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Thread ID: 51295	2004-11-17 02:37:00	ot the meaning of life.	Thomas (1820)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
293026	2004-11-17 02:37:00	What is the purpose of life? Is push-penny really as good as poetry, as Bentham contends? Surely there can have been few of us who have not sometimes wondered whether all our frantic activity — mainly getting and spending — is quite as necessary or important as we like to pretend it is . It is when I am faced by sullen youths, who tell me that life is pointless and not in the least worth living, that all my adolescent angst reawakens . Oh, I know perfectly well that the sullen youth with existential problems is really complaining that his declarations of undying lust for another equally sullen and unattractive youth of the opposite sex have been rejected in favour of those of his best friend . But still, I cannot help wondering whether I have wasted my life, whether I should have lived differently if I had really known what life was for . I had a long talk with a disenchanted (or should I say unenchanted?) youth last week . He had tried to hang himself, but had been cut down by his mother . I asked him why he had done it . ‘Life’s ****,’ he said . Well, at least one couldn’t accuse him of longwindedness . I asked him whether he had any friends . ‘A few . ’ ‘What do you talk about?’ I asked . ‘About all the things that piss us off . ’ Come to think of it, my conversation is not so very different . But I flatter myself that my complaints are elegantly phrased, and furthermore entirely justified . ‘What annoys you?’ I asked . ‘That we live in such a **** area and have to smoke cannabis all the time . ’ ‘You don’t absolutely have to smoke cannabis,’ I said . ‘There’s nothing else to do . ’ ‘Are you sure that there’s nothing to do because you smoke cannabis rather than the other way round?’ He was sure . I asked him where he would prefer to live . ‘A good area,’ he said . ‘Where’s a good area?’ He scoured his mind . ‘Nowhere’s a good area,’ he said . I asked him what he thought the good life would be . ‘To be someone with more money than sense . ’ ‘For example?’ ‘For example . . . for example, Eminem, someone who’s doing something . ’ ‘And why is his life better than yours?’ ‘Because he’s got enough money to go round telling everyone to f—– off . ’ ‘And who do you want to tell that to?’ ‘People in the street who get on your nerves . ’ ‘How? What do they do?’ ‘They look at you . ’ ‘What does that mean?’ ‘Well, they’re either for you or against you . ’ ‘How do you know they’re against you?’ ‘They try to rob you or beat you up in the street or something, so you got to get in first . But I’m not aggressive, I like to help people or give them things . It doesn’t work, though . ’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘If you give someone something, they think you’re a prick and everyone’ll take advantage of you and take everything you’ve got . ’ I asked what he’d like in life . ‘Just to have enough money to get out of here . ’ ‘How would you get it?’ ‘Probably something illegal . ’ A little while later I saw him stride out of the ward, determination written all over his face and in his gait . Our hospital’s no-smoking policy had finally given him a goal in life . >Thought this a good article applying to some of the callow youths we >meet .	Thomas (1820)
293027	2004-11-17 03:10:00	No idea what the meaning of life is,i was convinced it was to dedicate every spare minute to the 7 deadly sins but others disagree. But i do have the answer for the disafected youth. Get a job and keep it or pack your toothbush and off to 3 to 30 years of military service.	metla (154)
293028	2004-11-17 03:15:00	The purpose of life " Is to be the eyes, the ears and the conscience of the universe". No prizes for finding where that comes from>	theotherone (1421)
293029	2004-11-17 03:17:00	Is that the same Thomas who played with the summertimes band at strawberry fields? this is the husband of the singer	theotherone (1421)
293030	2004-11-17 03:20:00	Wow where did you find the time to do that? Thomas is back with a vengence is he? anyway thought you were a wine person? not a medical person? not often i read the screeds and screeds people have written but did today . societys problem it seems is expecting to much from someone, (age irrelevant) and then they wonder why people do not reach the expectations one has placed on them, and then up the expectations to try and get the person to become something they often cannot or do not want to be . Like a job i guess, you need expereince in most case's to get a job, but to have expereince you must have already had a job . . . . . . . ethical delemma there i spose . cant have one with out the other . any way i feel just when life gets stabilised someother thing is thrown your way to up the anti and cause you stress, strife or grief . (no comment on which one happened here) keep up the good work T, spot ya round like the moon . :x beetle	beetle (243)
293031	2004-11-17 03:27:00	I didn't read the full story before I replied before BT but I have now. What do you do when confronted by someone with no self esteem at all. At least in my day if we smoked dope it was because it allowed us to be creative (we thought) and was entertainment in itself.	theotherone (1421)
293032	2004-11-17 03:48:00	>keep up the good work T, spot ya round like the moon. Glad you got the point B;)as always :D	Thomas (1820)
293033	2004-11-18 03:35:00	I'm feeling like the famous stunned mullet at the moment ;) Serious stuff Tom . Golly, I don't know . I tend to be with Metla on this one - get a hair-cut and get a real job . The angst and emotional extremes experienced by youth are not new . But it is only within the past 50 years that Western youth have had the spare time and money to become really self-absorbed . Go to India and China where there is no social welfare safety net and you'll find the young people are busy working to put food in their mouths . They don't have time for teenage angst . Not that I'm advocating the poverty faced by such populations, but it does show that hopelessness and low self-esteem are less likely to develop when a person is busy . From my OE years ago, I still remain impressed that the nicest people I met were also by far the poorest . These were the Sudanese . Material wealth (money) has little to do with happiness or meaning of life .	Winston001 (3612)
293034	2004-11-18 05:57:00	Don't think that the point was, oh what to do,rather an obervation on the state of youth so common all around us.Simply a result of the welfare state. I am always stunned as a mullet at the lack of interest in the state of man. You would agree that the mass of people simply go along with the nanny state,depressing to say the least.	Thomas (1820)
293035	2004-11-18 06:23:00	um....There are many more youth who don't fall into the wasted loser bracket... Strange as it may seem,most youth don't waste their days away smoking gunja.....	metla (154)
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