One of the questions that has been troubling us since the emergence of philosophy and that almost everybody has an opinion on (which more or less qualifies it as a topic for my blog..I mean people who i can show up.....AND people will care..what else could i want) is the one about ethics....People have always judged their lives ( and more often !!) the lives of others, comparing it to some divine ideal....What is good and what is bad....And is the intention what matters or the actual effects caused by your actions ?
ABBTMS(almost the beginning but technically a Mid Post):Yes..Once more..i have managed to select a very difficult question that the whole world has been trying to solve ( unsuccessfully !) for centuries..And once more, by sheer 'beating around the bush'....well actually...revolving about it at a high speed and holding out a stick, whose length is the radius of my orbit minus the length of my outstretched arm....( Yes..i am a techie...They don't call it IIT for nothing...)i will manage to wriggle out and still appear to be a very deep, philosophical, mature individual...while i'm actually...a childish,impulsive,mad person..who writes ABBTMS's in his blogs...!!!
Well...First of all...The question about good and bad has been answered sufficiently well in the book 'Shantaram' by a character called Abdel Khader Khan..He tells the narrator that Whenever one is confused about good and bad one must ask oneself...'If everyone did this..would it lead to a better world ?' and decide accordingly...But of course...there are problems with this understanding...First of all, for the analysis to be exact, all the people should be playing exactly the same part in exactly the same scenario...And in most cases, this is impossible practically..Some situations...in fact the most difficult ones to analyze...are isolated ones that very few people will ever be a part of....Secondly..Most of the times..It is the degree of good and bad that we are analysing and all things are clearly not black or white....In most everyday situations our dilemmas are of the second kind....Where the effect on the world of 2 slightly differing alternatives as performed by everyone in the world must be considered...and that ...is difficult if not impossible..In the more 'Ethical code red' scenarios,the situation is of the first kind, where khan's analysis is absurd....(Statistics will tell you that whenever we are talking about rare situations..data generation is a problem ( because of the rarity) and hence so is prediction...and this is somewhat my point)
But anyway, theories is what we want and not real life solutions..Most people have a good enough ( !!) ethical code that they use as a standard...so what we are actually looking for is a hard and fast rule, a formula.... just to have fun..It's good to know that there is a solution, even if it is impractical and insoluble...It makes us feel safe...that there is some logic, some order beyond things, something that we can understand and react to....
But enough of this armageddonry and chaos rumor mongering( enough for now that is....:P)..I'll proceed to the next section....Intention...
Sometimes, even though our intentions are good, we see that factors beyond our control( or so we think..(If my blog had a theme music...i would play the dark,sinister, 'potential of doom' one form the previous paragraph)) make the effects of our actions bad...( with respect to the 'no action taken' scenario)...This is seen most commonly in slapstick comedy cinema, where, in the middle of a fight, the clumsy henchman waits with a club to hit some one from the opposite side, but ends up hitting 'the boss'( typically bollywood, though hollywood does it's fair bit too)What really matters here, the intention....or the actual actions ?
One one hand, if something bad happens, then the action should be termed bad, for intentions, like potential ( which i ranted about in my second blog) do not affect the world, and hence should not feature in any judgment...On the other hand, how is a person supposed to know the exact effect of his action..With so many factors variable, each one affecting the outcome in a totally different manner, how can one judge...Moreover, how does one judge whose ( why isn't who's used ??!! :P)
action it was that actually caused the outcome...I mean..Petrol being dropped carelessly near a pile of paper and the careless throwing of a cigarette ( in this case, none of the actions are voluntary..but it makes my point) both could contribute to a massive fire, but which one's responsible ?? Also if a person analyses something less than another, is he bad ? Is stupidity a crime ??
In my opinion, Intentions should be used to judge people, for they are a measure of inherent goodness of people, just as potential is a measure of their, well ...potential(:P)(The two judgments are exact analogues..)
Anyway...there...i got away clean..
PS: That was good !
PPS: I'm reading Simone de Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' and progressing (surprisingly) well.....So stay tuned for some posts on women..
PPPS: I dunno why i said that..'Cause i like to brag( Oh..I read 'serious literature', or 'cause i was too excited about a pending post on 'la femme'....
PPPPS: More of the latter though..the former could have been done on several other occasions....
PPPPPS : Like that one...:P
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
BFF !!
"I confess....I have wronged you...I should've ...i know...I should've done it a long time ago....Please....Give me one chance..A day's time to make amends. I am, but human.I forgot...." I cowered, tail between legs, whimpering.....
Lockjaw growled......He looked at me with a snarl on his face, the discolouration on his face all the more out of place, unnerving....scary even...Then he stepped back, muscles no longer tense...turned away.....and loped off......
I heaved a sigh of relief.....I knew it had been a big blunder and a narrow escape.How could I have forgotten...All along ...i had been looking at the big picture.....and had forgotten about the small things...the things that really mattered...I had made the crass error of forgetting to write about dogs on my blog (snigger)? And now it had come back to bite me in the butt ( literally !! as it has been all along ( fooled ya !!))
Anyway 'lockjaw' exists..He lives in hostel 9, iit bombay...He's completely white except for a brown patch that covers one of his eyes ( and a bit on his back)....His 'best pal in the whole world' is twyster....who's a mixture of brown and black is constantly twisting and turning in ecstasy.....( at least that's the only way i've seen him.....I'm told...he paints a different picture in my absence ....)Also...another fella that stays with them is silky...(recently named) who's got the most awesome coat....but is really too in love with me....He( or she....really not gone there :P) looks to conserve the number of scratches on my body at each of our encounters....which makes me heave a sigh of relief that swarsandhya's over....( let it suffice that during swarsandhya times...i would have to keep going to hostel nine...)Anyway...coming back to lockjaw...he's probably one of my favourite dogs in the universe( about a billion of those..) He's got an awesome set of teeth and his comical half and half face is like a naughty little pirate's( yes....i know ..i'm beginning to sound like a doting mother in english cinema or Enid blyton...!!!) and his bark..! Oh ! it's truly amazing...Loud and sharp..It's a true 'Arf' not a wussy' wuff' or a girly ' yip yip'....By god man, when he barks...i am tempted to throw my bag off ( yes...sigh...still attending classes...) and run beside him...barking for joy...
Then there's simba....who slept in my ( 'and mine 'Says Dk indignantly) room for nearly a year, would pee sometime during the night, then shake himself( uuurggh) dry and then proceed to another spot....iteratively !!.....Now, he's a fat piggy( bad dog !!) fellow, who's nevertheless adorable ( and i mean A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E) with his sniffling and purring( i swear....)Also there's 'THe Godfather' who's a huge solemn kinda dog...trotting along sedately with his entourage....very much acting the rightful part of the ex-alphamax dog....
A comic pair is that of 'Divyanshu'( named after his yellow ochre coat and it's similarity to a filthy shirt that a friend owns and loves...and wears...too much), a tiny foxy and infinitely spirited dog who's never, ever backed away from a fight and maintains that all of the institute is rightfully his and he works to that end...drinking maybe 10 litres of water a day ( :P) and 'Sharky', who's a big broad faced, short snouted dog, who loves me so much, he tries to rip my hand to shreds every time he sees me.....Their 'playful' banter( comprising mostly snarls and growls) is a must watch .....
I could go on and on about the dogs i've known...'Buck'( of 'The call of the wild' fame), Tigger( from Winnie the pooh)....several dogs called 'Mangy' ( !!!!), my aunt's dogs Goldy, Snowy, Mowgli and Andy....My own, Tinker belle and Patch and others......but then, that would take a lifetime.....and i wouldn't want to do injustice to any of them....or they'd just come after me...like Lockjaw.....
Mark twain said that 'If you take a dog off the streets, feed him and take care of him, then he will not bite you.....and That is the chief difference between a dog and a man...'It is true, that dogs are loyal...But even more basic to their nature is love....All they want is love....They ask nothing form you....but love...Dogs who i've never ever fed food follow me for miles.... jumping with joy everytime they see me... They follow me , through several unfriendly territories....and fight through the hostel 6 dog defenses..to come right upto my room......And these are dogs i've known for a year or more.....I might've fed them three or four times...but the dedication and love they have for me is far beyond the imagination of any human being....They gain nothing from me....Nothing at all.....No stimulating conversation, no favours, just my company....just that...
I never believed in love...I thought it to be impractical....I was asked by a friend, whether i could imagine a loved one, completely crippled and having lost control over all thought and speech..He asked if i could love them, just for them...I replied that maybe the memories of good times spent together would create such a 'love'...He said that i was stalling..that i knew what he was talking about...I thought for a moment and replied....No...It's impossible....I mean..if a person can't think and speak..is he still that same person...that person you once were friends with ??Can love be ...just arbitrary...as a reaction to love ??.....I had answered in the negative then.....but now that i think about it...i was wrong....It would be a great disrespect to my friends.....the furry ones .....It would be a total disregard of the principle that their lives are based on....that love can be reciprocated by just love....and nothing else....In their company....i feel human......
PS: And no...i didn't forget Tuffy...My...dog....my brother....my friend...He's the sweetest, most loving creature i've ever met....Stayed with me and followed me along for more than a year.... Haven't seen him for ages...Wherever he is, i hope he's happy....And yeah...ALL Dogs go to heaven !!
PPS: Ditto for you tigger...
PPPS: Damn...i did it again :P
PPPPS: Woof !!
Lockjaw growled......He looked at me with a snarl on his face, the discolouration on his face all the more out of place, unnerving....scary even...Then he stepped back, muscles no longer tense...turned away.....and loped off......
I heaved a sigh of relief.....I knew it had been a big blunder and a narrow escape.How could I have forgotten...All along ...i had been looking at the big picture.....and had forgotten about the small things...the things that really mattered...I had made the crass error of forgetting to write about dogs on my blog (snigger)? And now it had come back to bite me in the butt ( literally !! as it has been all along ( fooled ya !!))
Anyway 'lockjaw' exists..He lives in hostel 9, iit bombay...He's completely white except for a brown patch that covers one of his eyes ( and a bit on his back)....His 'best pal in the whole world' is twyster....who's a mixture of brown and black is constantly twisting and turning in ecstasy.....( at least that's the only way i've seen him.....I'm told...he paints a different picture in my absence ....)Also...another fella that stays with them is silky...(recently named) who's got the most awesome coat....but is really too in love with me....He( or she....really not gone there :P) looks to conserve the number of scratches on my body at each of our encounters....which makes me heave a sigh of relief that swarsandhya's over....( let it suffice that during swarsandhya times...i would have to keep going to hostel nine...)Anyway...coming back to lockjaw...he's probably one of my favourite dogs in the universe( about a billion of those..) He's got an awesome set of teeth and his comical half and half face is like a naughty little pirate's( yes....i know ..i'm beginning to sound like a doting mother in english cinema or Enid blyton...!!!) and his bark..! Oh ! it's truly amazing...Loud and sharp..It's a true 'Arf' not a wussy' wuff' or a girly ' yip yip'....By god man, when he barks...i am tempted to throw my bag off ( yes...sigh...still attending classes...) and run beside him...barking for joy...
Then there's simba....who slept in my ( 'and mine 'Says Dk indignantly) room for nearly a year, would pee sometime during the night, then shake himself( uuurggh) dry and then proceed to another spot....iteratively !!.....Now, he's a fat piggy( bad dog !!) fellow, who's nevertheless adorable ( and i mean A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E) with his sniffling and purring( i swear....)Also there's 'THe Godfather' who's a huge solemn kinda dog...trotting along sedately with his entourage....very much acting the rightful part of the ex-alphamax dog....
A comic pair is that of 'Divyanshu'( named after his yellow ochre coat and it's similarity to a filthy shirt that a friend owns and loves...and wears...too much), a tiny foxy and infinitely spirited dog who's never, ever backed away from a fight and maintains that all of the institute is rightfully his and he works to that end...drinking maybe 10 litres of water a day ( :P) and 'Sharky', who's a big broad faced, short snouted dog, who loves me so much, he tries to rip my hand to shreds every time he sees me.....Their 'playful' banter( comprising mostly snarls and growls) is a must watch .....
I could go on and on about the dogs i've known...'Buck'( of 'The call of the wild' fame), Tigger( from Winnie the pooh)....several dogs called 'Mangy' ( !!!!), my aunt's dogs Goldy, Snowy, Mowgli and Andy....My own, Tinker belle and Patch and others......but then, that would take a lifetime.....and i wouldn't want to do injustice to any of them....or they'd just come after me...like Lockjaw.....
Mark twain said that 'If you take a dog off the streets, feed him and take care of him, then he will not bite you.....and That is the chief difference between a dog and a man...'It is true, that dogs are loyal...But even more basic to their nature is love....All they want is love....They ask nothing form you....but love...Dogs who i've never ever fed food follow me for miles.... jumping with joy everytime they see me... They follow me , through several unfriendly territories....and fight through the hostel 6 dog defenses..to come right upto my room......And these are dogs i've known for a year or more.....I might've fed them three or four times...but the dedication and love they have for me is far beyond the imagination of any human being....They gain nothing from me....Nothing at all.....No stimulating conversation, no favours, just my company....just that...
I never believed in love...I thought it to be impractical....I was asked by a friend, whether i could imagine a loved one, completely crippled and having lost control over all thought and speech..He asked if i could love them, just for them...I replied that maybe the memories of good times spent together would create such a 'love'...He said that i was stalling..that i knew what he was talking about...I thought for a moment and replied....No...It's impossible....I mean..if a person can't think and speak..is he still that same person...that person you once were friends with ??Can love be ...just arbitrary...as a reaction to love ??.....I had answered in the negative then.....but now that i think about it...i was wrong....It would be a great disrespect to my friends.....the furry ones .....It would be a total disregard of the principle that their lives are based on....that love can be reciprocated by just love....and nothing else....In their company....i feel human......
PS: And no...i didn't forget Tuffy...My...dog....my brother....my friend...He's the sweetest, most loving creature i've ever met....Stayed with me and followed me along for more than a year.... Haven't seen him for ages...Wherever he is, i hope he's happy....And yeah...ALL Dogs go to heaven !!
PPS: Ditto for you tigger...
PPPS: Damn...i did it again :P
PPPPS: Woof !!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
More Angst
As usual...I am writing something....but instead of getting to the point directly...i love to beat around the bush...wander here and there....blow a little bubblegum balloon now and then.....then maybe try to lick my elbow (and i swear ...i have once licked ketchup off it...) ..flex my muscles a bit and suck my tummy in...and put on a face that makes me look constipated and rather like Solomon grundy (http://marvel.com/ Awesome site) than Superman.......and then sometimes i ease into the topic rather elegantly....and sometimes i just come straight out and break the fourth wall (or it's literary analogue....) and introduce the topic..Sometimes i am actually confused about what my topic will be ...and am actually stalling....and thinking at the same time...about what i should write....And actually that's what life is....
(:P)What are we doing with our lives...I mean does anyone have even the slightest idea....or are we just 'err'ing and 'hmmm'ing and waiting for the recess bell to ring ?? I mean, sure, we have goals and stuff...I wanna be rich or famous or change the world ( among the most ambitious and wholesome...) ...But does anyone ever really think about when he will be on his deathbed thinking...."What the hell...Why ?"..." Why did i just go through life...and Why did i just do all that stuff ...Most of it would've made no sense even then, even if i had tried to think about it...."...I mean i'm not talking about very 'high brow' ( and according to me ..more or less meaningless) stuff like 'Why are we here?' ...but rather.... about how we life on a very small scale....making choices that seem right at the time..but are orthogonal or sometimes anti parallel( couldn't help it :P ) to what our final aim is....We should really think about what we want to do ...with life....not in life...but what would be a near perfect scenario that we could live in indefinitely.....Of course what we want to do may change...but our decisions at each point of time ( wait for it... wait for it....) should leave us pointing in the direction of our instantaneous life goal vector ( !!!!! :P)
I know myself that my life goal has changed several times...oscillating, though not simple harmonically, between 3-4 options...but i always make decisions keeping it in mind...And it's worked for me...Of course the relation may not be causal...But at least ill be more like, " I'm dumb !", on my deathbed( at worst) rather than " What the f**k"....(At best)......
Going into the specifics...
A lot of people do a lot of stuff just because it's cool, or because everyone's doing it.....All their lives..all their decisions are made on the basis of social norms..While this may be a safe route in some cases ( and sometimes that's even the motive) many times people just want to be accepted by everyone..they want to be part of a group....I see obvious examples of this everyday and there are definitely others that are subtler...."Why ?" Once....Ask yourself this....How many people out of those are such that you actually care about their opinion..Why is it that if 200 fools get together....they become some super intelligent entity ?....Why do we let out lives be dictated by people who have no stake in it ? We want to play it safe...and we want assurance and acceptance..For once..grow a pair.....Do what YOU think is right ....
I remember reading in 'Chicken soup for a soul' about this kid who once made fun of a girl that other kids always used to make fun of 'cause she used to wear old fashioned clothes..And he says how he regrets to this day,that he did it..In fact...'The Chicken Soup' series has many examples of such confessions where people have regretted stuff they did long ago due to societal pressure.....In this case the result...was a (painful) twinge of regret about not having done the right thing...but in some cases it will be about life changing decisions...and that...is something you do not want to regret......
PS: 'Conformity Is A Disease And Rebellion Is The Cure': I once had a Tshirt that said this..At the time i wore it cause it was anti-establishment and cool...( sigh...the irony...) but now....well...i wish i still had it...
PPS: By the way...i remember asking if my posts were too preachy and pedantic....Yup..they are !!!!
PPPS: Chicken soup is Awesome !!!( both for the stomach and the soul !)
PPPPS: Re: the title...Remember...'Tell me why',' More tell me why','Still more tell me why','Here's more tell me why' and the like.....Well....stay tuned :P
(:P)What are we doing with our lives...I mean does anyone have even the slightest idea....or are we just 'err'ing and 'hmmm'ing and waiting for the recess bell to ring ?? I mean, sure, we have goals and stuff...I wanna be rich or famous or change the world ( among the most ambitious and wholesome...) ...But does anyone ever really think about when he will be on his deathbed thinking...."What the hell...Why ?"..." Why did i just go through life...and Why did i just do all that stuff ...Most of it would've made no sense even then, even if i had tried to think about it...."...I mean i'm not talking about very 'high brow' ( and according to me ..more or less meaningless) stuff like 'Why are we here?' ...but rather.... about how we life on a very small scale....making choices that seem right at the time..but are orthogonal or sometimes anti parallel( couldn't help it :P ) to what our final aim is....We should really think about what we want to do ...with life....not in life...but what would be a near perfect scenario that we could live in indefinitely.....Of course what we want to do may change...but our decisions at each point of time ( wait for it... wait for it....) should leave us pointing in the direction of our instantaneous life goal vector ( !!!!! :P)
I know myself that my life goal has changed several times...oscillating, though not simple harmonically, between 3-4 options...but i always make decisions keeping it in mind...And it's worked for me...Of course the relation may not be causal...But at least ill be more like, " I'm dumb !", on my deathbed( at worst) rather than " What the f**k"....(At best)......
Going into the specifics...
A lot of people do a lot of stuff just because it's cool, or because everyone's doing it.....All their lives..all their decisions are made on the basis of social norms..While this may be a safe route in some cases ( and sometimes that's even the motive) many times people just want to be accepted by everyone..they want to be part of a group....I see obvious examples of this everyday and there are definitely others that are subtler...."Why ?" Once....Ask yourself this....How many people out of those are such that you actually care about their opinion..Why is it that if 200 fools get together....they become some super intelligent entity ?....Why do we let out lives be dictated by people who have no stake in it ? We want to play it safe...and we want assurance and acceptance..For once..grow a pair.....Do what YOU think is right ....
I remember reading in 'Chicken soup for a soul' about this kid who once made fun of a girl that other kids always used to make fun of 'cause she used to wear old fashioned clothes..And he says how he regrets to this day,that he did it..In fact...'The Chicken Soup' series has many examples of such confessions where people have regretted stuff they did long ago due to societal pressure.....In this case the result...was a (painful) twinge of regret about not having done the right thing...but in some cases it will be about life changing decisions...and that...is something you do not want to regret......
PS: 'Conformity Is A Disease And Rebellion Is The Cure': I once had a Tshirt that said this..At the time i wore it cause it was anti-establishment and cool...( sigh...the irony...) but now....well...i wish i still had it...
PPS: By the way...i remember asking if my posts were too preachy and pedantic....Yup..they are !!!!
PPPS: Chicken soup is Awesome !!!( both for the stomach and the soul !)
PPPPS: Re: the title...Remember...'Tell me why',' More tell me why','Still more tell me why','Here's more tell me why' and the like.....Well....stay tuned :P
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