The Cynic Says……

For anyone that doesn’t know, the phrase means basically keeping up with your neighbors. As you can already guess, it’s one of my pet peeves… Obviously, it can be taken a couple of different ways and either way you look at it, it’s ridiculous. First you have the people that are always in everyone else’s business. I cannot stand that… If I’m on the phone, what concern is it of anyone else’s who I’m talking to? I don’t go around asking my friends who they’re talking to when they’re on the phone with other people and I expect the same courtesy. If I wanted you to know, I’d tell you who I was on the phone with. Seriously, I’m having a private personal conversation with someone.. a conversation that does not concern you in the least, and you decide to butt in and ask me who I’m talking to, where they’re from and 20 other questions about something that isn’t even your business? How about not? Same thing goes for if I go somewhere… If I want everyone (or anyone) to know where it is that I’m going, I will tell them. If I don’t tell a person, that means I don’t feel as though it’s any of their concern. Everyone is on a need-to-know basis with me.. If you need to know, I’ll tell you. There’s a difference between asking your friend what he did this weekend and being nosey and asking them questions about their personal business that is none of your concern. The latter is what I have issue with. People these days seem so damned nosey it’s not even funny. As if not knowing the ins and outs of my personal life will negatively impact you in some manner. Worry about yourself and leave me the fuck alone. That’s the way I see it.

Now, the other side to “keeping up with the joneses” is people who always have to be better than their neighbors/friends/relatives/what-have-you. THESE people are just pathetic. Your friend buys a new car and all of a sudden you feel inadequate and have to go out and buy a car that “tops” what your friend just bought, for example. Like life is some sort of competition to have the most/nicest/best “stuff”. My best friend just bought a badass laptop, and though I think his laptop is cool, I’m not the least bit jealous nor did his purchase make me feel any lower on the totem pole than him. I know some people who just go absolutely nuts when someone else has something better than them. Drives them nuts to a point where they will actually buy something that they can’t afford (with a credit card) just so they can have something equivalent or better than what the other person just bought. If I buy something really really expensive, it’s not to show off or to make other people envy me. It’s because it’s something I want and something I feel will benefit me somehow. I bought a $425 cellphone… not to show off or so that people would be like “omg, he has a nicer phone than me”. I bought it because I had the money and wanted the additional functionality that the Treo600 offers. I upgraded my computer not because mine was slower than some of my friends’ computers. I did it because it was too slow for my tastes and I was short on RAM. I don’t bother comparing myself to other people. It does absolutely no good. There’s always going to be someone out there that has a nicer phone, nicer car, nicer house, better job, hotter girlfriend, and more money than you. If you live your life comparing yourself to other people, you’re always going to feel inadequate and be unhappy. I know I might come across as the most self-centered sonofabitch on earth, but that’s just how I am. I don’t care what you have, who you’re fucking, where you’ve been, or where you’re going. While I might think your stuff is cool, your girlfriend is hot, and think that it’s cool that you’ve travelled around the world, I don’t envy you. I’m not jealous of you. I know in some warped, twisted way it feels “good” to be envied or something, you won’t be getting it from me. I guess I’m weird… I don’t get off on being the center of attention, being envied, or even being “wanted” by other people. Because, when it comes down to it, I’ll die alone, I’m gone, my shit stays here. I’ll die happy knowing that I’ve done the best I could with what I had, and that’s a lot more than can be said for a lot of people I know.