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Why is it so easy to focus on the negative??
When u think of hip hop you think of drugs, guns and gang bangers.
When u think of Burning Man you think of excruciating heat and smelly hippies that preach at u.
When you think of goth kids you think of Columbine (well, u don't, but some idiots do)
When u think of LA you think of traffic and over priced property
When u think of parents u think of rules.
Why oh why??????? Can't we just think of the positive things!????
Because life fundamentally sucks.
When you're young and should be full of life and whimsy, a tabula rasa finding beauty and novelty in the world, you're being spanked by bigger people, told what you can and can't do and generally trussed up and carried around a lot.
When you're in your early adulthood, you have beauty and strength, but are too immature to make any kind of mark, and end up trying to avoid self-destructing.
Just when you figure your life out, you're in middle age, it's half over, your youth and strength and beauty are gone, and it's THEN you realise what you SHOULD have done.
Then there's the long slow slide into decay and death, where you will fall into a flaming pit and burn for eternity.
I don't relate any of those to what you mention (hip hop is just shitty music as is techno, house, and most electronica. I smile at them though :) ) I don't make any of the other references. I like to poke fun at LA, I'm a NorCal Boy. The rest bring positive thoughts to mind. Hippies tend not to preach at me ?!?:1orglaugh :thumb:Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
JT
Evolution, my dear.
We learn by negative experiences, not positive. We're open to positive ones.
Think of it this way: Caveman is walking in the forest, finds a mushroom, eats it. He feels fine, and gets a tiny bit of energy. Small gain.
He's walking along again, eats a different kind, gets horribly sick and spends three days not eating, puking. Huge loss.
The subconscious breaks it down: Small gain for huge risk of loss, even death, vs a little food. Overall, unsafe.
We learn by negatives, not positives. even if said caveman ate 100 good ones before coming across the bad far outweighed the good. Because if you die it doesn't matter how many calories those good ones gave you. The consequences for bad far outweigh the benefits of pretty much any amount of good.
I think it comes from a natural inclination to problem solve. Things that are good are easy to lose focus on because they don't present an immediate puzzle or challenge. The difficulty, in my opinion, is getting stuck in the complaint mode, without getting into the related solution mode.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
In a way, yes, but it's not a negative to me. I see power and either individuality or strong family like affiliation and support. To me, good hip-hop is fundamentally punk rock with a mild ethno-cultural skew.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
No, I think it sounds like fun, but being kind of stuck there freaks me out a little. I mean, some of the neo-tribal stuff makes my skin crawl when it's being spouted by people too shallow to actually comprehend the concepts they are parroting, but I wouldn't have to drive to the playa to run into that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
Well, yes and no. When I think of the actual event, I think of a couple of poor kids that really needed some help. They needed support structures that cared for them and actually addressed instances of abuse and relentless taunting and such. I'm not saying they were perfectly good eggs, but they were pushed beyond what they could take, and some people don't just quietly kill themselves when they feel they have nothing left to live for and/or just can't stand their existence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
The Columbine that makes me think of Goth is all the jackass apologists that bit the premise that it had dick-all to do with being Gothic in any way shape or form. The ones that wanted to get on all the talk shows and say 'we're not all like that' blah blah blah. Actually, we had damn near nothing to do with that and those twits on tv could have just dismissed it out of hand then the entire subculture wouldn't have to carry around nearly as much of the association.
I do think about high housing prices in LA, but that's California in general. There are great things here, but the prices are pretty high when you take into account a lot of the highest paying mid level jobs are moving far away. I'd have to look it up, but I think average income in LA is down and average housing is way up and that's a tough squeeze.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
Certainly not. I do think about a number of good traits I learned, some directly and some in a more 'this is what you must never do' by example sort of way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
I do think it comes to problem solving and being discontent. It's a challenge to be dissatisfied and/or unfulfilled and still remain positive about the many good things around you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scar
survival instinct
I'll ask my mother.
With all due respect, I respectfully disgree.Quote:
To me, good hip-hop is fundamentally punk rock with a mild ethno-cultural skew.
Whereas initially it could be argued that it's about cash from chaos, and a kind of DIY-spirit, I'd say that hip hop lost the plot just like punk eventually did.
Railing against a control structure (punk) is vastly different from celebrating the benefits of a control structure - you knows, womens bein all hoes and nuttin on ma dick kind of bullshit. Punk wanted to fuck up a system, not other people.
And punk was a DIY ethic. Build. Make something. Not to celebrate a culture of standing around in baggy clothes, ripping off a style from someone who ripped off a style who ripped off a style, practically slurring your speech cause you're too FUCKIN lazy to even talk never mind get angry enough to shout. And as for spinning a record with a metronome recording, that's the best musicianship they can come up with?
Punkers built their own clubs, started their own labels, and didn't give a fuck about anything other than simply giving themselves freedom and money with which to continue it. Whereas rap, sure it was about the money, but the money was used to make ugly diamond rings and I be all got da benzos an da hoes and da crissy, ah fuck off.
Yeah, I'm givin ya a racist stereotype, but that's what rap has turned into, a giant racist stereotype. And please don't dredge up some shit that's got an audience of four people that bucks the trend. Rap has lost the battle to be about street poetry. Allow me to quote from the YING YANG TWINS
ASS JIGGA JIGGA IT
A-A-A-A-A-A ASS JIGGA JIGGA IT
A-A-A-A-A-A ASS JIGGA JIGGA IT
ASS JIGGA JIGGA IT
ASS JIGGA JIGGA IT
MOTHERFUCKIN WIGGLE IT MUTH MUTH MUTHAFUCKIN (repeat a bunch of times) WIGGLE IT
Oh great in comes the Casio keyboard. A perfect complement to these modern Shakespeares.
Punk lost the plot too. I don't want to be fuckin lectured about your goddamn McDonald's capitalist vegan wholefood emo bullshit or whatever, get on the goddamn stage and rock the shit out of the stage, be it GABBA GABBA HEY or FUCK MY SHIT STINKS (Dayglo Abortions rule!) And if you're going to be so goddamn passionate about something, at least let it be something that isn't patently fucking obvious. I mean, apart from defense contractors who's in FAVOR of land mines?
Because the negative presents itself as fact more often than the positive does. the positive becomes an abstract that in order to grasp we have to say things like "hey, could be worse, could be snowing". Also it's become human nature to complain about everything. And i do mean everything, from comfort lvls to things that you don't have and ppl that have things easier/better than you do. Those ppl that do have things better than you find a way to make their positive a negative by rubbing it in your face. Negatives are facts. We have to make Positives. And for the most part - we ppl are LAAAAZY fuckers. Its easier to lie about and complain about the negative. So we focus on it.
~K
Has there been any movement downwards there yet? Sacramento is beginning to tank. Prices are down in some of the more "backwoods areas" North of SF. SF and LA won't tank, but I think the prices will have to fall given the mortgage issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by ForrestBlack
JT
Human history is tragicomic. I don't see it all as necessary negative. It is just what is and likely will be. You take the actions you can. You have to accept that a lot is beyond your control. Ranting is just to purge it from your system. I see no harm in it (unless you're OCD on it 24/7).Quote:
Originally Posted by keiko
JT
Life is negative and a tragedy, as I've said before.
It will end in pain, misery, sickness, decay, and death.
Or hideous violence.
haha do you think this might be an excellant example of focusing on the negative? i agree with Forrest, the original rap, like the original punk, actually had meaning but lost its way somewhere in the realm of commercialisation and standardisation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bikerpunk
I said "good hip-hop" :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Bikerpunk
Oh that wasn't me being negative.Quote:
Originally Posted by evilstonermonkey
The last time I was negative, three people killed themselves having lost the will to live. Small children burst into tears and a nun burst into flames.
That was just me tellin it as it is. I'm not being negative, rap is negative.
I tend to agree. Life does suck in many, many ways.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bikerpunk
But the key to being positive, is to be happy that you aren't dying some slow death right now, or being chopped up with machettes in Africa, or starving, etc...
Life in America is pretty good, despite our minor hardships.
But life is sometimes tedious, painful, frustrating, and sometimes boring.
So it's natural to feel unhappy about it, or negative about it.
Because people want life to be perfect. People want life to be happy.
But guess what? Life is NOT perfect. It's NOT happy. It's very tough,
and very challenging...
I think one of the biggest problems with Americans especially,
is that our parents, and society, tell people that life will be wonderful.
You will have a happy childhood, go to school, get a job, get married,
have kids, have a home, and die peacefully of old age one day...
But that's not the way life is for most people. So they feel cheated.
And bitter, and sad, and miserable, because life did not turn out to
be all puppies and flowers.