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18 jun 06 "What makes Al Gor do what he does?" i assume this refers to al(pesh) gor, gaithersburg resident, and is not a typo of al(bert) gor(e), politician who never changes his facial expression. what makes al gor do what he does? after answering the riemann hypothesis question, it's odd to move to a question that leaves room for interpretation and improvisation. i hope i'm not asked to do too many psychological profiles, because they can really piss some people off. i won't do them if the victim/subject is sensitive. i wish i'd get some easier questions. first of all, let's define our terms. this is al gor, even though that resume is extremely out of date. but, you get some idea. what al gor does: he WORKS. this is almost all he does. but, as we shall soon discover, this isn't so much of a bad thing for al gor. he also buys stuff. also, he refused to see "x-men 3" with me, so i had to go do it by myself (sniff sniff). he may do more, but this is what i've observed. alp's constant frenetic working used to confuse me, especially the fact that he really didn't seem to suffer from it. but then it dawned on me: he actually likes it. he's more or less the ideal employee: dutiful, friendly, and energetic. he's good at working a job; he fits the role of "getting paid to do some establishment task via interactive processes" very well. i believe pesh doesn't like to feel that he's sitting around, doing nothing. for as long as i've known him, he's been busy at something everytime i come calling. oftentimes, this makes it difficult to court him for social activity. if you "just stop by," it's likely that he'll be sleeping in-between work sessions, or working on his car. at least that was how it used to be. i think now it's been been reduced to principally "sleeping in-between work sessions", although i did once recently see him work on his car. anyway, he's always busy at something -- may as well get paid for it if one has a need to be occupied. there's the question of "but i want only to be occupied at certain things -- i don't want some bozo in a monkey suit telling me what tasks i should and should not be enthusiastic about completing". i don't know -- maybe this doesn't bother al gor. but, the biggest reason, the number one reason alpesh works constantly, is that he is an extremely social creature. he feeds on social activity, on the presence of others, on interacting with them, sucks it all in like a tick's bloodfeast. not much is more social than the work environment. in fact, being socially skilled precludes success in the workplace -- it's probably the most important thing to be good at there. it's not totally meaningless that "people person", "works well with others" and "team player" are resume cliches -- being able to collaborate, interact, and coordinate with other employees in the interest of job goals is pretty much what "work" is about, unless you're a toll booth attendant or something. and even then, you probably have staff meetings once a month. if pesh doesn't work, he will shrivel up and die out of loneliness and boredom -- there isn't a better place than "work" to be around other people with whom one can interact. alper has discovered this, and along with this realization has dispensed with the entire concept of "time off" and "weekends" -- one has to exist somewhere at any given hour of the day; one may as well exist at work and get paid to exist (as well as yap with colleagues), than volunteer to exist at home and stare at the wall/TV. plus, at work, one gets people to chat with, and one gets to do things that are appreciated by others, which causes them to interact with one in more positive ways. it's a self-re-enforcing loop. see? the ideal employee. managers want al gor cloned. i still can't believe people call him "al gor". i think "al" was implemented because anglophones can't wrap their minds around "alpesh", "pesh" or even "alp." he must be "al," or the fabric of north american consciousness will fold in on itself and implode. or, maybe i'm completely wrong -- maybe he doens't like to work, but just has a good attitude and isn't a complainer. or, his sense of obligation is so overpowering that it trumps seeking joy. who knows? i make no claims of telepathy. but, as far as i can reason, al gor WORKS because he LIKES TO, or at least becaues he feels he HAS TO, and has learned to ENJOY IT. i really DON'T KNOW, ultimately. but i babble anyway. even if he would rather not work than work, my observations help explain why he's able to adapt to obeiscence more easily than many/most. al gor BUYS STUFF also because he LIKES TO. DVD players, clothing, track lighting sets, air fresheners, colognes, cell phones, SUVs, etc -- for as long as i've known him (15 years or so), alper has bought stuff. as far as i can see, he does for the reasons so many do it: i don't quite know, but there are theories. m. scott peck (moralizing author/psychologist, and self-proclaimed philosopher, who managed to make some good observations before he started proclaiming people with psychological problems to be the antichrist) called gathering objects and fawning over them "cathexis," and likened it to longing for love -- ie, we "cathect," or come to care for these things that cannot care for us, in the absense of or as an active subsititute for real love, an act of care and work, because cathexis is easier and less potentially painful and vulnerable to loss. if you lose your cell phone, you can go out and buy another. i think it also has to do with the existential vacuum in contemporary society, and the fact that survival mechanisms have become so trivial for many that we need to occupy our time somehow, and find things that are "important," or that we can "care about." such as car air fresheners -- it may be a human need to have "essential things," things that can't wait, that are emergencies, that are "real fights." this is why dinky community governing bodies, obscure political parties, etc, spend all of their time infighting and never get anything done -- the need to snarl and sweat around essential obstacles is so great that the essential obstacle must be invented. when you drop a dish on the kitchen floor, lose your keys, or get in a fender bender, you go ballistic. hyperconsumerism is related. al doesn't seem to take it too seriously, though, even though i'm pretty sure he'd go berzerk if you burned a hole through his engine block with a thermite bomb. i wonder sometimes if i would too, if you did that to, say, my guitar, or external hard drive full of gigs and gigs of original data. i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be able to "zen out," observe my own mind, and think to myself "hmmm...my reaction to all of this is interesting." instead i'd probably be having various revenge fantasies; i hold no illusions. hey -- we're all victims of culture here. i think, though, that pesh for the most part has an understanding that these cathected objects -- "just stuff" -- are essentially meaningless and unimportant, but nevertheless accumulates them as a 10 year old would accumulate "go-bots", because they fleetingly entertain him as he pushes on through the void with the rest of us. when that entertainment does fleet away, he must go to "toys R us" and buy addiitonal "go-bots." he laughs along with you when you laugh at his proverbial go-bots, though, which is a good sign that he doesn't value them as gods or children. what else did i say he does? oh yeah...didn't see "x men 3" with me. i think he thought it'd be a good idea, but wasn't thinking of the fact that he works 7 days a week when he suggested it. i saw it by myself -- it was actually really good. very violent, tragic; not a kids' movie. |
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