Sunday, February 25, 2007

Civilization Now

"Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe." ~ Albert Einstein

Well some groups of people are smarter. Different environments challenge people in different ways. Perhaps harsh environments may require greater intelligence to survive. Once the dumber members are out, there should be a higher intelligence for the group.

Animals don’t really get any smarter though. Perhaps they lack the brain. Killer whales have brains seven times human size. So we have to conclude that bigger brains alone are not enough.

Back then, people lived in small groups in the nearby jungle, scratching larvae out of tree trunks, rather than living in air-conditioned buildings in KL and earning a living by selling bonds to fund managers.

Those days before time, things made sense in a different way. A man could see his enemies, and he knew what would happen if he didn’t fight them. He would stand and fight to the death if necessary...to defend his tribe, his family, and his little clan.

When the scale and sophistication of human civilization increased, man found himself in a situation for which his brain was not prepared. He no longer had the precise, specific, and direct information he needed.

Today, the average man can barely tell the difference between a fact and a campaign. And so the new knowledge leads him into error. Modern politics turns a voter into a dumb.

Politics and modernization make monkeys of us all. We’re not equipped to deal with them. Things are getting too complicated. Too complicated that we stop thinking. Too complicated that we tend to rely on abstractions. Abstractions are complicated art made easy. Abtractions are made by the elite in the forms of slogans.

In the end, we are bound to make mess of things. Worse, we don’t even realize ourselves what kind of mess we are creating. In many ways, we are defenseless.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Promiscuity


This entry is brought to you by Azer Global Peace Individualism – why bother to criminalize the war while we ourselves our own enemies.

Are we truly in peace?

The battle against evil is waged sometimes as a spiritual struggle and sometimes as a physical war. Islam recommends the Jihad, or Holy War, to suppress evil and advance the cause of God. Roman Catholic tradition speaks of a Just War, which may be undertaken only as a last resort, when all the milder forms of persuasion and struggle have been exhausted. Buddhist and Hindu scriptures praise the struggle against enemies of the Dharma.

The foundation for the struggle against tyranny begins with the victory of the individual soul. The individual struggles to reach the point of absolute faith where he or she has completely vanquished the body and its selfish desires and can purely and absolutely will what is good.

Promiscuity

Sex is the means by which the race projects itself into the future through children and family.

A lot of pleasure and happiness can come from sex: nature intended it that way so the race would go on. But misused or abused, it carries with it heavy penalties and punishments: nature seems to have intended it that way also.

We must be faithful to our sexual partners. Unfaithfulness generates guilt. Guilt is a milder evil. This generates jealousy and vengence which are the greater monsters: one never know when they will cease to sleep.

It is all very well to speak of ‘being civilized’, ‘being educated’, ‘modern’, ‘uninhibited’ and ‘understanding’ however, no talk can mend ruined lives. A ‘feeling of guilt’ is as sharp as a knife in the back.

Additionally, it is unhealthy. We lay ourselves open to disease. It was said that sexual disease can be controlled. Is it? Sorry, this is not the case. Not then and not in the future.

When sexual promiscuity becomes prevalent, any entity is seen to fail. Families shatter and so are any organizations. So are any nations.

The urge of the moment can become the sorrow of a lifetime.

Sex is a big step on the way to happiness and joy. There is nothing wrong with it if it is followed by faithfulness and decency.

“The minute I was born, I was not smiling” – Azer Mantessa