Zelda Said: “She Refused to be Bored, Chiefly because She Wasn’t Boring”

[GammaGlobulin]

My Dear Friends (if I may be so presumptuous as to continue to call you friends):
 

Zelda Fitzgerald, in her “Eulogy on the Flapper”, 1922, wrote:
 

'The Flapper awoke from her lethargy of sub-deb-ism, bobbed her hair, put on her choicest pair of earrings and a great deal of audacity and rouge and went into the battle. She flirted because it was fun to flirt and wore a one-piece bathing suit because she had a good figure, she covered her face with powder and paint because she didn't need it and she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring. She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do. Mothers disapproved of their sons taking the Flapper to dances, to teas, to swim and most of all to heart. She had mostly masculine friends, but youth does not need friends - it needs only crowds...'

 

Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald were a well-known couple well before I was even born.

 

And yet, during recent years in Thailand, I have pondered this utterance of refusal to be bored, this quote which never seems to go away.

 

Therefore, just a question:

 

a.  What did Zelda mean by this short quote in the context of what she had been writing.

b.  What might this mean for us, those who are either young or old.

c.  Can one be a flapper, someone flaunting convention, even today?

 

These days, does it not seem that most of those we meet or hear about in the news or on social media are people, just like us, who are attempting to escape reality?  Is it true that we have already lost touch with reality?

 

How much longer can we live in this fantasy world, a virtual world we have created which is not connected to reality, and still expect to survive, for long?

 

Sorry for this two-part question:

 

Social media, as well as the mainstream media, has become boring.

Most of what we see/read on the Internet is already conventional, and nothing we see on TicKok is new. In fact, this media has become a distraction from reality, one which is used to lessen our anxiety and fear of our reality.

 

I have recently been toying with the theory that the reason most of us have retreated into complete fantasy is due to our refusal, or inability, to face real and impending existential threats, threats which we clearly understand, if not consciously, then at least at the subconscious level.

 

Therefore, the utter inanity of social media and mainstream media which seems to precoccuply us, 24/7, and which distracts us, is no more than a result of mass denial.  And, obviously, we are all complicit in furthering this denial, just as some people whistle past the graveyard.

 

Of course, in psychoanalytic theory, the purpose of ego defense mechanisms are to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety or social sanctions or to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot cope.

 

However, in our collective case, concerning the future of humanity, defense mechanisms become pathological only when their persistent use leads to maladaptive behavior such that the physical or mental health of the collective community (humanity) is adversely affected.

 

And so, is not our preoccupation with TikTok, etc., just a symptom of our fear and realization that we are individually impotent and powerless to change the path we are on, a path to our destruction, at a time within our own lifetimes?

 

In Conclusion:

 

I have some great advice for myself. This is to stop worrying, and to latch onto some girl, no matter what her age, a woman like Zelda….some flapper who is super smart and loves some fun.  I think it is never too late for a 70-year-old virgin to find a caring female who shares my take on the world.  I know she exists, somewhere in Thailand.  There is no chance of my finding a girl of 28, but, still OK if she is half my age, plus 7.

 

I might even find a woman who loves to read. If I could, then I would sit with her in our sitting room, each of us in our own wing chairs, re-reading all the books we had read when we were young, maybe with a cat, or two.

 

We could have a few Thai myna birds, as well, the smartest of birds.

 

Most of humanity, these days, understandably, seems to be escaping into the virtual world of fantasy, and so why should not I?

 

Kissinger, aka Dr. Strangelove, at age 98, is still just as much the fool he always was, talking about winnable nuclear war. Guys like he are proof that humanity is what we know it to be.

 

Therefore, maybe I will just sit with my new-found female friend, in wing chairs, before a fire, on a cool evening, reading the same novels and fiction I read before, back in 1960, when global warming was just beginning to glimmer on the horizon.

 

Again, my regards,

And, best regards,

Globule

[starky]

????‍♂️

[GammaGlobulin]

On 5/20/2022 at 10:17 AM, starky said:

????‍♂️

Hey, Man!

 

Thank you for being the only guy to reply to this submission of mine, one which expresses, in sort of a roundabout way, what seems to be happening in our world today.

 

My main point was, even if I did not express it clearly enough, that most of us seem to be conveniently and completely distracted from existential issues which will necessarily mean, for sure, either Life or Death for us, in the near future.

 

When we say Perception is Reality, what we mean is that we can never actually see reality, as it is, or might be. Everybody knows this full well.

 

Each one of us perceives reality in a slightly different way.

 

Our perception of reality is only an approximation.

 

And, further, as you must also know, most of media, of any kind, seems to be ever increasingly distracting us from focusing on what is important and crucial for the survival of organized human existence. 

 

You know:  Sometimes I FEEL like we are collectively dying, simply because we refuse to see.  We refuse to see, and we prefer to engage in behavior, stupid behavior, which helps us to become distracted from what must be done, if only we might try to survive.

 

We refuse to see the train wreck up ahead, simply because seeing clearly might force us to radically change our collective behavior in ways that are just too painful, and not fun  In fact, we are acting like children, and not like adults.

 

It is so obvious that most of us, and especially the next generation, or can we call them The Last Generation, refuses to see their future, the future written on the wall.

 

Tick Tock, Tick, Tock...  The clock is ticking...  And these young people refuse to take their future seriously.

 

Maybe some should be tied to a whipping post and have Science beaten into them?

Still, this would not help.

They are still in denial.

 

Sometimes, I feel like we are dying...

 

 

 

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

 

[proton]

And I thought I was bored !????

[GammaGlobulin]

Our Albedo is changing, rapidly....

 

Our albedo is changing, just due to rapidly melting ice in the arctic.

 

Not good, My Friends...

 

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

[GammaGlobulin]

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

Is Humanity nothing but a joke, my friends?

 

Maybe, Hendrix was correct.

 

For sure, we do not care about the future.

 

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

Nobody cares...

 

 

Tick Tock....

[GammaGlobulin]

Anyway....

 

Since nobody cares.....

 

Might as well get down on this....

 

 

[Meat Pie 47]

is it possible to ban a posters which every day post just nonsense ?

[GammaGlobulin]

6 minutes ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

is it possible to ban a posters which every day post just nonsense ?

Hendrix is not nonsense.

 

Can you even ban Hendrix, after all these years?

 

Some tried.  And, they always failed.

 

(The Hendrix estate was bound up in legal matters, for years.  This is why we could not see most of his music on YoutTube, freely, in recent years.  But, maybe now, we can see more on YouTube.  We need more Hendrix.  And, we need more Science, too.)

 

VERY FAR AWAY.

 

 

Fly On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[GammaGlobulin]

All that I am saying is that "Business as Usual" is completely untenable....

 

And, if we are to survive, then very radical changes must be made to human behavior, all throughout the world, in almost a split second.

 

And so, since this is completely impossible, then you know what we have to look forward to...    Right?

 

You can escape into fantasy, if you like.

 

Or, you can escape into music.

 

Or, you can escape into the fantasy of apps like TikTok.

 

I agree with you...

There is no longer hope for Mankind.

 

We waited too long...

 

We should have begun preparing to save our world, back in the 1960s, when the Hippies were telling us that we should.

 

And, even, back then, the writing was already on the wall.

 

Old books, like The Population Bomb, were already written.

 

And, even, The Keeling Curve was already collecting important data which would portend our eventual doom.

 

Please do not just kill the messenger....

 

 

 

 

Mauna_Loa_CO2_monthly_mean_concentration.svg

Edited May 21, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[RandiRona]

I am happy to see that AN is utilized as a therapy for some....

For most it's a torture but hey BDSM exist for a reason!

[GammaGlobulin]

All that I can say is that I do not care for myself, much, nor my future.

 

Instead, I care for your children, and your grandchildren.

 

Also, I care for the future of humanity, just in case Humanity might eventually evolve some sort of culture which will be more self-sustaining instead of a culture which, in our present world, is mostly destructive.

 

Speaking as a person who has few years to live, I would hope that humanity can outlive me.  Yet, I often worry that I might live to see the end.

 

We cannot solve existential problems just by living on apps like TikTok.

 

Escapism will not serve us well in the near-term or long-term.

 

Our Last Generation will either wake up, now, or see the end of organized civilization.

 

[GammaGlobulin]

 

[GammaGlobulin]

[Boyn]

Christ on a bike what are you on man???

 

[GammaGlobulin]

11 minutes ago, Boyn said:

Christ on a bike what are you on man???

 

Dear Boyn,

 

I am on nothing.

 

Let me tell you, my friend.

 

Back in 1970, most of what we know now was known back then.

 

And yet, zero progress toward making our world sustainable has been made.

 

This is a total failure of human behavior.  And, this failure is totally not surprising.

 

I am on nothing.

 

Yet, I am getting evermore worried about the prospects for humanity.

 

I am an old guy.  I have no children. I do not worry for myself.  I only worry for you.

 

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

 

[GammaGlobulin]

 

[GammaGlobulin]

Death Knell to the Species???

 

 

 

Let us not forget all those externalities, baby!

 

Yeah...that's right.

 

Externalities.

Edited May 21, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[GammaGlobulin]

What is an "externality"?

 

Maybe we should learn the meaning of this term?

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]