How do you put on an intellectual air?

[photosynthesis]

[quote name='Light and Truth' date='Nov 23 2005, 10:48 PM']I'm sorry, but with all the crimes that occur each day in this country, one single crime doesn't seem so relevant to me most of the time unless they just want to show me a picture of someone to avoid or something.  Of course if it is a new tax law or the weather or something, that is nice to know, but if something is beyond my ability to affect and something that doesn't really effect me, then I just don't care that much.  There are other things that do effect me more directly and that I can effect more directly, like my life I guess.
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yeah, people don't like to think that the entire world does not revolve around them. it's more comfortable to think that the only person that matters in the world is yourself. Even the American press perpetuates the notion that the world revolves America when they only cover in depth matters that closely relate to American foreign policy.

The news gives me a reason to pray. When I read the news, I read about things that don't pertain to my life at all... earthquakes in foreign countries... disease, famine, political conflicts... Those are not the reasons why I have trouble sleeping. I often read the news in a calm, detached manner because I'm used to it, but I am conscious of my numbness and my cynicism and I wish I could feel more. Reading the news gives me a reason to thank God for what I have, and it gives me a reason to pray for what the world needs.

[quote name='jgirl' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:18 PM']I'm one of those people!
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Me too! My GPA is a solid B-/C+. But one of my friends was valedictorian of her high school, got a full scholarship to Rutgers and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and she is selling crack and prostituting herself on the streets of New Brunswick now. She can't get a decent job because she's a convicted felon, she can't vote and she can barely walk in a straight line.

[jgirl]

[quote name='Light and Truth' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:30 PM']What is an intellectual quirk?
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The Russian literature and the chem homework for fun over the summer!

[journeyman]

[quote name='Light and Truth' date='Nov 21 2005, 09:05 PM']
  I want to know how to sort of put on an intellectual air . . . . 

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one leg at a time

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:13 PM']yeah, people don't like to think that the entire world does not revolve around them.  it's more comfortable to think that the only person that matters in the world is yourself.  Even the American press perpetuates the notion that the world revolves America when they only cover in depth matters that closely relate to American foreign policy.
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That is good because American foreign policy has been messed up for years, in my unprofessional opinion.

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:13 PM']The news gives me a reason to pray.  When I read the news, I read about things that don't pertain to my life at all...  earthquakes in foreign countries...  disease, famine, political conflicts... [right][snapback]799473[/snapback][/right][/quote]
True, but that seems like the only real reason then.

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:13 PM']I often read the news in a calm, detached manner because I'm used to it, but I am conscious of my numbness and my cynicism and I wish I could feel more.[right][snapback]799473[/snapback][/right][/quote]
The I used to be very uncalm and non-detached with some issues in the news. I would rant about them in my head as I brushed my teeth at night. I don't want to do things where I am just calm and detached when I am supposed to care! I don't have the power to do anything like I always wanted to change the world and I'm afraid of just jumping in to doing more locally because it could negatively affect what I do have going for me (Mom says I'm helpful around the home, it's $1200 a year for my parents if I get below a 3.0 GPA) and be another challange for those around me to deal with and I tend to underestimate the freedom I have while living at home. I am calm when learning about things going on here at home, but then I also feel a stronger sense of purpose in doing that and not just with regard to myself but also my family.

[photosynthesis]

you can't change the world unless you know what's going on in the world. If you don't read the news, you wouldn't even know what to change!

My mom reacts to news events VERY passionately. She is very strongly opinionated and her opinions are not Catholic ones. when she reads the news, she will go on and on and on, saying "ISN'T THAT JUST TERRIBLE?" and "DON'T YOU JUST FEEL FOR THESE PEOPLE?" And I'll usually say something snide like, "Yeah, there's injustice in the world. That's nothing new." As it is written in Ecclesiastes (I think), "There is nothing new under the sun." It's just history repeating itself, over and over.

But I still think that the news is still worth reading, if you want to be engaged in the world. As Christians, we are called to detatch ourselves from the spirit of the world. But we are also called to love our neighbors and evangelize the culture. How are we to evangelize the culture if we have no idea what's going on? That's why I try to be the kind of Christian with a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other.

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='jgirl' date='Nov 23 2005, 11:31 PM']The Russian literature and the chem homework for fun over the summer!
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I do neither of those over during the school year because I am busy with school work and I thought theology would be a better use of my time since it deals with more eternally worthwhile issues. I didn't get as much into either last summer because I spent the first half feeling a tad depressed and being unsuccessful looking for a job and then the second half working and being a lazy bum online looking at message boards like this.

I don't know how to flaunt quirks. That concept is foreign to me.

[photosynthesis]

my friend Peter, back when he was alive, used to take standardized tests for fun. He did pretty well on the LSAT'S and the GRE... and he never got to finish college!