Why does the pig statue on the Caesar 2 images have giant, pyramid-shaped nipples?

Oh, it's a wolf... bestiality? Greeeeaaaat.

Your lack of cultural upbringing is stunning.

Your general idiocy is stunning.

My complete lack of caring what you think is stunning.

The founding of Rome is pretty much taught in elementary schools, so apparently either your education system isn't up to scratch or you're one of those people who for some reason don't give a damn about general culture.

Sure I care about culture. Without it we wouldn't have yogurt or cheese.

Look, moron. I'm not obligated to care about culture, society, or other people. Society pisses on my every chance it gets, so why should I pay it any respect?

I have my prerogatives and you have yours. I never found cultural studies to be interesting. I prefer fiction, and in school I was much more interested in practical things like math and science. I always skated by on a D- in history and geography, because frankly I couldn't memorize all that trivia anyway.

Ultimately it hasn't been required of me to know those things in my career or otherwise, so what's the difference?

As far as I can tell, culture is nothing but an assortment of traditions such as religion (which is crap anyway), and foods, clothes, architectural styles, etc. It's a miscellaneous collection of stuff that is otherwise unrelated except that it all happened in the same place so the people living there may tend to have those things in common, but it has absolutely nothing to do with me and ultimately it doesn't even matter. If I were interested in the history of it as a curiosity, that would be another matter, but I'm not. Sure I like ethnic foods, and I eat them, but that doesn't mean I'm curious to know anything about them.

If you want to argue the virtue of learning from history's mistakes, it's irrelevant. History is nothing but a single path among countless others that could have happened instead and may still happen later. Making a decision on that is like statistical analysis on a sample of 1. It's idiotic. I'd rather logically deduce what would or might happen under various circumstances, with an understanding of cause and effect, and then make my decisions accordingly.

You're simply an elitist culture-snob who thinks everyone should have the same interests as you.

That's a very, very narrow-minded outlook on life. Don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to live a second of my life living as an automaton narrowed only to the skills and knowledge directly related to my pre-programmed operation. So now you're whinging on life just for the sake of whinging? Why not use other people's experiences to complement your own so you don't have to repeat those mistakes? You have to base your "logical deduction" on something. I did not say that or imply that, it's just that there's a term called general knowledge that is apparently looked down upon by today's youth for no apparent reason. General knowledge is not only a sign of intellect, but helps create a general look on the world that surrounds us - history, geography, physics, biology, various arts... Nobody will ever care how well you did in school subjects, they will look at general knowledge.

Who said anything about pre-programming? I choose what interests I want to pursue, in what way and to what extent. I just don't feel the need to incorporate everything about everyone else into that set of interests, when it has nothing to do with me and frankly I just don't care.

No, I just don't care much about aesthetics. It doesn't matter to me. I'm a more practical person. I have no interest in clothing beyond it fitting and being comfortable. I have no interest in architecture beyond it holding up a building and making it safe to occupy. I care nothing for food beyond it tasting good and being nourishing, but it doesn't matter how the recipe came about, or even how to prepare it - I'm not a chef, I just want to eat it! I don't care about religion because it's a sham, but that's a whole other can of worms and way off topic. The point is though, I have many interests, which are deep and diverse, but I don't have to be interested in every little thing and all the nuances of how it affects the rest of the world, just to be a reasonable person. I have my own concerns to deal with and there's not enough time in the world to analyze its entire history just for the sake of general knowledge that may or may not ever come in handy, and frankly I just don't find interesting. I actually know a fair amount about philosophy, but only because it's something that I choose to study and only to the extent that I want to. Other than that, why should I be expected to have to care?

Yes, logical deductions are based on the understanding of cause and effect. Hypothetically, if this were to happen, it would, or might, cause that to happen. If you understand these things sufficiently, you can adequately avoid whatever danger or other pitfalls might trip you up in the decisions you make. Learning from other people's mistakes, as I said before, is essentially giving a whole lot of time and thought and analysis to a single scenario, so that if you are ever put in that exact situation, you'll then know what to do. But realistically, there are too many variables to predict that the outcome would necessarily be the same the next time. You're better off using common sense and a good understanding of cause and effect, and make sure you don't overlook relevant factors. Besides which, my experiences are as far as I can tell, pretty unique (and I'm not saying that out of ignorance, I have good reasons to believe it, but those reasons are none of your business anyway).

I'm not looking down on it. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with studying those things, but they shouldn't be considered essential to every single person in every single case. Physics, sure, but I've never once had to use knowledge of biology or history beyond perhaps the most rudimentary information. Geography? Who needs that? You can get electronic maps and GPS if you don't know where you're going. And it's not accurate that no one cares how well you did in school. When you go to get a job, they often say that a degree of some kind is required and they're often concerned with grades and other test scores. Suppose you wanted to be a doctor without a medical degree. I wouldn't recommend that. Yes, it's true that after you've been working for a while, your grades become decreasingly relevant, in favor of work experience, but you still needed the grades, and the knowledge, to get the the early jobs and to know how to do them.

Yes, pre-programming. When one limits oneself to a narrow set of skills and interests only to the level required to slide by and never rise from the middle grounds, then one is nothing more than a machine that cannot make a mark in this world (if one's goal isn't to make that mark in even the smallest of aspects of life, then why bother even existing?).

Who said anything about any aesthetics? :P

How else can you strive to become an intellectual person who can adapt to any situation in life? General knowledge is not something that consists merely of memorizing facts, its core principle is to give you an understanding of this world, many of which you can use yourself in different situations.

Concerns like bills, money, health etc. are not to be discarded, of course, but they are only material. Today's mentality unjustly completely ignores the state of mind, the strive for enlightenment and even the simple concept of wonder in favour of zombie-like tendencies to create a shell of one's possessions and comfort zones, and never leave them. Think about it.

In many cases, solutions to one scenario can be applied directly, or with modifications, to multiple other scenarios, things appear to be "wired" that way, as the world isn't made in an arbitrarily discreet set of variables, but a continued plethora of those variables (if you get what I mean) which allow situations and objects to be similar enough to each other that existing knowledge and experiences can be applied to them. If nobody before you had those experiences, you'd have much less to go on to form your own judgement, let alone act on it, hence understanding prior experiences saves you time and effort rather than take it away, unlike the impression your teachers seemingly gave you.

Well, for one thing, you wouldn't give statements that would make you look uneducated like with your "beastiality" response earlier. ;)

For another, you expand your view on the world. You can't better yourself and/or your surroundings if you don't make an effort to understand the world you live in and exit a small comfort zone of rudimentary knowledge. Life is short, and you're not here to work-eat-sleep-repeat.

Relying on technology that may or may not exist tomorrow is lazy, foolish, and I will dare to say, hipsterish. You will not always have the luxury to geolocate with a GPS when traveling, be it because of signal loss, battery/power loss and various other factors. And by geography, I didn't just mean knowing the political map of the world, I meant it in a wider sense - nations and customs, climates, an entire range of things that can help you out when dealing with people from abroad, be it if they are tourists or you are, even when it's a mere business trip.

The market is saturated with workforce, so knowledge and experience are both needed in any job that isn't equivalent to asking if you want fries with that at McDonalds. The more you know on your field, and I would make a safe bet on any field other than your own on the sides, you're a more worthy candidate in the HR's book. Anti-intellectualism and pre-programmed behaviour are eliminated right at the start when applying for a job.

First of all, I'm really sorry to be rude, but I will from time to time, because you're REALLY asking for it now.

Alright, I'm not pre-programmed. I am a very intelligent, extremely unconventional person who detests conformity (which, come to think of it, a lot of cultures seem to support so right off the bat that pisses me off). I never said I had a narrow set of skill, nor that they were restricted to some "middle ground" range of expertise. I actually have an extremely wide range of skills in a wide range of disciplines, but that doesn't include absolutely fucking TOTAL knowledge of the history of mankind and all reasons for every fucking thing that's ever happened. I'm no more of a "machine" than anyone else (although technically, people could probably be considered naturally occurring machines). As for making my mark, in some ways I probably could, but that's not important to me, and actually, being a private person, I prefer to be behind the scenes, which is not to say that I'm not extremely ambitious in my own way, but it doesn't necessarily manifest itself professionally in the way it might for other people. And thanks for implying I have no reason to exist. I am alive, you know! I do actually enjoy pleasant experiences, and I do find things interesting, even if they don't all coincide with what YOU find interesting.

You didn't specifically mention it. It's just an example I gave, because I find that many components (though not all) of what is considered culture amounts to little more than aesthetics.

Who says I'm not an intellectual person? Who says I need to adapt to every single situation? I DO have limitations to what I would want to or be willing to endure. I actually agree with the rest of the statement after that, to an extent, but the way you argue, you seem like such an extreme culture junkie, that you won't be satisfied until everyone has a 5 degrees ranging from anthropology to fucking Norse mythology!

Fuck the current common mentality! Who says I'm the spokesman for the world's average morons, anyway? You're making all kinds of assumptions that have nothing to do with what I was saying. Yes, I have possessions and comfort zones. But I don't make them into a shell encapsulating my life. And who wants to leave comfort zones anyway? That sounds uncomfortable. You seem to be overlooking that some people have phobias, disabilities, logistical problems and a number of other potential limitations that you would probably argue should be stripped away so they can be forced against their will to comply with your prescribed life style!

Yes I understand full well - and probably better than you - how variables work. And I know there are a lot of factors, determining an outcome, which was kind of my point, that you can't guess at what will happen based on what happened before. Yes, I agree that case studies can be useful to a point, but they're still just specific cases. When you assume that I'd have "nothing to go on", if not for that, it insults me, because you're implying that the only way I can possibly understand what might happen is if I've already seen something similar before. This presumes that I have no imagination or ingenuity, and therefore can only solve a problem by extrapolating from solutions to similar problems. Also, your assumption that my teachers left this impression on me is equally insulting, because it implies that I was gullible enough to believe the horseshit they told me, which in truth, was more like what you're saying.

Well for one thing, I was half-joking, but the photograph on Wikipedia had people sucking a wolf's tits. What would you call it? And by the way, I have a master's degree. It's not fair to say I'm uneducated just because I didn't happen to recognize a particular pointy-titted wolf evidently from Roman mythology.

I don't just work-eat-sleep-repeat, I have much more than just rudimentary knowledge, and I resent the assertion that the only way I can possibly better myself is to expand my view on the world. This implies that I'm nothing without the world. Fuck the world! I only care about the world to the extent that I choose, and not more than that, just because you say I should, like you're the authority on such things. I have my own individual goals and aspirations, which often have absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. And why should they? I have nothing against humanitarian efforts. They're often very noble and useful, but I do what I do for my own reasons, not for you or anyone else. It's not your business to dictate how I live my life.

First of all, how DARE you call me a hipster?! And why don't you think the technology will exist? Do you believe in these weird apocalypse theories? Then who cares, we'll all be dead in 3 years from global warming, right? (And before you argue that global warming is a big deal, calm down, I'm not even implying it's not, I'm just proving a point that your idea of the end of technology is ridiculous). Well for me personally, it's not a big deal anyway, because I don't have "business trips" and have logistical/transportation limitations and I don't travel far anyway (not that I have a particular desire to, but I suppose you'll complain about that next). Also, I don't think your definition of geography is accurate - you seem to be just referring to culture again, if not even more than that.

Alright, why do you assume that I'm currently looking for a job? And why do you think that I have any interest in switching to another field? How am I an anti-intellectual? I'm EXTREMELY intellectual. My intellect is well within the 99th percentile. Besides, intellectualism is "The doctrine that knowledge is derived from pure reason", which I completely believe and know to be true. You, however, seem to be the anti-intellectual. If you call me pre-programmed again, I'll smack you with an aircraft carrier! Besides all that, I don't see how HR can know any of that from a resume, or in many cases an interview, anyway.

(It seems not to put my whole post in one)

(So to finish my earlier post now that it should actually allow me to post the rest.)

What it all comes down to is this: you seem to have some vested interest in making the whole world into clones of yourself to the extent that you want them to all appreciate the things that you personally find beautiful and interesting. I can think of a few possible reasons for this, but I'm not sure which is/are correct.

You might be arguing your point just because you don't like to admit you've lost, or just to taunt me because you think it's funny to see me get agitated (but I'm not really that agitated, just mildly annoyed at your arrogance).

You might be one of those so-called lifestyle Nazis, the ones who want to tell everyone how to live, and that they should all support everything and be forced into teamwork for all kinds of endeavors, whether they even care about them or not. I suspect this may very well be the case, which would make you essentially a communist, which is of course little more than fascism in disguise.

Or you might be under the mistaken assumption that a lack of knowledge of all other cultures somehow equates to "cultural insensitivity" (code for racism). If so, that's a logical fallacy, and is in its own way a form of prejudice. Anyway, nothing can be further from the truth. I LOATHE bigotry in any form. Though I do support the freedom of expression, and freedom of individuality, which you with all your "cultural sensitivity" seem to have somehow overlooked.

Finally, you seem to have a pretty dim view of math an science in general. You seem to think they're almost pointless and that the only possible furtherance of civilization is through abstract philosophy. Need I remind you that nearly every invention, and probably almost every product in your house, is to a large extent dependent on science? Even a chair must be engineered, and was usually produced in a mold (if it's not wooden) that was designed on a computer. You think I'm ignorant because I can't tell you the life story of a wolf with pointy tits? Well sorry if I didn't study the Jungle Book in college. Can you solve non-linear systems of differential equations? Can you adaptively train a multi-layer perceptron? No? Then you're ignorant! Jeeves, pull the fucking car around! Let's blow this joint!

(I'll respond if you post something else, I just wanted to make a flashy exit.)

Again, basic Roman history is taught in elementary schools, we're not even talking about elaborate doctor's degree levels of history analysis here.

So what is your goal in life, then? How do you intend on benefitting yourself and the people around you (at least the ones you care about) in ways other than physical?

Overly aggressive and assumptuous defense much? If I wanted you to find interesting things that I do, boy, would you be in for a list of perfectly arbitrary demands... This isn't about what "I" want or "I" see, it's what generally works as a gateway to a more fulfilled life. Ask around.

Many of the things I learned through life I didn't find interesting at all either, and for a while, I didn't even understand the value of general knowledge. Now that I do, I resent myself for not learning and experiencing even more in the past.

How and why do you perceive it that way?

An intellectual does not limit himself in his quest for knowledge. No knowledge on the world's events or functions is worthless.

Heh, I don't even come remotely close to that standard myself, as much of this information (the Capitoline Wolf, for example) I was able to receive through my formal education alone (pre-Uni). That's a good side of general knowledge - it doesn't require you to specialize in anything. It takes a little bit of different elements to form an image of the world.

The way you post says quite the opposite, to be honest.

All of modern society's problems in a nutshell.

No risk = no reward. If everyone in the entire world stuck to their tiny little comfort zones, nothing would ever be achieved. Mankind didn't get this far by sitting in their houses, with their tiny materialistic desires, waiting for the day they died. Man explored, inquired, wondered. That led us to the knowledge, philosophy, and technology we have today.

Many of these things (not counting actual physical disabilities, of course) are mere excuses that are a result of today's overly passive mentality that we're all victims to. This is not to say we should at all times go with that flow. The world cares not for individual troubles, yours or mine or anyone else's. Most of these problems are set by the wrong perspective on life, boundaries set by our own minds (such as phobias, comfort zones and the like). I myself was severely constrained by limitations of my own mind, and once I overcame them, I became more productive academically and socially, not to mention more enlightened. (I'm still a long way to go, but at least I'm getting somewhere.) Some other people I know had similar situations and got out the same way. Try it out, it costs you literally nothing.

Again, it's not "my" lifestyle that I'm trying to impose, it's an observation based on experience, and I've been on both ends of it.

If you were to build an aircraft, would you apply knowledge and experience from the Wright Brothers all the way to modern-day aeronautics, or would you try to improvise and figure everything out from scratch yourself? Would you have the time and energy to do so, while avoiding issues like aerodynamics?

If you were to design a simple house, would you apply the knowledge and experience from architects that did it before you, or would you try and figure everything out yourself? Would you have time and energy to do so, while avoiding issues like poor material usage/implementation?

I was trying to imply the opposite - that your teachers gave you the impression the "horseshit" (oh dear...) was a mere waste of time because of their supposedly failed methods to enlighten their students.

It didn't sound half-joking, more like a speedy and uninterested smirk. And I wouldn't call it beastiality, because not everything is as perverted as some might perceive at first glance, particularly in art.

Again, elementary school knowledge that also happens to be on everyone else's list of general knowledge (as the Capitoline Wolf is arguably one of ancient Rome's most recognizable symbols) evaded you...
Oh, you sad, overly-defensive creature...

First off, I actually am pursuing a future in a STEM field.

Secondly, I did not say, imply, or even BELIEVE science and math are pointless.

Thirdly, again, all the philosophy, maths and science you (rightly!) hold so dear had to be discovered first in order for the two of us to argue on them this way, let alone for humanity to apply them in attempts to discover something new. Rediscovering them, basically reinventing the wheel, as you apparently implied, is a waste of time, unless you found some good and juicy proof to disprove/correct current discoveries.

I'd need a refresher, but I'm fully capable of understanding it, now that you ask. And that's far too specific to enter general knowledge, even though it's always a bonus if you know it :P