“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise”. (Robert Fritz)
I’d like to believe that.
Then again, our teetering bulbs of dread and desire are crammed with different and disputed dreams.
In the end, every single choice might be a compromise: between yourself(s).
(thanks, Anne)
I like the future. It is the only place in which we can ever meet again.
“Anger is momentary madness.”
(via Katharina)
And sometimes, I want to bite out a chunk of reality in order to see what’s behind the scenes.
I took a liking to Bertrand Russell rather early, due to his very logical, empirical, critical way of approaching what could or could not be called the truth.
A couple of days ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a speech Russell gave in 1929 at the Battersea Town Hall (under the auspices of the South London Branch of the National Secular Society), England. He was 57 by then, so you’d have to imagine an older gentleman talking to fellow colleagues.
You should very much read the whole discourse. It’s not that long, really.
Here are some hilarious snippets:
The next step in the process brings us to the argument from design. You all know the argument from design: everything in the world is made just so that we can manage to live in the world, and if the world was ever so little different we could not manage to live in it. It sometimes takes a rather curious form; for instance, it is argued that rabbits have white tails in order to be easy to shoot. I do not know how rabbits would view that application. It is an easy argument to parody.
When you come to look into this argument from design, it is a most astonishing thing that people can believe that this world, with all the things that are in it, with all its defects, should be the best that omnipotence and omniscience have been able to produce in millions of years. I really cannot believe it. Do you think that, if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan, the Fascisti, and Mr. Winston Churchill? Really I am not much impressed with the people who say: “Look at me: I am such a splendid product that there must have been design in the universe.” I am not very much impressed by the splendor of those people.
Richard Dawkins answers the simple question: “what if you are wrong?”
(via nerdcore)
The Devil’s Dictionary was written in the end of the 19th century, and contains definitions of 1.000 words.
And I have the strong feeling that it was authored by a previous incarnation of Terry Pratchett.
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.
VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
CANNIBAL, n. A gastronome of the old school who preserves the simple tastes and adheres to the natural diet of the pre-pork period.
ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.
SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
– Dictionary of the Devil (A-Z)
(Thanks to Solveig – business as usual)
I strongly believe that the very nature of human beings is a contradictory one, and want to focus on the human psyché here. In my opinion the reason we sometimes have problems deciding – emotionally, or rationally – is that we encompass different personality aspects, dreams and desires; and they may be conflicting or even contrary from time to time.
The little boy wants to buy a new tool, because it’s flashy and big and it will be a lot of fun to drill more wholes in walls; the rational, maybe even greedy mature responds that there are already two of these tools at home; and another one – maybe the romantic? – adds that in order to save up money for the plane ticket to visit the loved one, we should seriously not spend money on useless tools.
We all catch ourselves checking if the door is locked twice – very rarely maybe, but everybody does it – or if we put out the oven. Obsessive-compulsive? No, because we do it seldom. It is a very weak part of us, and only if it dominates the others it is considered a psychological disorder.
We can be brave and afraid, egoistic and altruistic, schizoid and outgoing. In my world, we are everything at the same time, we have everything at the same time. We encompass, we contain, we are different personae in one mind. Clearly we have tendencies – some people are more extroverted, others more introverted – but even the boldest person can feel fear.
This may sound rather trite, but is a very important part of the way I see human beings. I learned it from listening to a great clinical psychologist and lecturer in Munich, who told us about working with patients with Multiple Personality Disorder*. The major difference between this clinical disorder and healthy subjects (read: us) is that these different aspects are less pronounced and more integrated.
We do have multiple personalities, just without disorder. Deciding will in most cases be a compromise which we usually are not aware of. Try to make yourself aware of the internal monologues that are going on inside of you, listen to the barter, quarrel and bargaining. It is an interesting world inside of us, one we tend to ignore completely, one most people are not aware of.
Think, feel and say contrary things. In my world, contradictions are usually the purest and most honest truths.
(thanks to M.M. for all the inspiration)
* Multiple Personality Disorder is not a proper scientific term, psychologists call it Dissociative Personality Disorder, which classifies as dissociative disorder (like dissociative amnesia or fugue), not personality disorder.
Personalitiy disorders are extremely stable, most dissociative disorders have a quite clear onset (in some cases trauma induced), and can usually be treated (unlike personality disorders, for which – oversimplifying a bit – psychoeducation is basically all you can do).
“Understanding life is a not conquest, but a slow lesson in appreciation.”
“Ignorance about novelty is at the heart of skepticism about evolution, and resolving its origins is necessary to complete our understanding of Darwin’s theory.”
– Marc W. Kirscher & John C. Gerhart, “The Plausibility of Life”
(with thanks to Ezra for the recommendation!)
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