Armor Games

*chimes in again*

On the other hand, this doesn't mean you should not be in any particular groups. Just always reflect on how you relate to the group and how the group relates to you.

I join certain groups because my interests happened to match theirs, but some of the groups I joined were so interested in the politics of declaring who they were that it became rather unsubstantial...so I left. Another group I joined had interests that are little to do with what I hold most personally dear, but since it was relevant to another of my interests and I found them so wholly unpretentious and fun, I plan to stick around!

If you grip something too tightly, you may not realise you are holding on to nothing.

It's very easy to say "people shouldn't think about committing suicide" but honestly, what gives!?

Ichibon wrote:

Given everything and when you can't succeed you feel that you are entitled to it and you cry.

BINGO. Emphasis is mine, because I would like to mention something I've alluded to but haven't talked about specifically. It's called 'results-oriented mindset'.

In this day and age, we are preoccupied with competition, potentials, and achievement. All these are goals and quantities that are considered to be gotten. This kind of mindset is 'results oriented' because it's concerned with whether somebody gets something or not. Our greedy ways and the recent resurgence of "winning is everything" are examples of this. So too, in fact, is saying "nobody fails at anything".

People who adopt a results-oriented mindset learn to fear failure to the extent that it affects their sense of being. Being dictated by whether one has the ability can kill your motivation as well as your self-value. But since people are so obsessed about money, grades, possessions, the size of their penis etc. (you can read the last one however you like!) society is effectively breeding a generation of insecurities.

I'd like to contrast this with the process-oriented mindset. This is the one that teaches adaptive responses and the how of living, and eventually the understanding that while we may be judged on values, that it is the process that embodies life, not the results. We experience in doing things. Instead of saying "winning is everything" or "nobody fails", we say "we can assess and gain value from all outcomes." After all, the grading system at school is designed to demonstrate strengths and weaknesses in somebody such that they are given the opportunity to address these. It's a system of information, not judgment.

So to extend Ichibon's argument about religion, offering religion in times of such crisis is not going to help because of the mindset. A result oriented mindset in religious terms would be to think in terms of conditions and blessing- if you do this you go to heaven but if you do this you go to hell. With such possibilities hanging over one's head, pressure only increases.

Should that religious instruction come with the opportunity to transcend the results-oriented mindset, however, the outcomes for that person are likely to be much more favorable. But the two don't necessarily go together.

Oh, sorry turret :P

If you'd rather not think about it in the literal sense you can of course think about it in a figurative sense. It's synonymous with 'bragging rights'.