that 'being bad' is ultimately a way of seeing ourselves. When we judge others and their actions, for right or for wrong, are we not simply actually trying to tell our fellow social participants what we expect of ourselves, not themselves? Can we ever truly be bad? Or is it more realistic to suppose that we are only simply being bad in the eyes of others because they would expect better of themselves, even if they are not capable of attaining such heady standards?
These questions, analysed within the confines of this particular mode of assessment, often simply birth yet more questions, rather than solutions.
Here is a link to a 'guide to being annoying', as if we humans need one! http://www.jayssite.com/jokes/annoying/guide_to_being_annoying.html
1 comment:
I agree with you here Oliver. I think we lie more for the concealment of our' true' selves if you like, as opposed to the fear of offending others. What we expect of others, is really what we expect of ourselves. You probably felt a certain amount of guilt, not neccessarily because of what you said to your friends, but because of the fact that you didn't really think before speaking. You didn't take the time to take a second thought and way up the possible outcomes; whether it would offend and etc. The fact that they weren't actually upset by your comments suggests that under normal circumstances, you may have said them anyway! I think the guilt itself, springs from the fact that you didn't reconsider your choice of words, and that you feel you let yourself down.
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