Prog As Substitute For Life

I simply believe in very few of these generalizations and find little value in them.  You have proggers of zero achievement and proggers who are successful parents, doctors, businesspeople, skydivers, etc. 

For the subset of proggers who are armchair life-livers, parents' basement dwellers, etc....a further mistake is to automatically assume there is something wrong with that.  There are some people who are happy living a very anti-social, anti-success, anti-goals lifestyle, they are content with their thoughts and their simple lives, and they don't need kids or spouses or money or skydives to fulfill themselves.  There is nothing wrong with these people either, so long as they are content and not hurting anyone. 

Life is a personal thing.  Throughout time it means so many different things to different people.  I have seen people in my life that would fall under the "loser" tag to general society, I've seen them live their lives happily, and as far as they're concerned, the joke is on those who jump through hoops to please others. 

So I think the only truth to this line of generalizing is that no prog fan generalization is truth. 

Perhaps it's not that proggers achieve nothing- this is clearly false. Maybe it's that it's not enough for them, that they're searching inwardly for more. Is it perhaps akin to religion in some ways? (Again, devil's advocate.)

Blacksword wrote: Finnforest wrote: I simply believe in very few of these generalizations and find little value in them.  You have proggers of zero achievement and proggers who are successful parents, doctors, businesspeople, skydivers, etc.  For the subset of proggers who are armchair life-livers, parents' basement dwellers, etc....a further mistake is to automatically assume there is something wrong with that.  There are some people who are happy living a very anti-social, anti-success, anti-goals lifestyle, they are content with their thoughts and their simple lives, and they don't need kids or spouses or money or skydives to fulfill themselves.  There is nothing wrong with these people either, so long as they are content and not hurting anyone.  Life is a personal thing.  Throughout time it means so many different things to different people.  I have seen people in my life that would fall under the "loser" tag to general society, I've seen them live their lives happily, and as far as they're concerned, the joke is on those who jump through hoops to please others.  So I think the only truth to this line of generalizing is that no prog fan generalization is truth.  " the joke is on those who jump through hoops to please others" The best quote of the day.

this is so true!

it is sort of fanatism, but we all have some other interests also, besides Prog.. and yeah, it brings joy in our lives.. and we don't have to sit home in front of pc and listen prog,  we use ipod  ..you cannot generalize .. diferent people,diferent interests 

I have to vehemently disagree with that. Being a productive member of society is important because there's more to life than what you want. If everyone was locked in a state of perpetual adolescence then nothing would ever get done, so I don't see the problem with judging someone who won't grow the f**k up.

Edited by Henry Plainview - October 12 2009 at 21:41

Textbook wrote: Perhaps it's not that proggers achieve nothing- this is clearly false. Maybe it's that it's not enough for them, that they're searching inwardly for more. Is it perhaps akin to religion in some ways? (Again, devil's advocate.)

It's just music, dude. 

I substitute life with prog, I take the song "House With no Door" literally, and have boarded up all doors and windows to my house. I play WoW for 12 hrs a day, listen to prog 10 hrs a day and sleep 2 hrs a day.  I don't think I'd have it any other way.

I sincerely doubt that prog fans are any more prone to obsessive behavior than fans of any other genre.

Now, if you started a thread addressing the obsessive use of hand-held devices, texting, or internet in general, that would be another story...I see people texting while driving down scenic country roads, while at the movies, or out to dinner with their spouse...they are certainly replacing real-life with something else...

Devil's advocate normally is the provocative person who wants to have people disagree with him to make them find out that they can't. If you consider progressive rock a drug, then it is the only one I regularly take, and normally this does not cause me to feel comfortably numb and locate glue, breen, yink and pellow things all around them (unless you suffer from synaesthesia). Why should a progressive rock fan not listen to music as metalheads, hip-hoppers or common people do? Because music is more important than everything in our life, in conclusion, is our life? No. We just like music. And, up to now, I never saw any person that obsessed with music that they fail to live (might be because they never get out of their sombrous rooms plastered with CDs and filled with sounds that, if worldly, are at least not from this world). I, at least, don't experience anything near friendship, love or whatever enjoyment in your devilled opinion is to be found in life with music, just enjoy my progressive rock like others enjoy their pop. After all, as said before, it's just music.

And don't forget that only prog gives you access to fantastic worlds, born in the minds of people who might not be actually sane in the sense of being like everyone and not insane in the sense of being not like everyone at all. I might be exaggerating here.

Now, excuse me, today I plan to go into town, meet some friends do some sports, enjoy my holidays and, of course, listen some prog

P.S.: If I was to busy because I need (yes, I DESPERATELY NEED) to listen some prog, I would have limited to a one-word answer being simply 'no'.