Power-to-weight ratio

Brenda Williams13 said:🤣

So, let's just keep this energy going... I guess I'll try to 😁
a little bit here. But seriously, tell me... isn't it possible for all these different perspectives to be valid at once? Who gets to decide what's actually "right" or "wrong" anyway? It feels way too simplistic to just paint everything in black and white like that.
For me, arguments aren't really about proving I'm right... they're more about explaining the "why" behind how I see things.

Look, we aren't talking about you or me specifically... we're talking about the masses. 😁
I think I actually find myself agreeing with you on most of this... 😂

salemef1 said:How does it feel to be stuck in a society where the conversation never rises above football scores, mindless trivia, and the crushing monotony of the daily grind? A place where people just whine and roll their eyes at everything, and where anyone who manages to string together a complex sentence is suddenly hailed as some kind of deep philosopher...

Honestly, I’m bored, but I rarely find myself trapped in circles like that. Usually, those scenarios involve some sort of mindless corporate coffee break or a group of coworkers hovering around the water cooler.
My survival tactics:
1. I grab a newspaper and pretend to read (just enough to look busy) 😁
2. I start poking holes in people's arguments under the guise of being helpful.
3. I suddenly remember an urgent appointment I have somewhere else. 😁

The core issue here is this detachment from the collective. Dualism.
There is me, and then there is everyone else.
Once you realize—and actually accept—that you are part of that mass rather than some observer watching it all unfold from the outside... everything changes.

I find myself agreeing with anyone who feels they’ve managed to distance themselves from the crowd, mostly because I feel that way too—I’m an individual, not just some nameless part of a mob. For me, at any given moment, I am solely responsible for my own actions, well, unless I’m feeling particularly uncharitable and decide to shift the blame onto someone else 🙂.
But the "masses," as people call them, seem to lack a true sense of self; they act more like a collection of social products that can't really be held accountable for anything since they're constantly being shaped by societal norms, various prohibitions, or what's permitted
.
As far as I'm concerned, no rule or restriction ever truly binds me, except for the ones I simply choose not to follow
. It’s just how I see things, since I consider myself a free agent, though I’m also quite mindful that every single move I make carries its own weight of responsibility
. For instance, if I were to jaywalk across a street here in Chicago, I’d be the one paying the ticket if a police officer caught me 🙂.
At the end of the day, I’m always the one choosing my path, even if there are certain moments where I might decide to blend in and behave like PART of the crowd
.

wiredbison92 said:but I still choose my own actions, even if that means acting as PART of the crowd at any given moment...

pure rationalization and delusion.

Alex Rogers96 said:It’s all about rationalization versus delusion.

👍

That’s pretty much exactly it, I suppose. I try to lean on my rational side as much as possible, just so I can figure out what my actual, genuine desires are versus whatever it is the masses are pushing on me, you know? It helps me see if there's some kind of flaw or if I'm actually doing the right thing, which I think is necessary if I want to truly understand my own actions and, well, take real responsibility for them down the line...

We clearly have different definitions of what "the masses" actually means.
The crowd you see is just a mob; the mass I see is everything surrounding you.
And even that mob influences you, whether you feel detached from it or not...
The mob votes, and you are subject to those results just the same.

I mean, sure, I’m susceptible to herd mentality, but really only if I actually let it happen to me.
No law in the United States can physically stop me from taking a life, but I have to be fully aware that an act like that carries its own weight—a set of consequences that naturally flow from it.
And honestly, all of that depends on the kind of society I find myself in.

But always, and I mean absolutely always, I’ll be conscious of my ability to choose, and I’ll probably spend a lot of time weighing the fallout. If I start blending into the crowd, becoming just another part of the surrounding noise, then I feel like I'm losing myself; I don't want to be just another cog in the machine, I want to exist as a fully self-aware being, while everyone else can go ahead and make up the mass.

So, here’s a question for you—it’s a bit extreme, I know, but maybe it helps illustrate what I’m getting at.

Imagine two guys walk up to you carrying three guns. They hand you one of those guns, which only has a single bullet in it, and they bring along a third person. They look at you and say, "Look, we've got one gun with one bullet, there are four of us here, so use it however you see fit."
The possibilities are basically this:
if you kill the newcomer, who hasn't done a single thing wrong, you get to live,
if you take your own life, the innocent person lives,
or if you try to kill one of the two guys with the guns, the other one is just going to kill both you and the innocent person.

The choice is yours, and what you decide to do is up to you, but you’re definitely going to have to live with whatever happens next—or, well, you won't be around to live with anything at all.🙂)

Let's be real here—mass psychology is basically just an old-school survival instinct. It can actually be pretty useful sometimes, like if you suddenly need to bolt for a fallout shelter during a nuclear strike.
Or when a Marxist makes a scene.
As for me, I honestly don't mind diving into shallow, trivial topics every once in a while—they’re actually great for zoning out... it’s kind of my version of watching soap operas.
In moderation, of course.

I’ve always felt that mass activism isn't necessarily the best approach, mostly because I think that first instinct of self-preservation usually ends up taking over everything, you know? It seems to me that when things get intense, everyone's primary focus shifts toward their own survival, and people start looking at the casualty counts—not just from some chaotic retreat, but from those dangerous surges in a crowd at places like a massive Coachella set or a packed stadium concert...
so, if you ask me, I suppose it’s probably a bit safer to stay on the fringes of the crowd rather than right in the thick of it...

salemef1 said:Let me know if you guys feel the same way—how you perceive the crowd and how the crowd perceives you...

I’ve always been the type of person who feels an intense sense of unease in large crowds. Generally speaking, any environment that gets too packed or "suffocating" triggers a certain anxiety in me... or rather, an irresistible urge—which I've acted on more than a few times—to just push my way through the throng and get out.

Honestly, there’s almost a sense of pure relief when I finally break free. Or when I can just retreat into some cozy, slightly eccentric little corner.

I suspect my career choice was actually a subconscious response to this; working solo while being part of a mass that doesn't even notice me.

I mostly use "the crowd" as a way to blend in, to hide or drown myself in a sea of supposed conformity, just so people don't notice how much I fail to fit into mainstream trends.

When you stand out, you become a target—and unfortunately, the targets are usually insecure primitives rather than anyone particularly intelligent or sensitive.

Or at least, mindful people.

I simply don't function in social circles where I have to adapt to the local "flavor"—whether it's obsessing over NFL stats, mindless gossip, or just talking nonsense.

That drains me far more than debating the laws of astrophysics ever could.

The crowd and I are mostly polite adversaries.

It’s just that sometimes I use them as cover, and they occasionally pull a fast one on me and expose me anyway... :-))

salemef1 said:Actually, there’s more to it—it feels like the crowd is actually bothered by my refusal to blend in; almost as if my decision to stand apart is an insult to them. Not to mention the common assumption that I’m just trying to act superior or "intellectual" by being different. In reality, I’ve simply always preferred My Way over just going with the flow.

I’ve dealt with this exact same thing within my own social circles. We’d grab coffee, and the entire conversation would revolve around some superficial nonsense regarding some random celebrity or a star athlete.

I can stomach that kind of chatter for maybe half an hour—give or take—but after that, I start feeling physically suffocated by the triviality of it all. Another issue is that I often don't even know how to engage with those topics; I’ll toss in a comment here or there just to maintain the illusion of participation. Eventually, my mind just checks out entirely—I’ll be mentally tackling a completely different problem while sitting right there—and of course, people notice, and it clearly irritates them. I eventually tackled this by being upfront with my friends about why I act that way, and they’ve accepted me for who I am. Now, since our coffee chats involve deeper, more meaningful discussions rather than just mindless gossip, I find it much easier to stick around—whether we're just grabbing a latte or taking a walk through downtown...

Personally, I believe communicating with the collective is vital; there isn't much point in isolating oneself. No matter how foolish or inconsequential a topic might seem to one person, you can usually extract some shred of wisdom from any conversation if you look hard enough.
If your group won't accept you as you are—if they insist you're just acting "too smart" or "too special"—then they aren't your people. Move on...

wiredbison92 said:I suppose I feel like communicating with the general public is actually pretty vital, and there isn't much point in just staying on the sidelines, really. Even if certain topics seem a bit trivial or even kind of silly to some people, I think you can usually find a nugget of wisdom in almost anything if you look closely enough.
If a community won't accept you for who you are, or if they decide you're being too intellectual or acting like you're somehow better than everyone else, then maybe that just isn't your crowd. It might be best to just move on...

I'd have to agree with that, honestly, 😎