20 ⚜ Video

[restingstitchface]

My "therapist" implied I do not seek meaningful connection and so here is a meaningful survey:

[He eyeballs the camera and barely constrains the frown eating at the bottom corner of his lip. He's sitting straight in an armchair in a vintage room. Anyone getting a good look at him might notice he's too old. Unable to hide his true face, but it doesn't matter.]

Are our lives worlds of actions and reactions, behaviours and reinforcements?

Do we live without freedom or meaning?

Is existence defined through external activity?

Are human personalities nothing but the sum of human behavioral patterns?

[His gaze wanders in the ceiling.]

Or, for the modern generation; what is personality? [¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the education system.] Let's hear you pose entirely different models of what a human being is, and then argue from there.

Comments

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[itistolaugh]

Oh my god, you boring nerd.

[restingstitchface]

So I should stick to questioning people by traditional means?

[Those being unethical means. Very unethical means.]

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[brushoff]

Can't you be a normal person and do 'a/s/l' instead?

[ ewwwwwww thinking ]

[restingstitchface]

... a/s/l?

[What is that? HE DOES NOT KNOW.]

[sleight_of_hand]

...you can't possibly be serious right now.

[ Did Crane have any idea how hard he was trying not to be freaked out by him, and here he was just out to "make frands" like it was no big deal???? ]

[restingstitchface]

You tell me. I'm hardly one to joke, am I?

[He's only out to make frands if you're interesting, Adachi. You wanted to be left alone, right?]

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[unbreaker]

Yeah, uh...

[It's difficult to keep under wraps the feelings of hurt, anger, and betrayal Josuke still feels when he so much as thinks about Crane, let alone speaks to him. But here he is. Trying.]

Having a meaningful connection with someone isn't gonna happen just 'cause you attach the word 'meaningful' to a survey you're dumping on everyone. I mean, it's a place to start, but only if you're actively seeking connections and not, y'know...posturing.

[Or like, stringing folks along so you can stab them in the back.]

[restingstitchface]

[He stabs people in the front. This child, like most, was blind to it.

Now he's choosing to do something about that - to help. Right choice, wrong reasons.]

Asking difficult questions is not posturing, Josuke. Your choice of words reflects your hurt and anger. And what human being doesn't feel pain?

And here I am, asking you painful questions. Why might you think it so?

[cantwalkwithoutit]

Is asking a litany of 'yes' or 'no' questions really going to pull much meaning from the masses?

I realize I'm responding with yet another, so that may be unhelpful, but I'm curious.

[restingstitchface]

Better a curious mind than one rendered blunt by all that sordid televised nonsense.

Anyway. Closed questions are quick and simple to answer. A benefit given the nature of the crowd, I thought. Details will come in time.

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[lovestoys]

Oh boy.

Nerd alert!

[restingstitchface]

[This one? Gets a purposefully vague look.

Another victim of the American education system, it seems.]

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[heckblazer]

[ John comes very, very close to taking the bait and waxing philosophical - in spite of himself he still does, occasionally, listen to psychiatric professionals. But nah, he saves that kind of dreck for his inner monologue. ]

I think one a' those flicks made by Yanks said it best, mate - there's no fate but what we make ourselves.

[ Sure, he's from a place where the Divine are out there making plans, but in John's opinion that's note fate, just assholes meddling. ]

[restingstitchface]

That is a common belief. Fate, however, is decided upon our moment of birth. That implies a divine hand - though I agree divinity has nothing to do with it.

[In his opinion, religious people are just bullies who need an excuse.]

The past determines what happens in the future. That we lack true freedom in our choices; that we are repeating patterns of behavior; an individual's existence is hardly what they make of it. Those are "fate".

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[reek]

Whatever a therapist may be, yours sounds as if he needs to seek new employment.

[ Your survey sucks, bro. No one has time for that existentialist stuff. ]

[restingstitchface]

Well said. They're hardly the image of grace and professional competence. That they were afforded a license shocked me, honestly.

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[catchacold]

I second your therapist. You do not seek meaningful connection.

But if you want to fake seeking it, this ain't the best attempt.

[restingstitchface]

That implies I made an honest attempt.

But assume what you like, Mr. Snart. I am hardly one to change your mind.

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[plasthmatic]

...I hate to break it to you, but this is not the way to build meaningful connections with anyone but like...that Plato guy.

And maybe a serial killer.

Probably a serial killer.

[restingstitchface]

I made my living correcting the behavior of criminals: serial killers being amongst their lot. And stranger people, besides.

Thanks for the concern but I'll be fine.

[acclimatized]

You sound like you don't agree with your therapist.

[ when has john ever taken one of his surveys seriously? ]

[restingstitchface]

Clearly so.

How are you doing, Dr. Watson?

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[exceptfebruary]

Meaningful connections. Someone to share a holiday with. Someone to give a birthday present to. Someone to celebrate an anniversary with. Our behaviour is regulated by the calendar, like all things.

[restingstitchface]

Ah. Julian.

[It's wonderful to see you? Not quite. He's not into shallow social flattery. Never quite wielded it comfortably underneath it all, either.]

Those are external factors. Indirectly, you seem to be claiming mankind lacks free will and other things. [A pause.] The calendar was created by man, was it not?

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[dirtyredneck]

Just humans or humans and other people, too?

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[restingstitchface]

The latter.

Sentient lifeforms who understand the concept. Though some of them appear like you and me. Curious, that, don't you think?