| I know everyone loves to give inputs on this topic, so I'll get the ball rolling.
Man does not live by bread alone, nor by know-how, children safety or sex. People everywhere spend as much time as they can afford on activities, that in the struggle to survive and reproduce, seem pointless. In all cultures people tell jokes and recite poetry. They joke, laugh, and tease. They sing and dance, and decorate surfaces. They perform rituals. They wonder about the causes of fortune and misfortune, and hold beliefs about the supernatural that contradict everything else they know aboout the world. They concoct theories of the universe and their place within it.
Now as if that weren't enough of a puzzle, it seems the more biologically frivolous and vain the activity, the more people exhalt it. Art, literature, music, wit, religion, and philosophy are thought to be not just pleasurable, but noble. They are the mind's best work, what makes life worth living. We pursue the trivial and futile and experience them as sublime. Members of our species do mad things like taking vows of celibacy, living for their music, selling their blood to buy cinema tickets, and going to graduate school. To many of you, it may seem immoral to ask why we pursue the trivial and futile, but it is in essence vital for understanding the meaning of our lives, and our psyche.
A man has two reasons for doing anything --- a good reason and the real reason.
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed
In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular. |