Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Is anyone really misunderstood or is it just something we all feel?

I was reading Chuck Klosterman's book " Eating The Dinosaur" yesterday and it got me thinking about theoretical arguments and hypothetical situations. I want to warn everyone there's a lot of philosophizing below and none of it is directly game related as much as it's interesting human psychology...

In one part, Klosterman makes a comparison between Kurt Cobain and David Koresh. He argues that while Cobain was looked at as a God Koresh literally thought he was delivering the direct word of God. Either way, the way they were misunderstood(by both themselves and by the world at large) affected their lives immensely.

This got me thinking interestingly enough about a Lil Wayne song off of his " Tha Carter III" album.

Here's a selection of lyrics:

"Baby, you understand me now
If sometimes you see that I'm mad
Don't you know no one alive can always be an angel
When everything goes wrong, you see some bad


But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood


Uh, misunderstood ain't gotta be explained
But you don't understand me so let me explain (heh heh)
Stood in the heat, the flames, the snow
Please slow down hurricane
The wind blow, my dreads swing

He had hair like wool, like Wayne (huh)
Dropping ashes in the bible
I shake em out and they fall on the rifle
Scary, hail Mary no tale fairy
All real very, extraordinary
Perry Mason facing, the barrel if he tattle
My god is my judge, no gown no gavel
Uh, I'm a rebel, time to battle
Now or never, I would never, in the ever
Fucking fantastic, fuck if you agree
I'm bright but I don't give a fuck if you see me


I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood



Uh, what's understood ain't gotta be explained"


So obviously, Lil Wayne feels misunderstood despite selling millions of records and remaining streetcredulous. I started thinking about other famous people and artists who have marketed themselves under the idea of being Misunderstood. My future wife P!nk's breakthrough album was titled Misunderstood and went platinum. There's a million other examples of popular media being marketed to people who feel like they are misunderstood by the general population. While offering some sort of unique insight of their own, thus demonstrating that they're understanding of themselves and the world is correct.

This brings up the following fascinating (to me at least) question, if everyone at some point can identify with the idea of being an outcast or being misunderstood, is anyone actually misunderstood?

I personally feel like being misunderstood offers people a chance to feel better about themselves. If you feel like no one gets you, it allows you to filter and hedge the feedback you're getting. To use Lil Wayne for an example, he probably feels like he is stereotyped as a thug/gangsta rapper in the DMX vein. When in fact he sees himself as an artistic genius in the John Lennon vein. This is evidenced by the numerous articles and interviews in which he rehash's Lennon's quote about getting art out of a tuba...

However his artistic merit is PROBABLY not, the reason people consider him a thug. It's probably because he has four facial tattoos and the fact that he is going to jail for a year for weapons possession in NYC. Lil Wayne doesn't consider his behavior in his self assessment and the masses in general don't give his artistic statements enough consideration. In both ways, Wayne is misunderstood and understood correctly. Both sides have valid points to support their understanding, and both sides are ignoring and deleting information to support their opinion.

Everyone feels misunderstood at some point, no matter their level of personal success, which makes being misunderstood something that actually bonds us all as human beings, as everyone thinks they understand others while being misunderstood themselves usually when it comes to thing they don't want to believe about themselves.

JS-The King Of Content

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:27 AM

    This goes to the heart of the special butterfly mentality that ppl have of themselves. Almost everyone thinks of him/herself as a special butterfly; one prerequisite is that s/he has to be unique and thus no one else would understand them.

    The self-absorbed nature of people is what drives them to talk endlessly of themselves... to show the world that they are different... that they are special... and to prove that everyone else don't get them, i.e. they are really misunderstood.

    Imagine if you are not that special, you are just another one among 6 billion, and the world wouldn't miss you one bit if you were gone. Most if not all people would find that rather depressing and why bother to live another day?!

    How this applies to getting girls is that rather than telling them you "get" them, but if you can convey in subtext that you can see their inner beauty and all that b.s., they feel appreciated for being that unique butterfly, that connection is what makes girls melt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:20 PM

    Good content for some stock cold readin'! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:44 PM

    Maybe even a step more with Lil Wayne... He feels misunderstood about specific things like his facial tats and weapons possession...

    He has tats and is involved with guns, still to this day, not because he is a thug, but because he has to present himself to be one.

    He has to present the thug persona so that his artistic (truest) nature can survive and thrive.

    I think another way to put it is that he has sold out to the art...
    and recognizes this...
    and would probably be happy if he went down in history viewed as such.

    ~BCS~

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anthony Lee Thomas Wrightson4:56 PM

    Your a different person in the eyes of everyone that you meet. And they all see you differently than how you view yourself.

    I'm paraphrasing that from a novel I read but thats the jist. Personally I relish this and wouldn't want it any other way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nobody’s misunderstood… That’s just what people say when they don’t like who they are.” - Bobby Funke (Assassination of a High School President)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:46 AM

    Your my hero......


    This is on most social level true. Especially becuase there are several milestones of being a man. 18,21,25,30,and 35. natrually 21 being an artificially created one in 1979 when the drinking age was pushed from 18 to 21, but generally in 5 year gaps. sorry I don't have a source to site. i noticed better results when I was 25 than now when I'm 30 I think mostly because I don't work in retail anymore and have less time to day game... time is gold! Good thing i'm on the way to being one of the NR!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know this is an old post but I found it interesting. I think being "misunderstood" is a euphemism for people just not giving a shit. Because really, if you pay attention and spend some energy, people are not that hard to figure out. But human attention is finite -- nobody can understand everyone.

    What people want is to be cared about, but being 'misunderstood' is not pejorative and shifts the blame to someone else. Like being 'underpaid' shifts blame away from being worthless.

    Or, another angle, misunderstood is shorthand for saying your own world and the outside world are not in alignment and that the outside world is wrong. So it not only describes the condition (misalignment of realities) but also takes a side. So it acts as an affirmation.

    ReplyDelete