Self Aware
I love netflix. Especially the fact that they have that instant viewing feature that lets me watch movies and certain tv shows on streaming video. I got caught up on seasons of The Office thanks to that feature on netflix. I was just thinking about the episode where Dwight tries to out perform that electronic sales system, and Pam is taunting him by pretending to be the system which has become "self aware."
I laughed hysterically, then I started wondering what it really means to be self aware as a human. And yes, I'm well aware of the irony of using a reference to The Office to make a somewhat serious comment about life.
Life is funny. I think we are hard wired to try to ponder the "meaning of life" or whatever. One one extreme, you have religious folks who are so convinced that they are here to do god's word that nothing can convince them otherwise. Those folks themselves are divided into folks who do good works and those who do strangely fanatical works (i.e. attempting to disprove evolution), all with the same justification. On the other hand, you have nihilists and existentialists who believe in randomness and meaninglessness of it all.
I have no idea where I stand. When I was home during the winter break this past December and January, I kept myself occupied by rereading some of my old Kurt Vonnegut novels. I found a new appreciation for Timequake. Man, that guy was a brilliant, morbid, and somewhat depressing person. In Timequake, Vonnegut shared some insights about life, one of which was that humanity consists of certain people who are so smart that one can hardly believe it, and people who are so stupid you can hardly believe it.
I continually wonder where I stand on that continuum. Some days I feel like I'm in the former category, being one of the pompous assholes who likes to point out the idiotic nature of the majority of humanity. Other days I feel l ike I'm in the latter category, wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life. Most other days I'm in the invisible void that exists in between the two.
I laughed hysterically, then I started wondering what it really means to be self aware as a human. And yes, I'm well aware of the irony of using a reference to The Office to make a somewhat serious comment about life.
Life is funny. I think we are hard wired to try to ponder the "meaning of life" or whatever. One one extreme, you have religious folks who are so convinced that they are here to do god's word that nothing can convince them otherwise. Those folks themselves are divided into folks who do good works and those who do strangely fanatical works (i.e. attempting to disprove evolution), all with the same justification. On the other hand, you have nihilists and existentialists who believe in randomness and meaninglessness of it all.
I have no idea where I stand. When I was home during the winter break this past December and January, I kept myself occupied by rereading some of my old Kurt Vonnegut novels. I found a new appreciation for Timequake. Man, that guy was a brilliant, morbid, and somewhat depressing person. In Timequake, Vonnegut shared some insights about life, one of which was that humanity consists of certain people who are so smart that one can hardly believe it, and people who are so stupid you can hardly believe it.
I continually wonder where I stand on that continuum. Some days I feel like I'm in the former category, being one of the pompous assholes who likes to point out the idiotic nature of the majority of humanity. Other days I feel l ike I'm in the latter category, wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life. Most other days I'm in the invisible void that exists in between the two.
