I believe that in the real world, agnostics are viewed with skepticism. I mean, why would you respect a person who chooses to "weasel" out on religion?
After reading an article which used the word agnostic as a metaphor, I realized that there can be a different perspective on agnostics. Specifically, "agnostic" was thus used "a platform-agnostic OS".
The usual description of such an OS would be "platform-independent"
And then I realized. Agnostic may not really mean "I don't care about religion"
It may mean "It doesn't matter what religion the world subscribes to, I am myself, and will function equally well as a human being no matter what religion you are. I am independent of religion; religion-independent."
Agnostics FTW.
Update: Agnostics FTW, as long as they aren't human.
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
I am wisest when I am semi-awake in the morning.
Weird, but hey it's true for me. When I'm semi-awake, I think of many things. But raw thoughts happen so fast and weirdly, that when I word it in English, the thought is already half flown away. But recently I've been learning to pay attention, despite my drowsy semi-awake state. When I start to awaken, I start to try to remember -- brush my teeth, breakfast, bath, have a drink, what to do next, blah, blah, blah, that I can no longer gather my deepest thoughts.
When I'm semi-awake, I think of what I really feel that I need to do next. When I'm full awake, I think -- how will this affect my future? How will others perceive me? Will the other people affected see it as an insult? If so, try to subtly hint instead of saying up front. What can I start doing next? Is this beneficial for the future me? Does this contradict my past actions? -- in the end, I cannot realize what I have to do next.
So here, are 3 thoughts that occurred to me. One was a few days before, the other two today. I make my bravest decisions while half-awake.
Like how the other day I realized and told myself I was going to do my HW ASAP and get it over and done with. I remembered that, and surprisingly carried it out.
Like how today I wondered, if there was a pizza of radius 12cm that rotated 90 degrees in 15 secs, and there was a slicer that moved in at 12 cm per 15 secs, what shape would the slicer trace out in the pizza? (this thought was conjured in 0.5 secs, mind you)
Like how today I realized that I have to confess that I am very avoidant and afraid of intimacy, and how under-appreciated I feel, instead of trying to find a way to subtly hint at all these.
When I'm semi-awake, I think of what I really feel that I need to do next. When I'm full awake, I think -- how will this affect my future? How will others perceive me? Will the other people affected see it as an insult? If so, try to subtly hint instead of saying up front. What can I start doing next? Is this beneficial for the future me? Does this contradict my past actions? -- in the end, I cannot realize what I have to do next.
So here, are 3 thoughts that occurred to me. One was a few days before, the other two today. I make my bravest decisions while half-awake.
Like how the other day I realized and told myself I was going to do my HW ASAP and get it over and done with. I remembered that, and surprisingly carried it out.
Like how today I wondered, if there was a pizza of radius 12cm that rotated 90 degrees in 15 secs, and there was a slicer that moved in at 12 cm per 15 secs, what shape would the slicer trace out in the pizza? (this thought was conjured in 0.5 secs, mind you)
Like how today I realized that I have to confess that I am very avoidant and afraid of intimacy, and how under-appreciated I feel, instead of trying to find a way to subtly hint at all these.
Question? Answer!
Question: Why do serious people receive so little attention and go under-appreciated for their work?
Answer: Because it is simple people that lack foresight or ambition and seek to have fun every present moment that are so alike in their lack of focus that they can hold a conversation on any general, unfocused method of enjoyment who tend to group together, being so similar in their laxness and ease of comprehension of the topic of conversation. As such, fun-loving, outgoing people tend to receive much attention, while the serious ones who do not like to help unfocused individuals such as the former tend to stick to their own way of doing things and end up so disconnected from the General Thought that their conversations tend towards alien topics that few can comment on. Both have their trade-offs; the serious ones has more control over his/her general direction in life, as well as being able to learn more about the world, while the lax ones tend to have more friends who will offer them help, despite trading control for merry.
In the end, the attention and appreciation the serious ones are missing out on is the attention given by the merry people. Better for these serious people to stick to a minority their own variety.
Of course, I, being a manipulative and power-hungry person, am totally biased towards serious and individualistic.
Answer: Because it is simple people that lack foresight or ambition and seek to have fun every present moment that are so alike in their lack of focus that they can hold a conversation on any general, unfocused method of enjoyment who tend to group together, being so similar in their laxness and ease of comprehension of the topic of conversation. As such, fun-loving, outgoing people tend to receive much attention, while the serious ones who do not like to help unfocused individuals such as the former tend to stick to their own way of doing things and end up so disconnected from the General Thought that their conversations tend towards alien topics that few can comment on. Both have their trade-offs; the serious ones has more control over his/her general direction in life, as well as being able to learn more about the world, while the lax ones tend to have more friends who will offer them help, despite trading control for merry.
In the end, the attention and appreciation the serious ones are missing out on is the attention given by the merry people. Better for these serious people to stick to a minority their own variety.
Of course, I, being a manipulative and power-hungry person, am totally biased towards serious and individualistic.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Ethics and mathematics
"Half of the world's problems would go away if people simply accepted that other people live by their own very different ethics."
"Oh really? I think there's something seriously wrong with you to be saying such an amoral principle."
"You see? Like I said. Half of the world's problems would go away if people simply accepted that other people live by their own very different ethics."
"The chess player gives away the queen to win the game, but the mathematician gives away the entire game." -- Someone whose name I don't remember.
"Oh really? I think there's something seriously wrong with you to be saying such an amoral principle."
"You see? Like I said. Half of the world's problems would go away if people simply accepted that other people live by their own very different ethics."
"The chess player gives away the queen to win the game, but the mathematician gives away the entire game." -- Someone whose name I don't remember.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A throughly misguided interpretation of a facet of the state of art and social culture in Singapore
My Dear Angst-filled and Introverted Moralizers of Much Criticism toward the Inferiors of Much Want in the Functions of the Perceptive Powers (i.e. Stupid People),
This post is hereby addressed to you. Note that all statistics I post are only an exceedingly rough estimation I conjure up in my head in the matter of a tenth of a second. As I begin, let me point this out: The Singapore Government is great. It has a foresight like no other. It mediates the Western "freedom" worldview with our Eastern "conservative" worldview like no other.
Sadly, Singapore will not entertain such bullshit. Such phenomena are hallucinations of paranoia by dissidents smoking marijuana. Estimating, 1% of Singapore's sensible population will ever have the novelty of coming up with something so incomprehensibly ridiculous.
Yet in each of them -- UFOs, crop circles, conspiracies -- lies some irresistible attraction that just makes people want to believe in them. Some of these phenomena even have cults for them. Press interviews with these thoroughly misguided people serve as comic relief that only makes their trusting, infantile nature only more lovely, but we remember ourselves that such chaotic ideas ought to be suppressed because they result in pathetic failures such as the aforementioned hypothetical cult people.
By comparison, I believe few in Singapore ever hit upon publicizing such insanity. One notable exception is Jack Neo. In his films are stereotypes and characters acting out laughably close-minded roles. Each are a reflection of the hidden goals and agendas (read: memes) of Singaporeans that few discuss openly but everyone assumes naturally. None of these have much attractive power. That's that. Singapore's dull.
And that is why thy Artistic Aspirers of Singapore feel enfettered in this island. It is not Singapore's small size, for sure; for the smaller the island, the easier it is to reach out. (Then Why?) It is not the lack of an arts scene in Singapore; oh yes, there is a hustling, bustling citadel in Singapore's heartland that the Apprentice of Expression would feel at home in. (Then Why?)
The big problem is this: there is no way to make the people who are not interested interested. When you go to Thy Art Citadel, you meet people; people who secretly want to appear to be rich, people who love artistic expression, people who seem so perfect in everything they do, people who are at the frontier of fashion, people of happy families, people who have in their head immeasurable knowledge, people who love to think of themselves as connoisseurs, people, all kinds of people; people who seem to be from all walks of life.
Never the majority of our population who work reveille to crepuscule and clock in overtime to support their families with neither excess funds nor time to spare, who start the day defeated and end the day late, tired and grumpy, who look upon our passion with much resentment at our lack of empathy towards their damnable purgatory, who put food on our table and turn to their weak yet irrationally stubborn faith for a promised reward to their perspiration, because they are much too busy to partake in our revel; depressingly, these people are far too distant to reach out.
Never our parents, the people who make our excitement possible.
This post is hereby addressed to you. Note that all statistics I post are only an exceedingly rough estimation I conjure up in my head in the matter of a tenth of a second. As I begin, let me point this out: The Singapore Government is great. It has a foresight like no other. It mediates the Western "freedom" worldview with our Eastern "conservative" worldview like no other.
- A comparison with other Asian countries should show that... China's largely authoritarian policies has caused a lot of headaches for America and other countries. The subset of "Most Idiotic Citizens" that comprise part of the population of the latter countries (and of every other country, for that matter) are thy proselytizers of everything anti-Chinese, anti-communist. There is latent prejudice amongst the population of America against China effected by the influence of "Most Idiotic Citizens" because of the dissonance in philosophies.
- Japan's policies have largely abandoned (were they there in the first place? Or was their culture already like that to begin with? Someone with expertise on the subject please tell me.) the conservative values that are so integral to Singapore. Yes, Japan is an economic success. Yes, Japan is a political disaster. And yes, the people of Japan are head-confound-ing-ly wise to maintain such harmony despite that. Recycling policies blah, blah, blah. But not a "successful" Singapore. Y'see, in Japan, there are no highly religious people. Y'see, in Japan, prostitution and sick fetishes are rife. Y'see, in Japan, everybody is somehow crazy in their minds.
- North Korea doesn't deserve a more comprehensive mention in my list.
- South Korea is The Blessed Land of Drama Serials and Christians who realize that corruption amongst CEOs of big-name companies like Hyundai is OK.
- Taiwan and HK... are countries which I have only a very deficit and vague knowledge of. Even though Taiwan is a diplomatic disaster, I get that impression that the average person in these countries is pretty much like Singapore's, only less intense in faith and moral issues, and with the creative domain somewhat reflective of Japan (game shows & comics) and Korea (celebrities).
UFOs! Alien conspiracies! Your tax money's gone to fund Senator (ABC)'s villa on a Caribbean island! Your father's an FBI!
Sadly, Singapore will not entertain such bullshit. Such phenomena are hallucinations of paranoia by dissidents smoking marijuana. Estimating, 1% of Singapore's sensible population will ever have the novelty of coming up with something so incomprehensibly ridiculous.
Yet in each of them -- UFOs, crop circles, conspiracies -- lies some irresistible attraction that just makes people want to believe in them. Some of these phenomena even have cults for them. Press interviews with these thoroughly misguided people serve as comic relief that only makes their trusting, infantile nature only more lovely, but we remember ourselves that such chaotic ideas ought to be suppressed because they result in pathetic failures such as the aforementioned hypothetical cult people.
By comparison, I believe few in Singapore ever hit upon publicizing such insanity. One notable exception is Jack Neo. In his films are stereotypes and characters acting out laughably close-minded roles. Each are a reflection of the hidden goals and agendas (read: memes) of Singaporeans that few discuss openly but everyone assumes naturally. None of these have much attractive power. That's that. Singapore's dull.
And that is why thy Artistic Aspirers of Singapore feel enfettered in this island. It is not Singapore's small size, for sure; for the smaller the island, the easier it is to reach out. (Then Why?) It is not the lack of an arts scene in Singapore; oh yes, there is a hustling, bustling citadel in Singapore's heartland that the Apprentice of Expression would feel at home in. (Then Why?)
The big problem is this: there is no way to make the people who are not interested interested. When you go to Thy Art Citadel, you meet people; people who secretly want to appear to be rich, people who love artistic expression, people who seem so perfect in everything they do, people who are at the frontier of fashion, people of happy families, people who have in their head immeasurable knowledge, people who love to think of themselves as connoisseurs, people, all kinds of people; people who seem to be from all walks of life.
Never the majority of our population who work reveille to crepuscule and clock in overtime to support their families with neither excess funds nor time to spare, who start the day defeated and end the day late, tired and grumpy, who look upon our passion with much resentment at our lack of empathy towards their damnable purgatory, who put food on our table and turn to their weak yet irrationally stubborn faith for a promised reward to their perspiration, because they are much too busy to partake in our revel; depressingly, these people are far too distant to reach out.
Never our parents, the people who make our excitement possible.
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