"Grow up"? Seriously? Fuck off.

Let me set the context for you. At ANU for the next few weeks we have a Humans V Zombies tag-esque game happening across campus, basically involving a whole bunch of people carrying nerf guns and dressing in game-related accoutrement, such as headbands/armbands/capes/team-affliliators and such. For the record, no I am not apart of this game, yes I do know some of the people partaking, yes I do yearn to join.

(And I would've join, had numbers been better. I'd maintained before that numbers of 300-400 people aren't enough for me, and should they ever reach 1000, that's when I'd join up. I do think the idea is neat and potentially very fun, but I would rather do other things at this moment)

So, with this understanding in mind, imagine me coming home from a long day at uni, to see a status update on Facebook that was telling these folks to grow up. Seriously? Fuck off. I should make it clear now that I am not interested in defending them, I'm attacking the sheer stupidity of what was in the status update.

Do you know what's intrinsic to the idea of "oh you're playing with toys and therefore you're childish and need to grow up"? The notion of "Look at me! I'm not playing with toys and therefore am the epitome of mature and have no need to grow up".

And the great irony here is that this isn't all that surprising coming from this individual. Being one of the most superficial people I know, is it any wonder that their lives are arbitrated by even more superficial ideals?

Identity is a state of mind, not the byproduct of the archetypal behaviour. You're not a lad for going out partying, drinking and sexing. You party, drink and sex because you're a lad. You're not an adult for having a job and being condescending. You have a job and are condescending because you're an adult. You're not a child for playing with toys. You play with toys because you're a child.

You carry an umbrella because it's raining. It's not raining because you carry an umbrella. Get the fucking chain of causality right.

It's exactly this kind of attitude that I despise in the nature of adults. That what makes them adults is their behaviour, rather than the other way around. Because when you start thinking like that, you start getting all these ideas of what adults should and shouldn't do, what adults can and can't do, and the entire spectrum of human experience is impoverished.

I have no trouble reconciling the idea of people running around with nerf guns playing tag, wearing capes and carrying flags and being considered mature, responsible adults. Why the fuck do you? [person to whom this is addressed to, though you, in your arrogance, will never read this]