who cares what i think?
a simple question asked by a rather annoying commentator named savithri on indi’s blog. savithri is just that kind of person that has some dumbass retaliation for everything anyone says. she knows better, she is always right, and she always has something to say. she attacked me for no apparent reason, she cut in on everything i said with lame comebacks like ‘you’re just a little bitch who needs to run along and do her homework’ and of course, ‘who cares what you think?’. i’m not going to leave links to all the little nide remarks she made to me and ruwani, because i simply cannot be bothered. she leaves no link, so i assume she has no blog. she’s just an annoying spectator who likes standing on the sidelines and heckling the actual players. anyway, im not dedicating an entire post to this poor, attention starved soul. i’m blogging about the question, ‘who cares what i think?’
its a strange and uplifting revelation, that point in time when you’re finally old enough for people to begin to take you seriously. when you’re small, you await that day when people stop baby talking to you, and freely have an adult conversation with you. the day you’re allowed to chip into the conversations of your parents and other elders without being laughed at and having your cheeks pinched. the day when you form opinions that are worth the time of the ‘higher authorities’ in your life. when you’re about 12, you’re forging your way ahead, fighting to be recognized, fighting to be heard as a voice that is talking sense, hoping that you will be discovered as your own person and stop being your parents child or your older sibling’s kid sister, or brother.
when in school, i think thats half the magic of coming into the higher grades. there are real juniors really looking up to you, teachers really telling you to behave in an exemplary manner, the more senior seniors start entrusting various tasks to your care, they start believing you’re responsible, they ask yor opinion at meetings, and they seem to care what you think.
is this an illusion, though? that we care what others think? absolutely not. but when it comes to making decisions, do we really give other’s opinions a whole lot of bearing? not so much.
a lot of us really care what other people think, but mostly what they think about us. people that we are not all that closely associated to are in no way capable of directluy affecting our lives, but at the end of the day, we care quite a bit about what the world in general thinks about us. and this includes those people that we are not that closely associated to. we dress, talk, act and work in caution about how it makes us look to an outsider. an outisder who will judge (and we know this fact well) us without knowing the details of the entire picture, like our friends would. why we care so much what they think, i know not.
in a more personal context, up to what extent do we take into account what someone else thinks when making a choice or decision? sure, when working in teams or having a discussion with people and a so called joint decision is required, it is protocol to make sure everyone’s ideas are presented and brought forward to an open forum. but does one individual really care about someone else’s opinion as much as they care about their own? would that individual work equally hard to bring someone else’s idea to light as they would with their own?
sure, maybe we’re willing to budge a little and make room for another idea or two, but in most cases we’re rarely willing to allow someone else to share their opinion freely. we drive our’s forward louder and stronger than anyone else’s. we vehenmently and violently make sure we’re heard, fogetting that people are entitiled to their own opinion. we enforce our opinions on others, and dont back down till we’ve gotten atleast a few others to agree we’re right.
and thus, who cares what i think? um…what does it matter to me who cares and who doesnt?
i honestly dont give two hoots about who cares what i think and who doesnt. i am entitled to my opiion, and i believe everyone is. i try not to be a hypocrite, i try to practise what i preach and hence make a valiant effort to refrain from judging people unfairly or unnecessarily, and also from shoving my opinion down someone else’s throat.
“but does one individual really care about someone else’s opinion as much as they care about their own? would that individual work equally hard to bring someone else’s idea to light as they would with their own?”
well actually.. that’s exactly what the majority ends up doin most of the time.. real ‘power’ lies with the ones who can sell their opinion well (so well that the others feel its their own opinion) and get them to work their asses off to bring the “seller’s” ideas to light.. that’s WHY hundreds of working class people threw their precious jewellery onto Rohana Wijeweera’s stage at his rallys, thousands of suicide bombers blow themselves up around the world, millions of germans thought they were white aryans who had all the right to beat the crap out of jews and the whole bloody world believes in the CocaCola company’s made up image of a jolly fat santa wearing a red suit and a white beard….
Comment by SpectralCentroid — May 26, 2005 @ 11:04 am
dude, email me, I have something interesting for you.
Comment by Ru — May 26, 2005 @ 3:23 pm
“an outisder who will judge (and we know this fact well) us without knowing the details of the entire picture, like our friends would. why we care so much what they think, i know not.”
I liked the post; well said. In terms of the “we care quite a bit about what the world in general thinks of us” paragraph: I usually never worried what others thought of me, but I feel the older one gets, the more you realize that people will always talk shit and you just can’t pay attention/listen to everyone. There are
somemany people who, as you said, just don’t see the big picture! Those who always care or make decisions based on what other people think often have a really hard time in life.Comment by the1truecoolguy — May 26, 2005 @ 4:45 pm
spectralcentroid : you got that right. its all about how you market it, and how quickly the fickle race we belong to falls for it.
the one true cool guy : yes, it must be hard to live constantly watching over your shoulder and wondering what they must be saying. other than that, i absoloutely REFUSE to continue calling you the one true cool guy! :p
Comment by electra — May 27, 2005 @ 6:38 am
lol - In that case, feel free to call me Mr. Selvarajah…kidding. Call me Ian
Comment by the1truecoolguy — May 27, 2005 @ 9:55 am
:O santa isn’t real?! don’t lie! grr you Pepsi propaganda person you.
Comment by ddm — May 27, 2005 @ 6:03 pm
of course santa is real… just that he was painted black so there aint anything red on him…
Comment by SpectralCentroid — May 30, 2005 @ 5:18 am
aww u dedicated a whole topic to something i said to u.. thats so shweet of u..is ur name really btw?
and ur right I AM ALWAYS RIGHT.. glad u got that right
heard u were shopping for jeans and underwear at odel today.. get anything good?
Comment by savi3 — June 24, 2005 @ 1:25 am
savithri : WAHAAAAAT? how’d you know about my trip to odel? ok so jeevaka knows…he hasnt told me yet…but ill let him get to that! heart attack…wait. wtf right? nvm. its all good. underwear, good, jeans, not good. too expensive and nothing fits. sigh, the story of my life.
Comment by electra — June 24, 2005 @ 3:14 am
electra.. maybe i shouldnt hv put that bit abt ur shopping trip in my last post
apologies.. u can always edit it out anyway so i’ll try not to worry too much abt it 
ya i think u cud say Jee and Je know electra is YOU.. but u must hv known that wud happen sometime?
as u said it’s all good… i think i should butt out now and stop getting in the middle of u and the twins.. tata
Comment by savi3 — June 24, 2005 @ 8:24 am
testcomment623
Comment by testanchor64 — October 16, 2005 @ 1:19 am
http://msnimiekle.blogspot.com
Comment by msnimiekle — May 3, 2009 @ 3:52 pm