Thinkers

I wonder how many people are “thinkers”…

I’m guessing not many.  I realize that thinking about things realistically, deeply, can lead to depression and a sense of frustrated helplessness given the state of the world.  But isn’t choosing not to think about these things just running away from your problems?  Shouldn’t we all choose to “man up” and face our problems?  And the first step in fixing things is THINKING about them, realizing there is a problem, pondering possible fixes, and discussing them.

I think that, especially as we get older and busier with life, it’s easier to just turn a blind eye to what’s wrong with the world.  There’s so much going on in life that we’re just tired, and don’t want to become depressed and more tired by focusing on our problems and trying to find real solutions.  So we turn to entertainment.  It has its place, but at this point it’s no different that turning to drugs or alcohol to avoid dealing with your personal problems.

I’m stuck in the same rut as pretty much everyone else; I do understand the human motivations behind ignoring these things.  But haven’t you ever tried to ignore a personal issue, possibly turned to substances (or entertainment) to forget about it, and it works for awhile, but months/years later you’re still in the same damned spot with it?  So those of us who are responsible will sooner or later choose to face it head-on and find a way to deal with it, and ideally fix it (or at least come to terms with it).

Why are societal/world problems any different?  I guess because unlike personal problems, there’s that sense of “it’s too big for me, I can’t fix it myself”.  But if everyone chooses to capitulate, then all remains the same, degenerates further… Everyone should instead change their mindset to not surrender to hopelessness and apathy, and then the masses may care, and would have the power to do something.

Food for thought.

TV, you missed your calling…

Do you ever really think about TV?  I don’t mean TV shows, I mean TV itself.  And no, I don’t even mean the nitty gritty of how it works (though I have wondered enough that I googled it to find out more).  I mean TV as a medium.

“The opiate of the masses”; indeed, that is what it has become.  It makes me somewhat sad… it had so much potential to change the world.  OK, I guess in a way it did – in a depressing, bastardized way.

It has such ability to reach people – whether you’re illiterate, or deaf, or too busy to read the paper, etc.  It can disseminate information like no other medium.  It brings to us images of worlds, ideas, too distant to reach us otherwise, or at least not with the same power.  I recall reading a neuroscience article noting that the more senses you engage while doing something, the more you can integrate it into your thinking or memory.  TV already covers sight and sound, and as we are such visual creatures (is it 40% of our frontal cortex that’s devoted to visual processing?), it is a very powerful medium.

But what is it primarily used for?  Entertainment.  The news too, to an extent, though increasingly that leans toward entertainment or propaganda more than information.  (I guess one could argue that given that a lot of serious “news” isn’t practically applicable information, it is merely another form of entertainment anyway – but anything that serves to connect us more to each other and the world beyond isn’t merely entertainment.)  But how many dumb-ass sitcoms or reality shows or whatnot can you think of off the top of your head?  Documentaries and learning programs redeem this grand invention to an extent, but they’re scant in a sea of fluff.

I wonder if Zworykin or Farnsworth (the two most often credited with the invention of the TV) ever saw it being used primarily for entertainment.  When the first TV stations went on the air, did they imagine this medium’s future?

Obviously there is a place for both information and entertainment in our lives.  But it just seems to me that TV largely favours and encourages the pursuit of the latter.  (The same could be said of the internet.)   To the detriment of our society, our world, now more than ever.

I guess in the end it isn’t so much what TV has become; it is merely a reflection of what our cultural priorities have become.  Maybe that is what really disheartens me about the medium.

Intense!

Yep.  That’s probably the word that best describes me.  Passionate kinda goes hand-in-hand, I guess, but intense is probably a bit more broad-ranging and accurate…?

I have intense emotions – I don’t feel happy, sad, or angry; I’m more prone to be excited/laughing, depressed, or rageful.  (Though I do manage to control the rage… control the rage… CONTROL THE RAGE!  hahahaha)  Perhaps that’s why sometimes I wonder if I’m mildly bipolar, like cyclothymic; I do have a few bipolar cousins… (Though I cycle up & down too fast to fit the DSM-IV definition of cyclothymia.)  Even my looks are intense to an extent – the red hair, the deep-set piercing eyes, the super pale skin, the excessive curves, etc.  Even my voice is naturally loud, which is kind of funny, considering when I was younger I mumbled so much that no one knew what I was saying.

And aside from the inherent intensity, I am a lover of intensity.  I like intense ideas, intense conversations, intense experiences – perhaps that’s why I dabbled in ecstasy in the past, and still enjoy the more “natural” highs.  I love intense flavours – spicy, sour (I love lemons), tangy, etc.  I love intensely complicated television shows & movies, intense music (the kind that just reaches into you and rips the emotions out), intense reads (I’m heavy into the philosophy).  “The road of excess leads to the palace of knowledge.”  Thank you William Blake, I agree.

I wasn’t sure how to take it when someone first called me intense – we were doing mushrooms, I got off on a rant about the fashion industry and its effects on women, and the response was “wow, April, you’re intense”.  I know she didn’t mean it as an insult.  And quite frankly, now I take it as a compliment.  Because there’s nothing sadder to me than the idea of being mundane, low-key, watered-down, “normal”.  I’m not even sure if I’m capable of that, come to think of it – it’d take some major self-restraint.  Life is meant to be lived to the fullest, and a life lived intensely – happy or sad – is a memorable one.

Intensity is my destiny.  (Hmmm, I like that… could almost make it a tattoo.)

The Nature of Reality and How It Can Relate To Self-Confidence

I often think about the nature of reality.  Because what is reality to each one of us other than what our senses tell us, our perception?  None of us can truly be objective because we’re inherently subjective.  Even working in a scientific field (or rather, because of it?) I can see that no matter how objective we try to be, our understanding of things is coloured by our subconscious biases and hypotheses.  Or consider the fact that mentally ill people often see themselves as perfectly normal because all they (and all of us) have to go on is what our senses tell us.

So if we think of reality as subjective, then self-confidence becomes easier to those of us who may not have been naturally inclined to have it (or have had it “nurtured” out of us… in the nature/nurture sense.)  But if we determine our own reality, then it shouldn’t be difficult to have self-confidence.  Who is someone else to tell us that we’re less-than, unattractive, etc?  They are merely an entity in our version of reality and we choose how much impact their opinions have on us.

Now, obviously, given the previous reference to the mentally ill, you may think that this is a recipe for psychosis, or antisocial behaviour.  But the reality (haha) is that most of us just aren’t wired that way, and those that are will be, regardless of whether they recognize this subjective nature of reality or not.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”, and she was bang-on.  Our confidence lies solely in ourselves and nowhere else.  It is only an illusion that it is dependent on what others think of us, what our life circumstances are, or what our heredity may be.  Sit back and observe enough people in life (which I did a lot, especially when I was younger and much quieter and even more solitary) and you’ll realize that regardless of their circumstances, treatment, and appearances, some people exude confidence whereas others in similar positions smack of low self-esteem.

It’s all in our mindset.  ‘Course, maybe that belief is due to my own version of reality.  ;D

WTF is wrong with people??

A pretty general question that applies to many topics, haha…

But in this case, I was thinking of how no one seems to give a shit about trying to change things for the better, they just want to continue on with their tiny consumption-based self-absorbed lives and bury their heads in the sand when it comes to trying to better the world.  Granted, conditioning is somewhat to blame – my generation and younger has grown up with this desensitized, laissez faire attitude.  But still – we have gargantuan brains compared to other species, we have the capacity to overcome our natural tendency to inertia and clinging to the status quo, we’ve accomplished stunning things in the past (we’ve managed to put people into space, the most inhospitable of environments, for chrissakes…).  And yet the average person just doesn’t give a shit.  Oh, it’s become fashionable to change our light bulbs to low-energy CFUs and to recycle, but have we all started taking public transit instead of driving to work alone?  Do we petition our government to take real action and force companies to use recycled materials or respect the environment?  Are we willing to make some serious sacrifices in our lives in order to make the world better for all?  Are those of us in the well-to-do developed world willing to take a step down from our current perch in the status quo so that more people can take a step up?

Obviously some people do care and do make real efforts to advance our society in a variety of ways; their ideas can be profound and inspiring (to those of us who care and aren’t so cynical that we dismiss them outright).  But do you ever feel like we’re on the cusp of enlightenment, of real change, of a truly advanced society, but that the current nature of things is holding us back from reaching that potential?  Or does such change happen so gradually that we won’t notice it in our lifetimes because they’re so relatively short?  (Is this just another manifestation of a desire for instant gratification that’s become so prevalent in our society?)  Or is a certain level of calamity required to induce such monumental change over a short time period?

The future effects of climate change could be that calamity… then again, few seem to care (more than a “hmmm, interesting…” response) when huge chunks fall off Antarctica or Greenland.  I know damned well what the nature of people is like, and the most likely future scenario is that the world will turn to shit (more so) and then once people are suffering and dying here and not just in the global south, and there is no longer any sand to bury our heads in, people will boohoo about how crappy their lives have gotten, why this is happening to us, etc… when it was at least somewhat preventable (natural climate shift tendencies aside) but we were just too damned lazy and caught up in materialism and technology-induced ADD and mindless criticism of great ideas to do something about it when we had the chance.  It’s the way people are.  Kinda makes me want to puke, how short-sighted people are.

It isn’t just climate change.  How about personal development and enlightenment, making an effort to find more meaning in our lives instead of expecting it to be served to us on a platter and being disappointed that it isn’t so easy?  How about truly accepting all cultures and types – not just tolerance, but true appreciation of diversity?   How about finding ways to equalize wealth so that there isn’t such a divide between rich and poor (locally and globally) and thus treating (at least in part) the source of crime and war?

I’ve become (even more) jaded of late… I’m looking around at people and, despite not wanting to lose hope, coming to the conclusion that we’re doomed because of what we’ve become.  Brave New World wasn’t that far off in predicting an all-consuming, throw-away, dough-headed triviality-focused dystopia.  I wonder if Aldous Huxley would be surprized… or did he see us going this way?  Those that thought we’d come to our senses before we reached this point must be rolling over in their graves.

<sigh>

Just a rambling frustrated rant… it’s hard to keep up the motivation to try to transcend our current state (individually and socially) when the large majority of people don’t give a shit, don’t give it a second thought… because unless enough of us make the effort it won’t matter much what a few people manage to do.

Fuckin people.  Or rather, fuckin social and economic constructs that have made the majority of us capitulate to such a dead-end existence and pretend like it isn’t.

<sigh> again.