the clock ticked in space. surrounded by the obsolete white bull that was now in for it because it disobeyed its master and went into that china shop. and destroyed the chinese economy.
this prehistoric rampage of the chinese economy left its worker base completely unable to cope with modern day requirements from workers. so they went to live inside the wall.
there disguised as statues of skeletons they lived through the dynasties that folowed that went from history to prehistory against the drift of time because even though the clock ticked forward, the world ticked back.
then the Mings and the Chins and the ChinChings and the Kochins all passed through decadence into primeval caveman like dwellings of amber mountains within diamond spyglasses like they were seen from afar, but amounted to nothing much save dwellings in their minds eye. all value gone. no materialism existed then.
no peace in their minds because animals do not desire peace they desire they desire they desire they desire they desire....
what do they desire?
what do they desire if not peace if not to be left alone when the hyena cries and that lonely lion walks the night during the great periods of migration east when the weather thaws and they are going back home?
when will the candle burn and finish but then, when will the darkness end afterwards? especially since we have now run out of candles and the last one now burns. and all we can do is wonder when it will finish.
will it finish will it end? and what will come of us later?
when philosophy becomes a trend, then the human race is on a rafter
floating on to land that doesn't exist and never did
not since the clock ticked
Showing posts with label human race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human race. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Creating Superman
Nietzsche by jdgomezmo
Reading the work of Friedrich Nietzsche we are welcomed into an armchair of volatility, comfortably immersed in insane thought. I think this guy invented superman, though I haven't actually followed the lore of the caped one.
Now the superman emerges from what was Nietzsche’s greatest work. Thus spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche, already established as a profound German philosopher, racked by illness, almost on the verge of death, speaks his last will and prepares to succumb. He is in his mid thirties. But by a miraculous as-luck-would-have-it stroke of fate, he is cured and then is overcome with the 'joys' of life. This sadly, does not last and in a few more years he is up in the Alps somewhere, in solitude, contemplating (you may be tempted to ask what exactly he was 'contemplating', I’m getting there, I’m getting there).
He writes,
I sat there waiting - waiting for nothing
Enjoying beyond good and evil now
The light, now the shade; there was only
The day, the lake, the noon, time without end.
Then my friend, suddenly one became two,
And Zarathustra passed by me.
He discovers a new religion, a new philosophy; he discovers the answers to his lifelong unrest with humanity, the human condition and destiny.
And he invents Superman.
Through the words and wisdom of Zarathustra, a close parody of the Persian prophet who spawned the religion of Zoroastrianism, he extolls the virtue of what is conventionally known as 'evil'. He exposes altruism, sympathy and every other 'good' sentiment held noble by the world's religions as 'weak'. He curses them to be the cause of dragging humanity to the dredges of mediocrity, of encouraging the great to become like the insignificant and helpless; the 'herd' or the masses.
He argues that for the human race to develop there should arise from among us a class of people stronger, braver, fiercer and more violent. A class of man that lives dangerously takes risks and explores new frontiers. A people not held back by sympathy to the weak, a people who exult in the glory of war; who conquer all before them, who will set the platform for the creation of the ultimate human; the Superman.
But the natural order of things is against the creation of this Superman. Nature favours the weak. It seeks to sustain the herd. It does not encourage individual human greatness. Democracy is the bane of mankind, for it only enforces the will of the herd, the will of the masses, thus preventing the rise of an elite class of human, preventing the progress of the species to a higher level.
What he advocates is simple. It is also kinda bizarre. We are weak. There is poverty and destitution. So instead of sympathizing and languishing along with the greater part of humanity we must individually shun the weak and only associate with the powerful. Breeding must only take place with other powerful people. Love should not be allowed to result in childbirth, because love knows no rationality. Children so born out of the powerful should in turn be groomed through education and conditioning to even greater heights, thus becoming more noble than the preceding generation. The goal of Superman is a dream, a dream that should be fixed in the eyes and minds of everybody, excluding anything else.
A socially engineered path to creating an uber-human is what his religion is about. Yes he created a religion, out of thin air, the thin air of the Swiss Alps. ‘He conceived of man as something that man must surpass’ – Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy.
Nietzsche went mad in his mid forties, and died at fifty six. His work was largely disconnected and invited a lot of criticism, yet he succeeded in bringing a fresh perspective into established institutions and thought that had gone unquestioned for centuries.
And after the Superman? After the superman comes Eternal Recurrence. When everything will fall apart all over again and the whole progress of human thought will have to start once more form the primitive ages. This according to him is the ultimate and terrible truth.
Insane or what? And I ask that in all objectivity. And also, what a difficult name to spell eh..
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A higher purpose
The world is poetry it sings all around us, the nations sing to each other often in tones of utter hatred and people adopt these tones to sing these songs even louder at their homes, to their kids, talking of Irish pride and English dominance. Talking of American industry and and Indian commitment. Talking of Australian freedom and African triumph over hardship, but we, what do we talk about?
What do we tell our kids when the guns have come out and the war is on and people around us are falling and dying? What would i tell my kids if i were a father withering in fear waiting for who knows what on the northern frontier? Would i breed fear and thereby hope they stay away from all the dangerous places where i believe danger could happen? Would i breed anger and animosity in the hope that one day they will work towards taking down that nameless enemy that fate thrust upon them, they never asked for him.
They never claimed to have demanded a birthright of poverty in a war zone that would probably be the worst birthright claimed by anyone to this date unless you are born on the day of apocalypse and will take a short stock of the world and then go away forever. But then the sadness in life is in having to live it and if you were born on the day of apocalypse you would not have sadness for you would not live it.
We protect and serve the burden of life with sacrifice. We go through shit to survive but why? We may live maximum of hundred years or hundred and six like that lady in Obama’s speech of presidential acceptance. but yet what is the difference between Obama and that lady of a hundred and six years when they both will be mere corpses in the ground in few decades and few more years perhaps if they are lucky, well she may not be so lucky and Obama may yet survive a few years if he is not as idealistic as many claim him to be and if he sucks up a lot to corporate greed but i digress.
What difference does Obama bear to that baby born of wedlock discarded on the streets of Kilinochchi in the days of the roaring battles and left to struggle and fend for itself in some garbage bin in the eastern slums where Muslims Tamils and a few Sinhalese hang around at night for a little bit of kasiya and a joint if they are lucky? What difference does life bear to death in its perception they are both the same they are both meaningless and they are both insane.
We live a hundred years and then we die and it is like everything we did does not exist but even if it does what is the point of living itself don’t we wonder why do we live simply to do the things we just did? is there not a higher purpose of existence a reason behind all this i have tried to uncover it and God is why. Is there not a higher purpose you tell me why is it we are here is it why we drink day and night water for sustenance and food for the same? Is it why we breathe the air we breathe are we but a mechanical bit piece a cog in the wheel of the universe?
This ain’t absurd if you look at what science has learned on the nature of nature and the natural world. it adapts and discards as it sees fit and evolution may be a magic but it kills the ones that don’t serve it any purpose and do not help to maintain the balance of nature. man is often accused of destroying it but i say NO it is all just cause and effect and where there is cause and effect there is always a reason for which you are attached a reason beyond mere daily activities such as eating drinking working or jumping in the sack. we may live confused and think that this is what life is all about coming here and reading poetry at open mic. going there and working asses off going there studying behinds sore but NO i say there is greater purpose to life. If not greater a purpose more abstract and in touch with nature a purpose we have drifted away from as far as mere knowledge is concerned.
So we are cog in nature and we are a purpose unto ourselves that we are not aware of. It may be God it may be philosophy but can it be both is that a question to be even asking in a mixed society? So we come to war when we ask that question and we breathe clearly our purpose in this world and what we are meant to be. And it’s hard when purposes that counteract exist simultaneously and therefore battles erupt and that baby in Kilinochchi may join one day forces of some armed military. Depending on which of the joint seekers pick him up will it be the Muslim the Tamils or the Majority? and there we are lobbed down to a purpose of life never knowing which purpose is right cos if each purpose drives a person to fight the very last fight then such a purpose should have at least a trace of nobility right?
Yes it should and yes it would but do we always fight for the purpose of life? How often do we fight for money wealth land even culture and the other traps of mundane existence? So if i was a father living that life, in a war zone slum dwelling fearing for my family’s life, I’d tell my son; son, only fight for a purpose you know is right. We are Sri Lankans and that’s alright, they may be Indians and they may be Americans but this earth has no distinction except humanity and the universe has no distinction but life.
What do we tell our kids when the guns have come out and the war is on and people around us are falling and dying? What would i tell my kids if i were a father withering in fear waiting for who knows what on the northern frontier? Would i breed fear and thereby hope they stay away from all the dangerous places where i believe danger could happen? Would i breed anger and animosity in the hope that one day they will work towards taking down that nameless enemy that fate thrust upon them, they never asked for him.
They never claimed to have demanded a birthright of poverty in a war zone that would probably be the worst birthright claimed by anyone to this date unless you are born on the day of apocalypse and will take a short stock of the world and then go away forever. But then the sadness in life is in having to live it and if you were born on the day of apocalypse you would not have sadness for you would not live it.
We protect and serve the burden of life with sacrifice. We go through shit to survive but why? We may live maximum of hundred years or hundred and six like that lady in Obama’s speech of presidential acceptance. but yet what is the difference between Obama and that lady of a hundred and six years when they both will be mere corpses in the ground in few decades and few more years perhaps if they are lucky, well she may not be so lucky and Obama may yet survive a few years if he is not as idealistic as many claim him to be and if he sucks up a lot to corporate greed but i digress.
What difference does Obama bear to that baby born of wedlock discarded on the streets of Kilinochchi in the days of the roaring battles and left to struggle and fend for itself in some garbage bin in the eastern slums where Muslims Tamils and a few Sinhalese hang around at night for a little bit of kasiya and a joint if they are lucky? What difference does life bear to death in its perception they are both the same they are both meaningless and they are both insane.
We live a hundred years and then we die and it is like everything we did does not exist but even if it does what is the point of living itself don’t we wonder why do we live simply to do the things we just did? is there not a higher purpose of existence a reason behind all this i have tried to uncover it and God is why. Is there not a higher purpose you tell me why is it we are here is it why we drink day and night water for sustenance and food for the same? Is it why we breathe the air we breathe are we but a mechanical bit piece a cog in the wheel of the universe?
This ain’t absurd if you look at what science has learned on the nature of nature and the natural world. it adapts and discards as it sees fit and evolution may be a magic but it kills the ones that don’t serve it any purpose and do not help to maintain the balance of nature. man is often accused of destroying it but i say NO it is all just cause and effect and where there is cause and effect there is always a reason for which you are attached a reason beyond mere daily activities such as eating drinking working or jumping in the sack. we may live confused and think that this is what life is all about coming here and reading poetry at open mic. going there and working asses off going there studying behinds sore but NO i say there is greater purpose to life. If not greater a purpose more abstract and in touch with nature a purpose we have drifted away from as far as mere knowledge is concerned.
So we are cog in nature and we are a purpose unto ourselves that we are not aware of. It may be God it may be philosophy but can it be both is that a question to be even asking in a mixed society? So we come to war when we ask that question and we breathe clearly our purpose in this world and what we are meant to be. And it’s hard when purposes that counteract exist simultaneously and therefore battles erupt and that baby in Kilinochchi may join one day forces of some armed military. Depending on which of the joint seekers pick him up will it be the Muslim the Tamils or the Majority? and there we are lobbed down to a purpose of life never knowing which purpose is right cos if each purpose drives a person to fight the very last fight then such a purpose should have at least a trace of nobility right?
Yes it should and yes it would but do we always fight for the purpose of life? How often do we fight for money wealth land even culture and the other traps of mundane existence? So if i was a father living that life, in a war zone slum dwelling fearing for my family’s life, I’d tell my son; son, only fight for a purpose you know is right. We are Sri Lankans and that’s alright, they may be Indians and they may be Americans but this earth has no distinction except humanity and the universe has no distinction but life.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sinhalese or Sri Lankan
Sometimes, there seems to be this unspoken sense of superiority within people. Their eyes are telling you to fuck off back to your country. As a matter of fact, somebody did tell me to go back to my country and I asked him what the hell my country was, if it wasn't Sri Lanka.
He tells me to go back to Arabia, in the trading boats that my grandfathers came down in. Well, i tell him, my grandfathers may have come down from the sands of Arabia but my grandmothers were probably from around these parts.
Sinhalese blood? What blood is Sinhalese? And what is Sinhalese blood? Aren't we all Sinhalese in that case? I'm sure I’ve got some of this so called Sinhalese blood inside me.
Sometimes i laugh at those i perceive to be stupid, but i try not to because stupidity often disguises genuine ignorance. But when people say things like 'if you don’t know Sinhalese you don’t deserve to be living in this country' and 'you should go back to your country', is when i really know that here, finally! Is stupido ignoramo-ceylonis, a not-so-elusive Sri Lankan indigenous species.
And we aren't just Indians. Cos if we are Indians then where is our funny accent? (No offense to Indians, i merely jest Russell Peter-esque firmly acknowledging that Sri Lankans have their own funny accent), If we are Indians then where is our dynamic work ethic? (cos let’s face it, we are a pretty relaxed bunch, which i am not complaining about btw)
Our blood is very much unique to the world, Vijaya's posse mixed in with the indigenous people, the resulting mish mash mixed in with a host of other people, Arabs, Colonists, Tamils etc and now if you cut us up and put us through a zillion mass spectrometers you'd probably be hard pressed to find something too different. Although people of different races do look and act a bit different mainly due to cultural backgrounds, a lot have amalgamated too much for our identities to be easily guessed if we were all naked and trussed up in front of a concentration camp.
There was a discussion on one of David Blacker's posts and Acromantula casually comments (on the harassment that Tamils face at check points);
'Frankly Tamils brought this upon themselves.. (the whole racial profiling thing).. well some Tamils at least…instead of going after lost privileges since independence they should hv started integrating in to the Sri Lankan society (notice i used da word Sri Lankan)'
And as DB points out to him, what exactly IS this “Sri Lankan society”? Tamils are part of Sri Lankan society, so what do they have to integrate into? What Tamils are NOT a part of is Sinhalese society. It’s like telling an African-American to integrate into American society.
Are we a country of bigots? I am not saying that the Sinhalese in particular are bigots. Not at all. The majority populations of most countries are probably bigots, and so probably are minorities for that matter. Then is this simply a part of human nature? A result of an act of conforming to a strong identity that excludes the possibility of equality being bestowed upon somebody ‘different’ merging with the difficulties that emerge from having to live with and accept such people in mainstream society?
I say mainstream but how many of our cities and suburbs are truly cosmopolitan? An extreme case would be Kiribathgoda, where you'd be hard pressed to find a Muslim business operation due to there being a mafia like control where only 'Sinhalese' owned businesses are allowed.
That is not to say however, that there aren’t any towns where people of all races exist peacefully, in fact all (or most) the towns I’ve lived in my short life were peaceful places and I am glad to say this. But i think we have a long way to go and i think where it all needs to start is at the grassroots, we need to start educating our young.
I find that, in the case of a bigot, or a person not open to accepting a 'different' person, exposure and chances to form a bond or a friendship with a person from another race have been minimum. I went to a school where there were people from diverse backgrounds and when you're a kid you're not really aware of the concept of race so much. You play hide and seek and cricket and join the interact club and fight and scream and tussle and get punished together and see each other humiliated and share a few laughs over the years, by the time you leave school, chances of you being a bigot (even a closeted one) are remote.
That is not to say that where you school determines who you turn out to be, your whole life from your parents, family, neighbourhood and the nature of the times you live in probably play a heavy role in that. But my point is, for a country to be united, its people should genuinely accept each other, and what better way for me to accept and understand Sinhalese, Tamil or Burgher people than to have a strong friendship with one of them?
Policy should change to accommodate this. Screening of students in schools should be stopped. This de facto racial segregation sends a powerful negative signal and must be eradicated. Language policy needs to be re-looked at. There is only so much people themselves can do. The government has to look into this seriously. It has to prevent racial differences from being exploited for political gain (which has happened and is happening in abundance) and people should genuinely be allowed to integrate, and a new culture allowed to emerge.
He tells me to go back to Arabia, in the trading boats that my grandfathers came down in. Well, i tell him, my grandfathers may have come down from the sands of Arabia but my grandmothers were probably from around these parts.
Sinhalese blood? What blood is Sinhalese? And what is Sinhalese blood? Aren't we all Sinhalese in that case? I'm sure I’ve got some of this so called Sinhalese blood inside me.
Sometimes i laugh at those i perceive to be stupid, but i try not to because stupidity often disguises genuine ignorance. But when people say things like 'if you don’t know Sinhalese you don’t deserve to be living in this country' and 'you should go back to your country', is when i really know that here, finally! Is stupido ignoramo-ceylonis, a not-so-elusive Sri Lankan indigenous species.
And we aren't just Indians. Cos if we are Indians then where is our funny accent? (No offense to Indians, i merely jest Russell Peter-esque firmly acknowledging that Sri Lankans have their own funny accent), If we are Indians then where is our dynamic work ethic? (cos let’s face it, we are a pretty relaxed bunch, which i am not complaining about btw)
Our blood is very much unique to the world, Vijaya's posse mixed in with the indigenous people, the resulting mish mash mixed in with a host of other people, Arabs, Colonists, Tamils etc and now if you cut us up and put us through a zillion mass spectrometers you'd probably be hard pressed to find something too different. Although people of different races do look and act a bit different mainly due to cultural backgrounds, a lot have amalgamated too much for our identities to be easily guessed if we were all naked and trussed up in front of a concentration camp.
There was a discussion on one of David Blacker's posts and Acromantula casually comments (on the harassment that Tamils face at check points);
'Frankly Tamils brought this upon themselves.. (the whole racial profiling thing).. well some Tamils at least…instead of going after lost privileges since independence they should hv started integrating in to the Sri Lankan society (notice i used da word Sri Lankan)'
And as DB points out to him, what exactly IS this “Sri Lankan society”? Tamils are part of Sri Lankan society, so what do they have to integrate into? What Tamils are NOT a part of is Sinhalese society. It’s like telling an African-American to integrate into American society.
Are we a country of bigots? I am not saying that the Sinhalese in particular are bigots. Not at all. The majority populations of most countries are probably bigots, and so probably are minorities for that matter. Then is this simply a part of human nature? A result of an act of conforming to a strong identity that excludes the possibility of equality being bestowed upon somebody ‘different’ merging with the difficulties that emerge from having to live with and accept such people in mainstream society?
I say mainstream but how many of our cities and suburbs are truly cosmopolitan? An extreme case would be Kiribathgoda, where you'd be hard pressed to find a Muslim business operation due to there being a mafia like control where only 'Sinhalese' owned businesses are allowed.
That is not to say however, that there aren’t any towns where people of all races exist peacefully, in fact all (or most) the towns I’ve lived in my short life were peaceful places and I am glad to say this. But i think we have a long way to go and i think where it all needs to start is at the grassroots, we need to start educating our young.
I find that, in the case of a bigot, or a person not open to accepting a 'different' person, exposure and chances to form a bond or a friendship with a person from another race have been minimum. I went to a school where there were people from diverse backgrounds and when you're a kid you're not really aware of the concept of race so much. You play hide and seek and cricket and join the interact club and fight and scream and tussle and get punished together and see each other humiliated and share a few laughs over the years, by the time you leave school, chances of you being a bigot (even a closeted one) are remote.
That is not to say that where you school determines who you turn out to be, your whole life from your parents, family, neighbourhood and the nature of the times you live in probably play a heavy role in that. But my point is, for a country to be united, its people should genuinely accept each other, and what better way for me to accept and understand Sinhalese, Tamil or Burgher people than to have a strong friendship with one of them?
Policy should change to accommodate this. Screening of students in schools should be stopped. This de facto racial segregation sends a powerful negative signal and must be eradicated. Language policy needs to be re-looked at. There is only so much people themselves can do. The government has to look into this seriously. It has to prevent racial differences from being exploited for political gain (which has happened and is happening in abundance) and people should genuinely be allowed to integrate, and a new culture allowed to emerge.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Irrationalia
'Man is a rational animal’?
Whoever said that definitely has NOT driven through the traffic ridden streets of Dehiwala in the morning whilst being terribly late to work. A manic paranoia that my boss will call at any moment now to ask for that presentation I promised to polish up first thing in the morning had my earpiece firmly planted to my ear. There is a sound of someone knocking on a door. And no don’t worry it's just my sms tone. NOT a 'visitor among us from the 'other side''. And for a wonder, the usual 'news alerts' seemed to have dried up of late as well and the sms was from an actual person! Guess there are not many people dying, major disasters happening or a lot of ass kissing going on at Temple Trees. (I’m pro Mahinder, no really, I am! What? No I’m NOT crossing my fingers…)
I was having breakfast calmly at home (already 10 minutes late to work) when I got the message.
‘Boss in office’
Yelp! What the hell is he doing at work so early anyways? Goddamn. I remember a call at 8.30 last night
'You can give it to me first thing in the morning no?'
I wanted to say NO! You shmuck I… NO!
But I said yes.
And I could’ve given it really, no problem.
Except I was late.
So I pretty much drove poor old Angie like a maniac.
With ridiculously random thoughts running through my mind like,
"Why does no one ever Work on Labor Day?"
"Why am I so fucking horny lately?"
"Why are the morning jokes on TNL so dumb?"
"Why do I chill the hell out every morning taking my own cool time only to be late to work?"
"Why the hell am I working here?"
And the mood teeters on the brink of depression;
"I’m not made for conventional work"
"Don’t want to be a regular worker bee"
"I see no point in it, I’m not happy with my work".
Sure, I’m happy with my job. Now that’s a different thing. At this point in my life and times this is probably the ideal job for me. For reasons I shall allow to remain mysteriously unrevealed. I suddenly realize how much I’m riding on my dreams. And I get that feeling. You know, the one you get when an alien mother ship is about to light beam you into the bowels of its mysterious insides? Utter helplessness and loss of control.
Dreams, hopes, whizzing AC busses, waving cops, wrong side of the road, glaring drivers, hurt pedestrians (feelings feelings! not physically hurt. I usually respect pedestrians, ‘cos we’re all pedestrians at one point or the other), huffed tuk tuk drivers, busting AC that I keep having to switch on and off.
Delusional truck drivers who insist on traveling in the fast lane when it’s so fucking obvious that there are faster things like cars and push bicycles whose drivers are tearing their nerves up in impatience behind them.
The urge to stop and literally, literally beat-up the guy in the idling Camry eating a cheese sandwich slowing me down to 20kmph is overwhelmed by the urge to beat the ticking clock.
Finally the old girl and I got to work.
And now I’m chilling out writing a blog post about all this.
Did the best I could with the presentation, though my boss is the type of deranged dude who’d be perfectly happy with it one moment and then go completely berserk because the font size and background color creates sensory overload in combination with that little picture sitting on the side. Screw the actual content of the thing; leave that to the business world. Over here, we’re into politicking.
Whoever said that definitely has NOT driven through the traffic ridden streets of Dehiwala in the morning whilst being terribly late to work. A manic paranoia that my boss will call at any moment now to ask for that presentation I promised to polish up first thing in the morning had my earpiece firmly planted to my ear. There is a sound of someone knocking on a door. And no don’t worry it's just my sms tone. NOT a 'visitor among us from the 'other side''. And for a wonder, the usual 'news alerts' seemed to have dried up of late as well and the sms was from an actual person! Guess there are not many people dying, major disasters happening or a lot of ass kissing going on at Temple Trees. (I’m pro Mahinder, no really, I am! What? No I’m NOT crossing my fingers…)
I was having breakfast calmly at home (already 10 minutes late to work) when I got the message.
‘Boss in office’
Yelp! What the hell is he doing at work so early anyways? Goddamn. I remember a call at 8.30 last night
'You can give it to me first thing in the morning no?'
I wanted to say NO! You shmuck I… NO!
But I said yes.
And I could’ve given it really, no problem.
Except I was late.
So I pretty much drove poor old Angie like a maniac.
With ridiculously random thoughts running through my mind like,
"Why does no one ever Work on Labor Day?"
"Why am I so fucking horny lately?"
"Why are the morning jokes on TNL so dumb?"
"Why do I chill the hell out every morning taking my own cool time only to be late to work?"
"Why the hell am I working here?"
And the mood teeters on the brink of depression;
"I’m not made for conventional work"
"Don’t want to be a regular worker bee"
"I see no point in it, I’m not happy with my work".
Sure, I’m happy with my job. Now that’s a different thing. At this point in my life and times this is probably the ideal job for me. For reasons I shall allow to remain mysteriously unrevealed. I suddenly realize how much I’m riding on my dreams. And I get that feeling. You know, the one you get when an alien mother ship is about to light beam you into the bowels of its mysterious insides? Utter helplessness and loss of control.
Dreams, hopes, whizzing AC busses, waving cops, wrong side of the road, glaring drivers, hurt pedestrians (feelings feelings! not physically hurt. I usually respect pedestrians, ‘cos we’re all pedestrians at one point or the other), huffed tuk tuk drivers, busting AC that I keep having to switch on and off.
Delusional truck drivers who insist on traveling in the fast lane when it’s so fucking obvious that there are faster things like cars and push bicycles whose drivers are tearing their nerves up in impatience behind them.
The urge to stop and literally, literally beat-up the guy in the idling Camry eating a cheese sandwich slowing me down to 20kmph is overwhelmed by the urge to beat the ticking clock.
Finally the old girl and I got to work.
And now I’m chilling out writing a blog post about all this.
Did the best I could with the presentation, though my boss is the type of deranged dude who’d be perfectly happy with it one moment and then go completely berserk because the font size and background color creates sensory overload in combination with that little picture sitting on the side. Screw the actual content of the thing; leave that to the business world. Over here, we’re into politicking.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Apita Witharak Neethiya??
The pictures say it all. Displaying the utter chutzpah of anyone with a bit of power/authority over here.
But from a different angle; the corrupt coppers serve both sides of the table. How many of us have avoided a speeding fine or a drunk driving rap with a bribe of a few hundred bucks? I have. Several times. Read Indi's take on it here. and yet we curse them for ruining the land. Whos fault is it? the copper's? ours for our own form of encouragement? The culture and collective each-for-his-own mentality that exists? Or the freaking SYSTEM dude??!! (That is to say a generalization of what is wrong with the world in er, general).
Oh and btw, since publicizing it seems to be the trend, this is my 50th Post :)
Friday, August 1, 2008
Guys, the scum of the earth?
Reading the Messiah of Madness’s take on guys, at least her latest rant on the male species that was published on her blog (which she keeps changing the name of) a short while ago. I was a bit speechless, yet felt inclined to leave a comment to credit her masterful analysis. But I was quite literally stuck for words so all I could come up with was a quite subdued ‘erm..’
The Messiah outlines how a very good friend of hers was quite literally taken on a ride by this 22 year old ‘super-player’ who took it upon himself as a challenge to disprove her religious and conservative values and make her fall in love with him. Hmmmm.
She was of course, not trying to start an inter gender war of words or offend anyone. She made it quite clear that her statement was directed at only a certain part of the male species that acted like the afore mentioned guy and she admits as much when she says;
“ Guys are the neeking scum of the earth!!! K… not all… but most!!!”
That’s all very well. But her little post pushed my thoughts down a tunnel that I’ve been down before. So much so that I decided to sit down and write about it. All guys get a particular satisfaction when girls fall for them. It is flattering. It makes us feel good about ourselves. It gives you confidence in your battle at getting that elusive princess you have been chasing for quite a while. It tells you shortly, that you are an attractive and proud specimen of the male half of your species and that you have nothing to worry about in your ultimate quest to find a suitable mate. I suppose it is the same for girls as well.
The guy in question, at first glance, seems nothing surprising. For his kind is not rare. The kind that goes out of the way to get that attention. The kind that will do any unscrupulous thing in the book (and certain things that are not even in the book) to get a woman to sleep with him. I know few of them myself. They tend to waste an enormous amount of resources. Time, money, physical effort and tend to use all available mental capacities to accomplish it. They will go and meet their potential ‘prey’ wherever and whenever it is required. They will talk endless nonsense over the phone for long, long hours etc etc. but as far as I know, it is mostly in search of sex. But not always in a dirty way; mostly they are somewhat lost souls looking for satisfaction and fulfillment coupled with mental comfort and the sensation of being loved by a woman. Ego feeding I guess you could say.
But this guy strikes me as a bit different. The word ‘challenge’ and ‘love’ flash out at me. Apparently he wooed the Messiah’s friend as a ‘challenge’. To see if he could make her fall in love with him. He doesn’t strike me as your typical sex starved emotionally dependant individual. As a matter of fact, a part of me thinks maybe this guy actually likes her friend. Maybe one day he was walking down the road and he saw her, and he fell in love with everything that was her. Her eyes, her face, her hair, her voice, her manner, her walk, her feelings, her emotions, the very breeze that circles around her face, the very ground she steps on. Ok maybe not the ground she steps on. I have always found the whole concept of kissing the ground no matter who walked on top of it quite gross.
So maybe he considered himself such a hot shot and player and someone so special, that he couldn’t be going about falling in love with any and every single girl he meets. But he knew he had to have her. So what could he do? He couldn’t let her go. But at the same time he knew that he would not feel complete as a man if he couldn’t make her fall for him. He had to convince the world that here was man worthy of such a prize!
Or maybe the Messiah was right and he really is a creep. If that’s the case. Then he’s probably a real cold hearted sadistic pleasure seeker. A real conniving SOB, hell bent on self satisfaction and giving f*** all about other’s feelings. And we have had enough of those in the history of the human race to fill up hundreds of books.
Anyways, I hope the Messiah doesn’t mind this :). By the way, that girl can write, no matter how disillusioned she might be as to the extent of her abilities. And Lady Divine's raises a very valid point about women in her comment as well. so maybe the scum of the earth are just the scum of the earth. No gender discrimination involved? How politically correct.
The Messiah outlines how a very good friend of hers was quite literally taken on a ride by this 22 year old ‘super-player’ who took it upon himself as a challenge to disprove her religious and conservative values and make her fall in love with him. Hmmmm.
She was of course, not trying to start an inter gender war of words or offend anyone. She made it quite clear that her statement was directed at only a certain part of the male species that acted like the afore mentioned guy and she admits as much when she says;
“ Guys are the neeking scum of the earth!!! K… not all… but most!!!”
That’s all very well. But her little post pushed my thoughts down a tunnel that I’ve been down before. So much so that I decided to sit down and write about it. All guys get a particular satisfaction when girls fall for them. It is flattering. It makes us feel good about ourselves. It gives you confidence in your battle at getting that elusive princess you have been chasing for quite a while. It tells you shortly, that you are an attractive and proud specimen of the male half of your species and that you have nothing to worry about in your ultimate quest to find a suitable mate. I suppose it is the same for girls as well.
The guy in question, at first glance, seems nothing surprising. For his kind is not rare. The kind that goes out of the way to get that attention. The kind that will do any unscrupulous thing in the book (and certain things that are not even in the book) to get a woman to sleep with him. I know few of them myself. They tend to waste an enormous amount of resources. Time, money, physical effort and tend to use all available mental capacities to accomplish it. They will go and meet their potential ‘prey’ wherever and whenever it is required. They will talk endless nonsense over the phone for long, long hours etc etc. but as far as I know, it is mostly in search of sex. But not always in a dirty way; mostly they are somewhat lost souls looking for satisfaction and fulfillment coupled with mental comfort and the sensation of being loved by a woman. Ego feeding I guess you could say.
But this guy strikes me as a bit different. The word ‘challenge’ and ‘love’ flash out at me. Apparently he wooed the Messiah’s friend as a ‘challenge’. To see if he could make her fall in love with him. He doesn’t strike me as your typical sex starved emotionally dependant individual. As a matter of fact, a part of me thinks maybe this guy actually likes her friend. Maybe one day he was walking down the road and he saw her, and he fell in love with everything that was her. Her eyes, her face, her hair, her voice, her manner, her walk, her feelings, her emotions, the very breeze that circles around her face, the very ground she steps on. Ok maybe not the ground she steps on. I have always found the whole concept of kissing the ground no matter who walked on top of it quite gross.
So maybe he considered himself such a hot shot and player and someone so special, that he couldn’t be going about falling in love with any and every single girl he meets. But he knew he had to have her. So what could he do? He couldn’t let her go. But at the same time he knew that he would not feel complete as a man if he couldn’t make her fall for him. He had to convince the world that here was man worthy of such a prize!
Or maybe the Messiah was right and he really is a creep. If that’s the case. Then he’s probably a real cold hearted sadistic pleasure seeker. A real conniving SOB, hell bent on self satisfaction and giving f*** all about other’s feelings. And we have had enough of those in the history of the human race to fill up hundreds of books.
Anyways, I hope the Messiah doesn’t mind this :). By the way, that girl can write, no matter how disillusioned she might be as to the extent of her abilities. And Lady Divine's raises a very valid point about women in her comment as well. so maybe the scum of the earth are just the scum of the earth. No gender discrimination involved? How politically correct.
Monday, July 21, 2008
A somewhat murky and disconnected analysis
I have always been somewhat of an outsider when it comes to the existing social norms. My recent fully fledged excursion into the Sri Lankan blogosphere has proved to me nothing less. Kottu seems to be a melting pot of some very diverse thinkers. People who are not afraid to be radical, people who are not afraid to pose tough questions and people who are sometimes downright rude. But it’s all good; it’s all pretty refreshing after being immersed in a world of fakery and smiles, covering up stabbing of rear ends and talking behind the same. It is nice to get upfront and personal and in your face biatch! Now and then.
But in my objective look at the bloggodrome around me I have come to observe and form some early opinions of the creatures that are known as bloggers. Especially the community at Kottu. We are a homely bunch I feel. Feeding off each other’s misery, happiness, greed, ambition etc. I know in my limited time and vision I am not in a position to judge - I will do so anyway, and you will be more than welcome to correct me - but it is a community in itself. It has its mavericks, its conformists, its radicals, its geeks, jocks and so on and so forth. Some are pretentious; more than a few. I guess all human beings have a natural tendency to be pretentious. Including yours truly. I don’t know. But what is refreshing is the amount of people completely being themselves. Individuals actually putting in an effort to break their fears of losing social approval and simply lash out at the world with everything they’ve got. Revealing all, holding back nothing.
The blogger I feel, at least the one who writes bent more on a personal note; one like me for example. Is a somewhat self obsessed, somewhat gloomy character. Pondering on the aspects of life that are usually exempt from general everyday conversation, the blogger feels a need to release. And to be heard and responded to. The blogger needs to vent sometimes, he needs attention. But that is nothing abnormal, we all need attention sometimes. Sniff sniff; (.
This community, I feel, is a community of outsiders. But that is nothing abnormal, I think deep inside everyone is an outsider. Because no one is a carbon copy of everybody else. Therefore a part of you is similar while a part of you is different to the collective human psyche. So it must be the case that at some time there happens to be a person who prefers to exult in his difference to the whole, rather than in his similarity to it. Perhaps to the people in this community, or those of you who I am intrigued by; blogging is a way to revel in your outsiderness (if such a word exists).
Well to put an end to this rather gloomy post, The Whackster would like to reiterate that this was just a random rant and no empirical analyses and experiments were conducted in its production. Thoughts flew out based upon concrete observations and demanded to be documented because they were naively self-important. Any lab rats and animal testing was strictly confined to the realms of his mind and no living being was harmed in producing it. And to those of you extreme individuals whose blogs I so enjoy reading; keep writing so I can keep reading. I have hunted and failed for a method to bring this post around to a point where I could finish it off with a sly witticism perhaps, followed by an exclamation mark, but the mood will not allow it. It is pleasantly melancholy. So now, I shall stop.
But in my objective look at the bloggodrome around me I have come to observe and form some early opinions of the creatures that are known as bloggers. Especially the community at Kottu. We are a homely bunch I feel. Feeding off each other’s misery, happiness, greed, ambition etc. I know in my limited time and vision I am not in a position to judge - I will do so anyway, and you will be more than welcome to correct me - but it is a community in itself. It has its mavericks, its conformists, its radicals, its geeks, jocks and so on and so forth. Some are pretentious; more than a few. I guess all human beings have a natural tendency to be pretentious. Including yours truly. I don’t know. But what is refreshing is the amount of people completely being themselves. Individuals actually putting in an effort to break their fears of losing social approval and simply lash out at the world with everything they’ve got. Revealing all, holding back nothing.
The blogger I feel, at least the one who writes bent more on a personal note; one like me for example. Is a somewhat self obsessed, somewhat gloomy character. Pondering on the aspects of life that are usually exempt from general everyday conversation, the blogger feels a need to release. And to be heard and responded to. The blogger needs to vent sometimes, he needs attention. But that is nothing abnormal, we all need attention sometimes. Sniff sniff; (.
This community, I feel, is a community of outsiders. But that is nothing abnormal, I think deep inside everyone is an outsider. Because no one is a carbon copy of everybody else. Therefore a part of you is similar while a part of you is different to the collective human psyche. So it must be the case that at some time there happens to be a person who prefers to exult in his difference to the whole, rather than in his similarity to it. Perhaps to the people in this community, or those of you who I am intrigued by; blogging is a way to revel in your outsiderness (if such a word exists).
Well to put an end to this rather gloomy post, The Whackster would like to reiterate that this was just a random rant and no empirical analyses and experiments were conducted in its production. Thoughts flew out based upon concrete observations and demanded to be documented because they were naively self-important. Any lab rats and animal testing was strictly confined to the realms of his mind and no living being was harmed in producing it. And to those of you extreme individuals whose blogs I so enjoy reading; keep writing so I can keep reading. I have hunted and failed for a method to bring this post around to a point where I could finish it off with a sly witticism perhaps, followed by an exclamation mark, but the mood will not allow it. It is pleasantly melancholy. So now, I shall stop.
Friday, May 23, 2008
ROLLING ON
Well the world rolls on around its tiny orbit around this vast resource of energy that keeps our livelihood constant. And this sun in itself is only one sun out of millions in the little galaxy we like to call the Milky Way, which in turn is only a speck in the vast reaches of the Universe. The closest galaxy to ours, Andromeda (also known as Messier 31 or M31) is approximately 2.5 million light years away and contains, as far as we know, 1 trillion stars.Man! And these are just two, just two mind, of the billions of trillions of galaxies that possibly exist in the universe. And human understanding is nowhere close to grasping the true nature of the universe or what possibilities and perceptual incapability’s prevent us from actually seeing what’s real.
Consider a horse or cow or frog or fly. I am told that they see the world in different ways. Flies see the world as if looking at thousands of tiny TV screens looking at the same image. Now to a fly, its perceptual capabilities limit itself to a certain outlook on the world. Its intelligence and mental structure limits it to a certain understanding. It cannot comprehend the vast store of human knowledge and wisdom and indeed it is not aware of the vastness of its surroundings to the extent that we are.
But does that necessarily mean that we are perfect in perceptual ability? Can we understand everything there is to understand? Can we see everything there is to be seen and can we feel, touch, taste and hear everything there is to felt touched tasted and heard? Or are we like flies in our own kingdom, self-satisfied because we think we are constantly furthering our knowledge and experience and always figuring our better ways of doing things.
Scientists talk of the Fourth Dimension, the space-time continuum etc etc. how many of these concepts on the very edge of physics can any human being actually grasp. Indeed, even the scientists who put them forward only have a minute amount of fact to support these hypotheses. All we know is that there are a whole lot of scientifically inexplicable things happening in the world around us and these theories are our ways of attaching some kind of understanding to these phenomena so that we can continue to investigate them based on that understanding.
But what of the optimism that most humans have that eventually, given enough time and investment in the quest for more knowledge, that human beings can eventually be all-knowing? And when I say all knowing I mean All Knowing. We would be able to understand everything from the inner workings of the universe to the nature of life itself and be able to manipulate it all? We would be immortal, travel anywhere in the blink of an eye, give and take life to lesser beings. In other words, we would be God.
If you believe progress has no end then if you keep thinking ahead you will have to either reach this point of this God-complex or stop somewhere down the line. Possibly ending up in some mass disaster and a snap back to primitive times after which we would eventually find ourselves back to a state of high development before being rudely snapped back to primitivity as a result of our self destructive tendencies once again.
And the latter is not so much of a freaky theory after all. Maybe the human race has inbuilt characteristics that prevent it from ‘progress’ after going a certain distance. Think of the Babylonians, the Egyptians whose wonderful secrets disappeared along with their civilizations? What about the fabled land of Atlantis around which many stories of power and unparalleled advancement are built? Could these be traces of previous human civilizations that rose and fell with the tide of time?
One thing we do know, the powerful are always arrogant. And there is no doubt that the majority of humans think that our race has never been so advanced or educated as it is now. Well I’ll bet you anything that those ancients in Egypt thought the same. But look what happened to them. Is the same fate in store for us?
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