What "society" means to me

"Society", to me, is simple.

It's about having fun.

You might think that's a good thing: well, I congratulate you, for being a well and healthy member of such a "society".

Well, I don't think it is. (a good thing)

Freaking everything, every disgusting little thing, is geared towards having "fun", or garnering some sort of enjoyment - no matter how fleeting and trivial that "enjoyment" it is. Take humour for example. I hate it. Humour, so often, seems to define who we are. Ask any girl, why they find some guy X attractive. One of the main reasons they come up with will be "because they're funny" or because they "have a great sense of humour". In fact, the relationship at question need not even be that specific. Ask anyone why they like a certain person: almost, undoubtedly, many will come up with the above same answers.

Even employers, colleagues, and other people in a whole swathe of environments (spanning both work & "non-work") practically demand humour in today's society, as part of being a "good" person. Should you lack it, well, officially they can't really do anything about it or criticise you... but perhaps a lot more importantly, they won't really like you as a person. And of course, that's critical in today's society.

Coupled with that disgusting thing called humour, is well, the human being's attempts to garner some sort of fun at every little chance they get. Every adult is really a child at heart. They love to play. Of course, on the outside, adults don't really resemble children playing on the playground. (Although I've seen things get pretty close) Yet that does not mean that they don't want to play. In fact, adults play more, and to a greater extent, intensity, and complication, than children. What greater example of adult play than that found everywhere you look: gossiping? ... and then, there are those random, peculiar attractions to small, trivial, things that people seem to have. (For "fun" of course; no real attachments) And then of course there is, to a greater scope, conversation. In my experience, hardly any conversation is carried out for "information-exchange"; rather it's done for fun, to pass time. Beyond that, there are of course those completely random, inexplicable things people do to ultimately... have fun.

Those, small, everyday examples, simply clog our days. A lot more effort and time is gone into an individual's desire to have fun - no matter how small it is - than to "work" or do any other things. And of course, such 'small' things, oh-so-ironically are the things that remains in everyone's memories, it is what we remember people by.

I have deliberately left out perhaps one of the examples of adult playing: partying, or, if one is perhaps more refined, "social dinners".

In my view, there cannot be anything more pointless than those things. It simply is all about having fun. Sigh. I donno, I just get overwhelmed with the whole idea of meeting, to well, talk, and do other random things. It just doesn't strike me.

Neither does the fact that everyone can chuck in tidbits of humour wherever they are, whenever, to whoever they're talking to. I just don't get how they're able to do that. And to a lesser extent, what motivates them.

In fact, if you really want a glimpse of a fun-oriented culture, just look at youth culture... "pop" culture. If you take "fun" out of it, well, I'm quite glad to admit that there really is nothing left, hardly any essence is left behind.

And that's what saddens me,
the whole ephemeralness of fun - how it is a celebration of the moment, of the instant - the present - and no more.