#how societies actually function

[studiesofanalienplanet]

There is actually a very fundamental principle in Human interaction, but barely someone ever talks about it. It’s not altruism, although it often gets mixed up with it. But there is the fundamental principle of helping and getting help. Like when I go and do something to help you, it’s with the fundamental concept and agreement, that if I ask you for help at some point, you’ll help me back.

And you can find the principle all over. It’s the only reason todays societies are functioning. They do so on the principle of „I contribute to the wellbeing of the group and so the group helps me back.“

If you want it’s the basic concept of splitting up work.

And here is the thing why group projects are so rarely liked. If you contribute something to the project, but the others or one of them doesn’t put in the amount of work or resources they should, this fundamental principle gets violated.

And that’s something people instinctively know. Except for a few individuals which you might call „Egoists“. Because for a few individuals it pays off to not do the work and surf on the other peoples „I help you, so…“

But at some point, if you have too many people who have forgotten the „so I help you back“ part, the system crumbles. Because if I can’t pay my help forward and trust to get helped back in return, when I need help. Then it doesn’t pay off for me. And I stop offering „I help you, so…“

But the problem is, that a lot of the activities of the past decades has been practically aimed at destroying this fundamental principle. We put people on pedestals who violate this principle on a daily basis. We put people on pedestals, who exploit that principle and take and take and take from people, amassing resources for themselves. And then they tell everyone „Do the same. Stop holding up your side of the bargain.“

And some people listen, because they can see it is working for them. And then you have one more person not holding up the principle of equal exchange. And the whole concept crumbles a little bit more.

That’s the state of the world we a in right now. Too many people have stopped believing in the fundamental principle of human help economy.

They are still a minority by the way. But the harm they do on the world is real. And it has gone into the degree where people are seeing that the principle gets violated. And start to demand change.

[saturnniidae]

Something that kind of frustrates me is how while there's always plenty of conversation about Hiccup's mistreatment by Berk and how things were before and in the beginning of the first movie, people don't seem to understand that obviously while it was partially out of his control due to his weak constitution/physical inability to do certain tasks, Hiccup never really wanted to be like everyone else.

He wanted to be accepted obviously – "I just want to be one of you guys," but we never see him actively wanting to make an effort to change himself to conform to Berk's standards. He wanted to be accepted among his peers as himself, he had his own way of doing things that he refused to change or compromise on, (this is literally shown and stated be a standard behavior; it's why Stoick was so exasperated with him, why their relationship deteriorated as his childhood progressed!!)

It is the very reason everyone hated him so much. When he started doing well in training he was still unhappy because while he was using tricks he learned from interactions with Toothless, he still wasn't doing things the way he wanted, he was finally making Stoick proud but it was only by succeeding in a way expected of a viking of Berk and by working towards a goal he no longer desired to achieve.

He never wanted to be like his peers, to be the ideal viking and perfect son, he just wanted to be himself and be accepted for it.

[metanarrates]

worth bringing up as sort of a corollary to my severance thoughts is that severance does an excellent job of showing that different forms of power & control (cult/corporation/family/government) tend to bleed and overlap and propagate in similar forms. in that particular vein, speaking as a cult survivor, it's worth saying specifically that it doesn't do much good to exceptionalize cults as a rare oddity of how societal power can sometimes take shape. lumon, though fictional, is a really good example of how those mechanisms of control exist in many forms throughout society and should be broken down and scrutinized when they do appear.

[toddtakefive]

thinking about todd and his resolve toward… not quite isolation, but being alone in a room full of people again. he goes along to the study room to sit on his own and do his homework, he sits at the poets table and follows along with what’s being said while keeping quiet, he goes to the meetings at all but doesn’t necessarily contribute (in fact, if you watch him when cameron is telling the story ‘from camp in sixth grade’, you can see that he recognizes it before any of the other poets but doesn’t voice it until they all have). he’s not alone, necessarily, if you want to get technical about it, he’s just lonely, and he’s generally okay with that. he doesn’t have friends and that’s fine, he doesn’t participate in class and that’s fine, he doesn’t have a relationship with his family and that’s fine—he could live without any real connection and he’d have been, more or less, fine.

the thing about when he says “i can take care of myself just fine!” is that he isn’t really wrong, you can infer that he’s been doing it his entire life anyway, it’s that ‘taking care of yourself’ isn’t the same thing as really living or being happy. todd’s an introvert, certainly, and even as he gets closer to the group he defaults to sitting quietly in the background, but he’s also denying himself community out of fear not introversion. todd isn’t friendless because he’s an introvert, although that definitely plays a part, he’s friendless because he pushes anyone that might want his company away. if anyone has every wanted for his attention in the first place. (neil’s unwavering interest in him is unique (even when it comes to the rest of the poets, who are fine with todd coming along and joining the group, but aren’t really hellbent on him being there in the beginning) and his refusal to accept it is a direct result of being so lonely growing up.)

there’s obviously something to be said about the implications of his parents neglect, and the more than likely fact that he grew up friendless, and how those both play a part in in him being so skilled at dodging social interaction/being so avoidant of it, but by the time we see him in the movie he’s all but accepted his fate as being alone his entire life. he’s already accepted being the family disappointment, and he’s already accepted he’ll never amount to anything, and he obviously doesn’t like it, but he’d have managed living with that knowledge without the confirmation that it was all wrong. would he have been miserable? almost certainly. but he’d have managed. he’d done it for that long already, anyhow.

[acediaedeus]

do you ever wonder whether Ichigo had dreams as a kid? did he ever lay in bed, after being tucked in by his loving mother, and imagine his future? and do you ever think about Ichigo, right after his youth, spent being a weapon of war, has ended? about him coming home after a tiring day, filled with what is, in comparison, trivial human matters, and just sitting there for a moment? and then coming to bed and trying very hard to not imagine anything at all? do you? because I don’t!

[are-we-really-doing-this]

I think it’s WILD when you wanna admit you have a problem and people say shit to the tune of “admitting you have a problem is worse than actually having a problem because you don’t have one, it’s all in your head” and then recommend you go to therapy to fix all the problems you apparently don’t have.

[satanic-fruitcake]

i think the worst part of finally self improving is how fast people expect you to do it

[rainswept]

tired of censoring myself to be palatable . honestly

[dxxtruction]

///

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads

The Last

slow building apocalyptic thriller

an american academic is at a conference in a remote Swiss hotel when a nuclear apocalypse strands him with just 20 others

50 days in, a body is found in a watertank and he becomes obsessed with investigating to find out who did it

even though the remaining people are just trying to quietly survive as supplies slowly dwindle and the winter approaches

[drunk-on-starlight]

I wonder why the great beings didn't just use the Toa to fight and win the Core War.

[akkivee]

the block party drama tracks dropped a lot of lore/plot bombs!!!!

the hypster fc magazine had another featurette about it where they recapped what happened at the festival, but that story itself ended with the statement that more or less said ichiro’s festival showed a life where music was all that mattered and there was no need for hypnosis microphones and i kinda????? feel like that’s endgame tbh lol

[seilon]

you know im realizing now. with the exception of a few resident psychiatrists, ive had like. no good experiences with mental health professionals

[crashification]

what if I was writing spn meta comparing it to the godfather. What then

[dideki]

thinking forever about the huge gap in my education where in the place of the past perfect continuous tense there is only Uther's Troll Wife

[wyn-n-tonic]

terrified of being taken off of my medication and watching all of my hard work be undone because i'm losing the thing that made my body work correctly for this hard work to even be done to begin with. lol. lmao even.