STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!
It’s my fault. Honestly. I really need to learn how to control my impulses. No more clicking on idiotic lists about what I should or should not be doing with my life even if I say each time I click, “it’s just to laugh.” It’s tough to quit lists though. They are so easy! Information that I can digest without thinking!? Complex social commentary simplified in to 4 word phrases and entertaining pictures?! How could I pass up the ease with which a list brings understanding in to my life? How can I survive my 20s, 30s, 40s and life in general if someone doesn’t tell me what is acceptable, unacceptable, expected or absurd in thoughtfully organized, numbered phrases!? How?!
Don’t worry, I understand. These lists which have replicated themselves over and over ceaselessly on our facebook timelines and in our “cool alternative news website” links are signal that social values are changing. People are crying out, “What I’m doing is allowed! Not everyone will agree with what I’m doing here but I have permission to do what I want! I read about it in a list!” But this is not the first time in history that values are changing. As a matter of fact, maybe not even the second! You do not need permission to be who you are and you do not need a stranger to justify your actions. I’m sure you know that!
Sure it feels good to read that blogger s22ddxi just confirmed that you are not a bad person for wanting to do something that other people don’t want to do. Yeah it feels good to know that you are not the only one making the choices you are making, but there is no context to these lists! Only you know your context! Maybe shaking your disrobed boobies in a hotel window isn’t right for you. Maybe getting married isn’t right for you. Maybe these things are both right for you, only you know!
Now I’m guessing most people don’t take these lists too seriously, but these kind of self-obsessive articles run the risk of dulling us down and making us mediocre! They encourage us to blow off creativity and critical thinking for the sake of picking a list-item and just doing it!
In a way these articles are giving you a list of expectations to live by, a list of “do”s and “do not”s. Fuck that! We already have plenty of rules to heed, laws to try and obey (or break). Stop telling each other what is okay and not okay! Figure it out for yourself! Think through your decisions and get comfortable with your own choices, whatever they may be.
And be happy! Like this kid-
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juicecats 