off the grid. the social grid.

[nibot]

How far off grid have you ever been, are you willing to go?

http://www.livejournal.com/users/drx/359769.html

well stated.

Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Is there supposed to be something bad about feeding off of other people? Sounds like a positive thing to me, as long as one feeds back into the grid.

[dedoleo.livejournal.com]

I haven't owned a television in nearly eight years and I don't read the news. That puts me pretty far off the grid; Not to mention my bizarre sense of humour (oops! i just did).

Frankly, I'd like to get a little more back on the grid and agree with easwaren that it can be a good thing. I feel it's a matter of choice. I want to read some news so I can pick and choose what I waste my time knowing.

How far do you feel you're off the grid?

[dedoleo.livejournal.com]

Strange. The link still processed even though I spelt it wrong. easwaran. Sorry 'bout that.

[janviere.livejournal.com]

I freely admit to getting significant amounts of energy from other people. We can't all be lone wolves.

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Would be nice if everyone was an island... and happy.

This world (nay: this human species) has a larger share of consumers than producers. A fact of life and the universe as a person in the post-industrial revolutionary realm. Fewer producers are necessary to sustain life on earth.

There's no shame in it!

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Every person an island...?? Actually, that doesn't sound too appealing.

I want to throw in something snappy about tectonic plates, or something. ie ...they just drift along until they crash into others anyway. Then they become somewhat inseparable (in a good way) unless they grate upon each other too severely and cause something cataclysmic like the San Andreas.

Would you rather be someplace (geologically) dull, where nothing ever happens, or in the fault zone?
Nebraska or San Francisco?

[shamster.livejournal.com]

I'd rather be somewhere dull where I can live out what existence I have in peace, and with a clear mind. BUT, it might be nice to visit the family living on the fault for a weekend twice a year, and then get back to dull and tell all the neighbors about the exciting (overwhelming) trip.

[shamster.livejournal.com]

Getting off the grid is boring and lonely - it's not human (by definition?)

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure that the grid is something anyone can leave. unless they live on their own island completely cut off from other humans. if one person "leaves," (consider the very first hippie ever, for instance) and just one other person follows, then the grid is simply extended to include a small new subset. and the larger that subset grows, the more entangled in the Grid it becomes.

that being said, yes, i'd like my own island.

[random-boy.livejournal.com]

ordinary ordinates; apathetic abscissa.
intersections of mentalities,
rational and irrational spaces between.

[hypostatization.livejournal.com]

i consider it as more of a statement than a question. the language forces tremendous assumptions. i disagree with those assumptions, but i do appreciate the thrust of the words. i think that that is actually the most important part. irony: their most significant value is their social effect, their energizing nature.

these types of statements hold tremendous power. they nurture and affirm small subgroups of the population that might not otherwise find the momentum necessary for action. these individuals are expendable, only a tiny fraction of them need make significant contributions for their effects to benefit society as a whole.

for all of the luminaries held up to the light, consider the untold countless masses of failed painters, poets, and philosophers. they are an acceptable loss. and we constantly encourage more. it is their niche. it benefits us to stroke vanities, to encourage misfits and even miscreants, to encourage diversity.

i believe that this is an automatic and self regulating process in large communities.

recognizing this does not exempt one from it, but as a god, naturally, i am beyond its effects.

[drx.livejournal.com]

*chortle* snarf!! Thanks. You have real interesting lj friends. *wry grin*