Validationorium

I haven’t looked for it, but I bet that somewhere there’s a “Short and Stocky Asian Geeks Who Think They Know Everything” club. I bet that that club will have a manifesto, and upon reading that manifesto, club members will feel really good about themselves. I bet that if I joined that club, I would feel really good about myself, even if I had reservations before. I bet that if I joined that club, nobody in that club would tell me how full of shit I am at any given moment, because everybody else in the club is in the same predicament.

Sometimes, when I’m unsure about buying something I don’t really need, I bring a friend along who I’m sure will support my decision to buy. If that friend had already bought the same product that I want to buy, that would be even better. And then I buy, and feel validated at the same time.

When I buy something really expensive, I make sure to read as many positive Amazon.com reviews about that product. I make sure to buy accessories. I make sure to subscribe to a magazine dedicated to that product. And then I buy more accessories.

I like reading charts and statistics that support my decisions in life. If I had the choice, I would probably surround myself with people who mostly agree with what I have to say.

If I wrote a new poem tomorrow and would like to hear only good reviews, I probably wouldn’t show the poem to my family or friends, because most of them don’t write poetry, which means that they would never show me one of their poems, which means that they wouldn’t be afraid of my criticism of their poetry, which means that they would probably be painfully truthful in criticising my poetry. And I wouldn’t be able to handle that. And so I would show my poem to other poets.

Same for songs.

Same for art.

Same for addiction.