We came back from the funeral on Wednesday and managed to go out a couple of times, when it was still nice. Since it has been raining for three days, we chose (wisely, I may say) to stay indoors. So for three days I have been doing what I like most - stay indoors and do absolutely nothing of importance, like reading, watching telly, play silly computer games, talk and dine in the living room (it still has such a grown-up feeling about it, I can't really say why) and seriously thinning the house edible reserves.
Also I had time to catch up on my reading on the net. I have grown addicted to reading on the net. Perhaps it is because I still consider it time-wasting, unlike reading a hardcover proper book. Combined with my old fascination for filth (the one that generates malaise, the Charles Baudelaire filth), I end up reading a lot of stuff that only aggravates my misanthropy. On this note, I have to say that having come to know filth and meanness and evil in people so well, I am touched to tears whenever I am faced with an instance of good, real or fictionalized. Which kind of worries me, because from this stage to crying at soppy movies is not really that far. And this label of crying at the movies is something I do not really want to have attached to me.
Coming back to reading garbage, on the net and on newspapers as well, I might add.
People seem to be prone to writing even MORE trash than usual now that the end of year is near. On the one hand, if you deal with serious matters, like the Crisis or failure of banking system at this time of year, don't be surprised if you appear to have a greenish tinge in photos, that would be the Grinch deep down revealed by the kindness of people around you. On the other hand, if you trifle your way through merry times and Christmas binging, there will always be someone to agreeable point out the shallowness of your behaviour.
In any case, the mood of the season holidays makes writers write silly texts and readers read them with eyes screwed up in mocking disbelief.
Thus said, I acknowledge the bareness of the season holidays from the inspiration point of view and gracefully lay my electronic pen down until next year.
Happy holidays to all of us!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
What is wrong with the world today
My friend, Mr. Laz, whose blog I have yet to figure out how to add on my page, tries here to make some sense in this respect. Namely, what is wrong with the world. First I wanted to comment on his blog. After I realized that it would be too long a comment, I decided to post as a comment on my own blog. So that I can profit a bit from his own fame. ;-))
In my opinion, the world is far from perfect. And it has been this was from the very beginning. I do not want to poke anything at anyone who might know more than all of us put together, but if man was created in His image, than either He is not perfect at all, as the good Book wants us to believe, or He left out on purpose a very important ingredient, which practically sent His perfection down another one of His creation, commonly referred to as the drain.
I think that the world has been this flawed from the very beginning. Men have always killed their peers, be it for a loaf of bread or a piece of country. Men have cheated, lied, betrayed, schemed, plotted, feigned, and generally killed or cause to be killed in any way conceivable, and many other similar activities since the dawn of time. Actually, apart from one single person that the majority of us believes to be His son, there is a bit of evil in all of us. Some control it, some yield to it, but one this is clear: evil is the reference point for good, hence it is omnipresent.
But even though we have lived with it since we have come into this world, it appears that over the centuries we have "refined" it and "polished" it. And now, due to all these modern means of communication, we find out about each and every instance of evil happening in this world. I am even tempted to think that perhaps there is no more evil today than it was 200 or 2000 years ago. But back then, people knew very little about it, folks from Ravena were not able to find out what was happening at the Mayan court, nor were the Finish aware of the samurai ways. When they did, the times lapsed from the actual occurrence was able to distort the event to mythical proportions or Lilliputian consequences. Either way, I believe that evil was more "local" back then. Nowadays it has acquired Biblical dimensions.
And the fact that the media misses precisely no opportunity to do its "duty" and "inform" the public about each and every crime, accident, calamity, tragedy, murder, and so on. I remember precisely how CNN relished the Virginia killing spree and they poked and prodded each person at hand with all questions crossing their minds, most of them worthy of a healthy spit between the eyes. In the name of "telling the truth" the journalists set on a quest for audiences that trivializes genuine tragedies, which is deeply, deeply wrong.
Access to knowledge is mostly good, but as any other thing in this world, has a downside as well. I say that the world is how it has always been, only that now we know about it. And instead of cooling hot heads, this only gives new ideas to people who put them to practice. I know that the attackers from Mumbai did not need any new piece of info to get on with their business. But I think that the troubled teenagers from Columbine surely got their inspiration from sources most of us consider innocent.
We are definitely living in a twisted world. If we stop to think about it and everything that could go wrong, agoraphobia would become the norm of acceptable living. Thinking about what went terribly wrong in the past apparently is of no help either, because on individual level most of us are challenged in learning from our own mistakes, contrary to popular sayings that "once burnt with soup, you start cooling down your yogurt", or "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" and so on. And if we are not able to learn individually, than on a larger scale the experiment has absolutely no other result than complete and utter failure.
How do we still go on living, considering all that? How do we find the strength to continue with our lives after tragedy happening to us or close to us? It's simple - by ignoring anything that might trouble us. It's the human solution to coping with tragedy. We just don't think about it and it goes away, because we keep ourselves busy with a lot of other things. Those who stop to think about it become misanthropes. The rest go on living.
Right. So I managed to go waaaay off track from what the Laz friend was talking about and, as added bonus, got myself a tad depressed because I remembered the world we are living in and which I am thinking of bringing new children in, just to get them all screwed up by an unfair and twisted society. Lovely thoughts for the weekend.
Thank God that I've got friends coming over for the weekend to cheer me up and remind me that there is still some good in this world as well. I still have got a couple of hours until we have to go pick them up from the airport.
I hope Saint Nicholas is aware of what an exceptionally good girl I have been this year. I so much deserve a treat from Hugendubel! I do.
OK. Done for today.
In my opinion, the world is far from perfect. And it has been this was from the very beginning. I do not want to poke anything at anyone who might know more than all of us put together, but if man was created in His image, than either He is not perfect at all, as the good Book wants us to believe, or He left out on purpose a very important ingredient, which practically sent His perfection down another one of His creation, commonly referred to as the drain.
I think that the world has been this flawed from the very beginning. Men have always killed their peers, be it for a loaf of bread or a piece of country. Men have cheated, lied, betrayed, schemed, plotted, feigned, and generally killed or cause to be killed in any way conceivable, and many other similar activities since the dawn of time. Actually, apart from one single person that the majority of us believes to be His son, there is a bit of evil in all of us. Some control it, some yield to it, but one this is clear: evil is the reference point for good, hence it is omnipresent.
But even though we have lived with it since we have come into this world, it appears that over the centuries we have "refined" it and "polished" it. And now, due to all these modern means of communication, we find out about each and every instance of evil happening in this world. I am even tempted to think that perhaps there is no more evil today than it was 200 or 2000 years ago. But back then, people knew very little about it, folks from Ravena were not able to find out what was happening at the Mayan court, nor were the Finish aware of the samurai ways. When they did, the times lapsed from the actual occurrence was able to distort the event to mythical proportions or Lilliputian consequences. Either way, I believe that evil was more "local" back then. Nowadays it has acquired Biblical dimensions.
And the fact that the media misses precisely no opportunity to do its "duty" and "inform" the public about each and every crime, accident, calamity, tragedy, murder, and so on. I remember precisely how CNN relished the Virginia killing spree and they poked and prodded each person at hand with all questions crossing their minds, most of them worthy of a healthy spit between the eyes. In the name of "telling the truth" the journalists set on a quest for audiences that trivializes genuine tragedies, which is deeply, deeply wrong.
Access to knowledge is mostly good, but as any other thing in this world, has a downside as well. I say that the world is how it has always been, only that now we know about it. And instead of cooling hot heads, this only gives new ideas to people who put them to practice. I know that the attackers from Mumbai did not need any new piece of info to get on with their business. But I think that the troubled teenagers from Columbine surely got their inspiration from sources most of us consider innocent.
We are definitely living in a twisted world. If we stop to think about it and everything that could go wrong, agoraphobia would become the norm of acceptable living. Thinking about what went terribly wrong in the past apparently is of no help either, because on individual level most of us are challenged in learning from our own mistakes, contrary to popular sayings that "once burnt with soup, you start cooling down your yogurt", or "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" and so on. And if we are not able to learn individually, than on a larger scale the experiment has absolutely no other result than complete and utter failure.
How do we still go on living, considering all that? How do we find the strength to continue with our lives after tragedy happening to us or close to us? It's simple - by ignoring anything that might trouble us. It's the human solution to coping with tragedy. We just don't think about it and it goes away, because we keep ourselves busy with a lot of other things. Those who stop to think about it become misanthropes. The rest go on living.
Right. So I managed to go waaaay off track from what the Laz friend was talking about and, as added bonus, got myself a tad depressed because I remembered the world we are living in and which I am thinking of bringing new children in, just to get them all screwed up by an unfair and twisted society. Lovely thoughts for the weekend.
Thank God that I've got friends coming over for the weekend to cheer me up and remind me that there is still some good in this world as well. I still have got a couple of hours until we have to go pick them up from the airport.
I hope Saint Nicholas is aware of what an exceptionally good girl I have been this year. I so much deserve a treat from Hugendubel! I do.
OK. Done for today.
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