[quote=burnsr77]wow! 🙂 i’m actually (i think) a very nice guy who’s generally easy to get along with.[/quote]
Granted, your postings here are a limited data base on which to go, but I’d be surprised if you are correct in your assessment of yourself. I’m sure you actually think you’re a nice guy and easy to get along with. And probably deep down you are a nice guy. But your immaturity and resentment are probably much more obvious (and annoying) to your acquaintances than you think. (The fact that you were surprised that your post sparked outrage is an indicator of your lack of understanding of how you affect others.)
As much as you’d love for the world to revolve around everyone’s depth and intellectualness, the fact is that it generally revolves around their personalities. In San Diego, San Francisco, New York and Kinshasha. Go to the most intellectual book club in the world, and the most-liked guy there isn’t the smartest guy or the guy who has the most illuminating interpretations of Bukowski. It’s the temecula guy of the group. The one who keeps it light and makes you laugh while also enlightening when necessary. If you can find it in yourself to understand that, you can set about dropping the angry snob schtick. You’ll find yourself invited to lots more parties (and book clubs). And you can still be a nice guy. Or, you can stay a bitter, resentful, awkward misfit. Which probably describes you better than you’re willing to admit. No offense intended, I’m trying to help you here.
Your response may be, “being popular isn’t my intention.” Which is fine (and also the creed of pseudo-intellectual social misfits everywhere.) But what’s the point of hanging around a bunch of people who like books and art but don’t like each other? If your personality is disagreeable, you’ll find so many of life’s avenues closed to you. That may not be the way you think it should be, but that’s the way it is. Trust me, almost nobody cares how much you know or how smart you are. (Unless you make it clear to them that you’re smarter and more knowledgable than them – in which they will care and in which case they will probably strongly dislike you). Anyway, whatever you’re looking for (unless it’s misery) you’re unlikely to find it as long as you’re looking from such a bitter, snobbish perspective.
