see you at the monkey cage
All I really wanted to do was make my way to the men's room. I always wait too long to go when I'm at the bar...
RANDOM GIRL: This band is pretty good.
(celtic/pop/heartland cover band plays John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" in the background)
ME (needing a piss more than coversation): Eh...not so much.
RANDOM GIRL: You don't like them?
ME: I don't hate them. It's just sort of pandering, and no matter what they play it reminds me of the Barenaked Ladies with crappier vocals...which kinda sucks...
RANDOM GIRL: People really seem to like them.
ME: Yes...well, they have a right to their own poor taste in music.
RANDOM GIRL (now irked): You don't have to listen to them! I mean, if you hate them so much, why don't you just go somewhere else?
And there it is. The if-you-don't-like-it-then-just-leave argument. When you're a cynic, people sometimes mistake you for an outright fatalist. They can't begin to understand why you wouldn't abandon what you perceive to be a sinking ship.
I do indeed tend to outwardly decry things I don't like. She was just suggesting I take my less-than-popular opinions elsewhere. I suppose I could have. Why not leave? I thought about it, and why I didn't. Why stick around anything - bands, people, society as a whole - that I so thoroughly despise?
In the words of my spiritual forebearer, the great H.L. Mencken, why do people go to the zoo?
RANDOM GIRL: This band is pretty good.
(celtic/pop/heartland cover band plays John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" in the background)
ME (needing a piss more than coversation): Eh...not so much.
RANDOM GIRL: You don't like them?
ME: I don't hate them. It's just sort of pandering, and no matter what they play it reminds me of the Barenaked Ladies with crappier vocals...which kinda sucks...
RANDOM GIRL: People really seem to like them.
ME: Yes...well, they have a right to their own poor taste in music.
RANDOM GIRL (now irked): You don't have to listen to them! I mean, if you hate them so much, why don't you just go somewhere else?
And there it is. The if-you-don't-like-it-then-just-leave argument. When you're a cynic, people sometimes mistake you for an outright fatalist. They can't begin to understand why you wouldn't abandon what you perceive to be a sinking ship.
I do indeed tend to outwardly decry things I don't like. She was just suggesting I take my less-than-popular opinions elsewhere. I suppose I could have. Why not leave? I thought about it, and why I didn't. Why stick around anything - bands, people, society as a whole - that I so thoroughly despise?
In the words of my spiritual forebearer, the great H.L. Mencken, why do people go to the zoo?
posted by Pj at 12:49 AM
9 Comments:
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
One of my favorites.
You may be a cynic, but are you bitter?
>>You may be a cynic, but are you bitter? <<
No more than the average person. Perhaps less. I rarely think to myself, "why them and not me???"
Is that what you mean? Kind of a weird question. Bitter people are typically unhappy and angry, and I wouldn't characterize myself as either.
Sure, the world always needs more of x and less of y, but, ultimately, who really cares? If you don't expect much, there's really no reason to be bitter.
I love you
You love ME?
Mencken said, "To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia--to mistake an ordinary young man for a Greek god or an ordinary young woman for a goddess."
Keep the anesthetics coming; I always wanted to be a Greek god.
Apollo
ROCKY: Yo Apollo!
APOLLO: Yeah Rock?
ROCKY: Ya wanna ring me in?
APOLLO: DING DING
SURVIVOR: THE EYE OF THE TIGER.....
Rocky IV was better.
The appropriate response to the girl was "because I'm trying to get you to fuck me."
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