[font=BankGothic Lt BT]I feel the need to express myself all over for some need. I don\'t know why, I don\'t know how, but you know what? The urge is just growing. My individuality is slowly waning from my being, and I feel as if the control over my day to day activities is slipping away.

No more, I say! NO MORE!

I am fighting back. Against the system. I\'m not becoming one of their emotionless little political dolls, I\'m going to be a full blown, armed-to-the-teeth action figure.

Dennis Leary said it best in Demolition Man:

\"I want to eat meat! I want to buy the double bacon cheeseburger with gravy fries! I want high cholesterol! I want to smear green Jell-O over my body and run naked through the street reading Playboy magazine! Why? Because I might suddenly feel the need to, alright?!?\"

I want to be me, not some purified little angel with half a brain to do nothing but follow orders. I want choices. I want...to gain back the independance and freedom that I once had.

Anyone else feel this way?[/font]

Er... Maybe not quite as expressively, but often I\'ve had an intense urge to do irrational things.:lol:;

Perhaps I\'m slightly less prone to do them though because I\'m not much of an outgoing person.

I guess that\'s fine...
but doesn\'t it seem sort of like that\'s brainwashing in itself? It seems to me that both sides are doing that. There\'s \"law\" against \"chaos\", and everyone seems to think that not being \"lawful\" is cool. But in reality, that seems to be what almost everyone does nowadays. There\'s general brainwashing and there\'s peer brainwashing, and thus it becomes very difficult to stand out.
Is it really worth it to become different at the cost of your humanity?
Agh... head hurting from rants...
Anyhow, go running around in jello with your dirty magazine. Just don\'t do it on my street.

I am really at a loss of words.... I really wouldn\'t have replied to this sort of topic but since the \"Big Pimpin\'\" Phat himself made the topic, I felt compelled to.

I myself never felt a loss of individuality. Maybe when the school whipped out school uniforms on us, but I was more against Polo\'s and Khakis rather than no individuality. Those things are itchy as hell to. I wouldn\'t stand for it. But it didn\'t matter cause I didn\'t really do anything, I just escaped to Texas where garments can be worn at choice and leisure.

I never thought of myself as a \"little angel with half a brain\" more as a kid that slouches too much and a half a brain. I never tried to be individual, I just wore a band shirt I liked and pants that fit. I sit in the back of the class room sleeping with my eyes open, with my test paper full of doodles. It never struck me that I didn\'t stand out or not.

But I guess in doing that I really am actually original? Does not being original end up as being original? I\'m not really sure....

I would be lying if I said that I would get the same shirt everyone else has just cause I thought it was a good shirt... I\'d just find a different one.

Everybody tries to be an individual,doing whatever they think is cool, but in most cases what those kids think are cool (EX: Viva La Bam shirts and Jesus is my Homeboy shirts) other people like too and then they\'re not original anymore? If I ever saw somebody wearing my same shirt or something I would think, \"Hey? He shops at Goodwill too?\" Not throw my shirt away, to be individual. It\'s a really weird subject to think about and I probably started to drift onto other subject then what I started with, but what really counts............. is whats inside. *Crowd: OH NO! He\'s gone Nick JR on us!*

[Edited on 8-8-2004 by Gutter Mouth]

GUTTER HAS BECOME FACE. Look what you have done.

As for originality, I try to be original with things..mainly characters and storylines. But if you go so far out of your way to be original and not cliche..then you become, cliche, because that\'s what everyone else is trying to do.

So..I just go my own way. If someone\'s made something that resembles what I have made, that\'s fine. I might keep it, might not. Depends on how much I like it.

As for fashion..I wear Spongebob t-shirts and a dog collar around my ankle, if anyone wants to wear that kinda stuff I wouldn\'t care either.

BUT. I have, sometimes, lost my sense of self. I feel like I\'ve changed so much sometimes, that I lost who I was..if that makes any sense. And it\'s not like I changed for the worse. I like the way I am.

Huh..this sounds crazy and I know I\'m up to \'rambling\' stage now, but I have been alot less angry in general, I really can manage my anger now. Maybe that\'s where the loss comes from?

Yeah everybody want\'s to have a choice and do what they want but we are never really free because of laws etc. btu most of the time we do have a choice.

Oh and Phatman, I think that you\'ve been watching Demolition Man a few too many times ;D

I try my best to be myself. I adhere to the rules of society, but I challenge them when I need to. I\'m just myself.

I guess you can call me out spoken. I got kicked out the last two days of school for my views of equality. I get in arguments with with teachers about concepts of logic and perseption untill they kick me out. As for what I wear....blue jeans (the ulitmate pants), a black shirt, and shoes. I think I\'m different for not following the crowd and trying to be different.

But, then and agian, human are being brain washed by how they should act, say, and do from the moment they leave the womb. And we\'re all the same because we are all have diferrences.

Individuality is an illusion put on by the perspective you have on life. All is relative, and since there are an unlimited number of different perspectives and constants by which to measure, it is impossible to determine whether you are the same, similar, or completely different from another person. For all we know, since the internal make-up of the human being is basically the same, our desisions may be futile, since the end point of all life is death, and originality is simply a diversion to distract us from the fact that the average human life-span is roughly 70-80 years. The human train of thought is that so long as we are alive, originality will help us to stay that way. Futile thoughts, but easy to believe nonetheless. All things in life attempt to standardize you, from religion, to the government, to your peers and superiors, all the way back to your parents. (all boys like blue, all girls like pink, right? that\'s the two most common colors in a baby\'s room)

Resistance is futile!!!

Then why do I like pink? I\'m a guy. My room was blue when I was a baby.

Individuality is not just a front. It does exist. No one is exactly like me.

Decisions are not futile. The firefighter who saves children from burning buidlings. Was his decision futile? The Polic Officer who arrests the murderer before he can strike again. Was his decision futile? Maybe for the person who was murdered. But think of the surplus number he saved.

The terrorists of 9/11 were their decisions futile? They left a mark on my country, killed thousands.

The men and women who stood up to the terrorists on that one plane. Were their decisions futile? For them maybe, but it saved countless thousands.

Was your decision to spell decsision as desision futile? Well, yes I suppose

Individuality is essential in today\'s world if you want to make it. Did the guy who invented velcro think shoe laces were the best way to secure shoes? Beats me, but he made velcro anyway.

Anyway, I express my individuality at my home by referring to myself in the third person. For some reason my mom thinks that\'s just too weird and doesn\'t like it. Do I stop? No! When my mom says things like \"That\'s not what a normal teenager is like\" I respond with \"Since when have I ever been \'normal\'?\" Does it get the point acrosss? No, but I still express myself in the way I want.

I\'d be damn afraid if someone was exactly like me..

*looks at Necro*

I\'m afraid of you. You\'re some kinda anomaly, the twin that never should have been. Dun dun dunnn!

But yeah, I\'m not exactly like anyone. Honestly, if there WAS someone else exactly like me that liked the exact same things..I\'d be scared.

And see, Necro and I aren\'t exactly the same, because he likes Sailor Jupiter and I like Mercury.

Off-Topic: Sorry, but this is just bugging me for some reason. Hollow, do you actually watch Sailor Moon? And if you do, do you watch it because of the girls or do you actually like the series?

I don\'t watch Sailor Moon, Necro does. He got me to play..that Sailor Moon puzzle game on the SNES, with the balloons? And I looked at all the characters (first time I\'ve seen em all, you see) and thought Mercury was the cutest.

And she is the cutest.

So yeah, I don\'t know much about the series..just have read the translated artbooks.

And to be somewhat on topic, humans are a social beast. We\'re supposed to learn from others..it\'s in our instincts. It\'s why I talked like a rap star in high school.

We can\'t be purely individuals, because we\'ve copied from our parents, friends, etcetera so much. But we always do have certain things that make us different.

[font=bankgothic lt bt] This is true, however, I do believe that we all posess some sort of inner being that decides what we like or how we act and how to decide right from wrong. I personally deplore the use of all the \'net lingo: LOL WTF BBQ, what have you, because it just shows me that most people are very lazy, and that they can\'t take the little amount of time to type \"*laughing*\" or \"...What the f**ck?\"

I say, if you can\'t sound intelligent for the most part, you should try to keep speech to a minimum until you can learn how to speak correctly or until you at least clean up your vocabulary.

But enough of that. What I mean is, sure we learn from others, but that\'s not all that\'s to us. I think we\'re somewhat defined at the point we are born, and that definition makes us individuals, not a part of a whole or a copy of another. Humans are a finite social beast, but to be as such, you need to have your own wits about you.[/font]

What a coincedence, this was exactly what I was thinking of today, or rather the compleete oposite. I\'ve been working on a theory that says that everyone wants to be like everybody else. Before you start protesting let me explain my chain of thought:

Everyone wants to be acsepted by the group, if you stand out you become an outcast and long for company from oter individuals, I\'ll use the schoolyard as an example where you gathered in gangs of people who were very much alike, or had much in common. Even people who try their best to stand out would be happy if someone (for example) likes their style, that creates a bond within a group. Now lets look at people who really stand out, like Popidols, how many times have you heard people say they want to be like their favorite hero? Even the artists themselves sometimes mention that they long for a \"normal\" life again. Even people fighting wars create a bond in their common goal and also want things to return to \"normal\", like everyone else does.

Of course, I realise that this theory is of course not foolproof and there are exeptions, but this is more or less just something I thought of while sitting on the bus for too long.

Now to awnser the topic a little more directly: No I am not an individualist, though people tend to treat me kind of differently and I can\'t honeslty say that I don\'t stand out in the classroom, but so do some of my friends so I\'m not uniqe in that sence

I have noticed a large amount of people recently doing things that everyone else is doing because it\'s \"the cool thing\". honestly this is very irritating to me, I wish people would be themselves and stop following others in an effort to be different. Perhaps they simply follow because of an inability to think of something original. I was watching south park one day and some \"non conformists\" where talking and they said to be a non conformist you must act like us, dress like us, and do exactly how we do(or something to that effect) and that reminds me of people today and how so many of them are on a crazy trip to not be like the next man, but still all somehow end up being alike.

I don\'t know where this post is going to take me so try to stick with me I tend to ramble.

Anyway, to get to myself I like to think I am just a normal person I follow sometimes and I lead sometimes, I don\'t try to \"break away\" just because I think someone is sort of like me. I think the fact that some people have the same character traits or fashion as I do makes me happy in a way, because I know that we may have something in common, it may not be much but it still could be just enough to make a new friend. God I just wish people would look around and see it\'s not so bad to be a little like the person sitting next to you in class or it\'s not the end of the world when someone has the same shirt as you. The \"System\" is not trying to brain wash you into thinking you are just like the next guy everyone is original is some way no one is just like you. I think we should all express our differences, but don\'t try to FORCE yourself to be different that\'s just silly.

ok I started to ramble a long time ago and I totally lost track of what I just wrote down. maybe expressing individuality at 3AM is not the best idea, so until next time keep it real and be yourself that\'s enough to make you different

[Edited on 21-8-2004 by J_Hibiki]

This really reminds me of the saying: \"You are very special, just like everyone else\". I\'ve actually heard that a couple of times, the least usefull avice I\'ve ever got

Normal is not a thing, it\'s a time. It\'s the present and what is happening. My normal is different then any of your\'s and vice-versa. In my personal opinion, no one is normal or different because everything has been done at least once before by someone else. Think about it, every thought have been thought of. Every job has been filled. Every dream has been dreamt. No one, nothing, nobody is unique. We are all here. We all live. We all love. We all die.

I don\'t really agree with Mr. Match. I just can\'t think of everything possible in the world has been done, and I shall prove so now:

1st piece of evidence:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/tofutofu/DANCE.jpg (Credit for this drawing goes to STZ naturally, \'cause he drew it. First thing I found for the example.)

Are you saying that somebody, somewhere in the world has already drawn this exact same picture, before the artist drew this, I don\'t think anybody had drawn something like it.

2nd evidence: Basically anything in the art world, has already been done once? Songs have all been written before, Paintings already painted by some one else before hand, dance, story, etc.?

3rd evidence: People in the sporting world have broken records all the time. If I grabbed a baseball bat, went out to the field and beat the all time record of homerun hits in one game, would that mean that somebody before me has already beaten me to it?

4th evidence: If I went out and climbed any mountain nobody had ever scaled before, in reality somebody had already climbed that mountain before me? If I was one of the first people to fly to Jupiter and back..... somebody had already done that too then I suppose?

5th in word and actions: If I say something completely random like \"Fish, Jamaica, Landry mat, Necro, cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and the emperor of Mongolia sleeps with a teddy bear.\" I bet somebody has said that too then. And I suppose somebody has also already ran around all day in a hula skirt made entirely of rubber hose\'s in 110o weather while humming Beethoven\'s Fifth?

6th piece of evidence: Would you saying that somebody has already written your exact same post before? And if so... does that mean that somebody has already typed this exact same reply in argument to that statement like I just did?

I am done now, and it really was nothing against Mr. Match or anything but I just saying what I think. So in a factual conclusion, a lot of things in this world have been said and done, but not nearly everything conceivable.

My sibling also gave me the same argument. \"everything\'s been done before in art, we just draw what we\'ve already seen\".

My retaliation: H.R. Giger\'s Aliens. They certainly hadn\'t been done before. They may be humanoid in structure, but they certainly are unique very much so.

To Gutter:

Dude, pardon me but, you are an idiot. I\'m not saying every single little teenie-tiny itty-bitty insugnificant thing have been done. I saying that if you look at the world and the trillions of years that life has supposively existed in the grand scale, nothing is differrent then what things before us have thought of doing. Every thing has had the idea to be the best. Every one has tried something great. In the grand scale of things we are all the same. You are just to narrow-minded to see that.

I never said that someone wanted to run around like an idiot IN THAT EXACT WAY. Someone has run around like an idiot.

If you look, you will find art such as that one from anciant civilizations.

What I was saying is that every TYPE of idea has been thought of. And you seen obssed with Necro. You should get help.

I, a cool dude, says a few words: America, the most UN-FREE land in the world, where Osma Bin-Laden is in my bathroom, *Shoots Osma* I say we NEED TO GOD D*** boost ourselves to the top! We a fair share of Japanese stuff!

[Edited on 22-8-2004 by Kiryu]

[Edited on 22-8-2004 by Kiryu]

And after Gutter tried so hard to state it non-aggresively...
Besides, what\'s wrong with being a Necromaniac? He\'s got his own empire, after all, everybody\'s joining!
Seriously, though, the reason it seems as though everything has been done before is because we are all humans. Human nature, remember? We aren\'t at 100% with handicaps, we are increasing in our percent efficiency. Nobody is being held back, just nobody is going forward quite that fast.
Those that accomplish something that has never been done before are either \"geniuses\" or \"psychos,\" dependant upon whether they are doing something mankind accepts or does not. But accomplishing something never done before is not always what deserves true praise, and according to match\'s theory, may actually be impossible. Perhaps we are tricking ourselves. But it\'s the things that we know HOW to do and choose not to that are the other great achievments we miss. That is because, like inventions, they require too much effort. One needs extreme motivation in order to do them. Thus, we must be constantly motivated to accomplish much of anything.
Holding a door open or returning a dropped book are certainly not things that are a new idea, plenty of people do it. But doing that, we are going against our natural instincts of survival and doing for ourselves. That\'s kind of my personal philosophy in how we should try to be different.
I mean, if being different meant you had to be evil or crazy, it wouldn\'t go against human nature: it\'d go against human conscience. (sp?)
Anyhow, sorry if this post is REALLY late from when I started typing. I\'ve been back and forth from typing here to doing housework, so the discussion might have even been resolved by now. :rolleyes:

EDIT: Kiryu... UN-FREE? Os(a)ma Bin Laden in your bathroom? What are you talking about?!

[Edited on 22-8-2004 by Heatman.EXE]

And you\'ve got it backwards. Gutter is being openminded, you\'re the narrowminded one flaming him. Besides, especially in art, dinosaurs couldn\'t draw. Bacteria can\'t draw. Only humans (and some apes and elephants) can and they showed up rather recently on the Earth\'s timeline.

Not everything has been done, \"you are just to narrow-minded to see that\".

Sometimes I get the urge to do bad and evil things half the time and something I actually do bad and evil things. Muhahaha

[Edited on AMu6u1231 8,2 by corte]

I\'m not gonna express myself right now since I really don\'t feel good... but I must say this.

We\'re all different. We may do the same things such as go to school, eat, do work and sleep. Everyone feels different when doing those and have different reflexes towards their actions. Nobody actually does the same thing, it\'s just mostly common. You can\'t exactly say that we\'re all the same and not different. Why? Because you haven\'t been around the entire world. And the world is such a huge place. It\'s not as peaceful as it looks either...

Apparently you did say \"Every thought have been thought of. Every job has been filled. Every dream has been dreamy.\" Correct? In saying that, you would lead one to believe that you thought....everything has been done.

Art from ancient civilizations, excuse me but..... what does that really have to do with anything at all?

I\'m just saying how, I don\'t see how you could think that every single TYPE of thought in the world has been thought of already, when that can easily be proven wrong.

I just really think you defend your own idea really hard and don\'t give much thought about how else it might really be. Your just hard headed. I believe you made a spammy post today saying how you were leaving and how nobody here is intelligent anymore. First off, I think there are people fer more smarter than yourself on this message board. Still I can\'t help but think that I might have made you leave.... :rolleyes: .....Again, thats just you being really hard headed and arrogant.

Lastly, to put an end to my thoughts on this topic, humans are different, and will always be. If humans were all the same, wouldn\'t that make them predictable. But the thing is... you don\'t know what everyone is feeling, wants to say, is going to act. And that Necro thing XD ..... Doesn\'t everybody need somebody to look up to? Lots of people have \"heroes\". I guess I don\'t, Necro is just the person I look up to then I guess? XD If a kid looks up to Mark Maguire or something, who the hell are you to say thats unhealthy?

EDIT: I am not \"obsessed\" with Necro. After I read that I couldn\'t help but think of myself with posters of Bonaparte with pink hearts drawn around them.... XD Now tell me somebody has though of that one before.........:rolleyes:

[Edited on 22-8-2004 by Gutter Mouth]

Eh, doesn\'t matter if he left because of you. You saw that \'goodbye\' post he made, right? About how \"all we do is talk about Megaman\" and we \"need a life\" and all that? He\'s just as bad as a lamer, going to a Pokemon board and expecting all the 10 year olds there to talk about the meaning of life or something.

I\'d honestly be afraid if you idolized Mark Maguire and not Necro. I used to idolize Necro until I found out I was better than toast. Now I see Necro and I as equals, vanquishing evil one step at a time.