Yair! but how do you cope with those mainly Indian telephone callers who interrupt your evenings with their unwanted calls?
They are a bit hard to understand and by the time you have sorted out who they are ,they have [literally speaking] one foot in the door.
Is it permitted to declare open season on them?

Just repeat "I can't hear you". Hang up. Then put the answering machine on.

Interesting that American companies are ending their contracts with India and chosing Australian calling centres now. Too many complaints with Americans who can't tolerate their accents or their pushy ways.

So Australian companies, including Telstra move business to India. American companies have been there, done that, and are moving theirs to Australia as it is cheaper here than it is in the US.

Capitalism.

Yeah, I stay away from the mainstream too, its crazy.

I stay away from mainstream society because selfish, self-absorbed fools keep fouling the air I'm trying to breathe.

I think it is a shame that bohemia is being pushed out of Sydney by mainstream "first home buyers" moving whole families in new apartment complexes.

The rents have gone up by at least $15 in the last few months, and creative people, those on the fringe, those who are reclusive, have to find another paradise. Who far west do they have to go?

I thought of the following from the musical "rents". Its not the irritating theme song, I hate that one too...

La Vie Boheme A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4__iHlF4nI&mode=related&search=

What's wrong with being mainstream?? And what’s mainstream anyway, we all have different views on a wide range of issues, and probably like different things in life. The creation of mainstream culture is simply because lots of people react similarly to the same thing or have the same values. You are free to stay out of it, but there is nothing wrong with anyone finding the mainstream appealing.

People normally see things on their merit, and given most of you here appear to be socially conscious, how do you exactly effect change if you stay out of the mainstream all the time and disengage with the masses?

Saintfletcher your allusion to Indian call centers sound a little off the topic, which is on the supposed moral/intellectual vacuum that exists in the “mainstream” culture. The female interviewer was not described as having an Indian accent, and she is simply doing the interview for the $5 bucks she gets per interview. Don’t be so harsh…

“Are we, as a society, so soulless, so shallow, so socially destitute, so hopelessly self conscious and egocentric that this is how we are supposed to view and operate within our social world”

All this from someone bothering to ask for his opinion?

My life is neither soulless, shallow, socially destitute, hopelessly self conscious or egocentric. If someone were to ask me to participate in a survey I might, unless it is someone on the phone with an Indian accent trying to find out if I want an invite to a timeshare presentation.

I wonder, if you feel liable to kill yourself should you be in a date, how might your “date partner” feel about the event?

As for the mainstream. Hell, we don’t need you out here. The elitists only think they are better than everyone else, whereas what they really do is simply interbreed to keep the gene-pool of the mainstream unpolluted.