Things

Beauty of Humankind

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:55:00 -0400

Honestly I think one of my greater desires is to share more. One of my greatest sadnesses is that it seems as if we are all afraid of how we are perceived, so we express the littlest possible of ourselves or manipulate our expressions according to our perception of others’ desires. I think this is probably one of the greatest barriers to our progress and happiness, and ironically one of the biggest reasons people don’t like us. If you aren’t expressing yourself from the heart, how can anyone ever relate to you? It’s baffling why we get so caught up in silly traps we create.

It’s interesting to think about how my perceptions and motivations and reasons change over time — how I perceive the same thing from a new angle, connect it with other things, or disconnect it from things it was previously connected to. How my mindset naturally changes as time goes on. I can tell what my mind has been immersed in by the structures and topics of my thoughts. It’s overwhelming to think about. And it’s scary that so many people’s minds are immersed in things like advertisements and TV shows. No wonder we’re so materialistic and discontent — the purpose of an advertisement is to make you feel like you should be discontent unless you own X product. But having THINGS isn’t fulfilling, so it’s a perpetual spiral of discontent, which is never satisfied. It’s overwhelming and depressing and it seems hopeless.

I’ve found that I have been tending to avoid thinking, because it usually makes me sad. This makes me sad. The reason I avoid thinking is that when I do, it seems that everything is far more complex than any of us can comprehend. So many more variables are at play of which we are unaware, and couldn’t determine cause and effect even if we weren’t. And we are all afraid of this fact, so we come up with comfortable belief systems, cultural and scientific ‘norms’ we can call reality, and demeaning, unhealthy distractions that end up making us angry, selfish and discontent; because we are not happy, we seek physical pleasure — which is the next best thing — to the point of self-destruction and misery, which makes us all the more miserable, neglectful, pleasure-seekers. We feel justified by others’ belief in our belief, so consensuses arise which are influenced by our pleasure seeking (“alcohol is good to drink”) and self-righteous (“get good grades, go to college, be ‘successful’”) natures. And we’re all afraid of what other people think of us, afraid of thinking about how twisted and wrong this all is, and too self-righteous to consider thinking.

I wrote this a few years ago. Not really sure what to think of it now (but I’m pretty sure I was reading Ayn Rand):

“I came to this thought because of long hours of frustration due to the blatant ignorance of humans (in myself and in others). Its purpose is to prove the folly of hating ignorance:

I think we can agree that humans have the capacity to be wrong (usually due to some form of ignorance).

But, why are people this way? Are humans naturally reasonable, or naturally animalistic? Perhaps we naturally have the capacity for both, but a tendency towards neither.

One can spend long hours trying to figure out why so many people are ignorant, but it is useless.

Imagine if humans always did “right,” but had no understanding of “wrong.” We wouldn’t really be anything — perhaps only beings with no purpose. The fact that we have the capacity for both right and wrong requires us to choose — and, naturally, we have the desire to be “right.” The desire to be right requires us to find out what “right” is, which requires the ability to implement reason in constantly challenging our basic beliefs. (Paranoid religious belief is the result of the absence of reason.) In our search for what is right, we must individually come to deeply understand why something is right or wrong, not believe it because someone else says it.

This is analogous to the idea of a capitalistic, unregulated society, in which the government’s only job is to protect the basic rights of the citizens. If people are allowed to fail, they have much more of an incentive to succeed. When they are given rewards for failing (i.e. welfare), they are demeaned by manipulating their natural want to succeed and replacing it with contentment in failure. In other words, they are not required to use reason in order to survive, and therefore become comfortable with their ignorance.

Humans are great not because they have the capacity to be right, but because they have the capacity to choose right over wrong.”

Watched this little guy stalk and pounce this flying ant-like...

Mon, 06 May 2013 22:25:31 -0400

Watched this little guy stalk and pounce this flying ant-like insect. It was quite a battle.

Discontentment is never satisfied.

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 01:05:55 -0400

Discontentment is never satisfied.

All is vanity

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:57:00 -0400

Everything ends and everything is deteriorating in this world except one thing.

One of the many places where there is not the chatter of a...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:09:36 -0400

One of the many places where there is not the chatter of a television in the background.

Things you might see in the sky.

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:53:00 -0500

Things you might see in the sky.

Our front yard. I like it.

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:01:35 -0500

Our front yard. I like it.

Photo

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:40:29 -0500

Scary things are here.

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:35:25 -0500

Scary things are here.

Video

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:42:26 -0500

Let’s all do something different.

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:36:00 -0500

Let’s all do something different.

Audio

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:50:00 -0500

I’m not done yet.

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:46:17 -0400

I’m not done yet.

Heaven on the

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:43:00 -0400

Heaven on the

Waves through the air.

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:41:24 -0400

Waves through the air.

"A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child dreads bees, and says the object of the..."

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:47:21 -0400

“A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child dreads bees, and says the object of the bee is to sting people. A poet admires the bee, sipping honey from the cup of the flower, and says the object of the bee is to sip the nectar of the flower. A beekeeper, noticing that the bee gathers pollen and brings it to the hive, says that the object of the bee is to gather honey. Another beekeeper, who has studied the life of the swarm more closely, says the bee gathers honey to feed the young ones, and to rear a queen, that the object of the bee is the perpetuation of its race. The botanist observes that the bee flying with the pollen fertilizes the pistil, and in this he sees the object of the bee. Another, watching the hybridization of plants sees than the bee contributes to that end also, and he may say that the bee’s object is that. But the final aim of the bee is not exhausted by one or another, or a third aim, which the human intellect is capable of discovering. The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of such aims, the more obvious it becomes that the final aim is beyond its reach.”

- Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace

I was afraid to be meBe anyone you want to beBe anything you...

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:42:20 -0400

I was afraid to be me
Be anyone you want to be
Be anything you want to be
I don’t blame my week
For my not being able to speak
Clearly about things I’ve said before

And if it’s light outside night will fall
Night will fall
And if it’s life it resolves
It resolves

Everywhere you are in a maze is a lie
Anywhere you are on a page you still go to the right
Anytime there’s no ground below you you’re in the sky
Anytime you’re afraid it’s gonna be alright
It’s gonna be alright

I was a flame in the night
I heard what I wanted to hear
And the moment I disappeared
I grew the size of all outside
Cuz I
I became one with the night
And if it’s real it’s not all
It’s not all there is
There’s a lot in what appears not to be there at all
And you can function as someone besides who you are
And you can function as someone besides who you are
And you can function as someone besides who you are
And you can function as someone besides who you are

10 - John Frusciante - Time Tonight (Curtains) (by oliverberg)

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 23:45:33 -0400

10 - John Frusciante - Time Tonight (Curtains) (by oliverberg)

Well I want to be happy and fulfilled and joyous, but I’m just too busy right now.

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:20:57 -0400

Well I want to be happy and fulfilled and joyous, but I’m just too busy right now.

Do you Act or just React?

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:15:02 -0400

Do you Act or just

React?