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I finally understand the Barb!

 
  

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Ender
17:02 / 02.12.05
It has taken me about six years of coming and going, putting my poems in the creation forum and ranting my conservative views to come to the understanding of what the Barb really is.

I was reading through the Christmas thread, and it hit me, I cant put words to what I mean right now, but bear with me while I air my emotions.

I came to this site as a punk kid bush loving conservative, who was a fan of the invisibles, but still one of those snot nosed kids that hands out door hangers for the republican candidates in October. And now I am a ranting raving (self proclaimed) open-minded freedom fighter.

Bush pushed me to it. I stumbled upon the book 1984, which led me to adbusters, which gave me an idea of the conservative monster I was becoming.

So, I wanted to say thanks for putting up with me through the years, and thanks for being a place that I can come to and escape this hell I call Utah.

Oh yeah, remember that time I went off about people should support bush for the simple fact that he is the elected president? yeah, well, I should be shot that was just wrong on so many levels...
 
 
grant
17:05 / 02.12.05
Heaven's Gate.
 
 
Char Aina
17:16 / 02.12.05
phase two complete.
excellent.
 
 
Aertho
17:35 / 02.12.05
(Noob punk yes. He was conservative? Never a wackjob like Slim, but?)

Yes Ender, you have Our Attention ...again.

?
 
 
All Acting Regiment
17:37 / 02.12.05
Top stuff. To be honest, I might not have read the right threads but you never came across as a rabid conservative.
 
 
Red Cross Iodized Salt
17:48 / 02.12.05
Phase three: Profit
 
 
ibis the being
18:39 / 02.12.05
I stumbled upon the book 1984, which led me to adbusters

Hm, I don't seem to remember that part of 1984. Will have to re-read.
 
 
lord henry strikes back
18:39 / 02.12.05
Good, good... give in to the 'barb side.

But where next?

You could stop bathing, quit your job, refuse to eat anything that doesn't end in 'fu', and start ranting about how 'only humans have WARS!!!!!!!', or

You could declare youself 'an artist' and keep telling people how you are going to change the world with your music/painting/writing/directing. All the while working at safeway, or

You could get a job that pays good money, but that's OK because you're working to bring the system down from the inside. And you'll actually start doing so just after your next promotion.

Sorry, my mood isn't great at the moment.
 
 
Lilly Nowhere Late
19:36 / 02.12.05
It's so cute when the light goes on...
Seriously tho, I don't see how this explains "what Barbelith is." I still don't get that really.

Welcome Ender, to the other side of bush. Now go tell some others and get the fuck out of Utah. Or further in, just away from the people.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
19:48 / 02.12.05
Never a wackjob like Slim,

Yeah, that dude's nuts. I once caught him throwing live rabbits into a roaring fire built before an enormous golden statue of Dick Cheney covered in blood and oil. "Tuna Ghost!" he says, obviously surprised at my presence. "It's not what it looks like! They're not rabbits, they're babies."

Nuts, I tell you.
 
 
Spaniel
22:59 / 02.12.05
But what would Steve think?
 
 
Ender
01:38 / 03.12.05
oh that steve, silly silly steve.
 
 
■
02:55 / 03.12.05
Epiphany 2. Ben, time to move countries, dude.
 
 
quixote
02:55 / 03.12.05
Hey, Ender, it was the party of Lincoln once. Now they're just fascists. Glad to hear you got your head out of there.
 
 
quixote
02:56 / 03.12.05
And kleptocrats.
 
 
Jack Fear
11:28 / 03.12.05
Glad you’re doing okay. I just hope that, in the rush of new ideas to your brain, you don’t lose sight of some important things—like empathy, and perspective, and compassion.

You’re viewing things from a different angle now, but never forget that you are still, and always will be, a work in progress—just like everybody else. Where you are right now, you can’t even imagine what enlightenment looks like, as Tyler Durden famously didn’t say.

And in your younger days, before this noticeable shift—you weren’t asleep, you weren’t a sheep, you weren’t wandering mindlessly through your life. You were thinking deeply about things; you were examining your life and the way the world works. You were coming to different conclusions, that’s all.

Six years from now, you may find yourself coming to different conclusions still. I wouldn’t doubt it. In fact, I hope so—we’re all works in progress, after all. And you may find the opinions you hold today to be, in retrospect, kind of embarrassing.

When that time comes, just remember that you were always doing the best you could with what you had, where you were at the time. And so is everybody else; they’re all awake and asking, doing their best.

And from where you are right now, you can’t even imagine what the big picture looks like, as Chuck Palahniuk famously didn’t write. You can’t know who’s further ahead, who’s higher up the ladder. You can make some best guesses, but don’t cling too tightly to your conclusions—especially as regards your own position on the enlightenment-scale vs. anybody else’s. In the end, that doesn’t matter.

Because we’re all in this together. And what matters—what really matters—is not being smarter than everybody else, but that we as an aggregate, as a species, grow smarter, grow up, grow out of our bad habits and foolishness. And looking down on the species is a damned poor substitute for pulling it up.

Stay engaged. Take courage, and give courage to those around you. Talk when you need to, but listen all the time. Love everyone—everyone—because they deserve it. Everybody’s trying. Everybody’s doing their best. Everybody’s fucking up to various degrees, but they’re trying.

You’re still fucking up, of course—we all are—but you’re doing your best. That’s good. Keep it up for fifty or sixty years, and you—like everybody else—may eventually make something of yourself. We all might. We'd damn well better.
 
 
trouble at bill
13:04 / 03.12.05
Heaven's Gate.

Nah, Helter Skelter.
 
 
Slim
15:02 / 03.12.05
(Noob punk yes. He was conservative? Never a wackjob like Slim, but?)

Is this post an example of a criticism of Barbelith that is uttered from time to time? The views that I espouse in the Switchboard forum a far from the average Barbelith poster's cup of tea. I neither relish nor resent being seen as "conservative" despite the fact that this may not coincide with reality. Am I being unfairly criticized for presenting a more conservative view? Or am I just bat-shit insane? Maybe he's referring to my dislike of the new Harry Potter movie and that I think Kevin Spacey can't compare to Hackman's performance as Lex Luthor?
Perhaps this isn't the best example because Chad is somewhat of an idiot and his views might not be as representative of the general opinion of Barbelith as I might think.*


Yeah, that dude's nuts. I once caught him throwing live rabbits into a roaring fire built before an enormous golden statue of Dick Cheney covered in blood and oil. "Tuna Ghost!" he says, obviously surprised at my presence. "It's not what it looks like! They're not rabbits, they're babies."

Nuts, I tell you.


If I don't feed The Beast who will????


*Now that I've acted like a child and responded in kind, I'd like the mud-slinging to cease while the score is 1-1. I have no interest in getting into some kind of pissing contest with the Chadster.
 
 
Jack Fear
15:12 / 03.12.05
Easy to be magnanimous when you've just had the last word, isn't it?

Walk it off, big fella. You'll be fine.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
15:15 / 03.12.05
Has anyone seen the new Ang Lee film?
 
 
Alex's Grandma
15:19 / 03.12.05
By which I mean, Slim, have you seen the new Ang Lee movie?
 
 
Slim
15:41 / 03.12.05
Easy to be magnanimous when you've just had the last word, isn't it?

I'm not denying it! I'm not worked up in the least (in fact, it's a welcome distraction from my current activity). I'm just going to register this situation in my memory for the next time a poster criticizes Barbelith for a lack of dissent amongst its posters.

Alex- I'm not sure if you're making a joke so I'll play this straight (pun intended). The only Ang Lee movie I have seen is The Hulk. How he goes from that to his current movie I do not know. I have a mild interest in seeing Brokeback Mountain but I think I'll wait for it to come out on DVD.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
15:50 / 03.12.05
He said (and I guess I'm aware of what a cheap, easy and ultimately pointless gag this is, but, nevertheless...) 'come out.'
 
 
Ender
18:57 / 03.12.05
I would rather this thread not become an argueing ground,
but, to each their own.

Jack, your words were well said and well recieved. Thanks.
 
 
ZF!
19:29 / 03.12.05
Idem
 
 
Mourne Kransky
19:40 / 03.12.05
Idem
you dem
ze dems
we all dem
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
01:18 / 04.12.05
You were thinking deeply about things; you were examining your life and the way the world works.

I think those of us who were there at the time can testify to the fact that he really, really wasn't.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
01:29 / 04.12.05
Someone's just spiked the punch. Or punched the prick, or something.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
08:28 / 04.12.05
If you boys must fight, would you please put on some tight lycra and give us notice, next time, so we can bring popcorn and pompoms and maximise the treat.
 
 
Jack Fear
10:53 / 04.12.05
How wonderful it must be, Petey, to have never been young; to have never been wrong; to have never been an imperfect human being, struggling through the process of coming to self-knowledge; to have sprung full-grown from the thigh of Chomsky, ready to take up your aviator's jacket and smite the unrighteous.

I mean, thank God you didn't spend a considerable portion of your young life enmeshed in a rigidly-dogmatic headspace in which the exercise of your considerable intellect only brought you confusion, misery, and untenable conclusions, eh?

...what?
 
 
Ganesh
15:28 / 04.12.05
Yeah, were you never a wingman, Petey?
 
 
---
16:41 / 04.12.05
http://www.squirreloncrack.com/Videos/MSI.Bitches.mpg
 
 
Axel Lambert
17:21 / 04.12.05
Jack, that earlier post was the most beautiful thing I've heard in a long while. Almost made me feel that most people aren't morons and zombies. Have to reread Invisibles again!
 
 
Jack Fear
17:25 / 04.12.05
...because the point of THE INVISIBLES was that most people are morons and zombies?

Forgive me, but I don't quite see the connection.
 
 
Aertho
17:32 / 04.12.05
I think he's suggesting that your post made clear that people have the opportunity to willfully take responsbility for their own personal evoluton, and that, though painful and confusing, [personal evolution] never ends. Invisibles suggested that as well. Kinda.

All in all: beautifully written, Mr. Fear.
 
  

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