Silence at work - rememberance

MatsyLR said:
This came up today.
I was busy on the computers at a local job center (I do tech support there as experience).
I needed to ask a question on what they wanted doing with a particular computer. I walk down the hall, say "I" and then I'm immediately met with the finger over lip. I'm like "what?", again finger over lip and a rather angry look. I'm confused at this point, so I stand there while everyone else in the room is silent not knowing what is happening.

The guy I was trying to talk too then says its 11-11. I'm like "so?" then he says world war 1. I'm like "yeh...what about it?", then I'm just given a dirty look and told its the 2 min silence. so i'm like "errr...kay" and walk away.

Sorry but...I just don't care.
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Don't worry, I used to act like a child during the silence and don't mind admitting to it.
One day you will grow up.
 
Dimple said:
Don't worry, I used to act like a child during the silence and don't mind admitting to it.
One day you will grow up.
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Why do people feel the need to equate behavior they dislike or disapprove of, as being child like?

This is something I am seeing an increasing amount, whereby people are told to "grow up" or "stop acting like a child" based solely on the virtue of doing something the other person does not like.

Not wanting to observe the silence and being obnoxious about it is, well selfish in regards to trying to disrupt others, and obnoxious. They are traits I wouldn't necessarily attribute to being "child like", as plenty of adults I have encountered are obnoxious and selfish.
 
spoffle said:
Why do people feel the need to equate behavior they dislike or disapprove of, as being child like?
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Because I lived it, I was a right child with my beliefs up to the age of around 25.
I look back at that time and I'm so embarrassed at how I used to think & behave.
 
spoffle said:
But this is something that stays with you all year around, not just something you do because society says so once a year. This is what the OP and others have been saying.

Being silent once per year is meaningless if you do you care for the cause, and those that do care for the cause seemingly care all year around.
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Yes of course - however, this moment of solidarity culminates to a single point in time to remind us that perhaps we didn't think about them throughout the year. The date & time is poignant too.

Whenever I'm in church and I've heard of sad news about our forces (or other forces, or just world events, like the awful event is the Philippines) I'll spare them a thought in an environment that allows me to reflect and be thankful for what I have and where I am. Does it do anything for them? No perhaps not, but it humbles me, and knocks me down a peg, and makes me realise how lucky I am.

A lot of us (maybe most of us?) think about others and these situations throughout the year - but giving a dedicated moment / day about remembrance during a poignant time isn't a bad thing really is it?

As I said before, I guess people think it's like Valentine's day, a day just for something you should be doing throughout the year feels forced and fake - but this is much more significant (to me at any rate).
 
Dimple said:
Because I lived it, I was a right child with my beliefs up to the age of around 25.
I look back at that time and I'm so embarrassed at how I used to think & behave.
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Sure, that's when applying it to yourself, but you can't universally apply that to others and those traits still aren't necessarily "child like". I do agree that the behavior is necessary, as I said to Freefaller, I don't observe the ritual myself but I'm hardly going to try and stop or disrupt others from partaking in the ritual as they're doing it, manners and respect and all that. On the other side of that, I wouldn't necessarily equate manners and respect with people who have "grown up" either.

I wasn't really having a go at you specifically, it was something I have observed a lot lately, in that people often respond to undesirable behavior with "grow up" because only children do things that are undesirable, it might just be my outlook but the way people readily brand others as children for acting undesirably is not far from the saying "children should be seen and not heard" as if they are somehow second class.

As I said, it could just be me, as when I was a child it used to annoy me how arrogantly adults would behave towards children, ignoring them because they're children, what do they know, and that sort of thing.
 
Freefaller said:
Yes of course - however, this moment of solidarity culminates to a single point in time to remind us that perhaps we didn't think about them throughout the year. The date & time is poignant too.

Whenever I'm in church and I've heard of sad news about our forces (or other forces, or just world events, like the awful event is the Philippines) I'll spare them a thought in an environment that allows me to reflect and be thankful for what I have and where I am. Does it do anything for them? No perhaps not, but it humbles me, and knocks me down a peg, and makes me realise how lucky I am.

A lot of us (maybe most of us?) think about others and these situations throughout the year - but giving a dedicated moment / day about remembrance during a poignant time isn't a bad thing really is it?

As I said before, I guess people think it's like Valentine's day, a day just for something you should be doing throughout the year feels forced and fake - but this is much more significant (to me at any rate).
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Sure, I don't observe Valentine's either for similar reasons, I see little to no point in it, though I think a lot of that sort of stuff is related to me extremely cynical.

I think most people, when questioned don't understand why they do half the things they do. Some people strike me as almost robots at times, as odd as it is to say. Things I've experienced in life have influenced my views and beliefs on things like music and that people are almost conditioned to like what society tells them to. I'm going off on a tangent now, but it just goes back to earlier experiences I had with people who would refuse to listen to certain types of music, and would have a physical reaction to certain types of music based solely on the virtue of their skin colour (or perceived skin colour) as well as the opposite, of liking a certain type solely based on what they believe people of their skin colour (or perceived) should like. But observing people acting like this has definitely contributed to my extreme cynicism. :p

/rantangent

Freefaller said:
In which case I have nothing but respect for your decision, and appreciate your gesture. :)
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Maybe you were getting the wrong end of the stick, so to speak from my earlier posts. As my point was simply about I don't partake in it, and don't agree with the format of it, not that people shouldn't do it if they feel importance from it. I don't like people doing things they don't understand just because of societal pressures, but that applies to all things rather than just this one subject.
 
spoffle said:
Why do people feel the need to equate behavior they dislike or disapprove of, as being child like?

This is something I am seeing an increasing amount, whereby people are told to "grow up" or "stop acting like a child" based solely on the virtue of doing something the other person does not like.

Not wanting to observe the silence and being obnoxious about it is, well selfish in regards to trying to disrupt others, and obnoxious. They are traits I wouldn't necessarily attribute to being "child like", as plenty of adults I have encountered are obnoxious and selfish.
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I'm not sure if people are doing exactly what you mention. Similar to Dimple, when I look back at my behaviour as a younger man, I cringe at my own previous selfishness and idealism. When I see other people acting in a similar way, my experience tells me that they're doing it because they have yet to grow up.

Plenty of other behaviour I ascribe to base stupidity or bitterness, so it's not just immaturity that I believe to be the cause of that bad behaviour.

Willfully disrupting a solemn observance by making a noise or talking I would definitely class a symptom of childish selfishness however.
 
That was my point though, selfishness is not something typically seen in children but not in adults. Selfishness is a very human trait, so I think it's wrong to ascribe it to being a childish trait as it's not. Selfishness that impacts upon others is something you're more likely to see in adults than children.
 
spoffle said:
Sure, I don't observe Valentine's either for similar reasons, I see little to no point in it, though I think a lot of that sort of stuff is related to me extremely cynical.

I think most people, when questioned don't understand why they do half the things they do. Some people strike me as almost robots at times, as odd as it is to say. Things I've experienced in life have influenced my views and beliefs on things like music and that people are almost conditioned to like what society tells them to. I'm going off on a tangent now, but it just goes back to earlier experiences I had with people who would refuse to listen to certain types of music, and would have a physical reaction to certain types of music based solely on the virtue of their skin colour (or perceived skin colour) as well as the opposite, of liking a certain type solely based on what they believe people of their skin colour (or perceived) should like. But observing people acting like this has definitely contributed to my extreme cynicism. :p

/rantangent



Maybe you were getting the wrong end of the stick, so to speak from my earlier posts. As my point was simply about I don't partake in it, and don't agree with the format of it, not that people shouldn't do it if they feel importance from it. I don't like people doing things they don't understand just because of societal pressures, but that applies to all things rather than just this one subject.
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Can't really disagree with too much of what you've said. Doing it for the sake of doing it is daft. Questioning and challenging the status quo is never a bad thing, I guess it depends on the context and how it's done.

I agree that social / peer pressure is silly to succumb to, unless the event/activity is something you understand (in which case is it really peer pressure?). However at the same time, events like these are great for reminding people, and hopefully for the younger people to ask questions?

Call it blind faith or ignorance, or whatever, but I try and lock away my cynicism as I find it a fairly negative trait, and I like to believe the best in things around me - I guess I'm a happy clappy hippy sort :p Oh bugger :/

seems as though we were skirting around the same issue from a slightly different perspective (and I was probably not understanding you either). Let's raise a protein shake to that!
 
Wait... People are condoning those who are unwilling to give up a measly two minutes of their lives every year to remember those that died fighting to get/protect the freedoms they now so obnoxiously take for granted?

What the hell happened, OcUK?
 
I blame a lack of History books in younger peoples lives.
I think the problem lies that all the wars a certain generation have grown up watching on the news have been nothing but either political moves or the protection of resources, it might be hard to fathom that their was at times just an evil regime hell bent of taking over the world and running and "purifying" it to their ways.
 
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Dj_Jestar said:
Wait... People are condoning those who are unwilling to give up a measly two minutes of their lives every year to remember those that died fighting to get/protect the freedoms they now so obnoxiously take for granted?

What the hell happened, OcUK?
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Yea, it's terrible, people condoning those who are using the freedom that people died for to hold an opinion which is different from yours.

If those that died for those freedoms are worthy of our remembrance and respect one would hope they understand this, you clearly do not.
 
Yeah, I'm sure they'd be jumping for joy to know that they died to protect those arrogant and obnoxious enough to not even spare two minutes just to say "Thanks." What a sterling argument you provide.
 
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