Just words...

What's in a word? Everything, some say. That seems to be our collective point of view as a society. Why else would we fear some words so much? Invectives, the very sound of the word is ominous - as though, to say it out loud would invoke some dark malevolent power. Indeed we fear these words so much that we place restrictions on their public use, resorting to censorship even as we speak loftily of the freedom of expression. Such hypocrisy! What are mere words without thoughts behind them and actions ahead? NOTHING! (I'm not denying the power of words here. I'm merely pointing out the fact that the power of words stems from the thoughts that inspire them and the actions that they inspire.) And yet, we obsess over words rather than thoughts and actions. We shield our children, who are the best part of us, from words while it is the thoughts and actions that do them the most harm.

What makes us this way? It's simply laziness - intellectual and moral. We always want an easy out - morality for dummies, if you will. Do these ten things, don't do those ten and you're all set. It's easier to keep a few words out of one's vocabulary than to steer clear of malice, of envy and all things ugly. If only we had the courage to strive to find the right path every moment of our lives, we would see how blind we are to fear words. As a realist, I know that will never be - so I shall plod on, painting invectives for what they are... just words.

P.S. This post was written at Pingu's request to clarify my reasons for peppering my previous post so generously with four letter words and other choice gems from the English lexicon.

Madness returns... with a vengenace

No pretenses, circular nonsense follows! This post isn't going to go anywhere, it's not even going to try - it is going to be the purest form the abundant junk that primarily composes the Internet. Interesting, considering it would appear to be a perfect analogue to a person, yes a damn person! What the flying fuck does that mean? It means I'm calling the human race the biggest trash pile in the history of our rockpile - the planet we so lovingly named Earth, and the very same planet we choose to clusterfuck in innumerable ways.

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. - Confucius

[That's the attitude you need to have while reading my blog.]

This is the point where you're thinking, "Geez, what an arrogant prick this guy is!" Well, guess what, 'Oh exalted one', I never said I wasn't one. In fact, I've never said much about who I am, except that I consider myself a 'nobody'. The universe has no laws against nobodies being either raving lunatics or arrogant pricks on an ego-trip, or even both. So, what am I saying about myself? NOTHING!! If I knew something of consequence about myself, I probably wouldn't be writing crap like this.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. - Marcellus (William Shakespeare, Hamlet)

[Don't look at me. Whatever it is, I didn't do it!]

What do I know about myself then? I know I like chocolate. And, I know I hate three kinds of fuckbags more than all other kinds (I'll get to the different kinds of fuckbags later, maybe) - fuckbags who try to insinuate themselves into my life as though it were their birthright, fuckbags who presume to know what path I should take through life, and most of all, fuckbags who try to define reality using an explicit function. I mean, what the hell will it take for you to see how fucking stupid that is -an explicit function! Am I saying by implication that I think reality should be characterized using an implicit function? Fuck, NO!! If you're religious, you must understand that! If you're a rationalist, you must be in splits - yes, you are most welcome! And, if you're a religious rationalist, you are an oxymoron and a fucking moron! Someone should have told you that by now.

The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it... - Mark Twain

[Really? I figured there must be one helluva reward for intellect. Why else would so many be out to kill it?]

Holy F Cow!! How quickly a post grows when content is not an issue! Once again, am I implying that my shorter posts have something in the way of content? Or even that that was ever the idea at least? Fuck, no! When will you ever learn? Half the problems humans have with fellow humans arise from the utterly naive assumption that simple logic can be applied to human behavior. People are many things - chiefly screwy and goofy. There, I said it. It's the wisdom of ages! People are screwy and goofy! Now will you hold off on the bloody assumptions? Look where they've gotten us!

Adversity is the first path to truth. - Lord Byron

[So, keep reading!]

On a random note (hey, I'm by no means saying that anything I've said thusfar was any less random. [sly grin]), if you're wondering about the rather prodigious use of profanity in this post, you must really believe that everything happens for a reason. Well, everything happens for a reason all right - Mr. Murphy's amusement! He loves your kind - especially the way you're always running around in circles with your hair in flames when shit happens.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. - George Bernard Shaw

[So, stop blaming me!]

Some of you must be scratching your heads as to why I capitalized the 'I' in Internet. (If you're not, you need to be more observant.) Well, that seems to be the convention when invoking entities that are omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent in nature and the Internet's not only damn close on all three counts but we also know for sure that it exists! That in my book definitely counts for something. (You didn't expect me to go this far without taking a pot-shot at the big G, did you?)

"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically." - Albert Einstein

[You and I have to live and die so that 'he' can get y=42?]

Those of you with live hamsters running within the wheel upstairs might recall my promise to discuss the different kinds of fuckbags there are. If it shocks you to know that I don't intend to keep my word, please DO NOT VOTE! Anyway, I'm getting tired from spewing all this drivel, so I'm going to take a break. (Finally, you have something to be really thankful for. Thankful to whom? ME. Because this reprieve that you're getting is my benefaction.) In any case, I think I've managed to give you a glimpse of what happens when a train of though derails - no, it's not pretty at all. So, indeed, you are most welcome.

P.S. No supreme beings where harmed during the writing of this post.

A momentary lapse of madness

"In solitude, we are least alone." - Lord Byron

The icy fingers of the wind played across the craggy mountainside, screaming a primeval lullaby; tough love. The wanderer looked up towards the sky, smiling. The stars smiled back. The stillness of solitude offered him a measure of peace. He wouldn't quite call it enlightenment, no, that would be too self-assured. Rather, he felt what could only be described as a certain sense of equilibrium - a feeling of comfort, of belonging. Call it hope, if you will. As the cold winter breeze washed over him, he felt strangely comforted. In some odd way, he felt warm. Far from the screams, the curses, and the tears, he was home. As he stood upon that mountain, time faded into irrelevance, the voices of the past drowned out by the howling wind. And the future waited patiently, in silence. All he heard was the wind's raspy voice, absorbing and soothing. At that moment, nothing existed beyond the mountain. Memory dared not interrupt his reverie. No, he had not forgotten the past, rather, he'd learned much from it. And, at that moment, he'd simply chosen not to summon his recollections. The heat from his intense inward gaze had burned away the cobwebs, so, he could finally see past the surreal gray facades. He smelled the roses, felt their thorns and appreciated both sensations equally. He was a child, once more. Ever onward, deeper inward; the wanderer would never stop.

This whole rant was inspired by the following quote which I encountered in John Krakauer's Into The Wild:

"No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal, ... That is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. ... The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden or Life in the Woods.

Reflections in the red eye

How do you fight thoughts? How do you disconnect emotions from memories? By losing consciousness. Most people sleep through their entire lives without even realizing it. They are blissful in their ignorance.

Among the few who do perceive reality - they are the ones who see the gray that lies just under the facade of color, and the brilliant colour that lies past that gray - there are fewer still who are able to process the overwhelming barrage of sensory input and actually make something of it. The wise cut the glare by looking through a visor composed of patience and detachment. To the rest, however, reality is so loud, it's deafening and beyond comprehension - for the symmetry of the universe eludes the impatient eye. To see it for even the most fleeting of moments can precipitate an epiphany.

It is such an epiphany that can complicate things somewhat for an individual. For he now knows the endpoint but not the path that will lead him there. And in searching for this path, one learns repeatedly, the limitless extent of human inadequacies. Some are driven by an indescribable inner flame (call it curiosity, if you will) to to try again... and again. These are people who know the true nature of hope and see its beauty. Others, however, give up on the quest and even end up regretting their awakening, so to speak. These are the ones who try consciously to sleepwalk through life (a combination of fatigue and sleep deprivation works rather well, actually). It would smack of hubris for one to pity such sleepwalkers, especially so for one who has knowingly wasted years. The decent thing to do would be to offer hope and encouragement.

So, I shall end with a rather popular and often abused quote from Swami Vivekananda - "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached."

On the subject of faith

A short while ago, I read excerpts from an article by Bhagat Singh, outlining the rationale behind his atheism - "Why I am an atheist". While I may not share his enthusiasm on the subject of Marxism (I will return to this topic, albeit briefly, in a short while), I must agree with him on the subjects of faith and rational thought. While I have tried to explain my position in this regard in previous posts, I can hardly hold a candle to Bhagat Singh when it comes to the clarity of his words and the exhaustiveness of his arguments.

Returning to the subject of Marxism, I believe that it is doomed to failure because, it fails to take into account human nature. Albert Einstein reportedly said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity...and I'm not sure about the universe." Einstein may have been uncertain about the universe but Marx most definitely forgot to account for human stupidity. And, I will define stupidity broadly to include selfishness (in the sense that some measure of altruism in the individual is essential for the success of the species), ignorance, intellectual laziness and all of the innumerable other flavors we humans have come up with. When you think about the level of human stupidity, it becomes clear that two things are inevitable - one is the failure of Marxist principles and the other is the success of religion, 'organized' or otherwise.

To me, science is part of the silver lining around the dark, noxious cloud of human accomplishment. It seems almost miraculous that science and religion (the kind that is dogmatic and forced upon others by its proponents) evolved simultaneously and on occasion, within the same elements of consciousness. What separates the two is a short span over a deep crevasse - ideas on one side and beliefs on the other. And while believers may find the ways of science dry, cynical, unromantic and without hope, I would argue otherwise. What could be more beautiful than experience and understanding? What could be more cynical than believing in a supreme being who would stand by and watch the innocent be wronged? There is yet room for optimism for one who points to randomness to the way the world is.

Therefore, it is on the basis of history that I argue that faith is a luxury of the privileged, a refuge of the ignorant and an opium of the masses. Of those who would disagree, I only ask that they show me the data that would suggest otherwise.

PS. Thank you Partha, for pointing me to the article (Why I am an atheist).

Why walk alone?

If you're the type of person that knows the path to take through life, have you ever wondered what it would be like to not know where you wish to go? True, uncertainty can be decidedly unpleasant, in some odd way like sea-sickness, but it does offer a certain freedom. A freedom to choose any path at every fork in the road. That is a freedom not afforded a man of vision. Indeed, one must pay a price to chase a vision - one must forsake anything that may lead one astray, however dear it may be to one's heart. Often, men who choose such a path walk alone, immersed in the world around them and yet far removed at the same time. They are men cognizant of the price and willing to pay it. Though it is not always gladly that they make sacrifices, they do it with the unfailing faith that in the end, it will all be worth it. The essential question then is rather simple - is their faith true? Or are they lost? There's only one way to find out, isn't there?

This, that and some other stuff

What have I been doing this long? I've been pondering the title of my as yet unwritten book... the book that I shall write... well, time frames are really just constraints. Anyway, here are some working titles I've come up with:

1. Drink heavily, in moderation.
2. The pleasure of finding things that go bump in the dark by accidentally stepping on them, killing them in the process
3. Well, fuck you too! I fucking refuse to be fucking angered!
4. Inventive invective
5. Just some more crap...
6. Don't bother reading any further.
7. You will regret buying this book... I promise.
8. All you'll ever need to know about nothing
9. An uneventful life
10. Plotting to take over the world... and other self-motivation techniques

What have I been reading lately?

I was tagged by Pingu about a couple of months ago. I'm supposed to quote the last sentence from page 123 of the book I'm currently reading (I think those were the stipulations). As always I'm part way through a handful of books. I've decided to quote from two of the books because the others are graphic novels. Also, I've decided to quote my favorite lines instead of arbitrarily chosen ones.

Book 1: Brain Droppings by George Carlin
"Intelligence tests are biased towards the literate."

Book 2: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard P.Feynman
"I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good."