29 December 2009
Sometimes, when emotions run high, people tend to lose all sense of compassion. In rage, they forget their own humanity. They become beasts. They commit atrocities. They bask in cruelty. They want to destroy lives.Fights - any kind of fights, whether fistfights, riots, civil wars or invasions - are crucibles for the production of these beasts. In the heat of battle, perfectly reasonable acquaintances morph into perfectly unreasonable strangers.
The hardest thing to come to terms with is that, these inhuman monsters that plague humanity, are in fact people who otherwise live their lives normally. They eat, they sleep, they laugh, they cry, they live, they die. In other circumstances, they could have been your friends.
You know this, and you really hope that things would not turn ugly. You want to explain how alike you are. You want to explain how we could work with each other instead of against each other. You want to explain that peace is better than violence. You want to, but they would not listen. You feel so helpless, so impotent, at changing this. You do not want conflict, but you are at a loss because you do not know how to get them to see eye-to-eye with you.
Perhaps you may decide to wait a while. Hoping against hopes that they do a full turn and make peace with you. What if your hopes were unfounded, and they continue to hurt you and humiliate you? Deep inside you, is there a festering wound growing? Are you a ticking time bomb? Will there finally be a day when you snap?
"Stand up for yourself," the little grudge held in your heart calls out, "do not take this abuse any longer."
You take some time to organize your thoughts. You have tried peaceful approaches. That method did not work. You gave enough chances to them. They refused to listen. You resolve to lash back out at them, not as revenge, but to end your own suffering at their hands. Your actions and words become weapons against others. You choose to abuse them and hurt them. You want to destroy their lives. And then, you become a monster yourself.
Do not deny that you allowed your baser emotions overwhelm you. The mark of a human is not rational thinking. It is compassion. A program with simple algorithms could think rationally. Compassion is found in the heart, not the head. A person who rationalized his anger is more dangerous than one who has not, because now he is convinced that his cause is just. He believes that he has the right to exact punishment.
In your helplessness, be aware of what you lose when you choose retaliation.
"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
25 December 2009
"Thing that got me was not her list of things she hated, since she was obviously crazy as a Cyborg, but fact that always somebody agreed with her prohibitions. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws— always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: "Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop." Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them "for their own good" — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.""There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
~ From The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
If you had a limited supply of an experimental drug that may or may not cure a person, would you give it to a willing or unwilling party? Suppose the unwilling patient has been taking this drug for 18 months already, but now wishes to discontinue the prescription. Another, very enthusiastic, patient wants to start on this experimental medication. What would you do? The drug is purported to have immediate positive effects, as long as it is taken, and is said to do the willing patient much good once he takes his doses.
Would you insist, to the extent of threatening, that the unwilling patient continue the unproved treatment for three more months before he can finally make his own decision? Note that while doing this, you are denying the other willing party of the medicine.
No, I did not want to go to church today.
Nor do I want to go on any other days, for that matter.
18 December 2009
I read an article, titled "Anti-rich feelings spike in China", online just now....
Few are like Ms Xiao Xiaowei, a self-employed 24-year- old from Wuhan, who said she actually respected the rich, especially billionaires.
"It's true that some of them get rich illegally or at the expense of the poor, but getting rich surely requires some other qualities, such as excellent interpersonal skills ," Ms Xiao said.
Ms Chang said she had worked hard to be able to buy an apartment and a car.
"If those people have the time to hate us and envy us, why don't they spend the time working, using diligence and intelligence?" she asked rhetorically.
...
- China Daily/Asia News Network
I think we should understand that not every one has the same opportunities in life. Even if two people work equally hard, they will not be equally rewarded, because no two people are ever in the same context or situation. The opportunities awarded to them are different. That is the sad truth of the world.
13 December 2009
I fell sick last night.Maybe it is all the consecutive late nights taking a toll on my health.
Spent the whole of today suffering, and trying to recuperate.
It has been so long since I have felt so weak. Not to mention the muscle ache!
08 December 2009
"The blade must pass through the fire, else it will break."~Par-Salian
02 December 2009
I am FREE!!!