MyDoorsAreOpen
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
- Messages
- 8,549
As a dude who's always enjoyed (at some times more than others) a reputation for being eccentric, , it always used to puzzle me why the things I preferred and spontaneously said, did, or thought of were 'odd', when other people's weren't. I've settled on a theory that the essence of eccentricity is a noticeably lowered degree of taking behavioral, speech, and attitudinal cues from ordinary people in your surrounding world, and by the same token a noticeably greater degree of coming up with one's own ways from scratch, and/or importing them from people not familiar or local.
I think the Eccentric play a vital role in society that's overlooked by many. They're the humble pioneer lichens that slowly and without complaint grind down the hard rock of weird and unprecedented interests into the fertile dirt where the showy and floral Hip take root. The hip, you see, do also take their cues from sources far and foreign. But only secondarily. Proximally, the hip take their cues from familiar and local people that they deem hip as well, and ultimately from eccentric people, some of whom have quirks that can be cherry-picked, borrowed, and worked into the act of someone actually quite well attuned to social cues: the Hip Cat. The Hip Cat's crowning achievement is not originality, but merely closeness to a small and well-guarded source. He is spared the indignity of having to answer for his non-mainstream ways, depending on how insular his social circle is.
I take my cues, for the most part, from exemplary individuals I've known in person and spent at least a little bit of undeniably quality time with. Exemplary to mean means that they hit that hard-to-hit balance between being compassionate and idealistic but also hard working and practical. There have been maybe 20-30 or so people in my life. On many occasions I can hear their voices speaking to me in my mind, and I find myself imagining how they would handle situations I'm faced with. Their mannerisms creep into my personality. Interestingly enough, many of them have been highly intelligent and kindhearted but misunderstood loners, from people my age to people old enough to be my grandparents.
I have a very hard time taking my cues from characters in the media, be they characters played consistently in "reality" situations by real people in front of a camera, or fictional characters in popular literature (read: TV, movies, and games). I don't believe there's any "real" celebrity in the public eye who isn't playing a character. They just often or always play one that happens to bear their real name. I just don't easily trust or relate to anything they say.
I think the Eccentric play a vital role in society that's overlooked by many. They're the humble pioneer lichens that slowly and without complaint grind down the hard rock of weird and unprecedented interests into the fertile dirt where the showy and floral Hip take root. The hip, you see, do also take their cues from sources far and foreign. But only secondarily. Proximally, the hip take their cues from familiar and local people that they deem hip as well, and ultimately from eccentric people, some of whom have quirks that can be cherry-picked, borrowed, and worked into the act of someone actually quite well attuned to social cues: the Hip Cat. The Hip Cat's crowning achievement is not originality, but merely closeness to a small and well-guarded source. He is spared the indignity of having to answer for his non-mainstream ways, depending on how insular his social circle is.
I take my cues, for the most part, from exemplary individuals I've known in person and spent at least a little bit of undeniably quality time with. Exemplary to mean means that they hit that hard-to-hit balance between being compassionate and idealistic but also hard working and practical. There have been maybe 20-30 or so people in my life. On many occasions I can hear their voices speaking to me in my mind, and I find myself imagining how they would handle situations I'm faced with. Their mannerisms creep into my personality. Interestingly enough, many of them have been highly intelligent and kindhearted but misunderstood loners, from people my age to people old enough to be my grandparents.
I have a very hard time taking my cues from characters in the media, be they characters played consistently in "reality" situations by real people in front of a camera, or fictional characters in popular literature (read: TV, movies, and games). I don't believe there's any "real" celebrity in the public eye who isn't playing a character. They just often or always play one that happens to bear their real name. I just don't easily trust or relate to anything they say.
