Paid my yearly visit to the neighbourhood temple with my dad an hour ago. My dad strictly adheres to some school of Buddhist tradition and, as such, has to usher in the lunar new year by praying.
I couldn't help but recall and contemplate Professor Margaret Chan's neat thesis on idol worship. Her argument asserts that idols are created so that people can harness the power of supernatural spirits to help people do earthly things. In order words, idols are gateways for the spiritual realm to enter ours, and do our bidding.
The legend of Nezha, as told by the Fengshen Yanyi, is significantly relevant to this idea. During the Shang Dynasty, Nezha was born in a military fortress at Chentang Pass. Nezha's mother, Lady Yin, gave birth to a ball of flesh after being pregnant with him for three years and six months. His father, Li Jing, a military commander, thought his wife had given birth to a demon and attacked the ball with his sword. The ball split open and Nezha jumped out as a fully developed boy who could speak and walk instead of an infant. He was later accepted by the immortal Taiyi Zhenren as a student.
One day, while playing near the sea, Nezha encountered Ao Bing, the third son of the East Sea Dragon King Ao Guang. Because of a dispute, Nezha killed Ao Bing. Ao Guang confronted Nezha and his family, threatening to flood Chentang Pass and report Nezha to the Jade Emperor. To save his family, Nezha flayed and disembowled himself to return his body to his parents. The Dragon Kings were moved by his filial piety and spared his family. Later, Taiyi Zhenren used lotus roots to construct a human body in Nezha's likeness, and Nezha managed to resurrect.
Knowing this, Lady Yin ordered for a statue of Nezha to be created. Through the statue and through the reverence of many people, Nezha was thus able to return to the earthly realm and help his people. The Fengshen Yanyi clearly portrays idol worship in this case.
What appears quite interesting is that, perhaps, it was already known back then that something magical happens when many people collectively believe in something. Sociologists call this "group effervescence". The spirit that is created because many people believe in something can be powerful enough to achieve great things that scattered individuals cannot, and it is possible that ancient scholars knew the power of this phenomenon and sought to express this in writing and mythology. They might even have thought that the spirit that grips and possesses a group of people through faith and belief was a supernatural being, and thus the personified portrayal of this spirit appears in ancient texts, such as the Fengshen Yanyi. Fables could have been a form of accessible knowledge to both leaders and ordinary folk.
Fast forward to centuries later, and we see how this plays out in our modern society. People pray to the God of Prosperity (Cai Shen) so that he will bring wealth to them. People give offerings to the Goddess of the Sea (Mazu) in hopes that their travels will be safe. People also idolize Confucius and often pray to him for better study performance. If the theory of idols as gateways is right, then indeed these are instances where we see statues as channels for spirits to come to us and provide divine assistance for our earthly pursuits, and we pray so as to unlock those gateways.
While this may seem specific to cultures with statue and idol worship, a common theme also finds its place among many other religions and, in fact, organizations, that have revered symbols as the 'idol' to worship and thus harness this spirit of the masses. In every following, there is a leaderly symbol or figure to be looked up to, and as long as people channel their faith and belief into this symbol or figure, their collective potential can and will be mobilized.
It could be because the natural psychology of humans makes us drawn in by abstract ideas. It is often the pursuit of abstract ideas that spurs us into action and motivates us go the extra mile. This is why working for the sake of a monthly wage can be a painful process, but when we believe, for example, that the work we put in for a company can save the lives of people in Sub-saharan Africa, we might be willing to work overtime for nothing. The moment we can connect our efforts to a relevant (and usually moral) cause, there will be sufficient justification we create for ourselves to reconcile any irrationalities in our behaviour. We would sacrifice our time, labour and well-being even against our own self-interest once the powerful connection between our existence and our purpose is made, and that purpose is often socially constructed. People are willing to give the most for ideas, which is why ideas can be both so powerful and so dangerous at the same time.
Leaders, or people who have the propensity to kickstart movements and have the capability to attract followers, have the fuel they need given this basic psychological set up of humans. As purpose can be socially constructed, a leader who has the charisma to convince people of the desirability of his or her purpose can have a following who are willing to forgo their self-interest for the collective. It has probably been this way ever since homo sapiens first discovered the advantages of banding together instead of remaining as disparate nomadic tribes, and in the process created agriculture, states, industry and other amazing large scale organizations and movements. Ideologies, religions, philosophies and causes have all managed to unlock massive human potential and will continue to do so, insofar as our human nature remains this way.
Art co-evolved alongside too, as huge cultural artefacts were constructed to symbolize, represent and motivate the movements of the day. By propelling these physically and objectively 'hollow' yet socially meaningful artefacts towards idol status, the hearts and minds of many were captured and channeled towards creating important moments in history.
Anyway while I was there I noticed a young Chinese man, probably the age of 18, praying alone by himself. Although I probably do not share his beliefs entirely, the intensity of his faith could be felt as he went from altar to altar in solemn prayer, eyes closed and on bended knee each time. It was somehow heartening to know that our faiths and traditions still carry on in their own personal and quiet little ways, without boasting fanfare and noisy proclamations. And somehow I would believe that this young man had heart and could not want anything more than goodness and well-being for the loved ones and friends around him, and perhaps for strength to overcome what is often left to uncaring luck.
Sometimes it's not so much the irrationality of the fear and insecurity that should drive how we think of religion, but the recognition that we are small pawns in the timeless cycle of life and the serenity of acknowledging something bigger than ourselves.
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Ineffable
There are so many thoughts that swirl in my head that words simply cannot contain, or express. I struggle with this everyday.
Everyone has their fears of losing memories, experiences, the moment, life. Some write every detail of their lives down religiously. Every single information. Where they were at 12:45pm, what the weather was like, what they thought they felt at that exact moment, like a smiley footnote at the bottom of a blog indicating your mood for the day. Others take pictures. Of their lunch, of the funny looking car they rode in while exploring a new city, of themselves, as if some part of themselves would tragically disappear forever. Who would know or care? It doesn't matter. The fear is there, ominous to themselves. There is a consuming obsession with preserving the moment. For what? To avoid regret, or to have a taste of immortality?
Maybe.
This brings a Chuck Palahniuk concept to mind. "We do it every day. Kill the unborn to save the elderly. ... Every time we burn a gallon of gas or an acre of rain forest, aren’t we killing the future to preserve the present? The whole pyramid scheme of Social Security." Perhaps this is a parallel that is too cynical or dark to be drawn, but still.
For me, the lack of an effective medium allows my ideas to slip through the cracks. I'm not any different from everyone else. I fear losing the moment, and for me those are ideas, because ideas are pure and perfect. Some ideas last, but most don't. An idea at one point of time in your life is a unique idea in itself, and you either cement it or let it fade into oblivion. An effective capture is a snapshot of my state of existence at a point in time, like a contribution to my illusory immortality, or so my brain thinks whenever it happily rests knowing that moment was secured. Just like your lunch. Or the weather you experienced at 12:45pm. It's not easy to try and go back to a thought in its original form and retrieve all that power and force that faded away with it.
Memories can go right ahead and fade and get hazy, it doesn't matter to me; my brain can reconstruct them to be even more beautiful than they were. But ideas are my sacred haven and every time one slips through my grasp, a part of me I create dies away.
Everyone has their fears of losing memories, experiences, the moment, life. Some write every detail of their lives down religiously. Every single information. Where they were at 12:45pm, what the weather was like, what they thought they felt at that exact moment, like a smiley footnote at the bottom of a blog indicating your mood for the day. Others take pictures. Of their lunch, of the funny looking car they rode in while exploring a new city, of themselves, as if some part of themselves would tragically disappear forever. Who would know or care? It doesn't matter. The fear is there, ominous to themselves. There is a consuming obsession with preserving the moment. For what? To avoid regret, or to have a taste of immortality?
Maybe.
This brings a Chuck Palahniuk concept to mind. "We do it every day. Kill the unborn to save the elderly. ... Every time we burn a gallon of gas or an acre of rain forest, aren’t we killing the future to preserve the present? The whole pyramid scheme of Social Security." Perhaps this is a parallel that is too cynical or dark to be drawn, but still.
For me, the lack of an effective medium allows my ideas to slip through the cracks. I'm not any different from everyone else. I fear losing the moment, and for me those are ideas, because ideas are pure and perfect. Some ideas last, but most don't. An idea at one point of time in your life is a unique idea in itself, and you either cement it or let it fade into oblivion. An effective capture is a snapshot of my state of existence at a point in time, like a contribution to my illusory immortality, or so my brain thinks whenever it happily rests knowing that moment was secured. Just like your lunch. Or the weather you experienced at 12:45pm. It's not easy to try and go back to a thought in its original form and retrieve all that power and force that faded away with it.
Memories can go right ahead and fade and get hazy, it doesn't matter to me; my brain can reconstruct them to be even more beautiful than they were. But ideas are my sacred haven and every time one slips through my grasp, a part of me I create dies away.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
On 'Truths' And Openness
The first step to knowing more about something is to be open to it.
It is virtually impossible to tell something to someone if he or she isn't prepared or willing to listen.
It's kind of like how the general rule applies when a guy tries to hit on a girl. How the guy looks and how the guy approaches accounts for 90% of the girl's response, while a mere 10% is accounted for by what is actually said during the pick-up.
A truth, concept, philosophy, idea or way of life is useful to a person only if he or she can (and is open to) accept it, handle it or incorporate it into his or her way of life or worldview.
There are so many truths out there. Some are in complete conflict with each other, but each still bestows upon their bearers much wisdom in dealing with reality. There are ideologies and worldviews such as Christianity, evolution, economics, science, just to name a few. Books have been written convincingly on all of these subject matters to espouse them, and perhaps as many have been written to expose their flaws and undermine them.
But the apparent fact of the matter is that, whether or not someone comes off feeling like he/she has learned something after reading a book, a lot of it has to do with how open or skeptical he/she already is prior to reading the book.
This is why, even if I have very strong views on many things, I've come to realize that there isn't really a point to pushing these thoughts on others when I'm with them. I will blog about my ideas and thoughts to a general and anonymous audience who may or may not accept my views or I may share them if I think people are interested to know, but in the presence of another who isn't asking me for my opinions or is skeptical of what I do, there's no bridge between us.
Between two or more people who aren't willing or prepared to connect on a level of understanding, nothing can ever be conveyed constructively. All sorts of useless outcomes will result, such as one person patronizing the other, tolerating each other in a politically correct manner, or emotional arguing, amongst other things.
When it comes to the crux of the matter, people seek knowledge because it helps them understand the world (as they perceive it given their own personal experiences) better. Everyone has cherished beliefs, some with more beliefs than others, but which are all important nonetheless in contributing towards firmly getting a grip on reality so that they may better navigate it. A truth or axiom is useless if it is incompatible with a person's system that already allows him or her to comfortably tide through life.
Of course, many people lead lives that appear less desirable to ourselves. This is what motivates some of us to try and influence and change others, because we think we know better. Maybe we do, if we lead secure and satisfied lives and believe we've got it made. But maybe we don't, because we lead different lives. Perhaps, to each his or her own.
Which is why if you so wish to influence somebody, do it by inspiring others. That is probably the best way (and the only way) to fully create openness in others towards what you do or believe. Be a living example of what you believe in and hope... no, - believe - that by standing up for the things and truths you believe in, others will be open to knowing more.
(However, the condition is as such: If a person appears not to know his/her way around because he/she simply is unthinking and uncritical, perhaps those who try to impose views on them can't be faulted for doing so. This, I suppose, is at the core of my issue with 'unthinkingness', because an unthinking population is fertile ground for anyone who has the desire to manipulate the masses. Evil people cannot do great evil without an easily manipulable army of blind followers.
This post addresses only people who do already hold cherished values and beliefs and with good reason for doing so.)
It is virtually impossible to tell something to someone if he or she isn't prepared or willing to listen.
It's kind of like how the general rule applies when a guy tries to hit on a girl. How the guy looks and how the guy approaches accounts for 90% of the girl's response, while a mere 10% is accounted for by what is actually said during the pick-up.
A truth, concept, philosophy, idea or way of life is useful to a person only if he or she can (and is open to) accept it, handle it or incorporate it into his or her way of life or worldview.
There are so many truths out there. Some are in complete conflict with each other, but each still bestows upon their bearers much wisdom in dealing with reality. There are ideologies and worldviews such as Christianity, evolution, economics, science, just to name a few. Books have been written convincingly on all of these subject matters to espouse them, and perhaps as many have been written to expose their flaws and undermine them.
But the apparent fact of the matter is that, whether or not someone comes off feeling like he/she has learned something after reading a book, a lot of it has to do with how open or skeptical he/she already is prior to reading the book.
This is why, even if I have very strong views on many things, I've come to realize that there isn't really a point to pushing these thoughts on others when I'm with them. I will blog about my ideas and thoughts to a general and anonymous audience who may or may not accept my views or I may share them if I think people are interested to know, but in the presence of another who isn't asking me for my opinions or is skeptical of what I do, there's no bridge between us.
Between two or more people who aren't willing or prepared to connect on a level of understanding, nothing can ever be conveyed constructively. All sorts of useless outcomes will result, such as one person patronizing the other, tolerating each other in a politically correct manner, or emotional arguing, amongst other things.
When it comes to the crux of the matter, people seek knowledge because it helps them understand the world (as they perceive it given their own personal experiences) better. Everyone has cherished beliefs, some with more beliefs than others, but which are all important nonetheless in contributing towards firmly getting a grip on reality so that they may better navigate it. A truth or axiom is useless if it is incompatible with a person's system that already allows him or her to comfortably tide through life.
Of course, many people lead lives that appear less desirable to ourselves. This is what motivates some of us to try and influence and change others, because we think we know better. Maybe we do, if we lead secure and satisfied lives and believe we've got it made. But maybe we don't, because we lead different lives. Perhaps, to each his or her own.
Which is why if you so wish to influence somebody, do it by inspiring others. That is probably the best way (and the only way) to fully create openness in others towards what you do or believe. Be a living example of what you believe in and hope... no, - believe - that by standing up for the things and truths you believe in, others will be open to knowing more.
(However, the condition is as such: If a person appears not to know his/her way around because he/she simply is unthinking and uncritical, perhaps those who try to impose views on them can't be faulted for doing so. This, I suppose, is at the core of my issue with 'unthinkingness', because an unthinking population is fertile ground for anyone who has the desire to manipulate the masses. Evil people cannot do great evil without an easily manipulable army of blind followers.
This post addresses only people who do already hold cherished values and beliefs and with good reason for doing so.)
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Do You Know What's Worth Fighting For
If it's not worth dying for?
---------------------------------
I caught Confucius on the big screen, and it has made me realize quite a few things (this is regardless of whether Confucius was an accurate account of the real life of Confucius himself).
It is quite a big thing to proclaim, but I think I'm close to being someone who'd die for ideas. Give up life for knowledge and truth (I'm using these terms generally and loosely). There are of course varying degrees of what this translates into and how this manifests itself. For instance, I think that I will readily lead a frugal and minimal life and give up a lot if I had to pursue knowledge and truth. I always get this spine-tingling sensation whenever I realize that I'm someone who can sacrifice quite a bit if it means that a truth will be uncovered, or even propagated. It's a spine-tingling sensation along the lines of excitement more than fear, such as the prospect of going to the Middle East or Africa to do stuff. What stuff exactly? I'm not sure yet, but if that day ever comes when I know going somewhere 'dangerous' will get me answers, I think I'd go. Will I endure a gunshot so that I can salvage a principle? Maybe, this is a tough call. But I certainly won't deny the possibility that I really might.
When Yan Hui dived into the water to try and save as many of Confucius' scriptures and writings as possible and then died doing it, I think that was where it really really got to me. As absurd as it might seem, I can totally identify with it, and think it to be the noblest of acts. It reminded me also of other similar shows I've watched with scenes where I totally cracked emotionally. In Bodyguards and Assassins, it was how the revolutionists sacrificed their lives to ensure that Sun Yat-Sen could travel safely out of Hong Kong. I really lost it when one of the characters went against the will of his conflicted father (but only because his father loved him dearly) and got killed while being a decoy for Sun Yat-Sen, and although he was gripped with fear as a young man, he smiled just before his demise because he knew that with Sun Yat-Sen alive for another day, the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the outdated Chinese dynasty could be eradicated for the betterment of society.
These are instances where people risked their lives fighting for the things they believed in, even in the face of imminent death.
A lot of it stems from a personal perspective of the world whereby ideas are what shape generations of people, and individuals are merely carriers of those ideas. While this doesn't mean that life is a cheap commodity since people appear to be dispensable, I think that the way people are so caught up with self-importance and being self-obsessed can be misguided. I believe myself to be pretty much nothing more than a flash in the darkness; before long I'll be gone and forgotten. But truth and knowledge - they live on for much longer, and ultimately they can liberate people.
Damn man, when Confucius was finally allowed back to the Kingdom of Lu after years of being exiled (for being too much of an ethical idealist, no less), his tears of joy from finally being let back into the motherland that kicked him out (rather unfairly) said so much. He still executed the 'outdated' practice of kneeling before the doors, demonstrating reverence and ultimately a profound respect for tradition, which is a pretty strong way of indicating that he knows his place in the bigger scheme of reality, regardless of how important a man he is. Regardless of how one sees oneself and how one believes one's needs to be important, we are all still mere drops of sand in a huge desert. A humility in this sense of knowing one's place, I believe, is desirable and strongly called for.
The danger of course resides in the potential for 'hyper-rationality' - Hitler, Lenin and Mussolini were all people who believed in some ideal utopia and, at the height of their passions, did some despicable things. But who could really fault them for believing that there really would be a better world constructed under the veil which renders seeing the future impossible? Terrible consequences came from their faith in extreme social engineering to construct what should have worked in theory.
But we can only learn from history and hold dear our idealism that provides hope that there is a better future for everyone ahead, and strive to make as much sense of truth and knowledge as possible, so that any proposition for a gameplan for life will be approached with due caution.
Insofar as I am 'afflicted' with these tendencies, I think I have a responsibility to uphold it; to act on my convictions as long as I believe my convictions to be virtuous where, as Plato asserted centuries ago, the physical body (along with all its material cravings of possessions and social affirmation and being a mere imperfect form for the soul) is subordinate to truth, knowledge and ultimately virtue.
---------------------------------
I caught Confucius on the big screen, and it has made me realize quite a few things (this is regardless of whether Confucius was an accurate account of the real life of Confucius himself).
It is quite a big thing to proclaim, but I think I'm close to being someone who'd die for ideas. Give up life for knowledge and truth (I'm using these terms generally and loosely). There are of course varying degrees of what this translates into and how this manifests itself. For instance, I think that I will readily lead a frugal and minimal life and give up a lot if I had to pursue knowledge and truth. I always get this spine-tingling sensation whenever I realize that I'm someone who can sacrifice quite a bit if it means that a truth will be uncovered, or even propagated. It's a spine-tingling sensation along the lines of excitement more than fear, such as the prospect of going to the Middle East or Africa to do stuff. What stuff exactly? I'm not sure yet, but if that day ever comes when I know going somewhere 'dangerous' will get me answers, I think I'd go. Will I endure a gunshot so that I can salvage a principle? Maybe, this is a tough call. But I certainly won't deny the possibility that I really might.
When Yan Hui dived into the water to try and save as many of Confucius' scriptures and writings as possible and then died doing it, I think that was where it really really got to me. As absurd as it might seem, I can totally identify with it, and think it to be the noblest of acts. It reminded me also of other similar shows I've watched with scenes where I totally cracked emotionally. In Bodyguards and Assassins, it was how the revolutionists sacrificed their lives to ensure that Sun Yat-Sen could travel safely out of Hong Kong. I really lost it when one of the characters went against the will of his conflicted father (but only because his father loved him dearly) and got killed while being a decoy for Sun Yat-Sen, and although he was gripped with fear as a young man, he smiled just before his demise because he knew that with Sun Yat-Sen alive for another day, the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the outdated Chinese dynasty could be eradicated for the betterment of society.
These are instances where people risked their lives fighting for the things they believed in, even in the face of imminent death.
A lot of it stems from a personal perspective of the world whereby ideas are what shape generations of people, and individuals are merely carriers of those ideas. While this doesn't mean that life is a cheap commodity since people appear to be dispensable, I think that the way people are so caught up with self-importance and being self-obsessed can be misguided. I believe myself to be pretty much nothing more than a flash in the darkness; before long I'll be gone and forgotten. But truth and knowledge - they live on for much longer, and ultimately they can liberate people.
Damn man, when Confucius was finally allowed back to the Kingdom of Lu after years of being exiled (for being too much of an ethical idealist, no less), his tears of joy from finally being let back into the motherland that kicked him out (rather unfairly) said so much. He still executed the 'outdated' practice of kneeling before the doors, demonstrating reverence and ultimately a profound respect for tradition, which is a pretty strong way of indicating that he knows his place in the bigger scheme of reality, regardless of how important a man he is. Regardless of how one sees oneself and how one believes one's needs to be important, we are all still mere drops of sand in a huge desert. A humility in this sense of knowing one's place, I believe, is desirable and strongly called for.
The danger of course resides in the potential for 'hyper-rationality' - Hitler, Lenin and Mussolini were all people who believed in some ideal utopia and, at the height of their passions, did some despicable things. But who could really fault them for believing that there really would be a better world constructed under the veil which renders seeing the future impossible? Terrible consequences came from their faith in extreme social engineering to construct what should have worked in theory.
But we can only learn from history and hold dear our idealism that provides hope that there is a better future for everyone ahead, and strive to make as much sense of truth and knowledge as possible, so that any proposition for a gameplan for life will be approached with due caution.
Insofar as I am 'afflicted' with these tendencies, I think I have a responsibility to uphold it; to act on my convictions as long as I believe my convictions to be virtuous where, as Plato asserted centuries ago, the physical body (along with all its material cravings of possessions and social affirmation and being a mere imperfect form for the soul) is subordinate to truth, knowledge and ultimately virtue.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
A Goosebumpy Morning
I woke up fifteen minutes earlier today to one of those cruelly refreshing downpours you'd wanna go to bed to, not fight against on the way to work. It just felt like it wasn't like any other dawn. I was reading my book and plugged in to music (which, I must mention, has superb clarity in such solid bass that I feel like I'm in the song itself) when, somewhere through on the commute with all these faceless others, thoughts started spilling into my head like a glorious invasion.
To the point, I've always been fascinated with the idea of power and the concepts and implications associated with it. I wouldn't fully attribute my realizations this morning solely to reading Ayn Rand's work, but her book contributed to the tipping point's push. Idea after idea came to me, and for once in a long while, I actually feel a great sense of conviction that if I were to write a book or a long dissertation that would define my work if I were ever going into academics, it would be about power.
"The same context specificity leads people to take the escalator to the StairMasters, but the philosopher's case is far, far more dangerous since he uses up our storage for critical thinking in a sterile occupation. Philosophers like to practice philosophical thinking on me-too subjects that other philosophers call philosophy, and they leave their minds at the door when they are outside of these subjects."
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan.
I believe, when it comes to politics, movements, science or globalization, we're either living on a very exciting brink, or we're already right in the midst of all the action. For my fellow Generation Y folks, there are many things we could tell our kids we lived through - 9/11, Obama, the rise of democracy, the IT boom, and so on and so forth.
But when it comes to our generation's status intellectually, ideologically and philosophically, we're so dead. The modern hard drive of thought has been conveniently segmented to the thinkers so that people don't have to grapple with it and move on with other 'more important things'. It's worse in some countries than others.
And when new ideas do get consolidated, what happens? They're sold and milked for money.
Not that it's right or wrong; aside from a gripe and some lamenting, it's definitely not my place to judge. But we're just forgoing the need to understand, say, the truth or deeper logic of zero or infinity as mathematically philosophical concepts in exchange for pushing the next decimal point and increasing formulaic accuracy (to make better machines and improve industrial efficiency) because one is now perceived as more practically important than the other.
It's no wonder that sometimes we feel like we don't know where the world is headed. Foreign and global policy is a mess. We can only go somewhere when we are steering in the right way, and ideology constitutes knowing this direction. Underpinning ideology is a society's set of individual moral philosophies that guide each and every person. And at the individual level, many people are already lost or apathetic.
To the point, I've always been fascinated with the idea of power and the concepts and implications associated with it. I wouldn't fully attribute my realizations this morning solely to reading Ayn Rand's work, but her book contributed to the tipping point's push. Idea after idea came to me, and for once in a long while, I actually feel a great sense of conviction that if I were to write a book or a long dissertation that would define my work if I were ever going into academics, it would be about power.
"The same context specificity leads people to take the escalator to the StairMasters, but the philosopher's case is far, far more dangerous since he uses up our storage for critical thinking in a sterile occupation. Philosophers like to practice philosophical thinking on me-too subjects that other philosophers call philosophy, and they leave their minds at the door when they are outside of these subjects."
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan.
I believe, when it comes to politics, movements, science or globalization, we're either living on a very exciting brink, or we're already right in the midst of all the action. For my fellow Generation Y folks, there are many things we could tell our kids we lived through - 9/11, Obama, the rise of democracy, the IT boom, and so on and so forth.
But when it comes to our generation's status intellectually, ideologically and philosophically, we're so dead. The modern hard drive of thought has been conveniently segmented to the thinkers so that people don't have to grapple with it and move on with other 'more important things'. It's worse in some countries than others.
And when new ideas do get consolidated, what happens? They're sold and milked for money.
Not that it's right or wrong; aside from a gripe and some lamenting, it's definitely not my place to judge. But we're just forgoing the need to understand, say, the truth or deeper logic of zero or infinity as mathematically philosophical concepts in exchange for pushing the next decimal point and increasing formulaic accuracy (to make better machines and improve industrial efficiency) because one is now perceived as more practically important than the other.
It's no wonder that sometimes we feel like we don't know where the world is headed. Foreign and global policy is a mess. We can only go somewhere when we are steering in the right way, and ideology constitutes knowing this direction. Underpinning ideology is a society's set of individual moral philosophies that guide each and every person. And at the individual level, many people are already lost or apathetic.
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