Why so many dark, foreboding, negative avatars?

I'm not sure they are so evil looking
ok maybe a few I think most people are looking for something very unique
mine makes a statement some will figure it out mine quickly others will simply say it's evil etc etc etc



[edit on 17-7-2008 by SLAYER69]

Originally posted by BO XIAN
1. WHY does Dark matter?

Dark matters cuz the color scheme of ATS is quite dark.

2. What do you most like about dark things?

Ominousness

3. What concerns you most about dark things?

Ominousness

4. Has anything dark ever alarmed you? If so, what, in what context?

Sure. Hearing stories in prision of the many exploits of a felon. Ominous context.

1. What 3 things most drew you to the image?

1. I wanted an avatar. 2. It went well with a black background. 3. It's a slightly modified concert poster for my favorite band!

2. What do you identify most with in it?

The fact that the enslaved person in the painting (not quite sure it's a child) is wearing headphones.

3. What do you most want viewers to respond with?

I didn't create the avatar in hopes that people would react a certain way.

4. What are your fantasies about the child?

That's kind of an odd question. Since the first time I saw the painting i thought the person was an adult. Never once did I consider it to me a child.

5. What are your fantasies about the context?

When I see my avatar it makes me think of how the demeanor and the general theme of TMV is very well represented in this painting. I often think about how the painting as a whole is reminiscent of the scene in The Matrix after Neo takes the red pill and releases his mind from the Matrix. Great movie, probably my favorite...

I got just one question for you. What does all this Q&A along with my avatar definitively tell you about me?:

A. Everything
B. Nothing

[edit on 17-7-2008 by ListenD]

I changed mine just today because I finally found the perfect image for what I was looking for.

Oddly enough it's about a war and it's about a game, so either way it's contradictory.

I rule.

reply to post by ListenD


Quick end of thread scan reply . . .

1. I still think of the person in your avatar as a child. Part of the reason is the head size of the helmet with an antenna is about a third of the length of the child's body. As I relook at that, I wasn't accounting for the legs being drawn up.

It could certainly be older than the younger child i thought of. Interesting.

I was just going to respond to your last question about what all the questions etc. definitively tell me about you.

LOL. Psychology is at least as much an art as a science. i don't know that all such tells me anything DEFINITIVE about you . . . perhaps that you have a lot of clarity about your choices--which I consider quite admirable.

Somehow it didn't register on me that the person had headphones on. I construed all the head apparatus as scanning modules of some sort scanning his brain/inputting stuff into his brain. Interesting that I missed that.

That you had close observations of one or more felons sounds like a moving experience for you that may have been constructively educational. Not everyone has such an experience. Sounds like you profited from it wisely. Congrats.

Maybe I can come up with more comments when I return to your post in sequence.

Thanks for your meaty reply. Much appreciated.

Have a blessed weekend.

This is an easy one. Average people want to be members of sites such as this one, but they don't want to be identified for a host of reasons. Mostly they just want their privacy. So, they pick the most bizarre avatar they can to draw attention away from their real identity. It's nothing new though. In the past, an author might use publish under an alias for the same reason.

The Internet really isn't anything new, it's just a faster way for people around the world to communicate. I doubt that people with weird avatars are evil or mean people, they just want to masquerade their identity.

Here is something I found at:
wikipedia

In Hinduism an Avatar is the incarnation of a higher being.

I did not know this.

peace

Cool! I always wondered what the word "avatar" meant. I picked mine because it is the very visual image of what I hope to be or someday become.

I think these dark avatars are a way for the people here to express what mood they're in, more so then their actual personality. Most people on this site are good people, just stuck in gloomy, dark moods.

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
Dark and forboding! Really? A baddie Immortal from the film 300, with a metal mask...... oh dear...... I see your point.

Hmmmm. I'm not at all familiar with that film. Is it available on YouTube?

The Chinese "Immortals" are similarly horrifically countenanced, usually.

When I get round to drawing an avatar I'll change it...... perhaps a robot.

Some questions first:

1. What draws you so intensely to the 300, Persian history etc?

2. What do you most identify with about that era?

3. About those personages?

4. What do you identify with most about your avatar of the mask?

Colors . . .

Certainly the slightly bluish, steel-ish kind of black has a dark feel about it. The black eyes and mouth add to that significantly.

The polished highlights of the metal mask add a bit of an element of stark contrast.

There's a starkness in general about the mask and avatar. Basic, minimalist, stark.

Emotions evoked:

--curiosity
--Hmmmm
--puzzlement
--aversion, off-put sorts of feelings--wouldn't enjoy it on my living room wall by any means. Wouldn't allow it in any children's room or view if I could prevent it.
--evokes a kind of protective something--against the perceived malicious countenance of the mask.
--seems to have to do with death, mayhem, violence, tyranny somehow.
--seems like a hard life to live inside that . . . focus, orientation. Being him must not have many pleasant, comfortable, positive delights.
--Don't see any hint of happiness even buried.
--a hardness--perhaps a hard heartedness.

More questions:

1. What did you first feel yourself when you found this image?
2. What responses did you hope the viewers would have to it?
3. How do you feel now looking at it vs when you found it?

Thanks much for your contribution to our thread.

THREAD NOTE:

Sorry am having some busy days. Will continue to chip away at the sequence of posts step by step. Thanks for your patience.

Blessings,

Originally posted by Masisoar
There is a lot of dark, depressed and isolated people on here. Can't blame them for trying to make their avatars and such match their natural surroundings.

QUITE SO. QUITE SO.

I strongly agree.

And, I'm not seeking to "blame" anyone anyway.

I do like to trace out root associations and causes for why people do what they do.

And, I have a bias that understanding why one does what one does is better than being in denial or clueless with 0.000% insight into one's own internal goings on; one's internal values, inclinations etc.

And, each individual's story is just plain fascinating, to me. I love people in all their variety even when I may not love what they do or even what a given individual stands for.

======

To your avatar:

I find it a particularly beautiful image. Certainly the lower part is a bit dark but that's the nature of such times of day. The light of the sun in the pic is particularly warm, beautiful, enriching somehow.

Am curious if that's a Colorado pic and what part of Colo you might be in. You are welcome to U2U that, if you wish, or not at all, as you see fit.

1. What led you to pick this pic?

2. What were your feelings and associations as you chose it?

FEELINGS EVOKED:

--warmth
--itnerest
--comfort
--beautiful serenity sort of feeling
--calm
--some mysterous, wistful element(s) to it, a bit.
--oddly, some sadness . . . our culture seems to be at sunset.

Thankfully, there will be a SONrise as

The King is Returning.

Tolkien was right.

Thanks for the honor of your contribution to our thread.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
Conditioned by Horror-Movies we are led to believe that spiritual-phenomena mostly involves the big dark scares.

Boy is that a pregnant truism.

I believe our era is going to see a lot of both extremes on that score once things are wound up really good and going full force.

Conditioned by Science-Fiction movies we are led to believe that aliens are mostly bloodthirsty, dumb or ugly monsters.

We may find out that they are indeed . . . soulthirsty . . . a worse priority, imho.

Dumb? Not likely . . . I don't recall any evidence that watchers, fallen angels, nephilium were particularly dumb--except in their rebellion against God. That was TERMINALLY DUMB.

Especially young minds seem to equate darkness with adventure, excitement, heroism,

Another profoundly true assertion. Qutie so.

Though I'd add . . . far too often . . . rebellion, revenge and fantasized individuation junk is piled into such things as well. And, usually, the rebellion comes out of DISCIPLINE WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP--without bonding--in an ATTACHMENT DISORDER-IN-THE-MAKING situation.

while the light and beautiful is easily associated with boredom and meekness.

Again, I fault parents and the church of Jesus Christ. The Authentic Christ was robust, very masculine, fiercely loving, fierce authority as well as gentle, kind, compassionate etc. REAL LOVE IS TOUGH. REAL LOVE is dramatically and heroically sacrificial and servant-hearted--nothing wimpy in that, at all.

The enemy of our souls has sold a deceptive bill of goods even to the good guys, that a watered down belief system wrongly labeled Christian just can't cut it, is boring, weak, neutered, worthless. And the behavior of far too many "Christians" has given too much credence to such a deceptive perspective.

If Christians had been acting like Christians even merely to one another, there would have been no need for welfare with a bloated government bureaucracy.

In a way, I don't blame youth for such crazy perspectives. What were their viable alternatives? Corruption and hypocrisy in virtually every social institution leaves little attractive choice on anything remotely like a GOOD SIDE.

/rant

The stuff your eyes see does have a correlation to your psycho-physical state though.

INDEED. Evidently our very DNA is changed by what we chronically look at, think about, and speak about.

I think that's one reason I wanted to examine this issue . . . and see if there were any possibility to get some of the more darkly focused sorts to re-examine the intensity and all consuming-ness of their focus . . . and perhaps choose a better one.

There's enough death, darkness and destruction already. And the NWO folks are all set to dispense horrific amounts and types of a lot more.]

In the end I probably wouldnt differentiate between positive and negative avatars but quality/classy and tasteless/low-quality avatars. Some dark avatars are beautiful afterall.

GOOD/EVIL; POSITIVE/NEGATIVE turns out to be one of the most encompassing super-ordinate constructs in any culture of any era.

I believe it has great import and utility for those willing to discern and choose wisely accordingly.

quality/classy is likely better than not. However, if anything is going to be evil, then I'd rather it were low quality/low class.

The beautiful face of evil is more destructive than the trashy face of evil.

But all avatars are like humans: Unique and valid in their own right.

I like uniqueness and individuality as well.

Though the notion that everything is good; if it feels good, do it; whatever's right for you is right; . . .

and other muddle-headed irrationality wedded to situation 'ethics'

is a set of destructive lies from hell that only results in painful fruit.

There is always a harvest.

Planting onions doesn't result in a harvest of mangoes.

Planting goatheads doesn't result in a harvest of soft cotton fleece.

Planting death, darkness and destruction does not result in life, freedom, hope and blessing.

MUCH APPRECIATE YET ANOTHER HIGH QUALITY CONTRIBUTION FROM YOU TO OUR THREAD.

THANKS BIG.

LUB

Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
reply to post by BO XIAN

 

Well my avatar is very boring i'm afraid. I saw the image in a book my grandfather gave me about egypt when i was about 5 and it sort of stuck with me. As for the darkness of my avatar, well i'm really bad at graphic design, this is the best i could do lol.

Not sure about boring . . . fuzzy, yes.

I don't recal what that Egyptian symbol stands for.

The black background is certainly dark.

But I can't comment about the meaning of the symbol and any association with 'darkness' thereby.

Feelings evoked:

--curiosity
--some wary-ness
--puzzlment about the RELIGIOUS implications of the symbol.
--touched and warmed by your grandfather's place in your life.

You might like to find a sharper example of the symbol and use that.

Questions:

1. What other values did you most gain from your grandfather?

2. How are you most like him?

3. What of his character would you most like to see in your children?

Thanks for your kind contribution to our thread.

Well, this thread did inspire me to change my avatar as well. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing wrong with dark imagery. After seeing the unicorn, I thought of doing something ironic and over-the-top happy.

Stark contrast is certainly a common attention getter as well as a common way to have fun. LOL.

I couldn't think of anything so I abandoned that idea, but the image of a smiley face popped into my head and inspired a more "serious" yet light-hearted and uplifting idea. So, there is it.

It would probably be hard to find a more pervasive symbol supposedly standing for happiness. One of my B.A. program buddies hated the happy face.

He was reared by his grandmother . . . pretty estranged from most folks . . . a musician . . . seemed to get most of his jollys rebelling against whatever other groups and particularly whatever any authority stood for--particularly any RELIGIOUS authority or group. Last I heard, his life had turned rather conflicted and miserable.

For the kiddies and the 'squares' who don't know the reference

the S.M.I.L.E. acronym was coined by Dr. Timothy Leary, PhD, who regardless of MK-Ultra and conspiracy claims (which I am not qualified to judge,) wrote some very inspirational and brilliant books.

Have never been a fan of his. The CREDO Navy program hired the government's expert on '___' to give our 10 member staff a week or so's instruction on what was known about it, at that time--given that our program was one effort to impact the drug abuse problem in the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps.

At this point, I don't trust much of any part of the government about such topics . . . and increasingly about little else.

Brilliance? Knowledge puffs up. Great knowledge seems to puff up greatly.

I have always thought of Leary as one of the most arrogant blokes of our era. And I've felt that his advice about anything was likely to be a sure fire route to great disappointment if not great hurt.

But those are my biases.

In terms of the acronym . . . I think that fits in with the ET/watcher/fallen angel/nephilium/globalist agenda rather tidily.

How much of a charade, hoax, deception all that is likely to be remains to be emphatically proven. However, it's my conviction that it's all wholesale hoax and a most destructive deception, at that.

As to the topic at hand, I think it can be empowering and liberating to explore a dark aesthetic.

On occasion.

It can also be very redemptive & helpful to pump out a full septic tank.

In my personal experience as well as the experiences of 100's of counselees--more like thousands counting the groups--as well as the experiences of many members of a number of other social groups . . . "exploring a dark aesthetic" has entailed being snared, trapped, seduced into long lasting and very destructive bondage of one sort or another. Therefore, it's not something I encourage folks to do.

The beautiful face of evil is exceedingly seductive and very effectively skillfully seductive, at that.

One can be spreading light and love and peace without wearing brightly colored clothes and flowers in their hair.

Technically true.

And, actually, wearing brightly colored clothes and flowers in one's hair can be a grand charade hiding all manner of dark and evil crud.

Appearances can be deceptive all directions.

It's like saying someone who wears black and listens to heavy metal and even enjoys "Satanic" imagery is somehow advancing the NWO agenda. I don't buy that BS.

Not my perspective . . . having studied the NWO agenda since fall 1965.

I'm convinced that the assertion above is poorly informed.

1. Either there is a character called satan, or there isn't.
2. If there is, I'm highy skeptical that he's remotely good in any respect.

3. I'm convinced that all the Bible has to say about him is entirely accurate. When I've rebelled against that description, the cost has been high. When I've believed and followed the Biblical exhortations about the character, the fruit has been MUCH healthier. Add to my personal experience the 100's of experiences of counselees and others . . . I'm pretty well convinced to my bone marrow.

4. The globalist NWO agenda is a tyrannical global government.

5. The Bible declares that the era that includes Israel becoming a nation again in a day (1948), will experience a satanically controlled global tyrannical government.

6. Pretending those two elements in 4 & 5 above are meaningless benign coincidence is beyond fool-hardy, to me.

The real enemies wear suits and ties and hide behind bleached white smiles.

No argument on that score.

I've met more metalheads, goths and punks who are doing more to spread peace and freedom than those who "hide in the light," including some of the "white light" New Age types (although I agree with much of their ideas, it can too easily become a dogma like any other.)

No greatly significant argument with the above . . . with some qualification . . . depends on a number of factors . . . polluted wells don't produce pure water.

On another note, creative expression (avatars included) is often a reflection of the world around us as well as the world inside of us. So it is natural that many would create images that reflect the darkness of our current society as well as the inner turmoil that it creates in those who strive towards more positive ideals.

I wholesale agree with that.

And it is the sources of such . . . tendencies dealing with the 'out there' and the 'within' that are of great curiosity, to me.

1. What specific inner and outer factors tilt a given individual toward darker themes, values, choices vs healthier ones?

2. Is there a point in dabbling with darker things when any objectivity is wholesale obliterated? What are the implications of that?

3. How quickly does some element of 'other control' begin to get such a tight grip on an individual that the individual increasingly finds it difficult to break free of--IF--the individual even wakes up sufficiently to realize there might be a desperate NEED to break free.

I probably have a list of additional questions in the ball park.

============

To your avatar . . .

Seems like you certainly came up with a bright, cheery appearing avatar.

For some reason . . . I keep having a more than subtle impression that . . . I could look away . . . and then back . . . and see some sharp teeth and a hideous grin in the smiley face. Not sure where that's coming from. LOL.

I think when one adds the words for the acronym . . . the image is much more complicated.

Space Migration brings into mind at least some very dramatic ponderings, images, concerns . . . who's going where? Someone coming here? Who? Good? Bad? Humans going somewhere? When? Why? How? Who gets chosen? Who gets left? Why?

Some of those thoughts may be less than cheery.

Intelligence Increase can be readily construed as positive . . . though some may quickly think . . . Hmmmm who gets chosen for the IQ increase? How? Why? Who gets left out? Why?

Life Extension certainly sounds attractive. However, similar questions accrue--Who gets chosen? Who gets left out? Why?

All such can become quickly more than a little disquieting.

=======

Feelings evoked:

--humorous
--cute
--warmth
--curiosity
--slight wary-ness.
--some puzzlement
--some slight . . . oh, goodness, ANOTHER smiley face! LOL.

Thanks much for your very substantive contribution to our thread.

Blessings,

Originally posted by Lysergic
reply to post by BO XIAN

 

If it makes someone feel uncomfortable then my Avatar has done it's job.

Hmmmmmmmmm . . . .

Questions first . . .

1. When did you first notice this preference for triggering discomfort in others?

2. What do you think of as the root causes or contributors to this value of triggering discomfort in others?

3. Sounds like one of your greatest comforts is the discomfort of others and the greater their discomfort the greater your comfort. How much is that really true for you?

4. What about others being uncomfortable pleases you?

5. Is there any element of revenge in this focus on triggering discomfort in others? If so, against whom, for what, primarily?

6. Who has triggered the most discomfort in you over your lifespan so far? Generally, around what sorts of issues in what context(s)?

7. Your avatar speaks of helpless bondage, even imprisonment, abuse. What have these themes arisen from in your life?

8. Is this focus linked to anything like inflicting pain on one's self or on others? If so, what about that is attractive?

9. How many times have you felt utterly hopeless in life so far? How long did it take to get out of such a state?

10. Are there any other conventional pleasures that most folks would identify as a common sort of pleasure most folks could identify with--which you enjoy?

11. How many folks are close, trustworthy friends to you?

12. How many of them have a similar focus regarding discomfort in others, bondage, imprisonment etc?

13. How much of this is a charade and how much of it is quite in the middle of where you live a lot in your thought life, fantasies, perhaps even actions and relationships?

14. Are there any other responses you'd like the viewers of your avatar to have? If so, what?

===================

Colors--certainly dark enough. The yellow is a kind of bleak yellow as is the skin tone.

I'm not familiar with the background design. Looks sort of satanic somehow.

15. Are you more comfortable with chaos and with the destruction of order than you are with order?

===================

Feelings evoked:

--sadness
--deeper sadness
--curiosity
--puzzlement
--concern
--maybe an element of pity
--maybe some anger over anyone being trapped or in bondage

It is certainly a powerful image.

Thanks for your profound contribution to our thread.

Originally posted by lucien
One man's "dark" is another man's "light"...

Yes and no.

There are memes, themes, constructs, phenomena, events, experiences

which virtually every culture known would agree are dark.

--Raping a best friend's wife is not usually considered a friendly act in any culture.

--torturing one's children is usually not considered healthy, positive, constructive, good in any culture.

--eating one's children is usually not considered good in any culture.

--stealing from a best friend or close relative is usually considered pretty evil.

--betraying a confidence is usually considered a dastardly thing in virtually all cultures.

--deserting one's spouse and kids is usually considered a bad thing, a dastardly thing in virtually all cultures.

--Torturing defenseless animals and children is usually considered bad, evil in all cultures.

. . .

SOME things ARE INHERENTLY EVIL.

Situation ethics is a farce, a deception.

==========

to your avatar.

Questions first:

1. How long did you search before finding this one?

2. What 3 things did you most like about it?

3. What 2 things did you most identify with about it?

4. What 3 responses do you most hope for in most viewers and why?

5. What excites you most about the image?

6. How would you feel being a prisoner cellmate with the fellow in the image?

7. How would you explain this image to your mother?

8. Compared to the average person, how much pain--physical pain--have you suffered in your life? How much emotional pain? say 10= maximum and 0 = none.

9. Do you often have nightmares or other troubling dreams?

10. How often have you felt impotent, neutered, helpless in life?

11. How many close friends truly understand you?

12. If you were forced to pic a pleasant image, what would the subject of that image likely be?

==============

Your avatar:

--colors--

Certainly the blood looking red is startling as is the red eye and the hint of a ear that looks a bit like a horn. And the name only adds to such themes.

The stark contrast with the red and the black intensifies the elements well.

The black conveys and furthers the darkness triggered by the red very well.

===========

feelings evoked:

--startled
--curious
--sad
--greater sadness
--Puzzlement about where the interest in such an image arises from--what factors and experiences.
--concern
--a kind of grieving
. . .

Thanks for a very vivid contribution to our thread.

Originally posted by BO XIAN
I encourage folks to read your own narrative about your avatar and situation:

www.belowtopsecret.com...

WHAM! OUCH! WOW. HEAVY DUTY TO THE MAX. I feel a bit speechless.

As I try to imagine being in your skin and place . . . the very dark heavy dull thud is overwhelming.

QUESTIONS:

1. If you could express your trapped outrage most powerfully and hopefully with some effectiveness . . . who would the top 3 targets be?

City people. Corporate utility. Neitzche, "slave morality".

2. If you could be extricated from the mess with enough funds to do something meaningful for a new start with . . . what would a new start be that was most attractive to your 4 highest priorities?

Before I die... I intend to terraform 640 acres of desert into a sustainable Essene style community. My four highest priorities are the holy water, the holy air, the holy loam, the holy light.

3. Who do you consider your allies (roles--not names)?

My wife, my tenants, our friends, our pets, my ATS friends... various magnets and crystals, my calcium/magnesium supplement from the health food store. The trees I planted 5 years ago that ground out the sizzle when I stand under them.

4. Who do you consider your deadly enemies (roles, not names)?

The utility authority, the local government, the complacent fire and police departments, the poor people that steal the ground wires from the high tension lines.... all of the jackasses living in their air conditioned boxes, spinning the meter. The heavy metals in the asphalt, which causes the gauss meter to spike. The heavy metals in my brain from grinding off all the old lead paint from my houses. The indoctrinated-mindless weed whacker labourers that kill my trees.

5. If you could have a year to recover, where would that be and what would it look like?

Off grid, rice and beans over a campfire, in the woods, with nothing but a canvas tent, wife and dog.

Thanks tons and tons for your very meaningful contribution to our thread.

no problem, feel free to visit.... [/sarcasm]

tzzztstszzzzzssss,

Sri Oracle


[edit on 20-7-2008 by Sri Oracle]

reply to post by Sri Oracle


QUICK RESPONSE.

Thanks for your meaningful replies.

Helps me understand you better.

Still ache for you. Wish I could relieve your pain and struggle.

If I know of a good sounding survivalist group with an opening, I'll let you know. You can U2U me your specs if you're interested in such. I don't think it's overly likely I'll come across such a group but there are plenty represented in my extended social network. They are just mostly already rather closed and protective of what they have.

Have you been to Arcosanti in AZ? You might look it up on the web.

Could have some useful ideas for you.

Blessings, health and wholeness and overcoming regardless.

Thanks for your contribution to our thread.

...my avatar is a beautiful piece of natural scenery in a calm, cold color selection.

tis very soothing, in my opinion.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


I agree.

It hink that the colors as well as the mountain motif are both soothing.

Are you a particular fan of mountains?

Are you much of a backpacker?

What 3 things most attract you to mountains?

Perhaps I'll have a more substantive reply when I reach your post again in sequence.

Thanks for your contribution to our thread.

Well I guess Im one of those people with a dark violent avi.

A ninja holding a weapon with blood on it.

But I have my avatar because I've been studying ninjutsu(and many other martial arts) for some time now and decided that that means I'm a ninja, so I wanted a ninja avitar.

But If you look at it you can see a smilie face above one of the chains, and I wouldnt really consider that dark.
But the rest of my avi is.



[edit on 21-7-2008 by 5ealchris]