The Honour In Keeping Your Word

We live in a world where "actions speak louder than words", yet the "pen is mightier than the sword". Pardon the dichotomy, but it's gotta be one or the other.

Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to live in a society where honour truly existed. A society where taking someone's word meant everything, and we didn't try to find outs of responsibility by hiring a lawyer to look for possible loopholes in a formal agreement.

When I make a promise, I sincerely intend to keep it. It's one of the actual few things that I do feel bad about. If I say that I'm going to be somewhere at a certain time, and I come ridiculously late, I actually do feel bad. If I say I'm  going to do something, I actually try to do it.

If I don't plan on doing something...why say it? If I don't plan on calling you back, I won't say "I'll call you back", because there's a reason "bye" is a word.

Also, to the people that say that "promises are meant to be broken", I honestly hope that you get hit by a bus. The fact that stupidity like this manages to pop into someone's mind as a result of synaptic connections WORKING, boggles my mind. 

I hate how social contracts have become to be concepts taken so light-heartedly by everyone. RSVPing, or making plans, only to cancel last-minute for illegitimate reasons are common occurrences and something that we've become accustomed to say "oh well!" or "whoops!" to.

Or how about cheating when you're in a relationship? This is another social contract - and one that you shouldn't be a part of if you can't commit to it. It's saddening to know that people accept "I was drunk" as an excuse.

Call me old-fashioned, but these kinds of things REALLY offend me. It's hard to have faith in humanity when the most basic and rudimentary concepts of courtesy and respect can't even be honoured. Sure, people make mistakes...but most of them are avoidable.

Or maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Peace,

- knowledge

Heidi Montag & The War Against Beauty/Perfection

For anyone who's dumb enough to be a fan of "The Hills"(oh hell naw!) show, or anyone who listens to the radio...I'm sure you've heard of everyone bashing Heidi Montag for getting like 10 procedures in one day  (click here).

I think all of you people need to fuck off. Or if you won't do that, then at least realize what you're implying by condemning plastic surgery & Heidi Montag. Plastic surgery is a step towards (subjective) perfection. Is it unrealistic? Of course it is. They're putting materials that aren't supposed to be in them, in them - but it's still striving for perfection, nonetheless.

I would say that Heidi Montag's a pretty attractive woman to begin with, and that she really didn't need the surgery. She looked fine the way that she was...but I'm not her - and that's what actually matters. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't make her look better, because it did!

For the parents who say that this sets unrealistic standards for your little daughters...maybe you should stop blaming people and work on making your daughter realize that the type of beauty gained from alterations like that aren't natural. Your value judgments don't matter, and to force your children to think about  plastic surgery as some evil thing is no more different than shoving your ideologies down your child's throat. Maybe it is evil, and maybe it isn't - but that's for your child to decide.

And how about people that say "oh, the image of 'beauty' that the media portrays is unattainable". They sure as hell are, but to blame that on the beautiful people would be to condemn beauty itself for not being a commodity. These people don't realize that what makes things beautiful is the way that everything comes together. It probably wouldn't be as appealing, or attractive if mediocre aesthetic appeal was the norm. What makes beauty so significant is the fact it's not as common as we'd all like it to be.

I never understood what made attractive people so despicable to the general public. it jealousy, envy, or legitimate hatred because of something that we don't have? After all, look at the critics: the one criticizing the sexy starlets who flaunt their curvaceous bodies are often the non-sexy starlets who are unable to flaunt their curvaceous bodies. Instead of pointing out the obvious, why not enjoy things for what they are. A beautiful woman's, a beautiful woman. 

It's a shame that people need to go to lengths of plastic surgery just to be satisfied with who they are...but then again, many of us go to great lengths, in other respects, in order to be satisfied of who WE are. After all, everyone's got their own demons to fight.

Take it beauty at its face value, and leave it at that. 

:)

Peace,

- knowledge


p.s. I checked out a debate for "Upcoming superpowers: Chinv
a vs. India" and I've been reminded on how much I've been missing out on, by neglecting debate team meetings.


p.p.s. I start writing a book this week...hopefully

Good Idea!: Man Submits Drawing Of Spider Instead Of Payment For Overdue Account

"David Thorne didn't have the $233.95 to pay an overdue account. So what did he do? What any other budding young genius would do, he submitted a picture of a spider he drew instead. Unfortunately, Jane Gilles, who is clearly a mega-bitch to the nth degree, wouldn't accept it. So what happened next? Hit the jump to find out. But I'll give you a hint: time travel! And also, David's account not getting paid"

Source: http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/good_idea_man_submits_drawing.php

Had me LOL-ing.

Peace,

- Knowledge

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