Category Archives: Philosophy

Choices

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I noticed myself disgusted at dinner Tuesday night. I had to decide on the same meal, one I had to assemble or one that was already assembled. I chose the latter and was then disappointed in that I had to do the work to assemble it before i could eat. Yet I chose it for the freedom of making how I wanted.

How many times a week does this happen to everyone? You make a choice for a perfectly logical reason, but the outcome isn’t what you had expected and you’re disappointed. Barry Schwartz uses the example of jeans and dressings in this TED video, but it’s anything that offers you a choice with to many alternatives. You psychological punish yourself afterward because your afraid you made the wrong choice.

The same issue occurs in a democracy, we provide to many options with to few choices of representation. It is the flaw in democracy those who vote decide who represents their group, but the people who don’t vote are free from having to decide on inadequate representation. They should also be able to own up to their choice of inadequate representation rather than attack the person that was chosen for them by the masses who did vote. If the person is a horrible representation, “Hey, you had nothing to do with it so you shouldn’t care. You didn’t care enough to vote on time, so don’t cast your ballot after the fact.”

Like they say in court, ” If you can’t afford a representative, one shall be provided to you by the state.”

Why I Like To Think Of The Glass As Half-Empty

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I thought of this Saturday as I was talking to a friend about my job and the other things that I have plans for in the near months. I’ve spent the last several months looking for problems/flaws in certain ideas. I realized that the idea of the half-full/half-empty glass question is flawed, while talking to him. This logic may be flawed as it was thought up in a pessimistic manner.

The logic of asking if the glass is half-full/half-empty is normally used to determine if a person is optimistic or pessimistic. Generally, pessimism is frowned upon when you are asked this question, however it may be flawed. The flaw in the question, is that I don’t think you gain more from being an optimist. Let me explain this more thoroughly.

If your ever out at a restaurant, the waiter normally asks you if you would like to have your glass refilled. This is were the question frays, if you see it as half-full your more likely to say no thanks, however, if it’s half-empty you’ll want it refilled. If you replace the liquid with ambition, would you not want to have more? Yet, many would say no, because they don’t need anymore; they are content with what we have. I say look at it half-empty and ask for more.

Ambition is something that you can never have enough of. So, I want you to go out; and every time you see your glass as half-full, know you need to see it as half-empty. Go after your dreams; be optimistic because your a pessimist with as much ambition as you can handle. You can accomplish your dreams just don’t be so pessimistic as to dismiss them.

Acknowledging Personal Truths Are Not The Truths Of Others

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I’ve been seeing this recurring theme of intolerance pop-up almost non-stop in current media. We have the ’08 election and are constantly badgered with views of racism, sexism, ageism, and religious intolerance. This is constant in modern life, no matter what you do, you will come across someone with a very different perspective on some subject.

The story that really brought this idea to fruition in me is that I saw an interview with two 14 year-old girls on television. These girls were kicked off of a bus in Portland last year for kissing by the bus driver who called them ‘sickos’. He didn’t bother to wait to get to the next bus stop. This was someone who was forcing his opinion against homosexuality because he saw it as a truth, in doing so he impeded the girls’ rights.

The election has been wrought with constant bipolar truths that are no doubt going to stay in the mainstream media until at least November. Most of them originating in the Democratic Primaries just to market to the masses on one side of the truth. You have “Hillary is a woman, a woman can’t run the country”, “Barrack is Muslim(not true), he’s going to sell this country out to the terrorists”, “McCain is too old to be president, he’ll die in office”, “Barrack is like Rev. Wright”, and “A black man isn’t capable of running this country, he’ll turn it into a ghetto”, all of these have been either explicitly or implicitly distributed by the media. Is this the representation of the beliefs of everyone in the country? No, they are marketing to their audiences, the only problem is that diffusion has occurred in media and it spreads, having it reach the people that share the other side of the truth.

If your trying to sell something as truth, you have to realize that what your truth is opinion only. As you age, however, your opinion shall become more refined; it needs a proper base to do so. So try to reflect on your views and the flip-side of them. You may be the intolerant bastard who you despise.

In Search Of The Shepherds

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Man is narcissistic from birth; we are taught not to be completely enveloped in our own personal wants and needs as we grow. However, as a baby our world contains only people who will give us what we want, it is bestowed upon us by them when we beckon with a cry. As we grow we never forget this, we choose to affect others by wanting them to accept us and needing them to be like us. As this furthers itself, through time, we all begin to fit in to the crowd and follow those who have already achieved that which we want to achieve. We all fall into our flocks and we will remain there until we realize that we cannot achieve greatness with these others, mere copies of ourselves and us of them.

When one escapes what he knows, he finds knowledge; first he must be wise enough to realize he has to escape. Once he has done this, he shall spread his knowledge to others and shall his knowledge prosper. As he prospers in this new environment he shall see his knowledgeable gains wane. This occurs as he again becomes a copy of those around him, the internal narcissism of man. He shall always become a copy of those he surrounds himself with and he shall create copies of himself within his view of them.

We are naturally herded, by society, by our ideals, and by our own discretion. We are the sheep of this world; we shall follow as we are taught, as our fore-fathers were taught. Yet, did not the fore-fathers of this land remove this teaching from their minds and choose to rebel to gain free reign for themselves and their neighbors. They chose to be the shepherds of this land and its people, they no longer wanted to follow a lord that denied them the same rights as the men that lived among his lands close. This is becoming that land of lords and of sheep, so timid they may be. The time must come that shepherds, hidden among sheep, will rise and reshape our knowledge, teaching us ways anew.

We the narcissistic sheep of this land shall soon relegate our minds to the brink of non-acceptance, out of fear for change, to any shepherd that may arise to bring forth the new rebellion. The rebellion for change must come before we all become diluted into the same mental body. As we become more the same, the chance for change becomes ever more burdensome upon those who will rise. Our best source of knowledge into change comes from enemies, those who we resolved are flawed in there knowledge, they too feel this way of us. What if we sought to understand their knowledge, we shall unburden them of their preaching and hate and allow ourselves to grow substantially.

“We must seek wisdom from the ancients, for age doth leave wisdom in place of youth and as tides change, so do the ages pass.”

The Time To Fail…

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It is oft-stated that Thomas Edison once said, “I did not fail 10,000 times when creating the light-bulb; I have succeeded in finding 10,000 ways how not to create a light-bulb.” I have read it many times and I find that the number seems quite arbitrary and he was not the first person to create the light-bulb, merely the innovator who found a more viable filament source in tungsten steel. This article is not about him but, about allowing oneself to take risks in life and allowing failure.

I was watching Seth Godin on TED and, he was talking about how to market to the world by not focusing on the masses, but risking your gains on the people who actually give a damn about what you are selling.  “The riskiest thing you can do now is being safe.” You are going to have to take your risks to stand out among the ever growing crowd. Develop your product and sell it not to a crowd but to the few who care about your work. Let the few spread your product, all you have to do is find them and give them what they want.

Man is capable of perceiving risk and finding ways to manage it, however, the simplest way that man knows is to remove it all together. This is quite risky in itself as with higher risk comes higher failure rates but, also, larger success. We should not see these failures as losses but as knowledgeable gains for our future successes. When you truly develop an understanding of the risk you are taking it is no longer a gamble; you have developed a strategy to turn most fortunes, good or bad, into positive successes.

“The time you have is short, better to fail today and have tomorrow left to succeed; you will never know if your failure now will lead to a future success.”

Will & Determination

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I had a conversation with a friend about the education system and “The Plan” where he discussed the focus of the formal student vs. informal student. He stated, “The problem with the informal education is that it is usually not the main priority/focus of the person. They are usually working in some meaningless job that distracts them from their higher goal. It’s hard to accept someone of “higher knowledge” when they seem to be stuck behind the counter of a fast food store.” This is a post based on that fact that the average person will not be primarily focused, upon the informal studies which they undergo. Their focus will be subjected to free time, and it shall be put upon them to learn during this time. This is where the will and determination shall come into play.

The first thing they must do is be willing to give up their time to learn. If they are unwilling they will push knowledgeable gains to the back burner and achieve very little. If however, they decide to devote in part or whole this time to self-education and they shall have the ability to gain knowledge at a semi-constant steady pace. This pace is still mediocre in the majority of cases, because they can still remove themselves from their studies fairly easily.

The second thing that can help with this is their personal determination to learn from these studies. The undetermined will lack the consistency to achieve much in a timely fashion, not necessarily, but most likely. If they decide to be both determined and willing to garner thorough knowledge, from their studies; they shall have a rather constant pace that is faster, than just being willing to learn. If you aren’t  willing, but extremely determined, you shall only exhaust yourself with utter boredom in search of the knowledge. Without both in unison, you will not be at the best position for learning.

These two things are rather influential, in any aspect of life. This reminds me of Ryan’s The Business of Running about pacing one’s self to achieve what they set out to achieve, without over exerting yourself. Therefore, my metaphor on this subject in accordance to the prior info is the following:

” One’s willingness is the pace at which one shall go forth with their problems and tasks in life and determination shall be the speed at which they are able to maintain at this pace. “

If they do not follow both, they shall struggle at a speed too high or pace themselves too inconsistently, and they will achieve little.

Birds Among Winds Of Change

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Got up this morning around 6:30, found a cigar in my pocket and decided I would just go take a piss off the balcony and then sit down and relax, smoke my cigar and watch the sun rise. I sit there and watch the birds flutter to and fro, from branches, rooftops, and power lines, just enjoy the morning and my cigar. The birds got me to thinking about the freedom they have and our freedom.

The birds are oblivious to what happens around them, much as we are. I watched one lonely bird sit among the power line and he appeared to be doing exactly as I, relaxing in the break of morn. He sat there standing his ground among the line as bigger birds swept the air above him, almost in an aggressive fashion. Then a beautifully vibrant cardinal sat a few feet away from him, still he remained oblivious. Then, a bird of his kind came and sat just inches away, beak to beak, just the two of them for about 5 minutes and then they both flew away.

These birds represented life and a love. He refused to give up his spot for those most definitely more powerful, remained at peace not succumbing to beauty alone,  it had no meaning for him, and finally he found that which fit him, that which he was familiar. It was a sight of freedom, not one of the birds could change what he was searching for, what he wanted. Here I am sitting just thinking, ” I wish I could just be free, not the bird locked in society’s cage. I just want to be able to enjoy it all and not have to worry about the rules. I found what I want in life, I want to be able to watch the sun rise, cigar in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, every morning.”

We must look at the cost of freedom though, all the dangers that it presents. Free birds have many more risks than do the one’s sheltered and locked away. They face predators that could kill them, their young, or ruin their nests. They face random events of strong winds and bad weather that could kill their young. They have no control, they are subject to unknown change constantly. Society’s birds never have these concerns, they are protected by the wire that strangles the heart of freedom.

We can all become free birds but, first we must change our ways. We must change how we attain our food, how we protect ourselves, and how we view our surround before we can ever slip through that little door. We will probably be better off remaining in the cage, but there’s always the fact that outside we can learn more, do more, and see more at risk of our lively hood. It’s up to us to change and only us whether we risk it all for freedom.

“A man of knowledge and a bird adrift may both do what they choose, see what they wish, and go where their heart takes them.”