Random Thoughts Part 22

Perhaps it is not so much the pointing of guns but the pointing of fingers that is most to blame for many of the tragedies in the world today. After all, where the finger points, the gun inevitably follows.

I do not fear guns so much as I fear weak arguments. I have never been threatened by a gun but am assailed by weak arguments on a daily basis. Strong arguments stand on their own, guns cannot operate on their own. But weak arguments require guns in order to prop them up.

If you are unable to understand why other people can be so damned stupid, then you yourself have room for improvement.

It is impossible for both sides in a war to be right, but it is quite likely for them both to be wrong.

People are scrambling to find something safe they can hold onto, and they have chosen gold as the safest investment. As for me, I choose faith in my fellow man, in humanity.

To work within the system is to support the system.

You may never live long enough to discover who you are, but by the time you reach middle age you will hopefully realize who you are not.

People who wish to control your behavior give you only one option. People who wish to control your thoughts give you two choices and the illusion of choice. However many choices you are given, if you do not feel that you are in control, you must find one more.

When we have pushed our intellectual pursuits to their furthest, we find ourselves ultimately lacking in our ability to finish the quest. The human mind, regardless of whether that person is a genius or simpleton, sooner or later must hit this point. It is then that we find we have nothing to rely on except our core values.

Sometimes not having a choice is the most liberating feeling of all.

I can’t wait for the day when computers take over the jobs of computer programmers.

Hope. A hundred years ago the poor worked their lives away in the slim hope that they might become part of the 1%. For those who realized it was an impossible dream, still they worked for those same 1% in the hopes that their efforts would entitle them to a reward in the afterlife. But the religion that exists now gives humanity a different sort of hope. Now the workers are taught that if we all do our part, we can perpetuate the human species by advancing our technology enough that we can enable our 1% to travel to some other planet capable of sustaining life before we have destroyed the one we were given.

If you value a flag more than the values it symbolizes, you are no different than those who worship statues rather than the god they represent.

Abandon the systems that seek to rule you. Seriously, walk away from them, give them no more of your attention. Turn off corporate television. Avoid corporate media. Do your best to avoid eating corporate crops, drinking corporate beer, or reading books published by the big publishing companies.

I cannot change people. Even the greatest of artists cannot hope to do so. But perhaps I can get them to stretch a little, grow so that they are larger than they were, their reach a little further than it was, so that they are able to connect with others more than they otherwise might have.

How can we find stupid to be amusing when it is exercised by dogs but so frustrating when humans exhibited the same stupidity?

Art is the medium through which new thoughts, perspectives, and attitudes are brought into the world.

I grew up in the 70’s, an era where the media—books, comics, television shows, movies—had a great amount of sympathetic villains. The generation that followed not only had unlikeable villains, even the heroes were little better.

Nothing would be so informative or contrary to nationalism as reading the history books of other nations.

Countless people have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve incredible success through visualization, positivity, and unwavering belief in their dream. It is time for us now to work together using these principles to advance shared goals. We must envision a healthy, working, happy, viable future and we must not allow any negativity to prevent us from achieving it.

Never place a flag ahead of the ideas it is supposed to represent, nor put ideas before the people they are supposed to serve.

There are so many ways of looking at the world that you have never considered. Don’t look negatively at those who have views different from your own, especially if they are willing to consider your point of view.

You have no idea how many people will reach out to you once you leave yourself open to them.

Let us constantly ignore the things that divide us and rather optimistically reach out in terms of the things that our important to ourselves.

Core values tell us not to kill. Cleverness provides us with exceptions. The more clever we become, the less principled we are.

My greatest fear is that we will permit our worst human attributes to play themselves out with the assistance of our greatest technological achievements.

I am on the side of those without weapons facing those who are armed, I am on the side of those without against those who have, and I am on the side of those who obey what their heart tells them over those who do what authority tells them.

The further you set your sights, the less turbulent the way will seem.

God saves a lot of people from self-destructive behavior and I’m glad for that. I just wish He could save them from being self-righteous assholes as well.

Random Thoughts Part 17

It's been almost a month since I've done one of these:

Gratitude is not something we should feel burdened by, rather it is a reward to be attained. Gratitude is the sweetness we experience when we achieve true happiness, it is the realization of how much we have been given.

The second greatest crime we can commit in this life is to be something other than ourselves. The greatest crime is to not allow someone else to be who he or she was meant to be. To force someone to become something artificial, through fear or shame, is to take from them not only what belongs to them but a piece of their soul.

Politics should be dealt with between people and should leave politicians out of the discussion.

Good ideas survive violence, bad ideas require it.

I’m not saying I have all the answers, I’m simply saying I have a deeper level of misunderstanding than you.

The society that sacrifices virgins to the volcano god would see the absurdities of our culture more clearly than us.

Choosing a side is like closing one eye. It means that you cease to take in any information from one source and only accept that which is perceived by the other.

Don’t listen to those who say they have answers, listen to those who ask questions.

The problem with humans is we are clever enough to talk ourselves out of what our hearts know. No animal, unless treated cruelly, is capable of disbelieving in love or loyalty.

I am disappointed in the-man-I-was-yesterday, wildly optimistic about what the-man-I-will-be-tomorrow will accomplish, and very sympathetic to the-man-I-am-now’s need for a rest.

We spend the first part of our lives trying to convince others we are more grown up than we are and the second part trying to tell ourselves we are not as old as we are.

If we turn everything into a competition, such as we do with cooking contests, American Idol, etc., then we turn everything into pleasing authority, for there must always be authorities who judge.

I hold forth the hope that a day will soon come when we once again prize ideas over attitude, a day when we think brave thoughts, dare our own paths. Once again, the individual will think for himself and in that moment we will all be amazed that we more or less agree.

Technology will never solve man’s moral problems, it will only complicate them.

The ability to wield the tools technology has brought into being requires not greatness but humility.

Your inner voice is always there, willing to tell you what it is that will bring you the happiness you want. You merely have to turn everything else off and be a little patient.

Imagine a world where man’s moral evolution has caught up to his technological achievements.

Hell is merely a Purgatory we’ve resigned ourselves to, accepted. Hell is what we experience when we have given up hope.

Some people have a less inclusive sense of “we” than others.

Those who complain most loudly about unjust laws are most likely the once who induced society to write them in the first place.

You will never go broke underestimating the general public, but you will become morally bankrupt, which is much worse.

Random Thoughts Part 14

In making the decision to reflect rather than react I have come up with my daily dose of observations.

I don’t believe in destiny, but I do believe that those who do are capable of achieving things others would believe impossible.

Every moment of the day we are given the opportunity to think, to give birth to some new idea or perspective. How often when offered such an opportunity do we merely react?

It is better to have evidence without answers than to have answers without evidence.

Too much analysis always reveals imperfection. Any potential love interest will fall from angel to animal with enough scrutiny. Magic is killed by demanding too much proof.

Our primary motivator is not inspiration, a quest for happiness, morality, or a sense of purpose. It is habit that most determines our behavior.

I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right.

Technology is becoming ever more marvelous, but what good does it do if it does not serve humanity?

What if the imbalance of the individual is necessary to the balance of society? What if making the individual “normal” through medication is making society as a whole abnormal?

Never trust those who talk philosophy when facts and science are readily available.

A country content to be directed by the free market will soon see Shakespeare and Plato replaced by the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo.

God is love, yes, but what if love is God? Does it require any less faith?

Those in the earnest pursuit of the truth are too busy in that pursuit to have time to refute every lie.

A rising tide lifts all boats, but it drowns those without one.

We live in a world we’ve created and yet do not understand.

I saw a starving child yesterday. The temptation was strong to help him, but I resisted. Instead, I told him to close his eyes and believe in the magic of the marketplace.

If you want to ensure that you have an accurate measurement, be sure to use more than one measuring device.

No society arises without religion and spirituality because you cannot use doubt as a base.

There is no such thing as a purely economic transaction. All transactions involve human beings with human considerations.

Truth is not the sort of thing you can draw a circle around and claim you have defined.

It is the easiest thing in the world to judge someone. It does not require understanding them, in fact judging them is an easy way of avoiding having to understand.

Random Thoughts Part 6

Sometimes I feel truly alive and thoughts come to me and I see the beauty that exists in the world. Then I am reminded that I am at work and it is in my job description to squash such feelings. Here are some thoughts I managed to scribble down and sneak out of the corporation that owns me 8 hours a day:

Too often we submit to the herd instinct rather than tap into the group intelligence.

Have you ever found yourself cursing at an inanimate object, a wrench or tool that slipped and smashed your fingers? Of course you have, it happens all the time. How many times do we blame people equally as innocent? The dice are against me. The world is against me. In truth, the world is likely as indifferent to you as a pair of dice.

Even our sense of smell is better equipped to judge the outside world than our intellect, but the intellect is better at convincing us it is right. Think about it, if something does not seem right but our mind cannot find a reason against it, we say that “something smells rotten” or “it doesn’t pass the smell test. For one day, abandon reason for scent and see if it does not make you happier.

Simplistic ideas are the weapons with which the thoughtful are clubbed.

I often hear people ponder about humankind, what is so unique about us that we have come to dominate the planet over all God’s other creatures. What vanity. It is like Babylon pondering what made their civilization superior to all others, or a child contemplating how he got to be king of the hill. It is a thing of the moment.

When we abandon our gods, we cease to be human.

The gulf between liberals and conservatives is not as vast as the gulf between the people and their leaders. But our leaders do everything in their power to keep us focused on the former rather than the latter.

The essential knowledge of the virtues civilization needs is embedded in the great religions. I cannot think of another institution they inhabit.

Once art served to educate and edify, now it distracts and amuses.

We used to base our hopes in the idea that tomorrow would be the same as today. Now our hope lies in a future radically transformed from what we have. We have switched from relying on the natural world to relying on technology. We base our hopes on our ability to game the system.

Sometimes you cannot trust the goodness in another until you can see it in yourself.

There are books that contain within them more life than many who draw breath, ideas and words that are worth living for and dying for.

The problem is not that the right path is seldom known, it is that it appears to be the more imposing path to take. But in reality, while it starts out through brambles and rough road, it is in the end the straighter one.

Art helps you connect to the world, not escape from it. That is the difference between art and entertainment.

We live in a world of distractions, and distractions--by definition--are never important. Nobody has ever been distracted from a video game by a novel or a philosophical treatise.

They call them living rooms but they are not, they are shrines to television. In them, no living occurs, merely passive viewing.

Though there are advantages to it, never allow yourself to become too practical. It is a short step from practical to cynical.

My doctor just diagnosed me with attention deficit oh, look, a clicky pen.

All religions have begun as a movement to counteract previous religions.

Christianity was founded on faith, hope, and love, not on a book.

People are always being forced into choosing either A or B. Just remember that there’s always at least a third option. That is what makes humans better than computers.

The larger world is mostly built by little men with little minds who have little idea of what it is they have helped form.

A society that spends its wealth on machines that can read genes cares no more about morality than one that spends its wealth on churches cares about science.

The movies and books I enjoyed as a child usually had villains that were sympathetic and were simply good people twisted by misfortune. Now it seems rare to find a story where even the hero is very sympathetic.

Thoughts of the Day (Random Thoughts Part 4)

Thoughts I scribbled down while at work today. Not a full blog, but I thought I'd share what I do at work. Besides work, I mean.

Even our sense of smell is better equipped to judge the outside world than our intellect, but the intellect is better at convincing us it is right. Think about it, if something does not seem right but our mind cannot find a reason against it, we say that “something smells rotten” or “it doesn’t pass the smell test. For one day, abandon reason for scent. Follow your nose and see if it does not make you happier.

Simplistic ideas are the weapons with which the thoughtful are clubbed.

I often hear people ponder about humankind, what is so unique about us that we have come to dominate the planet over all God’s other creatures. What vanity. It is like Babylon pondering what made their civilization superior to all others, or a child contemplating how he got to be king of the hill. It is a thing of the moment.

When we abandon our gods, we cease to be human.

The gulf between liberals and conservatives is not as vast as the gulf between the people and their leaders. But our leaders do everything in their power to keep us focused on the former rather than the latter.

The essential knowledge of the virtues civilization needs is embedded in the great religions. I cannot think of another institution they inhabit.

Random Thoughts Part 3

Facts, like living things, have a value in and of themselves and demand respect. People who use them for their own ends and dismiss them when they are no longer of use will likely treat people in the same manner.

They say it is not the destination but the journey. And yet we struggle through traffic to wait in lines at the airport, only to go through demeaning searches and then be shoved into undersized seats. We have compromised too much, and so are unable to enjoy whatever destination it is we seek.

This is the sum total of the knowledge I have obtained in my thirty years of work experience: The ranting of an idiot, overheard by an intern and reported to his superior, will always spell trouble for the honest worker.

Only the very stupid are ever certain of anything.

Most animals sleep in a hole in the ground or hanging from a tree. Man alone has made for himself an elaborate resting place. And yet he is the only one to have developed the alarm clock to rouse himself from it, the only species to spend sixteen or more hours of each day away from it.

In the same way that youth is wasted on the young, retirement is wasted on the old. We should not grow old but young, to gradually increase into a naïve idealism rather than calcify into cynicism and disillusionment, to end our lives in the womb rather than the tomb. Our eyesight slowly growing keener, our skin becoming more sensitive, our appetite increasing as we rush to feel experience, keen in the knowledge that we truly must seize the day.

The world belongs to those with a single idea who are able to repeat it unendingly. You may charitably call them single-minded, but they are more often simple minded.

Where does alienation most manifest itself in our society? Whenever science, government, or business develops a really bad idea and we just shrug and say: “That is progress. It is unavoidable.”

Man has always sought to be a part of something larger and so has tried to change himself in order to fit that larger thing. What he seldom realizes is that he is a part of all that is merely by being uncompromisingly himself.

It takes a brave man to go to war, but it takes a nation of cowards to send him.

We tend to want to remake the world in our own image which why it is best to seek our own happiness. The best gift we can give others is to be happy.

The big events of our youth have profound influences on the rest of our lives. Similarly, the earliest events of our history (e.g. Troy or the American Revolution) play a major role in our society.

We build elaborate theories on a single narrow idea, like a pyramid balanced on a tin can.

In a sick society, no institution is untouched. No psychiatrist can diagnose the disease without being disbarred, no politician can point to the truth without being shouted down or gunned down. The poet, musician, filmmaker, or artist who attempts to define the problem will be ignored, left without a source of income or a way to have his work reach the masses.

Science is the process of obscuring the marvelous with explanations.

The mind can no more understand the heart than science can ever understand nature.

Stupid is never quiet. It is never modest, nor patient.

It is a fine distinction between permitting and promoting.

There is a third choice besides being busy and killing time, something profound.

No one has ever been paid to speak the truth. True, some people who speak the truth can wrangle out a living by doing so amusingly, but the real money is to be found in making lies sound good.

If you’re looking for the road to success, you only have to look behind the stack of excuses.

A child needs a parent or role model to believe in him, but to become a man he must learn to believe in himself.