Those political cartoonists think they’re sooooo funny. I would probably think so, too, if I knew anything about politics.

Self-deprecating humour and self-defecating humour are not the same thing.

I own a fingernail buffer??? is that normal?

I met the Space Vikings last night??? I also met another group of people whose raison d’etre is to have people act out their deaths and become reborn by walking through a large makeshift vagina (I think)–there was also something about superheros and villains, but I forget how that fits into there???no, not how it fits into the vagina??? er, nevermind??? and there was at least a couple of other miscellaneous people. All-in-all, it was a very interesting evening.

I boiled some eggs not too long ago. Like a minute ago or something. I honestly can’t remember the last time I boiled eggs before today. It’s just??? so weird???

Eggs.

Yep.

Now that I’ve eaten the eggs that I’ve boiled, I sort of find the whole thing pointless. Seriously.

Hi Ellin! : )

Loneliness galore. Yeah, that’s what it is???

A good example of nothing actually being obvious is the fact that what everybody basically wants is just to be happy. You may think, no duh, as would I, but it seems that not everyone really understands that. Of course, everybody is well-aware that they themselves want to be happy, and we all have a good idea of what that entails. Yet, when it comes to what makes someone else happy, there are almost as many approaches to determining that as there are people who actually try to figure that out.

One of the main problems is that what it takes for some people to be happy usually precludes others’ happiness. This isn’t that great an example, but the contentment of Nike shareholders are in part dependant on the shitty lives of miserable sweatshop workers across the Pacific . One can instantly think of countless situations where people in a Western capitalist society benefit from the misery of citizens of lesser-developed countries. I personally think the only problem with that is the exploitive aspects. Poor people in poor countries are a great source of cheap labour. Even if our economy does help them out where they’d be worse off otherwise, the fact of the matter remains that those people still aren’t very happy. Western civilization isn’t to blame, though. Maybe those people themselves are to blame, but not necessarily.

For those in communist countries who are almost invariably unhappy, it’s because of an socioeconomic philosophy that intended to be a solution that would make everybody happy. And it ended up basically making no one happy. Except for the dictator, or whoever the ruling person is.

In addition to those who pursue their happiness while disregarding others’, there are those who just don’t appear to see that what makes others happy isn’t necessarily the same as what makes themselves happy, and vice-versa. Evangalizing zealots of any kind basically constitute this lot of people. They claim that if we could only understand what they’re trying to get at that we’ll be happily singing their tune. Some of us do understand, and we don’t see anything special about it, and we prefer not to be bothered.

If it’s not one person, or a small group of people, with authoritarian control, it’s usually a large group of people who usually try to infulence the smaller, but more powerful, group or individual. Of course, the unwashed masses are still a target, but only as a pool to recruit from in order to strengthen in numbers and to better influence the higher powers. That’s democracy for you???

What’s amazing about the Web is that despite the large, powerful entities that have control over its infrastructure and software, and large networked groups of activists, there are even bigger groups of people with no specific cause, save for freedom. Not necessarily liberty for its own sake, but for being free to say what they please, to see what they want to see, to control what’s rightfully in their possession. But they usually don’t make any noise about it or even discuss those subjects amongst themselves. They don’t feel the need to most of the time. A slime mould analogy comes to mind, where the individual amoebas usually keep to themselves until they all share a common scarcity in food. Then they combine into a composite entity to get what they need. That’s just how the Web is. Anyone who’s tried to infringe on the freedoms, and therefore happiness, of ordinary (and extraordinary!) Web folk has met an uproar from a mass of people that organized almost instantly and that were relentless. And while they’re raising a stink, they still find ways to route around the problem.

All we want is to be happy. Make sure you take that into account while you try to be happy yourself. Don’t try to make us understand. We’re not idiots. Work with us, not against us, or even on our behalf–unless that was unanimously decided by us.

It’s harder to be happy while making sure others still have a chance to be happy, but that’s the only way that works here. And yes, I do believe it is possible. Except for those who are only happy when others aren’t. They’ll just have to find something else to be happy about, change their worldview, or die. We can wait for them to die if we have to. It shouldn’t have to come to that, though.