[knght990]

Observation. In the few forums i have visited, including tech forums, i notice a trend. When a new generation of people arrive they ask the same questions the previous generation asked and come up with the same answers. I doubt i am any different and I realize even this topic isn't new.

This observation extends to life. We live the same lives of those who came before us and those who will come after us.

A professor of mine called this our social contract. In that particular class we read books about conforming and not conforming with these contracts. Characters that did conform lived the expected life. Characters that did not conform all suffered.

How do we redefine our contracts acceptably or pioneer new ones? Why must i conform to the ideals of group think?

Why here instead of the psychology area? I need the answers to be in my language.

 

[The Proof]

you don't need to conform to anything, you just need to give the impression that you do

 

[Apollo Celestio]

Realize the futility, then realize the meaning. It's not something just anyone can do.

 

[dalsgaard]

The only way to pioneer new social contracts is to live on the edge. You're probably not going to change the world though.

 

[sharpstick]

I don't think it a matter of conforming, as in, I used to be one way but now I have changed to fit with the group. I think it is that the human condition it amazingly similar for all of us. We all think we are more unique than we really are, and that is another thing that makes us the same. That's why palm reading works, the readings for different people do not need to be all that different.

I came to this forum for the same reason everyone else did, looking for answers. The problem is that the list of questions is much shorter than we would like to believe. We aren't necessarily conforming or changing, it just that we are already similar.

 

[Filo]

Social contracts only matter if you interact socially. The solution to this is to get enough money to retire in a cheap, halfway-third world country. Then, the world can go screw itself.

Social contract my ass. Ethics, on the other hand, are something that one should respect, I think.

 

[Theaetetus]

You're not going to change anything as long as the world spins and humans have to eat. All of these same traditions actually teach something, and that's how to operate in the same world.

 

[uplander]

Society is one grand scale clusterfuck of confirmation bias... helps to maintain the blissful cluelessness that so many are addicted to. Anything else would be hard... and nooooo, we can't have that!

If it weren't for us NT's, The SP's would all be huddled together in caves burning cowshit for heat and banging rocks together for entertainment, while the SJ's managed the whole pathetic affair.