Describe stuck-up, materialistic and snobbish... (Dallas, Plano: school, statistics, food)

[aceplace]

If your definition is what I think it is, then the activity you've defined is very rare. In fact, the only example of it is attributable to one individual, and you don't know what was really said and done, only somebody else's version of what happened.

The problem with believing in rumor is that everybody that passes it along embellishes the story according to his own biases, omits key pieces of information, etc.

Your example is a man who hears about his wife's traffic accident and asks if the car was damaged. Did he ask about his wife? You don't know. Was the wife's condition alreeady known? You don't know. Maybe his wife was the one standing in front of him and relaying the story, obviously not injured. You don't know.

No, I don't believe your story.

[aceplace]

Webster's defines Materialism.."The theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality, and that all being or processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter".

Well, that's not particularly insulting or derogatory... hardly the thing that will slander anyone, or destroy their reputation via a whisper campaign. Let's look at another definition.

"A preoccupation or stress on material, rather than intellectual or spiritual things."

I guess it's a matter of opinion on where you draw the line, at what point does it become a preoccupation. How bad is bad? And also, what is a "spiritual thing"? A ghost? Voices in the head? And what about the intellectual side? Instead of working 40 hours per week, are we supposed to work only 20 and spend the rest of the time studying mathematics? Or praying?

The problem is that there is no objective standard as to balancing the intellectual and spiritual with the physical. Or maybe there is. In our culture, you study as a child and young adult, then you work for a living, and go to church on the Sunday of your choice. You are expected to be productive in all three realms.

[Lakewooder]

Move to East Dallas, abandon envy and then the rest is easy. Most of the people around here really don't give a [MOD CUT] what you have or what you don't have. The poor are just as important as the rich. It is the person we see, not the color, nor the clothes, nor the jewelry, nor the job nor the car. Now, sometimes people are interested in the house because of its history and travel for its educational benefits. But people without educations can teach others something too.

We are laid-back here, why is that so difficult for others to understand?

[Spree]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

We are laid-back here, why is that so difficult for others to understand?

I don't think anyone has said anything to the contrary about Lakewood?

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by aceplace

No, I don't believe your story.

Oh, it's totally true, but I probably wouldn't believe it either if you had written it on C-D. It is so bizarre that it truly is unbelievable.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Move to East Dallas, abandon envy and then the rest is easy. Most of the people around here really don't give a sh*t what you have or what you don't have. The poor are just as important as the rich. It is the person we see, not the color, nor the clothes, nor the jewelry, nor the job nor the car. Now, sometimes people are interested in the house because of its history and travel for its educational benefits. But people without educations can teach others something too.

We are laid-back here, why is that so difficult for others to understand?

Hippieville?

[rb4browns]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Move to East Dallas, abandon envy and then the rest is easy. Most of the people around here really don't give a sh*t what you have or what you don't have. The poor are just as important as the rich. It is the person we see, not the color, nor the clothes, nor the jewelry, nor the job nor the car. Now, sometimes people are interested in the house because of its history and travel for its educational benefits. But people without educations can teach others something too.

We are laid-back here, why is that so difficult for others to understand?

I can't speak for East Dallas per se, but I've lived in plenty of low income/working class neighborhoods. Try driving in to one of them in a Mercedes while wearing an Armani suit and then see how much of a sh*t people really do care about what you might have.

The poor may be as important as the rich, but they aren't any more unique or special because they don't have money than rich people are because they do. I've never understood why some feel that being poor gives one some sort of nobility or special insight in to life.

[caligurltotx]

Plastic surgery, fake boobs, bleached hair, lots of makeup???

Are u talking about Californians again

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

Oh, it's totally true, but I probably wouldn't believe it either if you had written it on C-D. It is so bizarre that it truly is unbelievable.

Well, it would be pretty bizzare, if it were the whole truth, but there may be parts of the story that got left out, didn't survive the rumor mill.

I will agree that if the man in question honestly didn't care about his wife's injuries, he'd be a bad guy. I wouldn't call him a "materialist", though... the appropriate term would be "sociopath". A sociopath is someone who will exploit others for his own gain, and has zero empathy for the sufferings of others.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by rb4browns

I can't speak for East Dallas per se, but I've lived in plenty of low income/working class neighborhoods. Try driving in to one of them in a Mercedes while wearing an Armani suit and then see how much of a sh*t people really do care about what you might have.

The poor may be as important as the rich, but they aren't any more unique or special because they don't have money than rich people are because they do. I've never understood why some feel that being poor gives one some sort of nobility or special insight in to life.

I think F Scott Fitzgerald, the author of "The Great Gatsby", said... "I've been poor and I've been rich, and rich is better".

Being rich might have helped ease the pain, but FitzGerald's wife, Zelda, was increasingly bizzare in her behavior, and eventually died in an insane asylum fire. Of course the poor may be equally insane, but they end their days freezing on the street or stabbed to death under a bridge, rather than in an expensive institution.

Everybody competes for scarce resources... the best schools for their children, the best medical care, the best food and housing, the best legal help when they get in trouble. The poor are those who come in at the end of the pack in the great marathon of life. They then rationalize their losses by whining about how "materialistic" the winners are. The only ones who may be non-materialistic are monks in monasteries who take a vow of poverty. And they may have other vices to contend with.