World views
Societies deadly dosage
I think as humans in today’s society our priorities are ever-changing. We are so easily consumed with the modern world, the latest technology, the gripping but equally shallow and vacuous reality shows that they can often become a priority in our lives whether we realise it or not. By following these ‘celebrities’ on social media sites, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook they become an integral part of the fabric of our self-created day to day network of information. They stream into our lives after one tap on the ‘follow’ bottom and we consume it abominably from then on.
It’s easy though. And nice. I really like the car that Kylie Jenner drives, and the scandal of her engagement with Tyga? Tell me more! Oooh the cast of the only way is Essex are in Vegas, I really want to go there. I wonder how much they earn. Hmm. Flick, tap, scroll… Sigh. Ok we’re all guilty of doing this, and, we’re all guilty of convincing ourselves that we aren’t like the general public and that our infatuation is ironic not obsessive. That deep down we know that there’s a bigger picture and that leaving that knowledge deeply rooted but not letting it surface is somehow acceptable and thus justifies our intrigue in keeping up with the Kardashians.
The day that Kylie Jenner turned 18 was the day that Malala Yousafzia (an 18 year old Pakistani activist for female education) opened a school for Syrian refugee girls. This wasn’t covered by the media, it wasn’t streamed into our social media and so it flew right above our heads without a second glance. Even if it were to be covered and displayed to us it isn’t glitzy enough, not lavish enough to entice a generation of people who are intrigued by context not content.
Our generation is in a state of ludicrous levels of laziness. There is a mind warp pandemic and our brains are morbidly obese with the rubbish we are feeding them. The ‘man’, ‘It’ the ‘Media’ may be to blame for stacking a table full to the brim with unhealthy, fast, easy food but we are ready and waiting with our spoons to scoop up anything new added to the table. We leave the fruit of the media alone to disintegrate and rot, we are the selfish and simple end stage of the conveyer belt of rubbish that is society.
It shouldn’t be normal to partake in this system. It shouldn’t be normal to turn a blind eye to those most in need. It shouldn’t be normal to numb our hearts to the cries of the desperate. But we do. We obnoxiously avoid responsibility. The media has created a vast sphere that stretches across nations, continents, countries it scopes to the richest and to the poorest. But this has not lead to a community that is tightly bonded it has led to dispersion of responsibility to nothing more than a speck per person. Dispersion of responsibility combined with a much easier alternative than dealing with the problem is the deadly dosage we have been prescribed. We’ve got to use our specks of responsibility and make a storm with them.
The difference between happiness and pleasure
When you don’t think about, pleasure and happiness seem like the same thing, when you do think about it, their differences become glaringly apparent. There are a few major differences between the very essence of each one. Happiness is a mood, a state of mind that stretches across life, and enriches our experiences, it penetrates into everything and thus I can have a bad day, but still be happy. Pleasure comes in bursts, on it’s own it holds no worth, it relies on the richness of a premeditated level of happiness to work. Happiness is self authenticating, pleasure is not. Happiness can cause pleasure, pleasure cannot cause happiness. I get pleasure from seeing someone smile because I’m happy, I get no pleasure from the very same thing, because I’m depressed.
But can we be happy, without pleasure? It almost seems as though we need events that atleast have the potential of being deemed pleasurable in order to sustain a level of happiness. Although happiness is a state of mind, a cloud of glowering enlightenment, it is not inaccessible by emotions like pleasure. But if pleasure can’t cause happiness how can it sustain it? Maybe because pleasure isn’t a ‘thing’ in itself but is moreover an illusion that happiness has cast. So as you would say ‘money makes money’ it would seem ‘happiness makes happiness’. And so although happiness isn’t permanent, although admittedly stable, it can be slipped in and out of. When we slip out of our happiness less pleasurable illusions are cast, less pleasurable illusions equals less genuine happiness and the spiral continues.
Do serial killers deserve punishment?
In a previous post I’ve discussed my view on personhood, I believe we’re purely a bundle of biology (not that that’s a bad thing..) I also believe in determinism, a combination that gives my life very little meaning or hope, but anyway.
Today I watched a documentary on the serial killer Arthur shawcross and not only did it illuminate the absence of any remorse, empathy or guilt Arthur lacked but suggested that he had an ‘abnormality’ in the brain, common in serial killers, or even killers for that matter. Identifying this it was argued that Arthur couldn’t be held responsible because he couldn’t help act in the way he did due to his innate programming, he didn’t chose to have this biological abnormality. Well of course he didn’t because he IS this biological abnormality and therefor he is fully to blame.
But similarly then, caring people, charitable people, loving people, cannot be praised for good deeds because they are programmed that way inclined. I couldn’t commit a murder, so by not I’m no better than Arthur why should I be praised for something I cannot possibly be do anyway?
Ok ok ok contradictions all over the place! I’m saying we are not responsible for anything we do, and therefore punishment and praise are irrelevant.. But really we are fully responsible for everything we do because what we are IS what we do. For example I am a person who happens to obtain a sympathetic mind, Arthur is a person who happens to contain an abnormality in the brain. He is the abnormality and I am the caring brain. There is no ‘me’ or ‘him’ seperate to the entities within my brain. I and my brain, and all contained within my brain are not distinguishable. All are one. So yes, I can fully blaim Arthur.
The messed up game of life
As a quick starting point to this post, I feel it necessary to say that all previous posts have been atleast composed, if not posted within the early hours of the morning/late hours of night. For some reason nightfall seems to provoke spontaneous and somewhat annoying amounts of thoughts. I mean I can’t sleep so let’s go onto wordpress. The site I’ve abandoned.
As an atheist I’m often asked and infact often question the point of anything. I mean I don’t really think there is a point or a purpose to life and I’m ok with accepting that but I’m not sure whether I should be trying to create one, and if I should, what I should create it to be. Should it be to make an impact in the world? Maybe create a charity, or get involved with politics or perhaps to be as successful as I can, selfishly and just make money, live for me and no one else. Or should I try and stack up some experiences maybe go travelling, maybe challenge myself with a skydive? I mean all of these have benefits but it’s the sort of position I feel in when I have too many tests or something coming up and there’s so much to do that I decide to do nothing.. And if this happens with my life, I’m in trouble.
And then I realised that the very worst one I could pick would be the selfish one, obviously. But that actually that’s the one almost everyone does pick. I mean this earth is so unjust, people are flying around the world first class, buying designer handbags, eating in fancy restaurants, buying new phones for a slightly more pixelated camera and meanwhile there’s children starving all over the world, there are enough resources for everyone, anyone flying first class should feel seriously guilty, I mean you’re selfish, selfish as fuck. Because what we’re doing is accepting this SYSTEM were accepting that if it’s not us it’s ok. We can voluntarily make ourselves blind to it, close off the starvation because it isn’t in our little bubble, that new iPhones important to me, in my bubble, so I’ll get it, what difference does it make? But everyone thinks like this. And it’s seen as ok to think like this, it isn’t ok. This whole world is fucked up. People are dying now, right now. And the naivity of charity’s. I know they help, but as a concept they barely scratch the surface of the problem, charities aren’t using money efficiently because giving more money into a corrupt system won’t help in the long run. We need to change to system.
Why celebrate the amount of money we raise annually for children in need? So we can feel good about texting the word ‘help’ to 70005 so celebrities living in mansions can hike up a mountain before giving themselves a pat on the back and recovering back home to their mansion. There’s no point climbing that mountain, if you really cared, you’d downgrade your house, you wouldn’t expect average working class people to sponsor you, I mean the cheek. It’s ludicrous. We’re all playing this game. We say we want world starvation to end but if everyone who’s said that ment it, it would have ended. It’s unbelievable that we can live with ourselves. But we do, because ‘that’s life’. It’s just ‘life’ that some people get the short straw. And if you’ve not got that straw you bloody well lather it up in the long straw. But off course you still say you care. Oh off course, because publicly denying to care would lead to uproar, because it wouldn’t abide by the rules of the game. So long as everyone keeps lying, it’ll be ok. So long as everyone keeps ignoring the problems, they aren’t there.
Catching smoke. 