EUPHORIAN'S PROFILE

1- Ghaleon (Lunar)
2- Alex (Golden Sun)
3- Mithos/Yggdrasil (Tales of Symphonia)
4- Prince Lyon (Fire Emblem 8)
5- Pike Longhorn (I think that's his last name...) (CIMA: The Enemy)
6- Lloyd (Fire Emblem 7)
7- Shaher (Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis)
8- Nightmare (Soul Calibur)
9- Magus (Chrono Trigger)
10- Zephiel (Fire Emblem 6)

Are there no female villans ever?

author=King Karsuman the Wise link=topic=1237.msg18530#msg18530 date=1212345076
Euphorian:

Leprosy is not contagious, just so you know. =)

Really? I thought it spread on touch. Then what was with the quarantines?

author=Sir Guy Little of Wingsburg, Knight of the Realm link=topic=1237.msg18512#msg18512 date=1212322866
3. Flying - I can't do it, people aren't meant to fly. Nuh uh. Never.

Whaaa? I have dreams about flying, and it's really fun. :P
Or at least, in my hallucinative comatose state, it is.

I really can't thing what I'm -afraid- of. Used to be spiders, but one tends to get desensitized to that when they have to battle one or two bigger-than-golf-ball-sized spiders for the shower every morning.
Used to be heights too, but I grew out of that.

Actually, I think it's disease. Rather, some uber-resistant, contagious disease. That Pandemic flash game? I stopped playing half way through that. I would not even go within thirty feet of a leper. Hell, Sunset over Imdahl was megas-creepy itself. I just don't like the idea of rotting away into bleh.
...And then I get angry at it. >.> Stupid disease.

I have yet to get those 'Mass' functions to do anything at all. Yeah, you're probably stuck, unless there's some other trick? Anyone?

But I haven't heard of such.

author=Lord Kenton Pendragon the Forsaken link=topic=1221.msg18390#msg18390 date=1212176977
One, the death of diversity is not a plauisble scenario. You are also confusing genetic diversity with social diversity. (If everyone were socially identical or even near identical, we will still need different medicines, we would have different thought patterns, etc...). This may be a nice thought experiment, but it's groundless.

We don't know too much for sure about Nature vs Nurture, so for though pattern thing, that may or may not have anything to do with generic diversity. That doesn't really matter here, though, so~
The thought patterns/medicine comments were based on the idea that there are just about six million of you running around- clones or what not. I'm well aware that's ridiculous, but many hypothetical situations are.

Two, emo is just the latest of teenage social trends that will die out when the next generation takes hold. There's a reason why you don't see packs of greasers and preps and jocks running around in adult society.

Not quite sure what the point of this is. I'm not saying that emos are going to like start a massive revolution. I'm saying the generation as a whole is beginning to move away from the past patterns.

Four, people will make assumptions about you based on how you present yourself. That, too, is human nature. Furthermore, people will make judgements and may even make decisions about your future - why tilt yourself toward a disadvantageous position? Why would you willinging put yourself at this disadvantage? To make a "statement"? No one's listening, because the real world will bring you into line (or crush you).
Lastly, people also take note of how you DO put yourself into a disadvantageous situation, and that counts against you, too. Presentation matters, no matter what wishful thinking says.

Four, people will make assumptions based on how you present yourself. That, too, is human nature. Furthermore, people will make judgments and may even make decisions about your quality as a person- why tilt yourself toward a disadvantageous social position? Why would you willingly isolate yourself from your peers? To do some brown-nosing? No one cares, because you are surrounded by your peers, not the real world, and they will either treat you like a normal person, or reject you.
And that is, as well, human nature.
Lastly, people also take note of how you DO tell people what you think they want to hear, and that counts against you, too. Integrity matters, no matter what ego-flattery does.

One thing older people don't seem to realize is how to respect emotions. Actually Kenton, you're like 22? That's still young. But you're doing the same thing. Essentially the message you're sending out is "it doesn't matter if you're lonely, it doesn't matter if everyone hates you, just do your job." That's not something that I can personally stand behind at all.

Yes, people work to make money, because we need to eat and have shelter. You really don't have a choice in that matter. Jobs are a means to an end, and that end, boiled down and pruned, is existence.

And that's exactly what I mean when I say society has us trapped. Some personality types are not suited to such things. I am one of them. Given, such a type is only 1% of the population, 1% of the population of every such system is still a hell of a lot.

Social conformity IS advantageous for group survival, but by taking it to these absurb extremes you attempt to make that seem a great folly. Nice straw man.

But I asked you then- where do we draw the line?

You want an outline on the best way to live? Study a religion. Religion has co-opted many of humanities desireable traits (and several undesirable traits too, but that's neither here nor there). Religion is a damn effective social invention for social conformity and effective way to help the survival of the society at large.

A religion often has codified an ideal way to live, usually surrounding evolved human traits such as compassion, reciprocal altruism, kin love, and mutual support, while discouraging destructive and unproductive behaviors like in-group violence, freeloading, and selfishness. Study a religion and you'll be studying a microcosm of humanity.

And so where have those religions gotten us today? *looking around* I do not believe for one second that this is the best way to live. Religion isn't bad, I'm sure. But it's not the definite answer. Or not yet, anyway.

And by challenging me to assert what is the "right way to live", you hope to debunk my assertion, and then assume that therefore "any way is the right way, because there is no 'right'. So being emo is okay". Yeesh. You honestly expect me to reduce the entire motivational structure of humanity into an easily dimissed blurb?

No, I honestly expected you to be unable to answer. And so far, that appears to be so.

There is a gerenally advantageous way to live: contribute positively to society.

See, you've only switched out terms here. Advantageous- to positively. What is positive? What is good? These are questions for which we don't have answers.

There are enough people living this "right way" to support a large host of freeloaders - people who coast on the wealth of society. So we can support shitloads of your precious "diverse" social mini-groups. But the existance of goths isn't improving my standard of living. However, the existence of worker drones making a new, I don't know, eletronic public health record, is.

So you're perfectly content with the way of the world as is? And you then give no considerations to the worker drones. To the kids in china. To the toiling Mexicans picking our fruit. You were born into a position that you could get where you are. They weren't so lucky. Just what are they supposed to do about it? Or do we just sacrifice them?
Then who decides who gets sacrificed? Chance? A person in power? And why are they in power?
And we have that same spiral of power.

So I ask you: "What is the right way to live?" And you better get it right the first time, capiche?

Sorry, I don't have an answer either. I can tell you what's not the best way, and that's this.
But I've said this before, I'm sure. I'm an anarchist. And an idealist. Those are two things that don't fit well together, I'm sure. I know it doesn't work.
But I can't stand be trapped. Some of us are just screwed from birth, and the system -our set of fictional rules to play by- holds us there.