I will most likely decide to delete this post in the future, when I get around to re-shuffling this blog, and can’t find a way to re-categorize this into something useful more than a footnote of a thought.
This may be a bit presumptuous, but I think all humans try to balance doing something meaningful to lay claim over ownership (doing something alone, because others may slow you down, or because you want the satisfaction of wanting to complete something without the help of others), versus being with friends. In observation of others conducting the latter, usually, it involves a lot of gossip around people I have no context of nor would probably care for if I don’t know them, or maybe recalling a good event which in all objective measures, has no bearing on the current social gathering, but is an attempt to recall an old event.
I suppose it’s nice to stay away from mind-stimulating topics like “What is the good life?”, or maybe where I sense the futility in gossiping of others, people would render that same question useless, because no matter what they do, they don’t have an answer to that question. If not that question, delving into the possibility for solutions to current social/political issues under the wrong company can easily lead to fisticuffs, which would explain other peoples’ hesitancy to bring up such topics in social gatherings and the workplace.
Yesterday though, someone made the argument for having babies, because they were smart, and that they should pass on their superior genes onto the world, because it was a battle against “stupid people” who have 5+ children, as opposed to just her one or two. Never mind the eugenics behind that argument for a moment, with an understanding that the amount of alcohol consumption is irrelevant, knowing that she would make the same argument without it, I believe what she is mistaking “superior genes” for a lack of resources. But that justification of “us vs them” is very interesting to observe, so let’s take this sense of self-superiority and run with it.
What she is trying to do is create an in-group by blood of “superior” beings. However, all in-groups have a sense of superiority over the out-group. That’s how social animals construct the world. By identifying the in-group, it gives you a sense of safety to do other things. So what is it that we’re going to do now that we are in a safe environment?
Because as fun and interesting as some of the conversations and wonderful personalities that came together were, what did we do at the end of the day that was meaningful? I suppose at the end of the day, strengthening that bond with those who matter around us is just as important, as a highfalutin sense of doing something “meaningful” which I have yet to define even for myself.
