We're All Selfish

All of our actions are selfish and completely self-motivated. Give me a scenario, and I'll tell you how or why it's selfish. Love, Religion/faith, Charity, these are as selfish as it gets. "That's preposterous!", you might say. But it isn't. The reason that everything is selfish is because actions depend (primarily) on two things:

- happiness/the avoidance of sadness

- reason.

No one intentionally makes themselves more sad, unless they derive a happiness from it that transcends the feeling of sadness. Furthermore, people don't do things that don't make sense, UNLESS it makes sense to them.

Religion's completely selfish. It seems ludicrous, at first...because we do it all for the big man, right? Correct. But we do it because pleasing the big man up there grants us entry into heaven/the after-life. If you don't agree with me, ask yourself whether you'd still live as god wanted you to live IF you were promised to go to hell. Of course you wouldn't - because it makes no sense to spend your whole life chasing after a punishment coupled with eternal damnation. Faith isn't any more selfless, because it revolves around self-development (which isn't a bad thing). But the keyword is "self"!

Love's selfish, too. To prove this, I'll take the example of "if you love someone, let them go." You only let it go because deep down inside, it makes YOU happy to see them happy. Knowing that the person that you think deserves absolute happiness, will be happy gives you a sense of happiness that is greater than the one derived from staying with them. If you truly cared about someone, the ultimate happiness obtained from this action. After all, love isn't a one-way street.

Surely, charity can't be selfish! Oh, but this is, too. Am I accusing Mother Teresa of being selfish? Hell yes. Anyone who does a good act, only does so because it makes them feel better, or because it makes sense (at the time). Any good act done, is done in order to appease your conscience. It seems hard to imagine how risking your life to save an unrelated little boy from a burning house could be selfish...but it's selfish. You help people because YOU feel bad if  you don't, and are in a position to help. We tell ourselves that we have an obligation to help the unfortunate, like it's some higher moral order...but it really isn't. We help because we have our own interests at stake.

Bear in mind that the whole concept of selfishness has been given negative connotations by society. We've been conditioned to be disgusted by selfishness. The reality is, that it's what drives us. If our ancestors weren't selfish, we wouldn't be alive. None of us would be alive, or would have any money, or would have a roof over our heads, or anything else, for that matter. If we were truly selfish, we should have nothing - because there's ALWAYS someone less fortunate who needs what we have.

Selfishness isn't a bad thing. It's how the world works. We've been told that selfishness is evil...but have you realized that evil is a man-made concept? Evil doesn't stem from the characteristics of man, it stems from man, itself. If you really want to bring good vs. evil into this, what makes an act evil is not whether or not it was selfish, it's how it was handled or committed.

I guess I'm just tired of the condescending"sacrificial-holier-than-thou-for-the-greater-good-of-mankind" tone that I hear from Philantrophists and "kind-hearted people."

The world ain't all sunshines and rainbows. You don't have to be selfless to do good. Alternatively, you do have to be selfish.

Peace,

- knowledge


BTW, I finally got around to adding a subscribe button. Look to the top left of the screen!

Thank You For Your Self-Sufficiency

This is my weekly Thursday drop

Exactly a year ago, on this date, I posted this excerpt from on facebook. A year later, while my views on happiness have slightly changed, the passage still pretty much resonates with my views on friendship.

"Look around at the people we've met, and how we've been taught to seek ourselves in others. Yet, no man can achieve the kind of absolute humility that would need no self-esteem in any form. He wouldn't survive. So after centuries of being pounded with the doctrine that altruism is the ultimate ideal, men have accepted it in the only way it could be accepted: by seeking self-esteem through others; by living second-hand. And it has opened way for ever kind of horror - and now, to cure a world perishing from 'selfishness', we're asked to destroy the self. Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why we suffer, why we seek happiness and why we never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by others. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, he's struggling for the second-hander's delusion - prestige: A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbours gape at me.' Then he wonders why he's unhappy. Every form of happiness is private. Most of our greatest moments are personal and self-motivated. The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing. But now we are taught to throw everything within us into public light and common pawing, to seek joy in collectivity[without the realization that happiness is an individual endeavour]. It's difficult to call it selfishness or egotism, because the words have been perverted. [A] cardinal 'evil' is that of placing your prime concern within other people.

I've always demanded a certain quality in the people I liked. I've always recognized it at once - and it's [one of the few] qualities I [truly] respect in someone. I choose my friends by it, and now I know what it is: A self-sufficient ego."

The reason it works so well is because self-sufficient friends shy away from direct help, and ask for advice. With the realization of self-sufficiency comes the consciousness of a different reality - a reality that insists on independence and helping the self, first and foremost. Friends are there for wisdom, guidance, discussion, and companionship...but at the end of the day, they've realized that everyone's ultimately responsible for solving their OWN problems. Everyone deals with their own crap, or finds a way to deal with their own crap. It works well is because people deal with their own "baggage", so other people aren't forced to.

Grade 12 onwards was a pretty big year in my life...I lost quite a number of current friends, but gained some new ones. Yet, I've never been happier. Upon realizing this, I spent a long time thinking about why that might be...and I realize that everyone had one thing in common - they were all relatively self-sufficient.

Ever since then, I've only had two criterion for picking friends: Intelligence and self-sufficiency. All it takes for an acquaintance to become a friend is intelligence, but all of my best friends are self-sufficient. As long as people have those two qualities, I frankly couldn't give a shit if they looked like Snooki with a giant cock attached to their forehead.

Self-sufficiency establishes a solid personal self. A self that truly doesn't care what people think of them. And it's a hard thing to do, so I've got nothing but respect for the people who have been able to make them happen, or are as close as they can get to making it happen.

Thanks to the bunch that always give me something to think about, challenge my perceptions, prove me wrong, and are constant influences in my life. I can only hope to be as close to as intelligent as some of you are, at some point in my life. I'll admit that I've been slippin' lately, and I do apologize for having small bouts of stupidity - the lack of reading (outside of university textbooks) has really taken away from my sharpness (or so I rationalize...)

So I guess this is the point where I raise my glass or tip my hat to the people that have been able to kick sessions with me and are responsible for the countless "mindfuck"s that I've received within the past 2 years. Sometimes, I do regret being so damn busy...but I don't think that I'd rather have it any other way.

Thanks, and keep doin' you.

Peace,

- knowledge

p.s. good luck to anyone dealing with mid-terms right now!

Toronto Star Article + Critical Thinking = Shocking Results!

As promised, here's another post to make up for my short Thursday drop. Here's an article that we analyzed in my critical thinking class:

Interestingly enough, Rick Anderson (the author), was a campaign director for the Reform party.

Imagine that this was delivered as a speech - it'd be much harder to analyze, and a lot more convincing. It's scary how he acknowledges that there probably weren't any weapons of mass destruction, yet dismisses it later on as if it's not a big deal (when it was the justification for the attack on Iraq to begin with!). 

This is politics, people. Some amazing stuff, isn't it? (No Sarcasm).

Peace,

- knowledge

Plane Crashed Into IRS Building + Amazing Suicide Note - Justified?

Long story short, a man who got royally screwed by "the system" decided to crash a plane into the Austin, Texas Internal Revenue Services building(the tax mans base).

Here's a bit of background information, if you're interested: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35460268/ns/us_news-life?GT1=43001#storyContinued (it's not necessary, though...my cole's notes version above is pretty much all you need to know.

He left an amazing suicide note. It's a bit of a read, but a very good one, in my opinion. 

Check it out: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf

Was it justified? Discuss :D

Short post...I know. Don't worry, I'll post again some time this week.

Peace,

- knowledge

Giambrone For Mayor?

I know I said that I was gonna post the eye-opening video from my last post...but I had to push back a couple of posts just to post while this fiasco's still relevant.

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Refresher links in case you haven't been following or don't know what's up:

General Info: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/sto...e-affairs.html

His Trick: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...ten-lucas.aspx

Giambrone's sorry excuse of a campaign will be remembered in infamy.

I've been really interested in the TTC lately, so I've been following this closely.

He's long been hailed as Toronto's poster boy for THE up-and-coming prominent politician. At 32 years old, he's accomplished a lot... but I guess wise decisions & the ability to make good decisions based on experience isn't included in that. His list of accomplishments include (in this order): NDP youth wing affiliate by the time he was 15, Federal NDP president, Toronto Councillor, Commissioner of TTC, & Chair of TTC, before finally running for Mayor.

Mistake 1: Heading the TTC at a peak of customer dissatisfaction. Rider dissatisfaction has been building up over the years, with the steady increase in fair hikes, bad service, delays, irresponsible fiscal spending, etc. Unfortunately for him, he just happened to be the face to attack when the shit hit the fan - which I think would've been completely avoidable or minimized. If he planned his political career better, he could've resigned. Imagine how well the spin would've worked if he resigned and said it was because "he can't stand by and watch the TTC betray its customers/the city like that".

Mistake 2: the horrible excuse of a campaign video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnOUupt2f9E&feature=related). The editing was horrible, the sound was garbage, and the writing of his script was horrible. If it was meant to be satirical, it was a bad attempt at that. If it was supposed to appeal to the younger audience, it appealed...but not in a good way (check any of his campaign videos & read the comments). Bottom line, Mr. Giambrone, is that corny humour only works if it's actually funny.

Mistake 3: having a mistress. Seriously? Was there any way that this could've gone well? It's like girls who send naked pictures of themselves to their dog of a boyfriend - I'm sure they're gonna keep that all to themselves...*insert eye-rolling smiley*.

& here's pics for you dogs (lol):

- Giambrone + partner both in his private & public life

- The alleged mistress

Mistake 4: Not admitting the truth, to begin with -by trying to deny the affair. First of all, if you TEXTED someone incriminative information, why would it be likely that they wouldn't keep it? The truth(or some distorted version of it) will only eventually come out, and you just screw yourself over even more. Second of all, wouldn't it make more sense to declare something that will eventually be leaked so you can beat them to punch & make it less effective when it inevitably DOES come out?

Mistake 5: Crying during a press conference. If we can look past the fact that he's a grown-ass man...why the hell would you cry during a press conference. Sure, life's stressful, your careers over, you just made the biggest mistake of your life (okay...now that I think about it, why wouldn't you...). But STILL, think of the image that this sends. A mayoral candidate cracks under pressure. It begs a voter to question how he would handle stress if elected for office.

Mistake 6: Dropping out of the mayoral race. Although it's probably a good ting that this guy isn't going to be running the city...from his point of view, he still had a chance. The elections are 6 months away; spin control's an amazing thing, these days; and dude was 2nd place in the race. It would only take a couple of months, a hundred apologies, and the majority of the public would eventually forget that this ever happened. What makes this even worse is that he couldn't do it himself - a representative had to walk into the room after he stormed out to announce that he was dropping out.

Let's open this up for discussion now:

- Was it wrong of her to exploit the situation?

- Besides how it hurt his image, isn't all this irrelevant to his platform? 

- Isn't his personal life his own business? 

- Or are they supposed to give up all rights to privacy when they take up a public position like that? 

- Should "skeletons in the closet" be forgotten or are they ALWAYS relevant?

Take a step back and think: should this REALLY affect what his political agenda is? Does it really take away from his character?

Personally, I'm not a fan of the guy (anti-motorcyclist lobbyists = not a good match for me)...but what he's been able to do with his political career is pretty commendable. I'll admit that it's easy to analyze all the "what if"s and point out what people do when you're on the outside looking in...so of course, nothing I just said holds any weight (except for the fact that it seems to make sense). I can't lie that I'd love to be Giambrone's Public Relations rep right now (no sarcasm). Not that I support his platform, but dude was well-recognized because of his media coverage from his TTC days -  he threw the towel in way too early. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to retract his dropping-out (remember where you heard it first!...hypothetically speaking)

Btw, this is the pre-curser to the "short-comings of Toronto" series: the TTC chapter.

Long post - I know. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Here's a funny .gif for being a trooper and reading the whole thing:

Figuratively speaking, guess which one's Giambrone & which one's Toronto? ;)

Peace,

- knowledge

Worst" Pick-Me-Up Note" EVER

I hate chain mail/messages. Especially when they're stupid:



"When you are feeling alone like no one cares, read this cuz its absolutely true Every night, someone thinks about you before they go to sleep. At least fifteen people in this world love you. The only reason someone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you. There are at least two people in this world that would die for you. You mean the world to someone. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look. Always remember the compliments you've received. Forget the rude remarks. So if you are a loving person, send this to everyone on your list including the person who sent it too you Thank You for being my friend."

Do I even need to say anything? 

Yanni = A Mastermind

I'm up at 3:30 watching some classical music - and believe me, it's not a bad thing.


I've taken a liking to classical music. Violin's something that I've wanted to get into for years, but have pushed aside. I think I'm finally going to give it a try sometime this year. I've also been wanting to see a TSO performance (it's that glass building that you pass when you're walking on Queen St. from Eaton's). When I was younger, I used to skip through 96.3 (the classical station), but I find myself leaving the dial on that whenever I accidentally pass it.


The violin has got to be most beautiful-sounding instrument I've ever heard in my life. What makes it amazing is that it's only one part of an orchestra. Whoever figured to throw 30-100 musicians who have perfected their craft into one group was an absolute genius. 


That is all.


Oh yeah, and enjoy this video :D

Post up some classical vids in the comment section, if you want.

Peace,


- knowledge