The System
Sep. 5th, 2004 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greybetaHunting down books in the library on ancient Roman history isn’t what I envisioned for my Labor Day Weekend.
Instead of going home to the Fort, I called up my old high school circle. The soldier boy enigma Maph will be staying in Kansas until he’s shipped off to Iraq in January or February. The red-haired, bespectacled Andy is following my lead and running for student senate in Fayetteville. The red-haired gaming store employee Mike was playing some Phantom RPG, the third in the line of La Pucelle Tactics and Legend of Disgaea. The red-haired, well-meaning oaf Jameson has actually attended classes in Fort Smith, but he still hasn’t found a job to pay for his half of the rent with Mike.
Strange, I just realized over half of my inner circle at Southside had red hair, although having red hair is unlucky for the Japanese (thanks random anime fact).
Back at TU, the Z3 obsessed Stevo and the Top Gun fanatic Andrew “Maverick” Soteres, invited me to hang out at their apartment tonight. The car connoisseurs treat their friends well, since I got two grilled hot dogs and a hamburger. All I had to was run out and buy some buns, Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips (can’t go wrong with those), and some pink lemonade. Mmmmm, freshly grilled meat with macaroni and cheese tastes amazing when you’ve been stuffing caf food down your throat to survive.
For some reason, Mav’s girl, the indomitable Brittany (or is her name Bethany) had never seen the Tom Cruise classic. Of course, this meant that we had to watch biochem major Andrew’s favorite movie of all time. I agreed to stay until I had watched the defining scene of the movie. If you don’t know what it is I’ll give you one hint: Righteous Brothers.
Tonight, my suitemate Phil rolled on the floor laughing after seeing my avatar on our Student Association forums. It fits my personality so well. If you want to know where to find it, type “frownie face” on Google. It’s the first image. I have decided to make it my second profile pic and AIM buddy icon.
Making fun of ski-loving Andrew being a “one and done” guy has bestowed me with inspiration to write. I will let the girls in on a little secret. Hopefully, I won’t get assassinated in the middle of the night for telling you gals how we guys operate.
The best way I can describe it is as The System.
D2’s take on The System: A method where boys cruelly make fun of one of their friends for going out with a girl. There’s an old saying that says boys will be boys. We don’t understand why someone would ever leave the comforts of video games or football or the Internet to spend time with a chick. Until we grow older. And then we know what it means. To paraphrase Timon the Meerkat, we’ll be seeing much less of our good friend. The only way to prevent this from happening is humiliating him into coming back into the fold.
I know what the girls are thinking. That is so stupid.
But it works. Time and time again a guy just can’t take the incessant innuendos and he’s forced to come back into the fold. Because he knows he owes the guys.
Let me provide a simple example. Say you have a group of four young bachelors. That’s a good bridge group, or a good HALO team if you prefer. If one guy leaves, then three’s a crowd. The new target for The System gets the company of a girl. This will cause resentment in the crowd, and the only way to get revenge is mob justice. They’re thinking that they have to beat some sense into their friend.
We’re missing a fourth, and it’s you man.
Now see, that first month it’s all good for the odd man out. He gets to enjoy the company of a fine woman and spend time with his old friends. But then he has to choose.
Relationship or social life? On the rare occasion, he’ll be able to combine both. Eventually, though, he’ll get tired of having to tell his girl where he has to be every two hours. Can’t she just leave him alone every once in awhile? Yeah, that’d be nice.
So he’ll try to escape to his friends after that first month. He’ll put up with being the butt of every joke you can possibly imagine and endure questioning of the most nefarious kind.
When his friends wear thin on him, the target will run away to his girlfriend. He’ll try to believe that he’s happy with her.
Then he starts to think, am I really happy with this woman? How much do I want to sacrifice for her? How much is she willing to sacrifice for me?
Holy schmoly, what did I get myself into? I’m not ready for this.
After gaining his sanity again, he’ll return to the fold. He may or may not be met with surprise, because his friends have known this moment had been coming for quite some time. And they’re glad to have him back because now they don’t have to grab random guy X to be their fourth anymore.
Why is The System so successful? It’s probably just a coincidence since the partings of humans number the stars.
Yet, I believe The System works because it plays on the powerful human emotion of embarrassment. There’s nothing like the jeering of friends to convince you of the dangers of the path you’re taking.
You’ll get to thinking…and thinking too much is never good.
How do we keep The System honest? You reap what you sow. So the more you take part of the jeering, the more you are due payback. That thought alone will keep you in check.
There is a way to beat The System. The solution comes from fairy tales: find your one true love. That may seem obvious, but it’s never quite obvious to the target. But the target will not only put up with all the mocking, he’ll even put doubt into those trying to enforce The System on him.
If a girl is worth being sentenced to life for a crime of passion, then you’re willing to put up with any and all taunts.
Dude, what does this guy see in that girl? We should have heckled him out of that mistake a long time ago.
Truthfully, the people enforcing The System are wondering what the girl sees in the target because they haven’t detected anything special about their friend.
To beat The System, you have to make others wonder why they haven’t beaten it yet.
Instead of going home to the Fort, I called up my old high school circle. The soldier boy enigma Maph will be staying in Kansas until he’s shipped off to Iraq in January or February. The red-haired, bespectacled Andy is following my lead and running for student senate in Fayetteville. The red-haired gaming store employee Mike was playing some Phantom RPG, the third in the line of La Pucelle Tactics and Legend of Disgaea. The red-haired, well-meaning oaf Jameson has actually attended classes in Fort Smith, but he still hasn’t found a job to pay for his half of the rent with Mike.
Strange, I just realized over half of my inner circle at Southside had red hair, although having red hair is unlucky for the Japanese (thanks random anime fact).
Back at TU, the Z3 obsessed Stevo and the Top Gun fanatic Andrew “Maverick” Soteres, invited me to hang out at their apartment tonight. The car connoisseurs treat their friends well, since I got two grilled hot dogs and a hamburger. All I had to was run out and buy some buns, Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips (can’t go wrong with those), and some pink lemonade. Mmmmm, freshly grilled meat with macaroni and cheese tastes amazing when you’ve been stuffing caf food down your throat to survive.
For some reason, Mav’s girl, the indomitable Brittany (or is her name Bethany) had never seen the Tom Cruise classic. Of course, this meant that we had to watch biochem major Andrew’s favorite movie of all time. I agreed to stay until I had watched the defining scene of the movie. If you don’t know what it is I’ll give you one hint: Righteous Brothers.
Tonight, my suitemate Phil rolled on the floor laughing after seeing my avatar on our Student Association forums. It fits my personality so well. If you want to know where to find it, type “frownie face” on Google. It’s the first image. I have decided to make it my second profile pic and AIM buddy icon.
Making fun of ski-loving Andrew being a “one and done” guy has bestowed me with inspiration to write. I will let the girls in on a little secret. Hopefully, I won’t get assassinated in the middle of the night for telling you gals how we guys operate.
The best way I can describe it is as The System.
D2’s take on The System: A method where boys cruelly make fun of one of their friends for going out with a girl. There’s an old saying that says boys will be boys. We don’t understand why someone would ever leave the comforts of video games or football or the Internet to spend time with a chick. Until we grow older. And then we know what it means. To paraphrase Timon the Meerkat, we’ll be seeing much less of our good friend. The only way to prevent this from happening is humiliating him into coming back into the fold.
I know what the girls are thinking. That is so stupid.
But it works. Time and time again a guy just can’t take the incessant innuendos and he’s forced to come back into the fold. Because he knows he owes the guys.
Let me provide a simple example. Say you have a group of four young bachelors. That’s a good bridge group, or a good HALO team if you prefer. If one guy leaves, then three’s a crowd. The new target for The System gets the company of a girl. This will cause resentment in the crowd, and the only way to get revenge is mob justice. They’re thinking that they have to beat some sense into their friend.
We’re missing a fourth, and it’s you man.
Now see, that first month it’s all good for the odd man out. He gets to enjoy the company of a fine woman and spend time with his old friends. But then he has to choose.
Relationship or social life? On the rare occasion, he’ll be able to combine both. Eventually, though, he’ll get tired of having to tell his girl where he has to be every two hours. Can’t she just leave him alone every once in awhile? Yeah, that’d be nice.
So he’ll try to escape to his friends after that first month. He’ll put up with being the butt of every joke you can possibly imagine and endure questioning of the most nefarious kind.
When his friends wear thin on him, the target will run away to his girlfriend. He’ll try to believe that he’s happy with her.
Then he starts to think, am I really happy with this woman? How much do I want to sacrifice for her? How much is she willing to sacrifice for me?
Holy schmoly, what did I get myself into? I’m not ready for this.
After gaining his sanity again, he’ll return to the fold. He may or may not be met with surprise, because his friends have known this moment had been coming for quite some time. And they’re glad to have him back because now they don’t have to grab random guy X to be their fourth anymore.
Why is The System so successful? It’s probably just a coincidence since the partings of humans number the stars.
Yet, I believe The System works because it plays on the powerful human emotion of embarrassment. There’s nothing like the jeering of friends to convince you of the dangers of the path you’re taking.
You’ll get to thinking…and thinking too much is never good.
How do we keep The System honest? You reap what you sow. So the more you take part of the jeering, the more you are due payback. That thought alone will keep you in check.
There is a way to beat The System. The solution comes from fairy tales: find your one true love. That may seem obvious, but it’s never quite obvious to the target. But the target will not only put up with all the mocking, he’ll even put doubt into those trying to enforce The System on him.
If a girl is worth being sentenced to life for a crime of passion, then you’re willing to put up with any and all taunts.
Dude, what does this guy see in that girl? We should have heckled him out of that mistake a long time ago.
Truthfully, the people enforcing The System are wondering what the girl sees in the target because they haven’t detected anything special about their friend.
To beat The System, you have to make others wonder why they haven’t beaten it yet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 03:06 pm (UTC)What topic?
no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 04:20 pm (UTC)The coinage changed along with the Emperors in later years...
no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 07:56 pm (UTC)