I recently read about an experiment showing that people are more reactionary towards losing freedoms that were once possessed versus freedoms that were never had. Take for example a kid and his privilege to have a piece of candy every time he finishes dinner. Compare two kids, one has always had this privilege and one has never. You can easily predict which kid will have a more violent uprising when being denied candy after dinner.
I have been the privileged kid for most of my life. I grew up with parents who can support me through my schooling without forcing me to get a job. This time period has given me the opportunity to explore myself and my goals. I had the luxury to do what truly makes me happy; I felt like my actions were consistent with what I believe in. Like the kid privileged with candy after dinner, I am bound to revolt when my freedoms are seized.
My freedoms are under a major threat and rebelling may be my death sentence. Like an ordinary member of society, I will one day have to support myself with a job of some sort. Working for a company may be my best option (in respect to having a low risk to return ratio). Unfortunately, I have learned that working for a company means I would have to suspend my freedoms for far too long.
Working towards accomplishing others' goals gives you a sense of loss in identity. You compromise your own aspirations for someone else's in exchange for money. (Ironically, the money you earn is supposed to grant you the freedom to do what you want). Being yourself becomes dangerous in this environment. Those who become successful here have abandoned their old self and meshed it into a bigger entity, the company itself.
Should we let ourselves become our jobs? I suppose some people don’t mind, I on the other hand, can’t fathom the thought of doing so. How is earning some money going to compensate for more than 1/3 of my waking life being wasted? I am afraid that a traditional job may not be a viable option for me.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Meaningless Life Can Be A Happy One Too
The religious, deists, agnostics and atheists all have trouble coming to terms with the meaninglessness of life. No matter where you stand on the spectrum, there is a troubling stigma associated with those who admit to having a meaningless life. It is believed that only the suicidal and the wrist slitters ever consider such a thought. After all, how is it possible to be a functioning human being without the silly belief that the meaning of life is to [insert here whatever makes you happy]. Hopefully I can deconstruct this notion once and for all.
But first I must defend the premise on which this column relies on. Humans have evolved categorical memory, i.e. they have the ability to categorize objects in their memory in a hierarchal manner. Your memory of things looks something like this: Stuff I do when Hungry --> Eat Food --> Cheeseburger --> No Onions
This is obviously a very rough outline of how we think, but it illustrates how we perceive objects meaningfully. A Cheeseburger is meaningless without a human to assert meaning onto it. In my example, the meaning of the cheeseburger is a food I want to eat because I am hungry. There is no ONE meaning for an object and those meanings varies between person to person. For example, some people might categorize a cheeseburger as something they like to draw instead. If all of mankind were to vanish into thin air, the cheeseburger would be nothing more than a peculiar collection of atoms.
The key insight from this example is that meaning is a human perception of objects. The meaning of an object doesn’t exist without a human to impose that meaning onto the object. Same is true for us humans; there is no reason to believe, a priori, that we have an inherent meaning assigned to us. The question of whether life has meaning cannot even be answered; it is an illegitimate question to ask. Just like the question: “what does it feel like to be a rock?” The rock doesn’t know what it feels like to be itself, so how can we possibly answer this question! Both these questions should be explained away when we realize the questions are erroneous to begin with.
Back to my main point: admitting that life is meaningless does not imply you are or will be depressed. I believe that those who say they’re depressed because of life’s meaninglessness are more susceptible to depression in the first place. There is nothing inherently depressing about the belief that life is meaningless! There might be a correlation, but then again there is a correlation with depression and believing in God. To blindly associate either of these beliefs with depression would be a mistake.
If you are someone who claims to have a meaning for their life, whatever it may be, ask yourself this: theoretically, if it was proved (by science or by yourself, whichever one is more convincing for you) that your meaning for life was absolutely wrong, would you continue to live the way you are? Would you become more depressed, would things that made you happy before no longer make you happy? I think it is safe to assume you wouldn’t fall into chronic depression. Believing that life is inherently meaningless should not turn someone into a subject of pity.
We don’t need a religion, book, or person telling us what our meaning to life is in order to be happy. For the same reason we don’t need to be told not to kill babies in order for us to not to kill babies. We don’t need an excuse for doing what makes us happy.
But first I must defend the premise on which this column relies on. Humans have evolved categorical memory, i.e. they have the ability to categorize objects in their memory in a hierarchal manner. Your memory of things looks something like this: Stuff I do when Hungry --> Eat Food --> Cheeseburger --> No Onions
This is obviously a very rough outline of how we think, but it illustrates how we perceive objects meaningfully. A Cheeseburger is meaningless without a human to assert meaning onto it. In my example, the meaning of the cheeseburger is a food I want to eat because I am hungry. There is no ONE meaning for an object and those meanings varies between person to person. For example, some people might categorize a cheeseburger as something they like to draw instead. If all of mankind were to vanish into thin air, the cheeseburger would be nothing more than a peculiar collection of atoms.
The key insight from this example is that meaning is a human perception of objects. The meaning of an object doesn’t exist without a human to impose that meaning onto the object. Same is true for us humans; there is no reason to believe, a priori, that we have an inherent meaning assigned to us. The question of whether life has meaning cannot even be answered; it is an illegitimate question to ask. Just like the question: “what does it feel like to be a rock?” The rock doesn’t know what it feels like to be itself, so how can we possibly answer this question! Both these questions should be explained away when we realize the questions are erroneous to begin with.
Back to my main point: admitting that life is meaningless does not imply you are or will be depressed. I believe that those who say they’re depressed because of life’s meaninglessness are more susceptible to depression in the first place. There is nothing inherently depressing about the belief that life is meaningless! There might be a correlation, but then again there is a correlation with depression and believing in God. To blindly associate either of these beliefs with depression would be a mistake.
If you are someone who claims to have a meaning for their life, whatever it may be, ask yourself this: theoretically, if it was proved (by science or by yourself, whichever one is more convincing for you) that your meaning for life was absolutely wrong, would you continue to live the way you are? Would you become more depressed, would things that made you happy before no longer make you happy? I think it is safe to assume you wouldn’t fall into chronic depression. Believing that life is inherently meaningless should not turn someone into a subject of pity.
We don’t need a religion, book, or person telling us what our meaning to life is in order to be happy. For the same reason we don’t need to be told not to kill babies in order for us to not to kill babies. We don’t need an excuse for doing what makes us happy.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Fuck This Post
Most of you have heard the old adage: “Using swear words shows that you have a poor vocabulary.”
This is somewhat true – people with a poor vocabulary have to improvise with the small collection of words they know. When fueled by anger, their mind retrieves the most prominent insults lying dormant in their head. Taking note of their belligerent use of the language, you’ll find the same insulting phrases being parroted over and over again.
Like any word or phrase, use it in too many different contexts and you’ll render it meaningless. With a limited vocabulary your tiny pouch of words are in danger of becoming meaningless. Many people are faced with this dilemma – they don’t want to bother expanding their vocabulary, but face the cost of having their words turn meaningless. Surprisingly, this isn’t the case! If this dilemma were true, there wouldn’t be anyone comfortable with their small collection of phrases; they would be forced to expand if they wished to adequately communicate with others. So what is going on here?
The fact is: people are not monotone. A person can use the word ‘Shit’ to mean dozens or even hundreds of different things simply by changing their tone of voice in different contexts. Unlike those with a bigger vocabulary, these people depend more on their tone of voice to communicate. There is no wonder why so many people manage to express themselves with a handful of phrases. Some of the common phrases you might have heard are: “That was sick” “That’s hella tight” “I love you” “That’s hot” and the list goes on. I am sure you’ve never heard or said these phrases in the same tone.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe these people are less intelligent at all. They have mastered a different aspect of communication. Where they lack in vocabulary they make up with a better understanding of body language, social behavior and human psychology.
Upon hearing, “Using swear words shows that you have a poor vocabulary” you are equally justified in saying “Not using swear words shows you have a poor understanding of human social behavior.” Two sayings that could be true, but are better off not being said.
This is somewhat true – people with a poor vocabulary have to improvise with the small collection of words they know. When fueled by anger, their mind retrieves the most prominent insults lying dormant in their head. Taking note of their belligerent use of the language, you’ll find the same insulting phrases being parroted over and over again.
Like any word or phrase, use it in too many different contexts and you’ll render it meaningless. With a limited vocabulary your tiny pouch of words are in danger of becoming meaningless. Many people are faced with this dilemma – they don’t want to bother expanding their vocabulary, but face the cost of having their words turn meaningless. Surprisingly, this isn’t the case! If this dilemma were true, there wouldn’t be anyone comfortable with their small collection of phrases; they would be forced to expand if they wished to adequately communicate with others. So what is going on here?
The fact is: people are not monotone. A person can use the word ‘Shit’ to mean dozens or even hundreds of different things simply by changing their tone of voice in different contexts. Unlike those with a bigger vocabulary, these people depend more on their tone of voice to communicate. There is no wonder why so many people manage to express themselves with a handful of phrases. Some of the common phrases you might have heard are: “That was sick” “That’s hella tight” “I love you” “That’s hot” and the list goes on. I am sure you’ve never heard or said these phrases in the same tone.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe these people are less intelligent at all. They have mastered a different aspect of communication. Where they lack in vocabulary they make up with a better understanding of body language, social behavior and human psychology.
Upon hearing, “Using swear words shows that you have a poor vocabulary” you are equally justified in saying “Not using swear words shows you have a poor understanding of human social behavior.” Two sayings that could be true, but are better off not being said.
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