Does anyone else feel like this?

Oh, my dear friend, I know EXACTLY how you feel.

Within my family and circle of friends, it's difficult to be the one person who actually questions and/or looks in to anything.

Here's how a typical conversation might go:

Family member: I wonder why X happens.
Me: Well, scientists now speculate that X happens because Y Z.
Family member: *eye roll* Ugh. Geez, why do you even know that?
Me: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to know things.

Or this:

Me: Did you ever wonder if X might be the real cause of Y Z?
Friend: I don't know why you care about pointless stuff. Did you see that Tom Cruise and whats-her-face are getting divorced!?!

If it isn't entertainment news, no one I know is interested. They also make fun of me when I look something up on the internet. As if wanting to learn is some kind of flaw. There's a running joke in my family when someone asks a question no one knows the answer to, they all jokingly say I'd probably know, or I'll probably look it up.

I see this happening to other people too. It's like most of us as adults have regressed in to this middle school mentality, where talking about clothes, hair and celebrities is cool, but knowledge of space exploration, philosophy, physics and politics is seen as some kind of mental weakness.

Believe me, I'm not saying I'm smarter than the people I know. I'm not. I'm average if anything. It's just...
no one cares about anything of value any more.

Thanks for this thread. I feel better having gotten that off my chest!

Originally posted by samerulesapply
It's not that I think peoiple are braindead morons in general I think they'd rather just put it aside in favour of having fun and being all for the self, the here and now.

I understand exactly what you mean. I find difficult sometimes when people are so preoccupied with the unimportant, that they don't realise the important - the fact of how detrimental it is to live in that false way.

You mention society's fixation on the artificial and I completely agree with you; how can you ever find peace in something artificial... at the very best it will result in artificial peace, and many of us know that just doesn't cut it.

It seems that when we question reality (the very fact of the matter, and the heart of life), we find absolute and real peace in every answer. When we turn to others and see such an immense internal conflict, we immediately want them to feel just as good about the world they live in, as we do about the one in which we live. (Because in the end, isn't the world's population is just the addition of each individual.)
Every now and then we get frustrated that some people won't open their eyes and see the truth right in front of them, because when a veil gets lifted, it's weight get's lifted too.

I'm sorry for rambling on, but your story has helped me very much and I'm trying my best to show my thanks in the way that I know how: Echoing what your insight has moved in me.

The spiritual or the soul is in everything. No matter how mundane it can be turned to soul

Sometimes I feel like I want to break through the veil of illusion
We all know that experience when we go on a roll and express our deeper thoughts - Only to be met with a wall of silence or derision

Lifeline

Beset by troubled dreams
Bound by other's schemes
Out of luck, out of time
At odds with the grand design
I fear what will become
Of a world where Love is left undone

And every time I look away
There's a void inside as deep as space
A blue fleck lost in The Milky Way
Dumbed down with distraction to ease the pain
Drowning in the carbon rain

Under this dome of ever changing sky
It all comes down to you and I
To choose o care, to act to hold
Onto the lifeline of the soul

reply to post by samerulesapply


I could have written this myself...

A few months ago when we had the eclipse I set up my telescope to photograph it. People would walk by most completely unaware there was even an eclipse most thought it was the day before.

The real insult a couple riding bikes that live in my neighborhood rode by, I said "Hi want to see the solar eclipse it is almost at 90%!" they were all like "NAH...no thanks..." WOW what??? An event that rarely happens and no? I guess they were missing some sports or tv show!

I know EXACTLY how you feel!

Welcome to my world
before we though our differences from the normality was a curse
now we know our compassion for other in general come from the heart
we are here now to teach others how to be good with people and mother nature
and how to have faith in the Creator above all thing
so being able to have emotions that others dont have in general is very good

If you feel this way then you are a teacher
unlock the Holy Grail in you
people have been searching it for thousand of yrs
never realise that it was their heart

I always kind of laughed at the people who believe literally in the matrix but it's actually not far off the truth, people are more tuned in to an artificial reality. Everywhere I look people are playing with phones...you sit on a bus and everyone is staring at a phone or ipad or kindle.

You rarely see strangers strike up a conversation on a bus these days...if it does happen it's often some drunk idiot..Not saying it doesn't happen but not as often as I remembet, it must be a strange world to grow up in. People seem oblivious to what's happening around them, These devices promote lazy minded habits - predictive texting, auto-correcting, txt spk, etc.

Everything's so easy, shopping, gaming, music, movies, books...people are engrossed in these things.

I often think that if aliens come down and presented themselves and told us that god existed and was coming to visit the following day....most people would give it a miss because big brother or something is on television.

In my opinion; it all starts with parenting. Parenting alone is not the issue at-hand; it is many things that all work together in this age we call, the 21st Century. The ease of entertainment, for example. In my childhood days, the VHS was the hot thing. And with my parents, it was the television invention that was the hot thing. New innovations! With my grandparents, it was probably the television as well. New Innovations!

If you were to go back in time and tell somebody from the 1940s that one day there will be a gigantic screen sitting in homes that would bring color and imagination and allow them to go on destinations they have never dreamed of without ever leaving their home - they'd say "Hey, sign me up!" -- afterall, it's a part of new innovations.

I can remember when going to a theatre was so cool; now with technology we can wait about 6 months and have a DVD version playing on our newly innovative giant screen television, complete with surround sound, heavy bass ... turn up the treble and let her "rock-n-roll".

Things are simpler these days. If you want quirky and fun just dial it in. Feeling soapy and romantic; get your latest soap opera fix with the ease of a button. And don't forget about those errogenous zones.

There are many things that have shaped our lives in the last 40-50 years that have taken away the "initial excitement of it all". Play a game of Final Fantasy all the way through and you'll feel the complacency build over a period of time but up-close-and-personal with battle after battle after battle. At the beginning of a Final Fantasy game, it is all "ooohs and aahhhs".. and as the story and game continue much fun can be had - much! Somewhere along the way, the game becomes boring, tiresome, redundant. One can play the game anyway for all the glitzy graphics and fun sound effects and video sprites; but nevertheless the fun is done. The initial excitement has worn off.

In this same way; we experience certain things in our life that, at first, are like "bread on butter". But after a while; we, sad to say, become "jaded". Complacent. Non-caring.

To carry it out a little further. Take for example, our food. In developed countries. Most of us drive or walk to our local grocer (if we want to call it "local"). When we get there, we walk through air-conditioned breezeways or paths that keep us cool while we shop for products that are made with sugar and corn and unhealthy products. We used technology to turn corn and sugar and flour and [insert your thing here] into many things! New innovations! Heck, I recall seeing in the freezer section pre-made peanut butter and jelly on a piece of bread or something similar. When I first saw this; I stopped and talked with somebody who noticed it at the same time. We both looked at each other with an amazed and confused look on our face and both said, "Who doesn't have time to make a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"

We can have pizza already made at the store or home delivered! New innovations! We can order Chinese food and even KFC has had delivery from what I can recall. Food after food after food. It's all made or put together somewhere and transported to us locally and we don't really question this; it's been done over and over and over, each day of our lives that we become complacent.

The new innovations have taken hold and we seek ways for "new innovations" to spark up our lives. This is how marketing affects sales and what is presented to us. There are companies that know what we like and don't like and they know when we will get tired of something that WAS new and they know when they need to step-in and put something big and flashy in front of us to get us to BUY something so we can feel better. Don't hurt to make a buck either along the way; so they say.

In summary; so much has changed in such a short period of time in our "growing up" as a modern civilization. With the Green Revolution; what use to take many many man-hours to grow our food is now simply a matter of putting up our hair; putting on our sandals; hopping into our jalopy and heading to the local grocer. These days we do not hunt for our food. We don't have to seek out water. Generally speaking, most do not have to find a warm habitat and all of this has been taken for granted because of "new innovations".

Sadly; we can see what these "new innovations" are doing over time. The priorities have changed in personal lives. What used to be "finding food and water" is now redirected towards a medium (mostly) that provides an "escape" of sorts vieled as "new innovations", "new programming", "new artists", new flashy thingy gizmo. In my opinion, when the priorities are back in the proper order; only then will behaviors affected by all of this return to what WAS normal.

reply to post by samerulesapply

Yeah i just dont understand how some people just dont care about that stuff. I am SO interested in stuff that deals with the universe and dimensions and outer space. Just really ANYTHING that deals with all of that. Im always keeping up with the latest scientific discoveries, but the problem is that im only 17 so most of my friends who are my age dont really care about that stuff at all. I just dont understand how someone cant just see how amazing our universe is and how important it is that we try to discover all the answers. Like i seriously cried when NASAs funding was cut because, to me, space exploration is so incredibly important and i feel like everything will be slowed down and we wont have a manned mission to mars in my lifetime if they dont have the funding. As to why some people are interested in stuff like and some arent, im really not sure. From my earliest memories until about 10 years old, there were quite a few things in my life that i couldnt really explain, like i would see shadow people and i could (and still can) sense when someone is approaching and i was always years ahead of my friends mentally. Adults were always very impressed that i was so young and yet spoke with near perfect grammar. So i think the paranormal things in my life gave me a big curiosity for the unknown and the fact that i was more mature than my friends made me feel different than everyone else so i think all of that gave me a hunger to discover the mysteries of the universe. ALSO i spent a lot of time with my dad when i was little and he started having very intellectual conversations with me at a young age and he has also been interested in the unknown, he never had these conversations with my younger siblings and now, to this day, me and my dad are the only ones that care about things like outer space and anything dealing with the unknown. My little sisters and my mom only care about the latest reality show coming on and which celebrity said what and my little brothers only care about playing video games.

enjoyed this thread and the OP words...I wonder if this may have something to do with left and right brain thinkers...www.funderstanding.com...

Great posts all and to the OP for bringing up this topic especially. You are not alone! Don't we all have a side though that agrees "Its easy to love an individual but impossible to love humanity"? To even say that though is so easy to flip because in many regards I have more faith in humanity as a whole (which sadly isn't much) than I do in most of the individuals around me to WAKE UP.

I've been thinking the passed couple of days how funny it is everyone glamorizes actors more than any thing and in essence.. Acting is the profession of pretending to be somone your not, aka lying.

I just brush it off and on occasion when someone says "Did you see Kate Beckinsale in the new Total Recall, she can act!" and I say "Yeah in front of a green screen.. did you catch C-SPAN today? Holy moly! Now thats acting!" Sometimes they go huh? and sometime's they think I'm kidding but I just have a little chuckle because its either laugh or cry at this point and I'm not much for the QQ'ing.

reply to post by samerulesapply
It's not you,your not alone I was the only one(still am)in my family that has any interest at all in those questions you have.It's people like you me and others that have found ats to discuss the wonderful mysteries of life.
I was around when the Apollo missions were exploring space and what an exciting time it was and people were interested then.I believe there is a disconnect now with all the secrecy and no common cause for the excitment of space exploration.Sure we have the rovers but it just isn't the same as actual astronauts out there.It was a time in history that will never be repeated at least not in my lifetime but maybe yours so that's something to look forward to

reply to post by samerulesapply


I tell ya, if I were 13 I'd scream and pull my hair out because of the people around me. I can't have a semi-stimulating conversation with anyone.

Nobody watches the news (except for sports). Nobody reads the newspaper (except for the sports section). Nobody asks 'Why?' about anything.

If I were to bring up the topic of the Double-slit experiment they'd all think I was talking about having sex with twins.

They think a computer is only a $1600 Solitaire game. I've given a friendly yell to some of them to CLICK ON THE 'E' every once in a while. I tell them there's a whole universe of fun and interesting stuff on the internet. They just won't do it.

They develop a deep quiet if I mention evolution, if I touch on the Middle East, or even if I bring up Obama's birth certificate.

I don't need to learn all there is to know. But, I do like knowing a little bit about everything.

Most people are stupid.

Most people have always been stupid.

Once you internalize this lesson life gets a lot easier.

The upside is, It only takes about ten percent of the people to change things. The rest follow listlessly along with whatever direction the wind is blowing.

reply to post by samerulesapply


One other thing: A bunch of men hit a round object with a stick and win the World Series. The spectators go out of their minds with celebration because these men achieved...?...not a damn relevant thing!

We just landed a two and a half billion dollar car on another freakin' planet! This is thee mother of all grand slams. So, where's the cheering and horn blowing and ticker tape parade for Team NASA?!!!

I give up.

Originally posted by samerulesapply
Since I was a child I've wanted to understand things, been curious about how things work. I've wanted to understand the world we live in, was interested in things I always sort of thought were important to everyone.

But I'm learning more and more that this is not the case. I asked a few co-workers during a tea break today if they'd seen the images of the martian landscape taken by curiosity...they didn't know what I was talking about. I'd a conversation with one out of about 8 people who'd heard of it and had seen a few images.
-snip-
Quite the opposite, it seems most people nowadays don't even ask themselves such questions...and seem to clam up when you attempt to discuss such things or question who they really are and what they really think.

Yes! Yes, I do feel like that. I feel like a great many people around me are like the walking dead. They have no interest in the world nor the universe it spins in. If I make the mistake of trying to start up a conversation with someone who is uninterested, I'm generally left feeling like a fool. I need to stop feeling that way, though, because I'm not the fool. It's easier to let life go by without ever taking a close look at it; I think that's one reason people stay uninterested and uninformed. It's hard to make friends because I can't stand gossip or small talk about reality TV and celebrities. I'm recently divorced and am beginning to feel like I'll never meet anyone special who uses the brain they've got. Yes, I agree. People do not seem to like to think, and that's just sad.

It's hard being the only 1 in 4 of my mother's children who seem to really put herself in real danger to try and seek the overall real Truth to things and not get caught in a sense of security in things like having a routine might hold for some out there who want structure to their lives and all... I mean, I have had breakdowns making myself think so hard (I don't do it anymore -- I know when to stop now and take a break.) But my sisters are obsessed with things like what you can physically achieve and stuff that they write me off as a pathetic loser because I have not accomplished much in my life, as I am approaching 30 and don't even have kids yet. My oldest sister is in the Air Force, and while, don't get me wrong, when she first joined she said some of the things she was seeing made her really see some of these conspiracy theories in a new light and WONDER about their validity, but now she's all pro-American and pro-president and wont even question him, even if it is just the current man in office and stuff. I wonder what happened that made her change like that? My next oldest sister is a total brainwashed Mormon (not to be rude, but seriously she is one of those "get the world out of my sight," sort of molly Mormons and NEVER questions her faith in the least.) Oh, my sister in the Air Force is Christian, and kinda does the same thing sometimes with her ideas in Christ. I mean, I love my sisters and all, but being the only one of them who evolved into a Gnostic Luciferian, it really makes things hard to keep in touch with them, because for one, as my second oldest sister demonstrated, they have hidden some posts of facebook from me before because of religious differences, and it really kinda shattered my trust in them. My youngest sister is a... I forget the term... one of those who think the universe is God and stuff. She's also an aerialist, a contortionist, and a pole dancer (not stripper as she does it for athletic purposes.) And while she has written me off as being "dead" and ostracized me, I am proud of her, not only because she thinks the most outside the box, but because of being able to watch her professional life unfold on her professional site, she announced a little while ago that she got to play a part (most likely as a background dancer or contortionist) in the new Disney Lone Ranger movie currently in production. She spent a few weeks in New Mexico filming and said she had a chance of meeting Johnny Depp and stuff, though she never confirmed if she actually did. They never talk about things like Mars or the universe, or anything. Just mainly God and stuff (except my youngest sister whose personal page I have been banned from, so I don't know.) I know I talk about conversations between myself and my psychic contact a lot, but I mostly just ramble about things on my mind at the time. When something perks my interest from another page, like "I F'n Love Science" page making that joke about white dwarfs, I commented on it about black dwarfs and stuff.

But anyhow, I find I talk the most out of most of my friends about the wide variety of subjects I do. I joined here so I could talk more freely about it and just explore all ideas simultaneously and maybe just brainstorm a bit. But I dunno, I feel so alone in my personal life. I am glad I found this site, because it shows there are many who are really deep thinkers out there and just want to explore their ideas (even though there are a few who are only here to try and debunk them -- which can be okay, because if they are right, it keeps us in our place and helps us remain stable -- I just don't like the ones who openly mock us or tell us things like we're going to hell.)

Anyway, I consider stumbling on this site a real wonderful thing, and I hope many wonderful things come from it!

As i understand it, the majority of people will flee situations where a standard accepted response is not readily available. Why? I think the general population is excessively wary of criticism and ridicule - they're afraid of standing out.

I find that people try to maintain an image that affords them some peace of mind and immunity. By avoiding intellectual conversation, an opinion or an initiative there is less for others to pick on, they don't need it.

In a sense, people would rather be oppressed than vulnerable. Personally, I find that holding an opinion is really easy, no matter how outrageous it might be to others, i don't have a problem with that type of attention.

On the other hand i would feel far too conspicuous, for example, walking around without a shirt on, while some people clearly don't have that problem, so i can't claim to be fully non-conformant.

Originally posted by samerulesapply
I feel everyone should, to some extent, care about who and what we are, the true nature of reality, the universe, etc. Why does nobody care anymore?

I can only speak for myself, but I care a lot about those things. But I dont get my answers from the scientists or the education system because its all set up to keep people just repeating what they say is true. Its all based on not questioning someone who has degree X or title Y. Its a system that creates repeaters because anyone who doesnt repeat gets a failed grade...

I have found that the shamans know much more about this reality than western science, so I go to those people to learn how to get my own answers.

One piece of advice: look into the history of NASA before you get excited about their stupid pictures. Its all a big scam designed to keep the public thinking there is nothing out there.

Nobody watches the news (except for sports). Nobody reads the newspaper (except for the sports section).

Yes they do. This is how the government convinces people that the terrorists have moved to a new country, and they need to send in the boys again. If nobody watched the news, the propaganda wouldnt be effective at all.

Its not a bad sign that less people watch the mass media. Its a good sign. People are getting tired of being manipulated I guess. You can only crank that fear-o-meter up to 11 that many times before its not effective anymore.

Originally posted by Wanders

Within my family and circle of friends, it's difficult to be the one person who actually questions and/or looks in to anything.

Here's how a typical conversation might go:

Family member: I wonder why X happens.
Me: Well, scientists now speculate that X happens because Y Z.
Family member: *eye roll* Ugh. Geez, why do you even know that?
Me: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to know things.

You realize that you are not actually looking into anything, and are just repeating whatever information you have recieved from selected scientists through the mass media?