So, how are you keeping "interested" and finding purpose?

[Kroeran]

If?

Seems to me that our society is still pretty tribal, and I believe that xenophobia is much of an evolutionary aspect of our wired-in behavior as fear of snakes, fear of the dark, or our need to procreate. (or racism or homophobia for that matter, but let's stay away from those hot buttons.)

For example, I am always surprised at the extent to which folks identify with sports teams, using phases like "we trounced them". This has reached absurd levels with college sports.

Forgive me if I have told this anecdote before, but I heard this in one of those mega-corp management training boondoggles and cannot forget it.

Supposedly, a some sociologists wanted to do research on team (or tribe) identification. They staged a fake three day management boondoggle. Several hundred participants spent all day listening to a real seminar about some management fad de jour.

Here is the experiment. They randomly handed out gimme caps at the beginning and required the participants to wear them to every function. Half of the caps were red and half blue. They never referred to the caps in any way.

The first day, folks sat with their friends and the red and blue caps were evenly distributed throughout the auditorium. By the second day a division between red and blue began to appear. By the third day, the two groups were at each other's throats.

Do I need to put on my asbestos underwear now?

those tribal forces are always there, just beneath the surface. Wise leaders leverage these forces, rather than try to suppress them

we all have this hunger for tribal rivalry within us, and sports is a safe outlet for this energy

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

those tribal forces are always there, just beneath the surface. Wise leaders leverage these forces, rather than try to suppress them

Agreed, although this sometimes leads to horrifying results. I will refrain from giving examples here.

 

[Kroeran]

Agreed, although this sometimes leads to horrifying results. I will refrain from giving examples here.

bringing it down to the level of the individual, this points to the question

"what am I"

rather than

"what do I wish to be"

when your perception of what you should be, is different that what you actually are, this sets up a tension factor, like a stretched elastic

rediscovering your primal core, in non-destructive ways, relieves this tension

 

[vicente solano]

you work, you are paying the rent...whats the problem?

who is to say which life is better than another

yet you hang out here

you say you don't want to change, yet you envy others here

would you like to dig into this a bit?

Not rreally. Besides, what would be the point? Sounds a bit like undergoing psychotherapy....