Curtains

I am closing this blog.
Unlike my life, this blog had a purpose, which is now lost. I have concluded that there is nothing more to say and nothing more to be heard. This was an attempt to open up a part of my mind to others. But now I feel that a part of my mind is worthless to anyone else but me and so shall not be shared and the rest is too precious to share.

If you have been visiting this blog, please do not do so anymore.

Thank you.

'Farce'

That would be a one-word definition of me.

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka.
Among all other things, you will see the breaking point, that is, only if you don't pass a judgement.

I so hate life when the alarm clock goes off in the morning.

My Definition of Personal Freedom - 2

I have, for some time now, been reading 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig, a terrific read. From here I shall draw some opinions and thoughts that I shall use to emphasize my views on personal freedom.

Given an opportunity all of us would like to be masters of everything. We would like to be complete heroes that can do anything that is thrown at us, not unlike the protagonists of stories or movies. The confidence that a person is all capable and all powerful and all efficient can prove to be a huge ego booster. It can make his life seem fully complete and satisfying to himself. It is capable of giving supreme happiness to the person.

This being as it may, we have been taught that it is wrong to try to be masters of everything and it is wise to achieve as much efficiency as possible in one area that interests a person. That way, it is said, the needs of the world would be satisfied and thus a society would sustain itself and achieve progress. But unfortunately, not everyone suceeds in determining what their capapbilities would be most productive at. But nevertheless they stick to what they have been forced to do due to constraints that cannot be avoided because we live as a society that puts itself above its members. So at the end of their lives, they are left with the feeling of being failures.

So effectively people end up being less than what they aspire to be. Each individual is indirectly denied the right to a life that he would think is of utmost quality. The individual is being forced to sacrifice his happiness in life for an intangible entity that we term the community and effectively make his life hollow and unsatisfactory.

To be continued...

Truth?

I do not know how ignorant I am!

My Definition of Personal Freedom-1

There is a lot that is being spoken about libertarianism and personal liberty in blogging circles. I found one very potent and personally appealing definitions of libertarianism here. It said "Nobody influences me. I influence nobody". Thinking on those lines, here is my two cents to the topic. Here are a few things that I thought were worth pondering about and I would be extremely grateful if you could share your opinion on them.

My belief and I guess most people would agree with it is this. Each person grows with time. He learns his surroundings, interacts with people and understands the world better with time. So it is most logical that a person gets better off with time and not the other way round. He should feel more comfortable, satisfied and pleased with his life as he grows old. In order to achieve this idealistic state of things, one should not be constrained by the decisions that he had made earlier or the decisions that were thrust upon him by others.

It is a sin to take a vulnerable child and impose upon it the ideals of another individual or group. Doing that subconsciously blocks the other opportunities and ideas that may exist and forces the child to accept that whatever has been taught is the only truth and none other exists. It is one thing to teach a child history, but it is another to show the child some role models and hail their lives as the ideal ones. Such teaching restricts the spectrum of thought of the child by setting rules of right and wrong that the child would not have set for itself had it had the opportunity of investigating history by itself and drawing its own conclusions.

No ethical restrictions should be imposed upon a person. He should be free to choose and form his own ethics completely out of free will, and the most important part of it is that these ethics would be flexible. As his circumstances change and his knowledge increases he should be free to relieve himself of or change his own ethics that he had set. That way, as he progresses along life, he would refine his ideals of right and wrong and would be pleased with his life on all accounts at all times.

Some might argue that this would lead to a society where no one cares about others and would result in complete chaos. But that argument rests on the presumption that people are inherently evil and given a chance would cause more harm than good to others, which is not true. If provided with enough opportunities and if the idea of estimating the success of a person relatively with that of another is eliminated, there is would be no necessity for a person to harm another.

To be continued...

Nostalgia

At the risk of sounding like a hopeless pessimist, I say that all of us always think we are in the worst phase of our lives all the time.
I see no other explanation as to why most nostalgic memories are always pleasant. We invariably look at the past and wish we were there, living it again rather than living the present.

For a fact I have tried to recollect some bad patches in my life and more often than otherwise it is the happy ones that surface in the mind. There have been periods when I would have killed to get a different life. But still, when I reflect on those periods now, I am able to see atleast something positive.

Time makes black look grey and grey look white.

Altruism

Why is it so hard for people to believe that every living being is entitled to be self centered and in its true form, actually is self centered?

We all try and live this great hypocritic life where we think we don't care about ourselves and think that the most important thing is to help others live a better life. I feel like laughing out loud when people swear that their 'ambition' in life is to help make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Is it that hard to realize that what drives the material world is material things? Although Maslow's hierarchy is disputed, his idea of the basic necessities of life are unquestionable. People who don't have access to the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and sex strive to get those. Beyond that, it is wealth, and fame. What the self needs is always the greatest motivation.

The first thought in any person's mind on losing a 'loved one' would certainly be "What happens to me now?". So why not blow the cover and admit that we are all 'selfish'? It would be so convenient, wouldn't it?