Listen, Don't Listen
On the one hand some people say “Don’t listen to other people.” On the other hand some people say “You should listen to other people.” So I guess it isn’t an absolute thing? You shouldn’t always listen to other people? You shouldn’t always not listen to other people?
So when do you listen and when do you not listen? If you want to do something and someone tells you it is impossible should you listen? How do you know when what you want is ridiculous or when the person telling you not to or to do is the one who is wrong?
If I want to eat nothing but cheesecake for the rest of my life and I don’t care about how soon doing that will cause me to die should I listen to someone who says I shouldn’t? If I want to become a professional singer but I can’t sing to save my life should I listen to someone who says I can’t? If I want Sarah Palin to be the next president should I listen to someone who feels otherwise?
Is it true that only you know what is right for you? I don’t think so because there are people who do all kinds of terrible things to themselves because they believe that is right but it isn’t. Is it? If you huff paint, snort coke, or hit a crack pipe because you think that is right for you, well, you aren’t harming anyone else right? So should you listen to someone who says “No don’t do that. That isn’t right.”
I can see the logic in saying “Hey do whatever you want as long as you don’t harm someone else.” But what if you are harming someone not physically but emotionally or mentally? Should they really be so bothered by the things you are doing to yourself that they suffer from an internal torment? Are you doing it out of malice in the hopes of harming them? If not then I don’t know what their problem is. You know whether you are doing it for the sake of malice or not. Deep down inside you know. It might not be something you admit to yourself, but you know. And if it isn’t malicious then go right ahead and do it right?
But then, if you do care what other people think and you ask them for their opinion on something and they won’t give it to you, then later they try to give you some unsolicited advice on something else that is completely unrelated to what you asked them about earlier I say tell them to fuck off. If I asked you for your opinion earlier and you didn’t give it to me then, but now you are getting on my case about something that I at least moderately enjoy you can fucking go to Hell.
Hmmm. Maybe…I dunno. I think that you have to decide if some people are worth listening to. People who are actually your friends in name and in deed are people who you can trust and who you can listen to. Close family who actually seem to care about you can also be heard out. People who are distant, untrustworthy, and phony should of course not be listened to. Yet sometimes, for some reason, those people still get influence.