Archive for September, 2003
30 Sep, 2003
Capitalism in the Long Run
Capitalism grows through consumerism.
To make the economy grow, we have to buy, and buy — to put money back into the economy.
To buy and buy, businesses have to make or create more and more.
From where do they get the raw materials to make what they make?
From nature. Or through chemical processess that kill nature. Landfills are filling up too quickly. Incineration plants throw waste into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are depleting. We clear forests for small houses, big houses, factories, sky-scrapers or any other architectural miracle we can think of.
Capitalism — let the market decide. We are free now, free to make decisions — and yet, we as laymen, are we really the best people to make decisions? How many times have I seen consumers conned by psychological advertising. They buy things not because they need it, not because it’ll be useful, but because they think it’ll be that. They don’t do research, they don’t think about what they need — but they’re free to make decisions.
Is capitalism really good in the long run?
For those who want to know more about capitalism: Capitalism.org. It’s a general knowledge thing, for everyone who’s even just vaguely interested in politics and economic systems.
You decide if it’s for you. I find it doesn’t fit in on my own philosophy on life. I find that capitalism seems to give the illusion of freedom while really taking it away –or at least how it’s implemented currently. It sure seems a lot like everyman for himself.
You shoud also check out the essay discussing the having mode vs the being mode.
24 Sep, 2003
An Eye For an Eye
Marteng and Jenning were great friends, until one fateful day.
That fateful day was the day of their honeymoon. It happened in the morning after, when both were exhausted. First, to the horror of most females, Marteng left the toilet seat up! Not only that, he even splattered a little bit of pee on the floor.
When Jenning went into the toilet she stepped on the pee. She was annoyed, but shrugged it off. Then, sleepily, she sat on the water closet with the toilet seat up! And as you can expect, things got messy.
Jenning stormed out of the toilet and confronted him. She took up a pair of scissors and poked his eye, immediately blinding him. He then took the scissors from her, and poked her eye, blinding her too.
Suddenly, she exploded! Boom!!!! — an extraordinarily bright light illuminated from her, so powerful that it could even go through walls! The light just went on and on, covering the whole earth. The bright light, quite naturally, blinded the whole world.
Moral of the story: An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind — Gandhi
23 Sep, 2003
Who Am I?
Personality Tests
| The Big Five Personality Test |
| Extroverted | |||||||||| | 38% |
| Introverted | |||||||||||||||| | 62% |
| Friendly | |||||||||||||||| | 68% |
| Aggressive | |||||||||| | 32% |
| Orderly | |||||||||||| | 46% |
| Disorderly | |||||||||||||| | 54% |
| Relaxed | |||||||||| | 34% |
| Emotional | |||||||||||||||| | 66% |
| Intellectual | |||||||||||||||||| | 78% |
| Practical | |||||| | 22% |
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INTJ - “Scientist”. Most self-confident and pragmatic of all the types. Decisions come very easily. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 1% of the total population.
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INFP - “Questor”. High capacity for caring. Calm and pleasant face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 1% of the total population.
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Two of the same Myer-Briggs Test?
I know I’m an INFJ, so when I didn’t get INFJ the first time, I took it again; I re-did the test this time choosing alternative answers that I felt could go either way when I took it first time. Still no INFJ, but it’s getting late, and I have one more test to go, the Enneagram, which will be up shortly.
There you go. That’s me in a nutshell. God, I love personality tests.
23 Sep, 2003
Different Is Good
It’s quite a well known fact that birds of a feather flock together — we tend to seek out people who are like us. But, question is, how much like us?
I’ve had this problem with people like me. I don’t know if it’s a genetics, culture or environment thing, but I tend to like being different. And when somebody I know turns out to be too much like me, I shy away from that person.
It’s like, “hey, don’t compete with me for my niche personality man. Don’t be so much like me, okay?”
I have many friends who are similar, and then there are people I know who are too similar. I think the main reason I hate people who are too-like-me is this: I can practically read their thoughts, I know their motives, I know what they want — because their thoughts will be very similar (if not identical) to mine.
And if their thoughts are similar to mine — that’d be bad.
I’m scheming and manipulative, though I keep it hidden under a very innocent guise. And as such, I can predict that they’ll be similarly manipulative too. Only thing is, it’s not only I who’ll know that they are sheming and manipulative; they too will know that I am as well.
I think that perhaps that’s why best friends and/or lovers tend to have a very loving relationship that can so easily go wrong. They know each other so well because often they’re so similar (and also because they are often together), that when their motives clash, they’ll know exactly what buttons to push to manipulate or to set each other off on a rage.
That, is why I don’t like people too much like me — only those that I know have different needs do I like. This world’s a competitive place, that’s the way it is.
21 Sep, 2003
Great Expectations, Great Disappointments
I would like to share with everyone one of my favourite quotations. This has been on my wall for the longest time — I used to look at it everyday, as a reminder that expectations can destroy one’s life as much as a lack of it. I have it memorised, and it sounds so good to me that I sometimes say it out loud without noticing it, even while riding on public transportation.
The following quote was taken from The Great Gatsby, by F.Scott Fitzgerald:
As I went over to say goodbye I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams — not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.
Then of course, there’s Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a story that too emphasizes on the disappointment that comes after great expectations. Expectations that have gotten out of hand, will lead to absolute disappointment, no matter what happens in the end, for nothing, nothing, can satisfy it — they are, but illusions — chase your own shadow, you will find that eventually catching up with it is just an illusion, though it seems so plausible. (perhaps a meaningful life is like that too? — just an illusion?)
No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man stores up in his ghostly heart. That, for one, is a reason why I believe I may remain a bachelor my whole life — for in my mind, I have built up a certain lady so high that no reasonable conclusion might lead to any other place but disappointment. Try as I might, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to stop thinking how great she is.