Ben Stein vs. Everquest

[Ihealyou]

Originally Posted by fastboy21 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

i never called you lazy. i never said your parents didn't raise you right. i don't blame you, your parents, my parents, or anyone for the reality of our culture.

all i am pointing out is that our society is in a dangerous place because ALL of us (myself included) are living in a culture that tells us "do what makes you happy."

if you get defensive because you see yourself in the culture i'm describing it shouldn't bother you, unless you know you ought to be living your life differently. in either case, it makes no difference to me. enjoy your life playing EQ 24/7 or do something else...its your life, not mine. it isn't my place to say what is "best" for you in particular.

Sorry if I got defensive when you quoted my post as an example of what's wrong with society...

I wouldn't be happy playing EQ all day. I like to learn. I like to be successful. Most people do. I'm not trying to say that you should sit on your ass all day playing video games. But who's to say that learning and working are a better use of time than pursuing happiness? When you're lying on your deathbed, you're not going to care about how much money you have, or how smart you are. You're going to be thinking about how happy you were. Money or intelligence can bring this happiness to some people, for others it doesn't. I don't see the existence of this latter group as a societal ill. Its a reality, and there's nothing wrong with accepting it.

[Knuckle]

Originally Posted by President [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ben Stein is pro-life, believes in intelligent design, and likened Obama's rally's during the 2008 presidential race to Hitlers rallies.

Among many other things. That guy can get fucked in the ass by a gorilla, water buffalo, and Uthgaard's banhammer all at the same time.

lot of rage from a nerd eating cheetos

[Knuckle]

Originally Posted by Tippett [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I enjoy alot of Stein's commentaries, but I believe his (alleged) opinions on videogaming is more of the same old generalizations then a real intelligent analysis. A little disappointing.

yeah because /pizza isn't indicative of a antisocial fat nerd who won't even muster the effort to lift his fat sausage fingers off the keyboard.

[Slathar]

Originally Posted by Knuckle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

yeah because /pizza isn't indicative of a antisocial fat nerd who won't even muster the effort to lift his fat sausage fingers off the keyboard.

arent you the same antisocial fat nerd who made a book long post about a name in a fantasy based role playing game?

get back in your basement

[Henini]

loll @ Ben Stein

[dredge]

of course EQ is a giant waste of time, how can anyone argue that it isn't.

But I enjoy it and rather play EQ than watch TV.
But yeah, it's not productive, socially or any other way.

[jetviper21]

I just looked at my git repositories and total since i started playing here i have written almost 28,432 lines of code... poop-socking raid bosses may not seem productive but i seem to get a lot done =D

[soup]

Originally Posted by fastboy21 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

and this is the EXACT issue with an entire generation plus of americans (and arguably some other Western European countries) right now.

How is doing something you enjoy not productive? The answer to this should be obvious. That it requires any explanation at all to some gives an idea about how culturally deep the notion is.

Your happiness is more important than working, studying, improving your mind, having a successful career, being in good physical condition? Again, a good synopsis of a very dangerous cultural norm in our society.

You'd rather enjoy life than do what you're supposed to do? Again, a dangerous cultural attitude that leads to mediocrity and ironically (in the end) unhappiness.

There are a generation of young american adults already entering the work place that were raised in this culture. There is a couple generations of children behind them that are being raised with the same mentality.

I'm very hesitant to get on the "young people today have no sense of responsibility" band wagon as I think most generations have looked back in disgust at the young generations in their society, and everything has turned out fine.

I'm reminded of a quote on young people in society:

"The children today now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Socrates said this around 400BC...so there seems to maybe be a prevailing habit of the older generation to criticize the younger...

To some degree, I still have faith in our children to be of the same exact fiber of our older generations who fought in WWII and sacrificed everything for their sense of responsibility to family and nation.

On the other hand, I do think there is a real cultural shift that has gone on...and that it is a cultural shift that if left unchecked would ultimately represent a threat to our society.

It sounds like you confuse the idea of doing what make you happy with the idea of mindless rampant gluttony. Most people don't interpret "Do what you love to do" as "Play EQ all day, shovel cheese burgers down your throat incessantly, and do lines of cocaine every 15 minutes."

I also find irony in mentioning WW2. While I have no problem calling that generation by it's common name of "The greatest generation", the irony comes from the fact that the war was basically started by people more concerned with collective productivity than individual happiness (and I'm not referring to the Allies here, if that isn't clear), which seems to be what you are advocating, the need to sacrifice personal happiness for collective productivity.

[maegi]

Heil Hitler! sounds like something he'd say, referring to that sacrificing happiness for productivity....total bullshit.

[gprater]

was his son's name Moggok?