fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2476 ]

06. http://i.imgur.com/XvTXjLC.jpg

But everyone is important, just not on the scale of Donna Noble. Every person has some kind of importance towards the people around them because no one lives in a vacuum. And remember important ≠ good.

People aren't that important, and the sooner you realize it the better.

Remember in the episode "Father's Day" when the Doctor was talking with the couple who were about to get married. And they said something about not being important and the Doctor objected to that, especially after he heard their story about how they met on street corner in the middle of a rain storm. And he says he's never had a life like that. Sometimes it's the the things that seem small that are important about human lives.

Mte.

Everyone's the hero of their own story. Not everyone's story is Lord of the Rings or some other epic, but that doesn't make you any less central to a particular slice of reality.

Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh. And there will never be another.

That is a seriously beautiful quote.

Edited 2013-10-13 23:59 (UTC)

There's a quote from Andromeda that I love because it reminds me that we are all unique, all special and we can all beat the odds.

When your parents combined their DNA, the odds of them producing someone with your precise genetic pattern were ten million to one. Add in the odds of your parents meeting and bothering to procreate in the first place, and the odds of your existence are along the lines of drawing three straight Imperial Courts in an honest game of Vedran whist! If you overcame those odds once, who's to say you can't do it again?

It's just like the Doctor says - no one is ordinary and everyone is important.

If we were to jump in a time machine, go back about five hundred years and kill some random mid-European peasant who had no impact on history whatsoever, we wouldn't think much of it.

Until we got back to the present, saw that everything was different, and realized oops, we just killed Hitler's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent. And due to the way genetics work, eliminating just one ancestor means no more Hitler.

Sure, the rest of history will trudge on, and probably there will still be SOMEBODY who does something similar to what Hitler did in our reality. But they still wouldn't be Hitler.

Ergo, that random mid-European peasant is still important - just not because of their own impact.

It's even better than that. Look up Pedigree Collapse. By killing a random medieval German peasant before he produced all the children he would have produced had you not killed him, you have, at minimum, effected the ancestry, and thus identity, of everybody of German descent by the time you've hit the 20th century. Go back just a little further, and you've changed everyone of European descent. Go back a little further still, and everybody on Earth has had their ancestry changed.

(This is even ignoring the changes in social dynamics wrought by removing anyone from the matrix (eg: by killing Adolph the Sheep Shagger, you keep Ludwig the Shepherd from meeting Helga the Barmaid, because he doesn't need to go drink away the image, so Ludwig, jr is never born and none of his descendants happen, despite not having Adolph's blood), and just talking about the genetic contribution. But you could totally change the 20th century by killing someone from the 13th, who never reproduced, too.)

Step on a butterfly at the dawn of the species, change the whole damn universe, including the humans at the end of the universe that the Master recruited into his Toclafane army.

In real life, everyone is irreplaceably important: if you have not yet learned this lesson, you are probably a failure of a human being.

Of course, shows/movies/books are not real life and therefore the same rules do not apply.

But consider that in order to engage our interest, the characters presented in a TV show have to behave like human beings, as realistically as possible. So while lots of secondary characters in Doctor Who are not relevant to the plot of the show, it is normal the Doctor would say this. If he didn't, he wouldn't be the Doctor, the most human of the Time Lords. he'd probably be the Master, who probably doesn't think anyone who is not himself or the Doctor is important.

Maybe it's just a matter of vocabulary: what do you call important? If you mean 'impacts your own life, directly or indirectly', then yes, of course. But that is not what 'important' means, that's what 'important to me' means. I'll grant that the 'to me' is implied, though it shouldn't be: this is what empathy is all about...

Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. --John Donne - Meditations XVII

I recommend the whole text to understand the context better: http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/meditation17.php

Look, if you're talking about these quotes as they relate to other people, that's not on. But if you feel that it doesn't apply to you or you don't deserve it or whatever, then I know where you're coming from. And whether you believe it or not, it's true. Everyone is important. Every single person. Even you. Especially you. And I hope you'll see it someday.

Call me a cynical bitch, but I don't believe it either. "You're a special snowflake!" Yeah ... like everyone else. And if everyone is special, no one is. And it's very, very obvious that some people really are more special and important than others, so the idea that ~everyone~ is special/important just seems like a placating lie.

I think like this too. I wish I didn't, but I can't help it. The amount of time and money we spend on celebrities compared to people who really need it shows that we don't think everyone is special and equally worthy.

Yeah, but the point of "special snowflake" was once the fact that every snowflake IS different, but still from far away they look the same. If you look at a field of snow, you just see a mass of white, but that does not change the fact that every snowflake in this field is different. And with humans it's the same, you're are special and unique but so is everybody else.

It gives you no right to be treated differently but it gives you the right to be treated equally. That's the way human rights and laws work. And if you doubt that look at all those rich and important people who think laws doesn't work for them like for everybody else. Should they be right? No. Because everybody is important and has the right to be treated as such, meaning with dignity and respect. Nothing more but also nothing less!

And if you really think the entertainment industy is a indicator for worth you need to grow up really fast. Please.

every snowflake IS different, but still from far away they look the same

Shut the hell up.
The fools who honestly believe EVERY snowflake is different are like children who honestly believe in santa clause.

There's no way to PROVE each snowflake is different.

Aren't you a polite little thing...

1. "Knight estimates there are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 water molecules in a typical snow crystal. "The way they can arrange themselves is almost infinite," Gosnell said." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070213-snowflake.html

You do know how probability calculation works, yes?

2. It's a bloody metaphor.

Congratulations on totally ignoring the point just to be an asshole.

Yeah, but the point of "special snowflake" was once the fact that every snowflake IS different, but still from far away they look the same. If you look at a field of snow, you just see a mass of white, but that does not change the fact that every snowflake in this field is different. And with humans it's the same, you're are special and unique but so is everybody else.

It gives you no right to be treated differently but it gives you the right to be treated equally. That's the way human rights and laws work. And if you doubt that look at all those rich and important people who think laws doesn't work for them like for everybody else. Should they be right? No. Because everybody is important and has the right to be treated as such, meaning with dignity and respect. Nothing more but also nothing less!

Also I just think how cheap human life is. Especially female human life in many countries of this world. The numbers who die every day from war or starvation or poverty related diseases are staggering.

That's the reason I can't believe in this sort of quote.

But every one of those people is someone's child.

Just because society doesn't always act like it's true does not mean it's not true. Plus you're thinking to big. The idea is more that everyone is important to someone and that's what matters most. And sometimes it's the little tiny things that you least expect that are the most important about someone.

[ SECRET POST #2476 ]

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Importance =/= Impact

Re: Importance =/= Impact

Re: Importance =/= Impact

Cannot answer to plots of TV shows, but

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