Duality

Humans by nature have a natural will to create order, it is what we strive to achieve, but once order has been created then we cannot help but be bored by that, thus creating chaos in the process. Keep in mind that no such thing as simulated chaos exists. Simulated chaos is real chaos. No distinguishable difference other than our clouded perception. The issue with order is that we have a will to eliminate chaos, but once chaos has been eliminated, we continue with that mission. We become fanatical about it. Fanatics can never be trusted for all must be in balance. Would this not include chaos and order is well? We must then strive for a state of balance between the chaos and order, for everything must be in balance. This is the only logical explanation for the matter. Too much order, and the chaos seeps out of our thoughts into our reality, as shown by our world of today. Too much chaos, and we have the natural will to order that many of us feel when in a chaotic environment. As with all else we have, these two things must be kept in balance. Civilization has done its duty in creating order, but it has gone overboard in doing so causing such things as crime, etc. The underlying chaos that results from our idealist situation is a substitute for the chaos we require to have balance. However, due to our view that Utopia would be nothing but order, we punish those who feel the imbalance in our society and wish to rectify this thing manually. The reality of the matter is that in a true utopia would have its share of chaos and order functioning smoothly together. 

Identity

It seems to me that perhaps it is just something with my age demographic, but I have found it to be that people have become very identity-oriented. Again, maybe I'm just analyzing my age range more than the zeitgeist, but either way it seems to be true. People don't really know who they are so they pick something they would like to be and run with it. I feel like a lot of people really just can't stand the idea of not identifying with external things. We like trying to relate to others by finding things in common with them, like religion, fanbases, or jobs. But I am not a doctor. I work as a doctor. But a doctor is not who I am. (My profession is not a doctor, just to avoid confusion!) I AM a brony. It isn't that I like a TV show. No. I identify with that thing. Same with regard to pretty much everything! But how healthy is it for us on the inside to relate to things and to claim to be things when they aren't really who we are? Personality can be manipulated, yes, but I think that is something far closer to who we are than the labeling the things we spend our time doing and putting ourselves under that label. I suspect it's largely because so many people feel lost in life and to try to give them something familiar they put an anchor down. Often times many anchors, in fact. But when we lay down an anchor, we confuse the ship itself for the anchor. Shall I continue with this analogy? Regardless, people do so much to relate their internal self with their external self. This isn't inherently bad. A metaphor is the relating of one thing to another and I believe that it is something hugely helpful in getting others to understand what someone means by something. However, in the process of creating these relations, I feel like we lose sight of which part is real. Not to get too preachy, (though that's what this whole blog is really, isn't it?) but I would say consider who you are internally and externally and make sure you know which part is really you and which part is what you are relating to.

So please, have a relatively nice day, and perhaps a delightful December holiday providing you celebrate one, and assuming I do not post here between now and your December holiday.

Equality - Part 2

So, continuing from where we left off, religion/anti-religion is ridiculous. I think I know what's happening. Keep in mind this is only talking about culture in America.

So, we've got different groups of people. Sure. Some people in history have had preferential treatment. For the most part, let's simplify it and say, white, male, straight, landowners. Yes. It is true. Sexism, racism, and homophobia have existed throughout history and persist today.

The problem I see is in the people "fighting for equality." Why? It's because they aren't. Look on Tumblr. The feminists are so wound up about "equality," that they think women should have the preferential treatment. You know how I can tell? I reverse the genders and see if I would be unhappy with x, y, and z. And often times, it doesn't bother me one bit with the things they complain about. Same can be applied with all other 'groupings' of people.

Equality means nobody gets preferential treatment. It means that a woman and a man working the same position of the same job come home with the same pay check. It doesn't mean that there should be better education opportunities for girls in the fields of math and science because the majority of elementary school teachers give favoring to boys in those fields. By giving girls opportunities for education that boys don't get, you are being sexist. Technically speaking. You know how to get rid of the problem with boys getting preferential treatment in math/science? You tell the teachers that nobody gets treatment. You tell them that little Sally can answer that question as well as Joey. Equality means NO preferential treatment.

Keep in mind that this can be applied to anything, not just genders. I think it's an easy example to pick on feminism though.

Also, I'm not entirely sure if equality in all fields is the right thing. Now, bear with me here. I'm trying to be reasonable. I'm not saying segregation and whatever else for all differences. But let's be honest with ourselves. The difference between ethnicity is skin color and some other things such as height or whatever. The difference between sexual preference is pretty minor. Honestly I see it as one of those things that even if you think being gay is "icky" or whatever, it's none of your business. You don't have the right to decide who a person likes. But anyway, I'm going off on a tangent.

For example, let's look at education.

If we attempted to give everyone the same education, things would suck. In fact, to an extent we do try that, and things do suck. Education needs to discriminate some. A person with an IQ of 55 isn't going to learn at the same pace as a person with an IQ of 145, ordinarily. (Now, I personally think IQ is a bad measure of "intelligence," but that's for another time.) Standardizing education is the wrong way to go about things. People have different learning styles, techniques, and speeds. Trying to standardize it and give everyone equal education means not everyone is going to learn what they need. Let's look at IQ and pretend it's the only thing that affects ability to learn. By standardizing everything to death like the school system has done, it's probably only going to be useful for people within one standard deviation. That's 68% of the population. Oh nice, you got that many people educated, good for you. No. 32% of the population aren't being educated properly. That isn't good. There needs to be some discrimination, to make sure that 100% of people learn what they need to learn.

Alright, you see an example there. Hopefully you see why education is bad at the moment. Now, on to the main topic. Keep in mind that this is just me thinking out loud... Or putting my thoughts onto paper... Or something like that.

Notice that I didn't mention gender, which is the main thing I've talking about here. It's because I really don't know what would be best. And it isn't even I don't know. Often when I start writing something down, I've got an idea of what I want to say and I can figure the kinks out on the spot. But with gender... I really haven't got a clue. The fact that genders and things associated with genders have been so segregated for so long makes me wonder what it would be like if there was equality from society. In elementary, would the children still divide up into groups of boys and girls? Would there be as many male and female scientists, athletes, artist, musicians, stay-at-home parents? I can't answer that. I don't know if anybody can. It's wholly possible for there to be some talents that one gender is better at over the other. Naturally speaking, women do tend to have an attention for details that men don't have. Does this, along with some other traits that tend to be far more present in just one gender, mean that having some discrimination and favoring would actually be better? Again, I really can't answer that. I consider myself a pretty smart cookie when it comes to thinking about these kinds of things. So when I'm this stumped, it makes me question if anybody has the "right answer" for this.

The reason I'm saying this is part two, religion being part one, is because they're on similar-ish topics. The first was about people going overboard with religion/anti-religion, and how there's a difference between believing in something and pushing those beliefs onto others. This two-parter is about how people push their beliefs onto others, and how those beliefs are often flawed. It isn't relevant whether or not the original is worse than the new world system, both are flawed. Both are bad. If we're playing the "lesser of two evils," I could name a few dozen world possibilities where a select group of the population is singled out and discriminated against that benefits the rest of humanity that could be calculated as the "lesser of two evils" as well, but people wouldn't like that.

So I suppose we should discriminate in what should be equal (ha ha). Some things I think we can conclude are obviously better with some different treatment, and other things are better when all is equal. Keep in mind that these different modes of education I mentioned aren't 'inferior', simply different. I never intended to imply that a person with 55 IQ is 'inferior' in academics to someone with 145 IQ. It is probably true that they won't learn as much, but that doesn't make them inferior. Simply different. And that is what discrimination should do. It should let people be different, but still equal. Nobody superior or inferior.

Think different.

Have an incredibly, or actually, credibly wonderful day.

Religion - Part One

Don't force your beliefs onto others.

If this is obvious to you, then you're either amazingly intelligent or fooling yourself. No, I mean really, don't force your beliefs onto others! Except this one in my case. Though this isn't a belief really, it's more a general sense of how not to be an anus. And yet, so many people do it! It isn't just religious folk either though. No no no! Let me give you an idea of what is forcing your beliefs on others and what isn't.

You're putting down your information on Facebook and you say you're Catholic. This is not forcing your beliefs on others.

You tell people that they are going to spend an eternity in torture for not believing what you do. This is forcing your beliefs on others.

You are conversing with someone about religion and you mention that you are Muslim. This is not forcing your beliefs on others.

You tell other people that their beliefs are inferior to yours. This isn't exactly forcing your beliefs onto others, but it's still being an anus. So don't do it.

You see someone else being obnoxiously preachy and you ask them, "Have you ever tried seeing things from the opposing viewpoint?" This isn't forcing your beliefs on others.

You inquire if someone approves of rape and murder because contextually their religion says it is alright. This wouldn't fit into forcing your beliefs on others, but it's still attempting to screw with their beliefs. So don't do it.

Basically, live and let be. If you stay chill with what I believe, I'll stay chill with what you believe.


Thank you for reading this post, and have a great day.


(Note: _O will be taking over blog posts from now on. The posts should be in a similar style to mine, so don't worry. :)

Serial Experiments Lain

This show is amazing. It's Japanese Anime from 1998 made with a low budget, but it is one of the most philosophical things I've ever watched. Despite the low budget, I quite like the animation style. The pacing feels slow throughout the first 5 or so episodes, but a lot happens. Throughout the 13 episodes, there is so much symbolism to be found. Like, symbolism city. If I had a college-level philosophy course, the final would be finding symbolism and meaning in this show and explaining the concepts it explores.

Lain herself. The original image was done by another source, but I traced & recolored the image, along with changing some details. Made in ProCreate. (iPad App)

Thank you for reading, and have a spectacular day.

New Starcraft Maps

When I'm feeling creative & writing/drawing won't do it, I'll often build stuff in Minecraft or make some Starcraft maps. Have a few new Starcraft maps.

Labyrinthine

Diabolical Cove

Overdramatic & Romanticized

I find myself slightly annoyed by this time period. Everything is so vastly romanticized and dramatized. Look at the media. Everything is dramatizing what really happens. The news - everywhere - is making a small deal into a huge catastrophe. The exaggeration of events today goes so far, and it bothers me. Can I listen to one song that isn't so dramatic? I'm not saying that there should be no embellishments of a story or whatnot, but chill out with it. I try to keep these blog posts casual, like talking to a colleague over a cup of tea at a café. In fact, that'd be my preferred method of hearing someone discuss change. Not some gigantic video with double-meaning rhymes about the internet's affect on an individual. Just a casual conversation on the issue on the internet, please.

While on the one hand, romanticism is currently better for persuasion since humans today respond heavily to emotional stuff, it is tiresome and boring. Again, exaggeration in moderation can be great, but it is going so far overboard today. There's a line between telling a probably-embellished story and an over-the-top parable. Stop crossing it. Look at just about any magazine you'll see at a store. Over-the-top romanticized depictions of people that are unrealistically idealized and are frankly stupid to look at. I'm not saying that a little bit of retouching here and there doesn't improve the looks of something, but there is a huge different between removing a zit on somebody's nose and creating an impossibly idealized image of a human being. Can we stick to just Photoshopping a zit out without creating a hopeless pile of idealization that frankly looks like one massive anus?

Thank you, and have an alright-but-not-hopelessly-idealized day.

Mono No Aware

A forlorn realization of the transience of all things. No matter what you accomplish, it will all turn to dust. Nothing more than a speck on a grain of sand, in the infinite desert of the universe. What is the purpose of life? There is none. You can create one, but life doesn't care. It doesn't matter to it whether or not you create your purpose. But it does matter to you. Without your purpose you have nothing to do anything for. Well, in a world where there is absolutely nothing I can do to impact it, I might as well do my best to enjoy life to the fullest. No matter how difficult that may be. I, too, see my fading away. It is terrifying. It cannot be stopped. When there is nothing you can do to prevent something, your best option is to embrace it.

Have a day.

Patterns

Had some free time in my Graphic Design class, and I do enjoy rectangles. So this happened. Also, have some robots:

 

Doodles

Darklight High Mage - Made from scratch in ProCreate

David, the insane doll - Born 1796, still alive today. - Drawn by hand, background quickly photoshopped in.

Bredford The Blob - Made in Illustrator

Burnt Toast

Inside joke title that nobody would get since the inside joke is really just inside my head... However, let's continue with this post!

One of the notable things about the 21st century Zeitgeist that I have observed is the lacking of comprehension of something I believe would be obvious to anybody not from our time period. Just because a stereotype or trope is aware of the fact that it is a stereotype does not make it no longer a stereotype. For example, just because an American is fat and aware that it is stereotypical for Americans to be fat, does not make them any less fat. Before you get your panties in a wad, this was just an example. I am not saying that all Americans are fat.

The 21st century is going to have a lot of change, for a multitude of reasons that I may discuss at a later date. However, I will just state the what for now without delving into the why. Keep it mind that - in my opinion at least, which I respect very highly - any sense of nostalgia for the past is generally dismissible. While a select few things about the past may have been slightly better than the present, if the past was entirely better than the present then it would be the present, and not the past. While individual exceptions to the statement I am leading up to exist, generally I suspect that what I'm about to say is correct. As time passes, we are going to make progress. Change is beneficial. Change is inevitable. All we can do is decide whether or not to accept it. I believe something to this extent was said in God Emperor of Dune. (Finished reading said book recently! Amazing! The philosophical concepts were right on my level!) Cultural optimism is something I suspect we are lacking in. Though I suppose that by making this post I am succumbing to the cultural pessimism.
 

A general theme you might be seeing about this post is what I see in our current Zeitgeist and how to change it for the better more thoroughly. That is correct.

Sorry, I had no new artwork and I didn't want to reuse something old, so have this ridiculous drawing.

Cynicism and sarcasm are two big words that describe conversations and thoughts of people today. While not objectively bad, we have become so obsessed with our cynical viewpoint that we have become nearly incapable of processing sincerity. A lack of sincerity in a thing can bring distrust. Distrust may result in mutual lies and deception. However, I believe that sincerity will prevail in spite of this. As for sarcasm, I see it as a verbal act of cynicism.

As you may be able to see, I have undergone significant philosophical growth over the course of the school year. I am almost hesitant to even call it philosophy, for I see it as a love of thinking, rather than a love of knowledge. And no, modesty is not my strong suit. As annoying as it may be to see someone so self-praising, I see anything else as missing the truth. However, if this 'modesty' thing you speak of is refraining from straight-out saying, "I'm amazing" to the masses, I would only do such a thing on the internet.