Understanding

I don't claim to be omniscient (often) nor even more qualified than anyone else to judge highly philosophical issues like purpose and meaning in everyday life.

However, I'd like to think I can generally understand the difference between living and breathing. I'm not so much talking about fulfilling the other segments of polite life, such as mastication and procreation, but the finer points, stress level, human contact, sometimes even a proverbial (or literal) brew or two.

Now, the difference is far from stark, or sedentary, and in fact, far from reason. A wise man once said, "happiness is nothing if you've no one to share it with", where as another wise man once said, "when you are happy, the last thing you need is people to snoz it all up." I disagree, on both fronts. Solidarity and solitary are the words of the day, being unified in compartmentalization. The issue at hand is balance, not philosophy.

Can on be happy without any drama, without argument? Can one be happy with it? Of course, that begs the greater question can on be happy at all... But I digress. People are required of any great leader, and owing to the fact that I'm always right, we shall assume that is one way to be truly happy. The issue comes not in removing oneself from the public, or from immersing oneself wholly into their sphere, but in managing their presence and reconciling it with your own mentality, ability, and most importantly, temperament.

One must first learn how to surrender personal rights and personal space, in doing so, one allows the entry of alien concepts and objects into ones lifestyle.

Second, one must learn their compatriots personal habits and ideals, and thus avoid stomping too hard on the toes of a boot poised to strike one's rear.

Third, one must learn to reconcile the major differences in these lifestyles, from sleep cycle to spending habits.

Once you have those locked down, the manipulation and extortion begins.

That is, unless you take the less manly Machiavellian route, and choose love, in which case, make cookies often, and pass the remote when the sad little man beside you fails to teef it from your serpent quick hands.

One may or may not spice this with cleanliness, generosity, and repeated inclusion of the aforementioned civilians in any and all diabolical and semi-legal plans for world domination.

That, my friends, is how to reconcile men with different talents, temperaments, and convictions, and allow a truly egalitarian and civil society, at least in the microcosm of flat mates.

I worry

We, my friends, face an absolutely astonishing and unique problem, as a society.

We've dealt with plagues, wars, riots, the wonders and blunders of science. We've survived ages of intense cold, poverty, or ignorance and come out all the stronger for it. We have survived in the face of quite literally the worst things ever to happen.

I am unsure how we will face this new(ish) threat.

You see, where before life was a game of numbers, survival, sacrifice and longing, it has been warped and twisted by our new sedentary lifestyles. We seek attention rather than shelter, entertainment rather than food, and most importantly, self worth above benefiting our tribe/family/king/god.

There are still parts of the world dealing with issues we lucky few see as backwards and ridiculous, but soon enough we will all reach the level of quiet boredom and complacency that the western world revels in.

We, my deliciously perceptive people, are boring our society to death. Everything we do is for the sake of bringing the rest of the world to speed, or quelling our constant nagging need to be occupied. We research space exploration, we research new crops and diplomatic solutions. We research ways to make our lives longer, and ways to bring the light of technology to every mud stricken shanty in the world. We spend billions of dollars on these rather noble endeavors every year.

We spend trillions on television. On designer shoes, and game systems. Magazines, candy, and carnival rides. We put so much effort into amusing ourselves that we often lose sight of just how great an issue that is.

Putting aside arguments of "Oh, but we deserve some entertainment, and we earned a break 8 hours of every day, minus commute plus weekends." think for a moment just how mind boggling the proportions are. Think of how much of our attention we devote to distracting ourselves compared to how much we spend grooming, improving, or aiding. Think of how anyone two hundred years ago would have spent their day, and then how long it would take them to do all that today.

Gathering food went from a weekend hunt to a ten minute stop at the local market. Making light went from dipping candles all day to a flick of the switch. Survival went from a prime directive to an afterthought, and I for one worry that without the threat of extinction we will become too satisfied with our sedentary selves, and grind our society's expansion to a screeching halt.

We do research, we explore and invent, and improve, but how long before the last shreds of expansive research are diverted to letting us squeeze a few more years of World of Warcraft out of ourselves and shaving a few more minutes off of our commute.

I'm more concerned with our societial viability than my own mortality, and that, I think, should say something.