What is friendship?

[Sad Jari]

See subject.

[Jedimark]

Hmm, it's a social state I guess.
You are friends with someone when you chose to spend time with them / enjoy their company and treat them in the same way you would like to be treated. Friendship is that bond.

[Lieron]

friend·ship    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (frndshp)
n.
1.  The quality or condition of being friends.
2.  A friendly relationship: formed many new friendships over the summer.
3.  Friendliness; good will: a policy of friendship toward other nations.

(Dictionary.com)


sorry had to do it 0.o

[Relf]

I just view it as a measure of trust in someone, for reasons exclusive of being otherwise related.

[spyrojyros_tail]

Being able to tell someone brutal and honest truths.

Either that or knowing that its your turn to speak when the other guy has a beer can to his mouth. 

[M0T]

Caring what someone else thinks and caring about how they are.

[Radiosity]

Someone to lean on and in turn be leaned upon by. In theory that should be able to last a lifetime but rarely seems to these days. There's much more of an emphasis on '#1' nowadays, so much so that even friends can end up hating each other over the stupidest of little things. Sad really, that we live in a world like that.

[Sad Jari]

Awww, such nice people.

Have a used beer, low mileage, very cuddly:

[Covarr]

This is the friend ship.

[Jedimark]

Awww, such nice people.

Have a used beer, low mileage, very cuddly:

I don't wanna be your friend if you offer them used beers! I want a nice, fresh, cool beer!

[Relf]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you think friendship is, Jari?

[Sad Jari]

I agree with Radiosity and Jedimark.

I don't wanna be your friend if you offer them used beers! I want a nice, fresh, cool beer!

[Emerald Weapon]

Real friendship is hard to find these days. Sometimes I wonder if it even exists at all. In Dutch there's a song about this, translated in English it is:

"At a certain time you get to the conclusion, friendship is an illusion. Friendship is a dream, a packet of garbage covered by a thin layer of chrome". (It sounds better in Dutch)

To me, friendship is first of all the ability to be yourself around someone. Not having to put up a show, be someone you're not. Secondly, it is a form of trust. Not just trust like telling someone a secret, a deeper trust. And ofcourse love. The love you get from friends is very different from the kind you get from a relationship, but not at all worth any less. Lovers come and go, friends remain.

Ofcourse friendship is the small things too, drinking beer, whiskey with a good cigar, hanging around, talking politics, love, life, philosphy. Laughing, crying. Not seeing someone for 2 weeks and there being no problem with that from both sides. Those are however part of the bigger picture, which I pointed out above.

I've only got a handfull of real friends. My father is probably my best friend, as is my mom. The real friends I do have I treasure very much. I've got a lot of people I like to be around, just for fun. Friends are different though. They're there for you, even if you don't feel like having fun.

Real friends are truly priceless.

[Midgar]

Friends let you abuse them and get away with it. 
Thats how most teenage friendships are anyways...
1. Make friends with them by (time+quality) make them feel nice
2. You start to play with them physically (not that way! [yet]  )
3. You start to hit them and make fun of them, and that somehow boosts relationships
4. I never been here yet.
And may I ask, Jari, why do you ask this question?

[zero88]

Emerald Weapon just wrote a speech and complex essay!

He had a quote and everything.

[Covarr]

A fake friend will rat on you if you break a rule.
A friend will keep your secret.
A true friend will be helping you break that rule.

[Lieron]

Er, usually isnt it a friend that stops you?

[Sad Jari]

Emerald Weapon: Awww. Beer for you too. You can pick the one you want, cool or regular.
 

And may I ask, Jari, why do you ask this question?

You may.

[M0T]

A real friend doesn't lie to you and lead you on about things.

I have a female friend who has decided to break my heart.

She told me she only wanted to be friends with me, i felt fine about it.
Then recently she has been getting closer to me, and I just thought it was my imagination, until today she admitted she was deliberatly leading me on for her amusement. The sad part is I genuinely cared about her and wanted to be her friend, and recently much more, and she just destroyed it for a few laughs with her mates. It got worse because after that point she admitted that she was in love with someone else and he didn't want her, so thats why she was doing it to make herself feel better.

I told her that as a friend I could have helped her out, but not how she was using me.

I feel like total crap.

[Sad Jari]

And there you have it; real friendship.

You see, we only like to think that friendship is all these good things, like loyalty.

In reality friendship is a symbiotic process of abuser and a loser. Loser is the old fashioned nice guy, believes in being there for his friend and all that stuff. Often low on self esteem, too. Abuser on the other hand has figured out what a friendship really means; people you can use for your amusement and then throw away, when you have taken everything they had to give.

I would recommend being an abuser. It hurts lot less.

[Sukaeto]

I think the whole loser/abuser thing is typical among male/female relationships.

I'm not sure how women are with each other, but male/male friendships tend more often to be those of mutual respect (both guys will help each other out and "got each others' backs").

With male/female, however, I see lots of cases where the dude is a player just out for sex or a rise, or where the woman is a cold-hearted bitch using the nice guy for emotional/monetary/what-have-you support until, as Jari said, she can throw him away in favor of a "new toy".

[Emerald Weapon]

I would recommend being an abuser. It hurts lot less.

But does it make you feel good? Or better in the end?

[Sad Jari]

I wouldn't know.

But it surely can't make you feel worse than being the loser. I have experience of that.

[M0T]

She was playing me because she wanted my help for an exam she has this week, stupid cow.

Jari is right, its much easier to be the abuser than the loser.

[Emerald Weapon]

I agree, it probably is easier to be the abuser than the loser. However, you do have to play a game with some all the time, you have to act.
Keeping that up all the time also seems like a hard thing to do. Your conscience has to kick in at a certain point, right? Then again some people seem to lack conscience or have it turned off. And the worst ones are the ones abusing you without even knowing it.

So, practically it is easier, yeah. Morally however, being the abuser isn't that easy at all.