There have been these articles and debates about whether men are not important now because they play video games while women get more degrees and stuff. Things like this always make me nervous because everyone's overt and subversive misogyny comes out. However, while bracing myself for the "womenz is selfish" and "what has womenz done? Man makes invenshuns" comments, I was struck by a more basic question.
What's wrong with playing video games? What's wrong with watching cartoons and caring more about toys than anything else? What is wrong with a life geared towards happiness and "frivolity?"
The hard and fast answer is: Nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Given a couple of conditions.
The first condition is that even within your life of frivolity, you can still take care of yourself. Your bills get paid, you get fed, your house maintains a standard of bug freeness. How you manage to do those things is perhaps up for debate, so long as they happen.
The second condition is that you do not make commitments that eclipse your frivolity. I would say children are probably a commitment to this level. Some professions (surgeon, air traffic controller, etc) necessitate a certain serious and attention to detail. You get the idea. Don't make commitments where other people are dependent on you. Pretty simple.
Past that, what reason is there for not living a life based on your happiness?
None.
Though, there seems to be this push in society against a life of frivolity. Many out there seek to make us "grow up" and "mature" and do the stuff like have babies and stop playing games and stop focusing on ourselves.
There are a lot of people who tell me and have told others that "growing up" and having kids made them happier. They feel once they stopped focusing on primarily, their own needs and wants, things were far more simple for them. Things just fell into place because they had this other thing to think about now.
This.......................makes absolutely no sense to me.
Maybe that's the point? Maybe there are people who really don't find that much satisfaction in a life of music and pleasure. Maybe they really don't see the lush fun of hours of games of just random bullshitting with friends. Maybe it doesn't hold the same joy and happiness that it does for me.
And while I realize that paragraph probably dripped with sarcasm as you read it in BHB voice, I really didn't mean it that way. I don't understand the people who want the babies and not the XBOX, but I'm sure they are sincere. I'll allow for them to enjoy life the way they wish.
However, I do expect the same respect. I'll let you be all adult and I won't roll my eyes when you gush about how great it is to be a parent . . . if you don't bitch at me when I swoon geekfully over a video game expansion pack.
Deal?
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