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Continuing my late October blog theme of lifetime leisure:
On the show Saturday Night Live a comedian scolded, “Get a life!” No doubt this was a twist on the slogan of the well rounded Ancient Greeks, “Not life, but a good life, is expected of every citizen.” Do trolls have a life?
As you may know, the word “troll” was coined during early Web forums of computer programmers: Trolls would lie, claiming to believe something controversial, just to get a reaction.
Last year, in the comments section on musician Derek Siver’s blog, a troll claimed to be me. This was back when people were impersonating celebrities on Twitter, (X) causing Elon Musk to implement paying for “blue (I.D.) checks.” The jealous troll had “me” saying I only commented “because I don’t have a life.” Derek deleted it, he says my contributions are “amazing.”
I imagine that troll as a stereotype: “a young male computer-nerd in his mother’s basement.” As you may know, “nerds” are smart but not socially skilled. Like on TV’s Big Bang Theory. I guess that troll, if he’s a typical snob, thinks doing anything that is not brainy is not “having a life.” This would include my “mindless” dancing sister, my “mindless” sports watching brother, and Derek’s “mindless” music friend. Not activities the guys on Big Bang would do.
Too bad that nerd can’t hear my sister quote the movie Breaking Two: Electric Bugaboo, singing “I believe in the way I feel; when I’m dancing, everything’s alright.” The troll can’t hear my brother joyfully shouting, “Go team, GO!” Can’t hear Derek’s friend hmm hmm to music, eyes closed, much too happy to multitask.
I would tell that computer troll to respect other people’s choice of lifetime leisure: “To the extent that somebody enjoys something you cannot, to that extent the person is your superior.” I got that line (from memory) from a Nobel prize winner, Lord Bertrand Russel. He may have felt his own “jealous-of-other-Nobel-Prize winners” issues, as he wrote, “Have you, dear reader, ever been so imprudent as praise an artist to another artist? … an Egyptologist to another Egyptologist? …If you have, it is a 100 to one that you will have produced an explosion of jealousy.”
If jealousy is so human and widespread, does that mean I can’t enjoy a party in 1950’s New York when I see that Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein are present? Must I frown, then look at them under my eyebrows muttering, “Who do they think they are?” No, for Russell has the answer to that one: In place of jealousy I can choose to substitute admiration. Or respect.
Russell’s 1930 book, The Conquest of Happiness, is still in print, last time I looked, but it’s off in the philosophy section, not the self help one. I guess “conquest” means don’t take life for granted. Russell notes feeling superior might feel satisfying, but it’s not the best way to find happiness. I hope everyone might try out “an attitude of respect” as being a wonderful way of life. Way more fun.
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Sean Crawford, BCR
Sent from my Mac air book
November
2023
Source: Here’s a pdf with added pictures and coloured fonts of Bertrand Russell’s book.
