Can lead to many ills in Society.I am of the Clark Gable persuation. " Frankly,My dear,I don't give a damn." That is how I feel and always felt about being Popular.Or the driven need to be Popular.Many a movie has been made about this.Even TV series, where in High School you have the In-types or those who strut around the halls acting like Prima Donna.Therefore Peer Pressure being played out. The worst type friends one will ever have or encounter will be the ones obsessed over being popular.Most often the best of friends will be the ones who are driven by inner character,strength of purpose and virtue.Which of course has not been taught in our schools.Our Schools have been Co-Opted to push Climate Change,Identity politics and now White Priviledge.Which is why todays youth are so conflicted they have to get permission to decide what is up from what is down.It is truly an American Tragedy.In short to be popular means one must follow Political Correctness or else.However school bullying is anything but politically correct.And today's youth are actively being bullied in school and outside the school.Some of America's biggest bullies are our Politicians.They have a huge soapbox and means.In other words to be popular today reeks of sameness and being a bore.I just as soon be a drag. Like what the Beatnicks described those not of the beat generation. " Every effect that one produces give one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity." -- Oscar Wilde
what a truly dismal existence, to sell volvo cars "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting". e e cumming
people are basically have no more of value than the oil on the pubic hair of sewer rats. I don't seek the love or admiration of public oil on rats. Go away people. I hate your presence (except for my children who have considerably more value than I described)
Sometimes NOT being popular in school as a Kid or teen pays dividends later in life.That was the case with Robin Williams who was overweight and depressed as a Kid/Teen in school. It may have forced him to adopt a personality that must be recognized. Humor is a great equalizer.Jackie Gleason is a classic example. His humor is loud and In Yer Face.I once read a piece he wrote about his growing up.Gleason had a terrible upbringing.Not a blade of grass or tree in sight on the street where he lived in a very repressing coldwater flat. I remember him writing that there was only One Light bulb in the entire flat.Now let's Be 4 real.That's Depressing.Plus lack of heat in winter and too much muggy heat in the dog days.Imagine a gloomy cold rainy day in late November.Remember there are no colors in this neighborhood he grew up in.No Grass,shrubs or Trees.Just bleak gray and dirty gutters and probably broken brick structures.Despite the " wretchedly unhappy childhood" living in arguably the worst section of Brooklyn's tenement district where his brother died when he was 3 and by age 9 his father deserted he and his mother. Leaving them penniless and his mom neurotic.That cannot but have a dramatic impact on one's choices going forward.Trying his hand at stand-up as a late teen in seedy nightclubs in New Jersey,Brooklyn and even Pennsylvania he Bombed. It wasn't until he took to the bottle that his inspiration was realized. When drunk,he was a gas.The life of the party.Very funny and surely quite relaxed.Thus leading to a lifetime of staying inebriated and if so be it, laughing right off whatever Life deals one.It couldn't be any worse than what he lived though growing up as a kid. To Be Popular might well be a bargain.Not like with the Devil but with oneself.Be careful what you ask for. Robin Williams should have wrote about that.But he did play the role in many a movie.Helping advise those psychologically in preparing for life's twists & turns.
Robin Williams in the movie, "The World Of Garp", springs to mind. I recently watched it on an old vhs tape. He had an out of the ordinary upbringing.
I wasn't popular in High School because I was a hippy-nerd who didn't date or drink. I read Shakespeare for fun, had horses, and was built like a ballerina at a time when other girls were in DD cups. I was never bullied, but I was ignored. Ignored until the very end of high school, when the boys apparently suddenly realised that those boobs they'd pursued since the 8th grade were attached to a mediocre face. Way too too little, too late, lads .. ha ha. I didn't even give a boy the time of day if he wasn't supermodel material.
I suspect that whatever happened to him at school was a result of what was wrong with him generally. ie, he had massive problems. Obviously.
