The odd thoughts that crawl through your mind on public transport...
Oh. Before I forget, I got sent this. I think I shall implement it. Indeed. Mostly because it made me laugh for a good five minutes :-)
*cough* on to the more serious stuff. I was thinking, several times, whilst wandering about the town on various trains, about the housing situation over here. Everyone lives in all these little boxes, they're all built in rows, all the same, all alike, all forcing everyone to be much the same...
And the reaction of people, upon being forced into this, is to think all the same little thoughts, and sit in the same little boxes, and -rust-. Nobody takes any risks - or, those who do, are those who leave. I'm put in mind of one of the sciffy stories I remember reading - I think Asimov, although I'm probably wrong - which ran along the lines of the intelligent, thinking folks all went out and left Earth, and all the unthinking, beaureacratic, paper-shuffling, ahrse-covering... well, you get the idea... stayed back on earth, and mouldered. And wondered why the folks out there wouldn't join in with their unions, and call a strike. Something about Enlightened Self-Interest - everybody promises to work their nuts off, and in return, everybody agrees to work their nuts off. So everyone gets the best of the results - the manglers mangle, and the workers work, and the guys at the top do their best to make sure the guys at the bottom (and all the way down, obviously) got as big a percentage of the profit, or something, as possible.
Works really well, in theory. I think it's missing the bit about corruption, however - as many sciffy stories do, leaving out the places where people are malicious, or just plain stupid, makes for a much better story. Hence why Star Trek seems so out of place - there's no -normal- people, everyone, down to the poor bugger in the red shirt, is bright and focused and -on-.
It's one of the reasons I dislike being over here - at least in NZ, there's fewer places like Croydon. Although I wonder about some of the Auckland suburbs sometimes. Travelling through Croydon, on public transport, and I see all these young mothers, with pouty faces and not a thought travelling behind them. I see the young guys, with no future other than, maybe, working at (as Tornado calls it) Old McDonalds or equivalent, with their only hope of being the next David Beckham... It's all so crushingly depressing. And this goes on for -miles-... At least on the Northern line, for example, there's fewer meatheads and more business-folk. Or so it seems to me...
*sigh* I just wonder.... what can I find to do, as a job, back in NZ? Whatever it is, it's not going to have the opportunities I have over here. Whatever it is, it's not going to pay like over here. And yet... the ability to go for lunch under a tree that isn't cemented in place. The chance to step outside and breathe the air, and not feel like you're standing with your head in an ashtray, perhaps. The little things.
Ah, well. Introspection is all well and good, but one must keep it in perspective. Paying the bills. Enjoying the company of your family and friends. The important things that make up what you -remember- about life, rather than getting caught up in the picayune details of what goes on, only to wake up in 20 years wondering what you missed...
*cough* on to the more serious stuff. I was thinking, several times, whilst wandering about the town on various trains, about the housing situation over here. Everyone lives in all these little boxes, they're all built in rows, all the same, all alike, all forcing everyone to be much the same...
And the reaction of people, upon being forced into this, is to think all the same little thoughts, and sit in the same little boxes, and -rust-. Nobody takes any risks - or, those who do, are those who leave. I'm put in mind of one of the sciffy stories I remember reading - I think Asimov, although I'm probably wrong - which ran along the lines of the intelligent, thinking folks all went out and left Earth, and all the unthinking, beaureacratic, paper-shuffling, ahrse-covering... well, you get the idea... stayed back on earth, and mouldered. And wondered why the folks out there wouldn't join in with their unions, and call a strike. Something about Enlightened Self-Interest - everybody promises to work their nuts off, and in return, everybody agrees to work their nuts off. So everyone gets the best of the results - the manglers mangle, and the workers work, and the guys at the top do their best to make sure the guys at the bottom (and all the way down, obviously) got as big a percentage of the profit, or something, as possible.
Works really well, in theory. I think it's missing the bit about corruption, however - as many sciffy stories do, leaving out the places where people are malicious, or just plain stupid, makes for a much better story. Hence why Star Trek seems so out of place - there's no -normal- people, everyone, down to the poor bugger in the red shirt, is bright and focused and -on-.
It's one of the reasons I dislike being over here - at least in NZ, there's fewer places like Croydon. Although I wonder about some of the Auckland suburbs sometimes. Travelling through Croydon, on public transport, and I see all these young mothers, with pouty faces and not a thought travelling behind them. I see the young guys, with no future other than, maybe, working at (as Tornado calls it) Old McDonalds or equivalent, with their only hope of being the next David Beckham... It's all so crushingly depressing. And this goes on for -miles-... At least on the Northern line, for example, there's fewer meatheads and more business-folk. Or so it seems to me...
*sigh* I just wonder.... what can I find to do, as a job, back in NZ? Whatever it is, it's not going to have the opportunities I have over here. Whatever it is, it's not going to pay like over here. And yet... the ability to go for lunch under a tree that isn't cemented in place. The chance to step outside and breathe the air, and not feel like you're standing with your head in an ashtray, perhaps. The little things.
Ah, well. Introspection is all well and good, but one must keep it in perspective. Paying the bills. Enjoying the company of your family and friends. The important things that make up what you -remember- about life, rather than getting caught up in the picayune details of what goes on, only to wake up in 20 years wondering what you missed...