I am so fucking sick and tired of people complaining that modern society doesn't provide anything of leisure other than hyper-consumerism.
Bro, everywhere I go, whether it is a rural, suburban, or urban area there are festivals and other locally-held events taking place or are scheduled and many (if not most) of them are hosted on weekends so there is no excuse. Those are the perfect places to meet new people and bring culture to your life. Not everything has to be soulless. You're just way too afraid to get out of your comfort zone.
I'll contrast this with a big city in Mexico, where I've lived for a few years now. By my rough estimation, you can go out for about 1/4 the effective price as rural parts of the US, and you can walk to the place too because everything doesn't have 20+ yards of mandatory setbacks and parking everywhere, on top of it being legal to live next to places other than more housing. People go out all the time, and there are lots of places to go out to. It's by no means perfect or even close to ideal; it's just not completely fucked from every possible angle like going out in the US.
@xianc78 my problem is that I play music for all of them so I don't actually get to *go* to them xD
@beardalaxy At least you are at the place. I used to work in fast-food when those events are held and said events brought people from across the region and by proxy people looking for something to eat afterward, so I had no chance of visiting.
@berkberkman People go to the library to study in a quiet place, not to socialize and connect with other people.
Most people who go to the library these days are high school and college students looking for a quiet place to study. They are probably living with other people and they have no control over the volume of their housemates/roommates. Either that, or they're homeless people looking for Internet access.
@berkberkman I never understood the purpose of book clubs. Back in elementary school, our teachers encouraged us to form book clubs with our classmates, but I found the thing pointless because it was just everyone agreeing to read the same book and talk about our progress. I always hated it because I was scolded if I read past the "checkpoint" we were supposed to reach by next meeting.
@xianc78 Been thinking about that too, a lot of people I know my age are now just settled in to doing nothing and sitting in front of the computer and getting high. They seem like they're really in a terrible place but that's what they want to do. And for some reason the suggestion to something fun outside of their home is abhorrent to them and elicits a bitter response. Like "I don't want to meet anyone, everyone's a scumbag, everyone sucks" whatever. And money definitely isn't an issue for them. When these people hit middle age it will hit them hard, because they'll realize they spent 20 adult years of freedom not doing anything interesting. And it sucks, lately I feel like I have to cut them out of my life or else I'll be sucked into that too.
everyone's a scumbag, everyone sucks
People who just want to sit around and get high all the time are scumbags who suck.
cut them out of my life
Without a second thought. They're going nowhere. You have limited time on this earth, and even more limited time while young and able. Getting high often as a young person is incredibly unwise.
@arc I don't think they really mean that they think everyone is a scumbag, but public gatherings do bring in at least a couple of people that could ruin it.
I think young people choose not to go because local festivals tend to attract older people and they might get looks from them if they attend, unless the young people in question are the types who grew up in a more rural environment.
There is also the issue that unless an event is explicitly adults-only, there are going to be people who will bring their children, and that could ruin the moment for some people, and the events that are adults-only probably have alcohol, recreational drug-use, strippers, and/or gambling which might turn some people off.
I think a lot of this comes down to the expense of it.
It's not much fun to go to a festival and walk around without buying any food, but festival food is absurdly expensive. The average person can save up and do this every so often but can't do it every weekend, at least not responsibly. Events with no food and drinks are not terribly fun since they are missing two thirds of "eat, drink, and be merry".
Then there's drunk driving. With the exception of a few dense downtown areas, you have to drive to get anywhere in the US. Which means you have to drive to get back. Which means you get into really lame "designated driver" bullshit where one of your friends can't drink, or you stop drinking well before the end of the party to be sober enough to drive home, or you call an Uber for $50 each way, or you ruin your life for the next couple years with a DUI charge.
Meanwhile you can barely afford rent. The root cause of all of this is taxes and regulation, but that goes without saying.