Listening In

Listening in on conversations can be tricky. You have to have the right appearance to slip in close and open your ears (figuratively, of course) to a discussion between people. That is, you have to look like you are doing something besides listening. I favor the playing with the cell phone while sitting/standing nonchalantly tactic. It gets the job done in a spot. At any rate, I overheard several conversations this weekend. It is a thankless task actually, overhearing things and not participating. In a way, it is similar to watching a movie or reading a book. You aren't exactly interacting with those characters either, you are being empathetic. Well, maybe not, which is a topic I hope to discuss more soon.

However, I did give myself plenty of opportunities to listen. I went to a party Saturday night with the majority of the attendees being international students. It's nice to know that penile jokes are funny anywhere in the world. I feel like the Americans and the Iranians could get along if someone made a dick joke during a dialogue--"Oh, that funny to you too, these Americaaaans, they know what's up!" I listened to flirting. I saw people dancing and having fun. I saw intoxicated people, and one girl who was pretty intent about pulling off my socks. There were people from Germany, the Netherlands, England (Liverpool!), Poland, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, India, Brazil, Mexico, Australia--I think I have met someone from damn near every country (well, now that I think about it, that's definitely not true). Even the computer I am typing on was purchased from a guy from Kazakhstan. Honestly, before this year I never thought I would meet somebody from Kazakhstan in my entire life. Now I have met over five. And I have to say, overhearing my Saudi roommate talking to his friends, everyone is the same. We all hold prejudices, we all have superior views of our home towns or countries, but also know its faults intimately so we may never want to go back to live, we all laugh at the same things for the most part--though an interesting thing I picked up on is that the longer people stay in America the more they think South Park is funny. Why that is, I don't know.

International kids are awesome. Saudi Arabia is awesome. I never thought I would say that, but it is. Iran is awesome, Indonesia is awesome, Pakistan is awesome. I have met someone from each of those countries and they have been really cool. I guess I should make a distinction between the people and their governments, but from what I have experienced I have faith that we could work things out if there was more dialogue between average people--not some politician who is grandstanding to get reelected, making referential signals and nonsensical arguments. They are working from a different place than we are, with their faux realist, liberal, constructionist ideas. Bleh! Send Ahmed the street vendor to talk to Cindy the hair stylist and I bet we could figure some of this crap out. Sorry, I am getting distracted, but as long as we are on the dialogue and overhearing people talk, why not?

At work Sunday, I overheard and participated in a conversation discussing the existence of God. I hate that topic. It's only an argument an Atheist or Creationist participants in. Both sides are never going to agree, and so it ends up being a waste of time. No one will ever be able to prove the existence of God because God is an idea. I would make a grand case that ideas are more real than physical objects and can have far longer lifespans as well, but it's pointless--in the long run, you can't confirm anything. Apparently, according to one guy last night, you can't even say 1 + 1 = 2 is a 100% full proof idea. Until you can prove the reality of the physical world you aren't going to make any headway on God. Am I being hypocritical here? There is a distinct possibility. I know these topics may seen disparate, but I don't think they are. In both cases I would argue for the possibility of individualization, or decentralization. Institutions are what led to militant religions and authoritarianism, so screw em both! God and country should be in the people's hands, not Churches and technocrats. Sorry for my rants. I listened in and you got my reactions.