"You think too much"

Why is everyone so afraid of the little inner workings of things nowadays, and why when you express knowledge or interest of them you'll typically hear a point of view which sees "seriousness" as baaaaaad and complete thoughtlessness as "good", with NO similarity, COMPLETE polarization of the terms, COMPLETE misunderstanding of how it works, and an immediate judgment on your character to boot, peppered with all kinds of really deep wounded illogical f-ed up thoughts? I.E. "You think too much. I just like being fun!" (is 'thinking' something that automatically excludes all 'fun' you may experience?) "You think with your brain. I think with my heart." (the last time I checked, the two weren't supposed to be at odds in the first place), and so on. STOP TELLING ME I can't or shouldn't look into ALL ANGLES of a specific topic, especially if I'M NOT ALLOWED to tell YOU to stop looking at JUST ONE TINY ONE. STOP TELLING ME the natural way I think is dramatic and doom ridden and somehow I don't know what "fun" is. STOP TELLING ME that the entire human herd needs to be either based off of drooling idiots or sour, confusing, "too serious" nihilists. STOP ACTING LIKE any kind of syntax anywhere anytime is the end of the world. Your juxtapositions are worthless and weak. You see a word count on a page as a potential excuse to exercise a sorry, rehashed, lazy, botched view of how human beings think and are meant to think, and you want to spread your fear disease to the entire world without hearing a word from somebody such as I. You make me sick.

I'm with you on this, truly. I have heard this many times, and have not come up with a conclusive answer as to why this is said so often to people who like to think, observe and actually talk about things that they think.

I have one rather narrow and incomplete explanation for it though. It does not apply to everyone but for most part, I believe this is where it originates from.

People are used to compete by social achievement. This means that they want to know certain people. Also, they want to be perceived in a certain way that is dictated by them. This means that whenever you are in a group, you are not expected to raise any subject whatsoever as subject being talked about, because it may actually ruin another's work in social achievement process.

People are afraid that if somebody shows they can think, they will lose and the one being able to think will win. For this reason people who compete socially usually try to express their ideas privately at first, and then jumping to more public debate about it.

Self-esteem is one thing that comes to mind, and it is often a reason.

Some just don't value thinking processes very much. It is a simple value of choosing an approach that is more fun and rewarding for them. And guess what, it really is more rewarding for them to approcah life this way. For me, and apparently for you as well, it can be fun, but do you think it is much of a fun if others can win you with a long shot argument that they just came up with in a splitsecond?

Some also get anxious when they have to think. It is sometimes seen as some sort of mandatory must that should be avoided if possible.

You see, people are sentient and capable of abstract thinking. What you are propably missing from equation is that people are also animals. You are one, certainly. Animal side of human being is also a taboo in almost every culture on earth. You cannot talk about it arnestly even with a friend, people just refuse to do it.

So until you can find many people to arnestly talk about animal side of human behaviour, you are not going to get an answer. Abstract side of human being certainly is not to blame, so only one side remains to study.

reply to post by Orion Crystal Ice

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WOW!
Just freakin" WOW!
Unfortunately, for a few people, the only way to get a point like that across is to condense it into a bumper sticker.
I believe we are products of somewhat of a devolution, versus evolution.
As one of my favorite sayings goes...
In the world of the blind, the one eyed man is a delusional idiot.
Anyone who tells you that you think too much, probably doesn't think much for themselves at all.
Just my 2 pennies.

In my opinion, there is no devolution in this. We don't have to observe known facts from history very much to realize that what we think is an old way of life, isn't. There have always been people capable of throwing their own ego, beliefs and ways to compete aside just for the sake of comprehending a subject.

Today we have education systems, enterntainment that makes you actually think about subjects and a lot of books most can get access to. This has not been the case but for 100 years or so, and in a lot of nations public libraries do not even exist yet. Public education is another thing that does not exist in many countries.

All these things that make us capable of understanding complex matters are pretty much a new thing for massess. There has always been an elite with an access to information which at any point in history has been considered valid and truthful. Today, the big mass has an access to information, which is considered valid and truthful. I don't want to go into any conspiracy theory about how real information is kept secret, as it isn't in a sense that you DO have a chance to buy a book that you think contains all that information you want. You also propably have access to all stock market information, including transactions (those are public) by people, so you do have a way to get information that you may consider important to you.

(It is another thing altogether to not have a correct education to understand something that is difficult even for experts, like stock markets, modern psychology, brain functions, economy equations in detail, complex multilateral transaction systems that work in real-time and so on.)

Anyway, people in most part of europe, japan, north america, australia, taiwan and some other countries have access to information to almost all possible information if they wish to. Archives of universities containing almost all scientific papers (actual studies of matters) are mostly public as well. Not that it matters much, because most cannot comprehend those papers anyway, but information IS there.

Obviously, secrets exist also, but..

I believe more in a view of evolution in which humans just haven't developed that much away from animal side of themselves. We are still mostly irrational, no matter what some genius psychopath who is completely capapble of throwing feelings aside will say. For me it is ok as long as people can for the most part keep feelings aside when such an actio nis needed. Usually, though, people get along just fine even when they live by their feelings.

Even bad people are good 99% of the time. That has been one of the hardest things to realize in my life.

Yes, I agree. Everything is a product of me.

And to agree with the OP, I like being fun too. All of my products do, after my own likeness.

-Dev

I, for one, welcome our new devolution overlord.

Your timing is impeccable.

Haha, "Devolution Overlord", it has a....kind of....important sound to it.

I like it!

-Devolution Overlord
(AKA: Dev)

Double post!

[edit on 26-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]