So basically...

I strongly dislike society.

I wrote this sentence ages ago,like months ago I'm fairly certain,but the point was reitterated to me this week at uni.That is,I was reminded of my strong dislike and almost hatred for society.Not all society mind you,but certaintly many aspects of it.

I started uni again this week,as already mentioned.A topic that came up kinda frequently was the amount of attractive girls that were at uni.This was a true statement,no matter how much you chose to ignore it,there were ALOT of attractive girls at uni.I don't necessairly have a problem with this.My problem is the way many aspects of society portray women,or girls,and the way this affects the mind of the man(I'm using myself as the example here)and also the way girls choose to portray themselves and the way they are portrayed in media etc. By now you can probably guess where this blog is heading,but I am going to continue,just because its something I have been thinking over alot latly and dealing with personally aswell.

Some much of what we see,hear and say in this day and age is do with sex,it surrounds us and engulfs us and our lives.To an extent,it should be this way,God has given us sex as a wonderful(or so I'm often told.haha)gift,but as is often the case, sin has come in and twisted and distorted our vision,view and idea of it.This has,not unsurprisngly,leaked out into the society in which we live.Girls now parade themselves around from day to day in skimpy outfits with little shame or regret,they also fail to relaise the effect this has on the male portion of the population.I feel,and it does sadden me that this is the case,that the days of modesty and respectability,especially for each others bodies,are all but gone now.

Girls,and please note,I do not by any means every single girl there is,but girls,are all about "getting the guy",getting him to notice you,getting him to be into you,getting him to be attracted to you.I find this very annoying,for more than one reason.The first is,if often causes them to dress,and I admit I'm not 100%sure how to word this,but I'll give it a shot at least. It causes them to dress in an interesting, unhelpful(to guys at least)way and at times pretty immodest.I dont think girls realise just how visually stimulated guys are,it doesn't take much to make a guy think about sex,let me say that much,so alot of the time the way a girl/women is dressed is not often the most helpful thing to a male.The other thing is that this causes the girls to have such a superficial exsistence.They all focus,and all the focus is put on,their outward physical apperance when there is definantly so much more to every individual girl out there that goes far deeper than the way they look.Self-esteem is often wrapped up into this aswell,which is a very sad fact.They worry frequently over whether or not the guy is interested or not in her and this can become their obsession.

Guys are not free from blame here either.I feel,and I definantly count myself in this,that we often play on this fact of the girls. We flirt with them and encourage it in a sense and certaintly encourging the aforementioned obsession.Its certaintly no secret that the more attractive girls do get more attention.This both angers and disgusts me,and I do conceed that I am at fault here to.However,this should stop(and a idealistic world it probably would).There is so much more to a person than their outward apperance and we should make every effort to get to know a person regardless of experince,but being realistic within the society in which we live,this will probably not happen as regularly as it should.

All of these things give way to one of the biggest and most prominent sins of our age(or so I feel).This is also one of the most underated,or should I say,"better disguised" sins.Lust.This seems to almost be a dirty word now.People don't like to mention it,and even avoid the term and discussing it all together,but it is prominent and you need look no where further than the mordern media to find that fact.The way magazines,movies,t.v shows etc portrays not only women,but the idea of sex in general,is quite despicable and in some ways disgusting.I can not play it all on the media or celebritities,for even the very nature of humanity is at fault to,and of course sin,but the media,whether you admit it or not,has a strong hold of influence over us,our culture and our society,both obvious and subliminal.The image portrayed to us of sex and women,only feeds both the lust of men and also the self-esteem issue that faces many wome.Those of not being happy with their bodies and having to fit a mould that may not nessecairly fit their individual type.I think this is one of the things that angers me most.Its that sex and physicality is no longer sacred,in fact its ridiculed in a vast array of circles.

I forget where I read the quote,but I once read in a magazine or a feature in a newspaper,or some form of media,whatever it was,it was good and really made me think.The main point is,the article writer was interviewing a women for whatever reason,I think it was because of some extreme religous sect or something along those lines.Anyway, woman was talking about the rules and regulations and one of them was that her husband was the only man who was allowed to see even her hair,the journalists response was something along these lines; "I remember thinking,my God,how special must this man feel and this relationship be when he is the only one whos allowed to see even her hair!"The journo also mentioned something about the way the bedroom felt very sacred and romantic,but I don't know if I buy into that part as much.The point is,this is what a good healthy relationship,a sexual relationship,between man and wife,should be like!But sadly,the media and social constructs distort and twist our view and we lose the depth and meaning to it all.

A final point that I have been thinking on of late is this.Although I don't nessecairly agree with the Muslim belief/religon,or the way the enforce certain rules.However,I think they may be onto one thing in the way they dress with the Burka(please pardon my spelling if this is wrong).As I said,I don't particularly agree,but its an interesting idea.Having women dress modestly and sacredly,their body only for their husband's eyes.Its a lovely and beautiful sentiment.I'd hate to think what both girls and guys alike are going to be like when they have to confront all the barries and obstacles in a serious relationship due to previous wrong sexual experinces in other relationships.This applies to all circles of people and beliefs.Lust takes ahold and grows into a ugly,distorting and facturing monster.It has to be put to death,or else it only continues to grow and destroy.

The fact of the matter is,guys are very vulnerable to lust and are very visually driven/stimulated.This causes a great problem due to what the media feeds both men and women alike and also due to the ever changing and what appears to be frequently more revealing fashion world.Ideally,we would be able to stop this in another world and we wouldn't have the same pain and struggles that we do now.However,realstically,society will never allow for this and can never return to the early-mid 1900's when sex was still valued and sacred.I think this is what I find the most frustrating,that and no matter what we do,lust will forever infiltrate our lives.

I feel slightly vulnerable here in that I may have come across abit more sexest than I meant to.Girls are not to blame for my arguement or anything like that.Guys are just as much to blame as are girls,all of society is at fault.Guys need to use and develop self control just as much as everyone else.Please don't hear me wrong and think it's all the girls fault,it is not all them.

Inspired by Kevin,written by Josh

As the title suggests,this blog is much in the same vain as the one that Kevin wrote earlier this week(for those that read or follow it)and apologise for that. However, this will not be the same blog as Kevins.I think I will be touching on similar issues,but at least telling them in a different voice, way or perspective, basically,it is a similar argument to Kevins, but with differences,exciting huh?haha
Before I unleash my stream of conscience on you, I feel compelled to tell you that this blog will talk about problems that I have with the Western World and Western society. However, I alos understand and see the good points to this society,this just touches on some of the problems I have and thoughts that I contain in my little head, and seeing as I started this blog thing up,I figured I may as well use it. Now after that long winded and unnecessary introduction,lets get to the crux of the matter.
I have a problem. That problem is in regards to identity. Today I find that our identity is wrapped up so much in WHAT we DO,WHAT we WEAR,WHAT we SAY, as opposed to WHO we are.
Our society is so steeped fashion, both clothing wise and in terms of what people have to do to be accepted. For example, so many of us(myself included) by brand name clothes, not because we honestly believe they are a better product, but because we believe they are the "cooler" option. In reality though, not much makes Billabong, Quicksliver or Rusty better than the shirts/pants at JayJays. More often than not all labels,both from the "surf shops" and JayJays or other "non-branded" labels are of the same design, same pattern, even made in the same country(usually China or some other country where things are cheap to manufacture). All labels, even serve the same pratcial purpose, that is, to clothe and protect us. Do you think a $40+ shirt does this better than a $20 or less shirt?I don't. We simply pay the extra money for the label and for the sake of being seen as cool. We all have this inherit desire to be accepted.
That desire is a fine and normal thing, but the way that society plays up this desire and what it now forces us to do to be accepted,is just stupid. It also causes us to lose our identity within this search for acceptance.We deny ourselves and pretend to be someone different for the sake of being "cool" or for the sake of being "accepted". In a sense, we change or identity and lie to ourselves for the hope that a certain group of people will like us more. This, my friends,is crap. Absolute crap.
Allow me to give an example that is highly applicable to our age group(that being early to late teens),something we have all been involved in, the so called "party scene". Don't get me wrong, I love parties and have had some amazing times with my mates at parties and I love hanging out and having a few drinks. However, my issue is this: the party scene changes people and re-defines their identity, to something I believe is worse than it originally was.
When people go to parties, the whole way they are defined changes. Everything suddenly becomes a competition,it becomes the competition scene,and I'm gonna say it, a competition of study,meaningless and minor things.It becomes a competition to see who can drink the most,who can hook up with the most chicks/guys.This competition of shallow and meaningless substances,defines who we are. By the end of the night(a night many often can't even remember)people are defined by how much they had to drink,how much "they got".They find their identity with this.You know what?Who gives a shit.Honestly.I don't care if you had 20 drinks or zero.That doesn't define who you are.You think when you die you'll be remembered for the night you had 20+ drinksor how many girls you hooked up with?Let me tell you,and history is evidence to this,you won't be.Why then,strive so hard to achive this and to be accepted by the amount you drink?It just doesn't make sense,its stupid and pointless.Even worse than this,is when people pretend to be drunk in an attempt to try and find acceptance.This probably one of the saddest things I have seen. People, pretending to be drunk, it just angers and frustates me that people would do this.
The real reason people get drunk and caught up in the party scene,is because, a)it is fun(lets face it,that much is true) and b)because it helps them to escape and hide from themselves. When people are drunk,they do things they usually wouldn't do,sometimes,things they wish they could do without getting drunk. Again I find this stupid. You are valueable,value yourself,value your identity and who you were created to be, value what you can and can't do,value your difference to people. Don't hide, change or distort your identity.As kevin said in his,this also leads to awkwardness. Most teens spend an insane amount of their time and money on alcholo and being drunk. This then leads them to forgetting or not being able to relate to people properly when they get out in real society. They only ever engage in the "drunken small talk" of meaningless topics. They don't who they are, or what they believe, so they are awkward in the world.Find your self and your identity,don't hide behind the bottle!
JD in the 4th season of scrubs(sorry but I had to get my love and knowledge of that somewhere in here) says something along the lines of "The reason of first dates and dating,is for people to hide who they really are,until they are comfortable to show who they really are to the person". Saddly, I think this true. So many people in this day and age,hide who they truly are for fear they will be rejected and shunned.The fact of the matter is,you are lieing to yourself and to the group of people you are seeking acceptance from.If you are going to be liked and accepted,wouldn't you rather it be for who you truly are,as opposed to someone you aren't?there is enough people out there in this world that you should be able to find someone you gell with and can accept,it may take work,alot of work,but it's worth it,just don't be a lazy ass.
I know this gets said alot and is way cliche,but be yourself!Most people,whether they admit it or not,would rather be remembered for what they did,who they were or what they believed, as opposed to how much they drink.Find out what you believe,find out who you are,and as Kevin said,talk to people,deep discussions,that is the best and almost only way to truly know someone.Find your identity,and if you have found it and know who you are,then don't hide it.

I must admit,this is a generalisation and it is not aimed at anyone particular,just society in general.Also this was not a planned out essay or anything like that, I simply wrote my thoughts as they came into my head,so I apologise if it doesn't make sense,but hopefully you understand and see my point in that people lose,hide or try to find their identity in the wrong place.
Also,I don't want to be or sound like a hypocrite. So yes I have been drunk(althought I have stopped that,but I am not perfect and do slip up at times) and I do go to parties, however, this is not where I find my identity, I don't attach myself to their. I personally find myself in my beliefs and who I am.

First Blog-Always Riverting.

So this is the first blog that I have ever written,and I acctually have no purpose at all in blogging. I simply created this thing so I could follow my mates blogs while they were overseas and stuff.haha. That said, I do have some thoughts on the world and issues of the world,so I may blog from time to time, but more often than not,I wont, and when I do I don't feel it will be anything at all exciting,much like this one.So yeah, I have a few problems with the world and I like to dabble in forms of writing,so we will see what comes out!