|
Thanks for the responses. One thing I do that lost me some friends was that I popped the collar on my jean jacket. And yet, I see other people walking around with popped collars, mullets, and other things that seem to be outlawed. How do these people get by? Have they not been told that these things are unacceptable?
And how far can unacceptability be taken? I'm aware that it's socially wrong to pop my collar, but why? Is it innate - is it something that only jerks do, similarly to how only jerks would steal?
The fact that I want to do something does not make it right. That's probably one of the main issues I struggle to work out in my head. When I'm hungry, I know because I get that feeling that I should eat food. But, when my body tells me I should laugh at something such as a mentally retarded person, that is wrong. So I'm supposed to ignore certain impulses.
If that's the case, then how am I supposed to know if an impulse to wear certain clothes is wrong? The other day, I saw someone at a computer lab who wear wearing arm bandsand multiple necklaces with his collared shirt and jeans. Normally, this is frowned upon as being "gay". I was amazed that he could walk around like that. I wonder if he realizes how many people think he looks "retarded."
What helps me get through this stuff is a perspective that I've yet to nail down. That perspective is that if you can not tolerate these choices of clothing, then you are weak. Just as someone studies to become smarter or an athlete trains to become more skilled - those people are training their muscles to tolerate more than they could before. If you don't get your muscles to tolerate more, you will never be smarter or more skilled.
With that same notion, if you never train your mind to tolerate certain types of clothing styles, then you will be weaker than other people who have.
This sounds fairly logical, but something always derails this. For, how far am I supposed to take this analogy of improvement being proportional to tolerance? What about when I laugh at mentally retarded people? Is it wrong because they're not capable of tolerating my humor? What about when I want to laugh at someone who's wearing non matching clothes or someone who has a big head?
^ Are those cases where I should be more tolerant and not find them funny, or should they become more tolerant and accept that they look hilarious?
Where does one draw this line? It ends up making me think that my system fails. And thus, how can I trust that people who dislike my clothing are weak? My upper hand is lost because of my inability to prove the functionality of the system.
|