Take for example films that don't make sense! Why do we put up with them? For a start the Matrix first film was great and coherant, but by Matrix 2 it was making less sense. Then 3 was a total mess not even worth trying to work out. It was clearly a case of lets milk the matrix. Are our lives so void of content that we don't care how we fill them?
Perhaps. We have alot of free time in the modern world. At least those of us without kids. Anything that breaks the mold and holds my attention is fine with me. Should all movies have a rich story, appealing characters and a purpose? No. Most of us just go through the routine: Work, lunch, Happy Hour, go home, eat, maybe a movie, maybe some sex, then sleep & repeat. After awhile you don't want to wander out of the cycle, it becomes comfortable, non-threatening. So, weird movies, hours under the influence and channel surfing through life feels normal and comfy. Whether that is good or bad is up to the individual.
No. Our lives are not void of content; rather, it's just the opposite. Contemporary society is driven by consumption; that's all there is. Our lives seem empty because what we lack is meaning .
I think you're both saying the same thing with different words. We are complicated beings and it takes a good mix of things to make us happy. There's nothing wrong with the hedonistic pleasure of a brand new toy, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying popular art that isn't laden with deep meaning. Sometimes you just want to relax and be entertained. What is wrong is that we compulsively indulge in so much of it, and the reason is that something else is missing. Many scholars tell us that it's relationships. As we become more rootless and mobile, being forced by a fickle economy and a less-than-paternal industrial system to move to new communities every few years, it becomes impossible to build the intimate, long-lasting friendships that our ancestors strove for. We can't even stay close to our families. Consider that Homo sapiens is a social species like our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas. They form small tribal units and they stay in them for their entire lives. They have the same companions forever. We used to do that, right up through the end of the Neolithic Era when we lived in small farming or fishing villages. But civilization, the migration into cities, suddenly had us spending more and more time with people we weren't close to. We tried to cope. We learned to make friends as adults, to get to know the people we work with or live next to, the parents of our children's classmates and the people who go to the same church. People who like the same hobbies, art, or food. But the world keeps thwarting us. Even our children get moved around now, so they can't build lasting friendships. They go off to college and from then on they're just occasional visitors in our homes, hardly family. There's a loss of community in our lives. So we try to fill the void with whatever's available. It doesn't matter because nothing really fills it. Keep your eye on the internet. If humans are adaptable enough to build the relationships we crave virtually, this could be the turning point. Some of us spend more time talking to our online friends than our real-world friends. There's a real advantage there, because we'll be able to keep in touch with them no matter where either of us is. These online friendships may turn out to be very durable and fill the void. Fifteen years ago, on an evening like this, I might have rented one of those vapid movies. Tonight I'm talking to my friends.
I think many people might be a bit more comfortable to have seen a worthless film they can critisize with confidance than theyd be to have seen a thoughtprovoking or emotion stirring film they couldnt easily comment on. I see so many people living their days going from one empty distraction to another...happily, contentedly, desperately avoiding the kinds of gaps and moments where theyre left alone in the quiet to look in the face the life theyve allowed themselves to accept. I know people who become aggressively neurotic if they have to drive 20 minutes in a car without a radio playing. Its not an easy road to walk where one choses fight to try and remain aware of the still scattered puzzle pieces that make up ones life... holding on to hope that there will be time to get it together before its too late... much easier road to walk the one with the bright lights and colorful sights and pleasant smells and amusing empty distractions one upon another for as far as one can see.
No our lives are not void of content. We sometimes fall into a routine where we don't fill it with content and even then we choose to do it, not for all people of course. SOme people choose this lifestyle because its safe. We can fill our life with content if we take the intiative to do so and that advice is for everybody. The range of how long we follow this routine depends on the person.
