The world doesn't revolve around you!

[Rat Bag]

How many people were told this as a kid?

The biggest lie perpetrated upon children.

I can't prove it (yet: haven't the words to articulate it) but a recent revelation informed me that, for all intents and purposes, I am the centre of the universe. More acurately, I Am is the centre of the universe, and the rest of it too.

So why are we so adamantly intent on hiding this fundamental truth from our youth?

Sure, kids are selfish and telling them that the world doesn't revolve around them might help them to see that there are other people in the vicinity who's needs are just as important as their own. But I'm not coming from a selfish "I am the universe" perspective, but from a perspective of responsibility. Now I accept that I am that tree I must fight for that tree's well being like I would fight for my own. Now that I accept that I am that starving kid in some third world shithole, I must take responsibility for his plight. Since I realised that I am you I must care for you like I must care for myself and expect the same in return.

I am the centre of the universe and the world revolves around me. Therefore I must fulfil my own desires without impinging on others' ability to fulfil their own. I can help them to fulfil their desires as they help me, because they too realise that we are both the centres of our respective universes and, strangely enough, we are each other.

So the next time you chastise a kid, "The world doesn't revolve around you!", please think about what I've said, even if you now think that I am full of shit.

Thanks.

[K&D]

i don't think your full of shit.

very rouseauian, or at least from what i understand of his writting, though i plan to read more....i thought you were a youngin as well though...

[Rat Bag]

I Am!

[K&D]

cool....not that means that you can't say shit like that, helll man i say shit like that all the time....its good...esp if you consider that were a minority, youth that is.

i really like rousseau, my teacher put marx and rousseau in a really cool way...he said it was like doing the dishes together with a bottle of win, talking while working, so doing the dish's is no longer equated with "the dirty work" when someone drops there plate, cause he drank a little too much, everyone laughs and it affirms his humaness, where as in capitalism or in today society it be like an illegal immigrant working in a resturant cleaning dishes when she drops a plate it exposes all the authority roles. i thought that was an intresting way to put it.

[Rat Bag]

Wow, K & D!

Just looked up Rousseau on a quick websearch and am now reading Confessions: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/ ... sions.html

What a beautiful writer!

[K&D]

the thing is though, apparently he's pretty fucking hypocritical...but then again what good writters weren't, had those skeletons in there closet...

[Doreen Peri]

Thanks for the confirmation!

I KNEW it was all about me..... er.... I mean YOU!

[Doreen Peri]

Now I accept that I am that tree I must fight for that tree's well being like I would fight for my own. Now that I accept that I am that starving kid in some third world shithole, I must take responsibility for his plight. Since I realised that I am you I must care for you like I must care for myself and expect the same in return.

seriously, though, that was absolutely beautiful, Ratzo!

Very lovely and well said.

That's a great and enlightening revelation you've had, my friend!

[abcrystcats]

I can't really argue with the idea that you must look out for your own well-being. This is a very true thing. If you don't look out for yourself NO ONE ELSE is going to do it for you.

I have been trying to impress this on my colleague at work. The boss has been on her case and sort of shoving her towards the door. Wrote her a memo, even. If someone wrote ME a memo, I'd be hoofing it to interviews so fast it would make your head spin. This woman's been on ONE interview, and that's because I went there first, and then told the guy I wasn't qualified enough for the spot but he should check out my friend.

I asked her why she wasn't trying to find work. Her situation with us hasn't gotten any better, and I fear she's going to be booted at the end of this month. She said a few days ago, "I'm trying to be loyal to ___ (fill in boss's name)." Well, HELLLOOO!!! The boss isn't loyal to her, not at ALL. And if the situation was reversed, I know I'd be facing the same problem.

All this "being unselfish" "think of others first" crap we were taught as children is just that -- CRAP. And later in life all it does is prevent us from surviving. Think of YOURSELF.

For the record, RB, I've never been inclined to use that particular phrase in my whole life, and I probably never will. One reason I like Ayn Rand is that she's got that "self" part down pretty well.