Introspection

Recurring thoughts.... things you hear people say, and are then surprised that you actually listened. I guess this is what happened to me, when I heard Goodman say (to paraphrase) - 'people are essentially good'. What a load of crap.

or is it? So this is what I have been thinking about recently: what does it mean to be a bad person.

It's almost a given, that most people consider themselves 'good' (defined here best by its negation, i.e. 'not bad'). And yet, most people will admit to doing 'bad' things, i.e. stealing, lying, cheating, etc. With the caveat that they do this on a small scale, and rarely - only when they are particularly angry, upset, lost control, emotional, 'not thinking clearly' blah blah. Additionally, most of the time, the 'bad' action is assessed so only in retrospection. Very few people consciously perform a bad act, i.e. with their 'super ego' monitoring the situation.

Most people think they are good, but will admit to sometimes doing bad things.

So then the question is, when do their/your actions begin to define who you are? When does a bad action make you bad? How many bad things do you have to do to become bad? Is that possible? Is there a tipping point? is it reversible?

I don't know. But I offer this as a possible measure - introspection. A person 'becomes bad' when no longer are their actions subject to the scrutiny of the super ego - or perhaps it drifts far away from the society that the person occupies. No one can live with themselves long thinking they are bad - it's a terrible stress on the psychologically, and physiologically. Consequently, something has to give, and it is either the persons actions, or their definition of them.

Ultimately, and fortunately (?) it's not really important whether you 'are' bad or good. What matters is how your actions reflect in the society that you live in, starting from your family society, friendship group, and of course the society at large. However, I do think that this is an important point to identify - people 'do' bad things.

Perhaps it is not possible to define a bad/good person, yet strangely this word combination exists in many languages, and is frequently used. It's a label that is applied to people all to thoughtlessly, and consequently has the potential to color/taint every subsequent action, as well as your reaction.

My final thought is that language is a powerful weapon, our own vocalisations mould our subconscious more than we would like (hence I'm typing! :)), we not only hear ourselves talk, we actually listen - so we should choose our words wisely.

Denial - a positive sign of a progressive society?

I guess I just cannot help it - I had decided for myself after attending a relatively miserable debate on the subject of "Whistleblowers" organised by the Frontline Club I would steer clear of such events. I had originally had high hopes for the event - Assange was to attend, as well as many interesting people 'in the know how'. I battled a bunch of Assange groupies to sit right up the front where to my great disappointment the infantile nature of the event unfolded right in front of me. Only a few of the speakers made any attempt to keep to the subject, mostly it was not even run as a debate... Anyway, that went past, and I decided that I had nothing to learn from Assange, that he had grown completely outside his own humanity and was no longer capable of hearing, or listening, unless it was the projection of his own voice and simple ideas.

Hahaha, gosh, that felt better!

Anyway, so, I was firm in my decision not to attend the next Frontline organised event where Assange was to 'star': http://www.frontlineclub.com/blogs/WikiLeaks/2011/07/live-assange-zizek-and-goodman-in-conversation.html

....but I couldn't help it, I tuned in to listen.... And it was fascinating! Wow - I am deeply impressed by both Zizek and Assange. Zizek is hilarious which was refreshing, but also provocative. Assange came across as having had given the ideas under discussion a lot of thought and had a sense of maturity.

But I'd like to pick up on an interesting point that was raised and seemed to carry through the discussion - namely that the presence of censorship in a society is a good thing, as it is indicating that the 'government' is afraid of what people think. To me this smells of a logical fallacy, so let's explore. By analogy, this is perhaps like saying that it is a good sign that garbage is being manufactured by society - that means that there is progress? Perhaps poor analogy.

Okay, so let us keep with the validity of this statement, but then Assange's outlook for the future, namely that it would be ideal that the unadulterated truth is preserved in historical records which are accessible to all, must be in contradiction. And here I start with some generalisations: humans are terrible/horrible creatures - we commit atrocities, and what is worse that being in possession of consciousness means we do these things with our eyes open.  As of course Wikileaks has undeniably revealed to us. And yet, most of us would like to think that it would never be us - 'we' would not be so spiritually ugly and base. It is others, because they are dumb or thoughtless, or ruthless etc. We spend most of our lives living under one lie or the other.

The very fact that honesty is a virtue I think is a lie. "We do not see things as they are but as we are" - Kant.

You never say things as they are if you want to live in a civilized society - you use analogies, and euphemisms, because true words are weapons. In your life, you allow very few people the luxury, privilege, and also the responsibility of enlightening you to the facts of a matter outside your own mind. But why? why this cloak of denial, deception, etc? why? because we recognise our capacity for ugliness, and we have a reasonable sense of understanding that it is unacceptable if we want to satisfy our desires for social living. And I think that is itself a good sign - our own lies to ourselves, our own innate capacity for self-censorship, means that we want to be better than we recognise that we are. And to now extend this to the whole global society - the fact that most of us cannot, and don't want to deal with the truth of brutalities committed in our name, is that we globally 'think' we are better than that.

To see history written just as it is, not white washed and painted pretty would be to have to abhorrent truth stare us in the face everyday - to be the Dorian Gray's with their painting hanging in the living room for all to see. It would be at first I am sure very educational, but also with time sterilise us emotionally to it, as it becomes a matter of fact.

This is just one idea - but perhaps for us to continue to fight for beautiful ideals, we cannot strut our ugliness in public? "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Nietzche


However, on the other hand of course, a good dose of reality is necessary to keep us in check, like a strong dose of antibiotics.

Basically very interesting discussion! Next time I guess I'll just have to go battle some groupies :D

The awesome feeling you get when your thoughts are put in order :)

Hello! Gosh... I visited my grandparents over Christmas/New Year period, and today ran for the first time since the visit. My legs would hardly carry my weight... Seriously, as I am sure most grandparents are, mine are almost criminal in their insistence that I eat a LOT! The visit followed a simple routine: eat, sleep, then repeat.
(Thank you grandmum and granddad! I love you :))

Hahaha :) I thought I'd share that... but now to the real point, and that is this amazing article by Jaron Lanier - http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/the-hazards-of-nerd-supremacy-the-case-of-wikileaks/68217/

I have been having doubts about Wikileaks and they had been increasing with time, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that was troubling me, and when I tried to talk it over, or write it down it was infantile and shallow. Basically, the effect this article had, I think can be explained by the laser analogy: my thoughts were in a kind of state of population inversion, and basically, reading it was like sending a photon at the correct frequency resulting in a crystallisation of my ideas! :D Ahhhh! Totally cool :)

Where have all the hippies gone?

It's interesting to observe the difference in response to this weeks release of Iraq war logs by Wikileaks and the response to the Afgan logs. It may be my very limited perspective, but to me it seems there is a lot less news and a lot more speculation. Especially about Julian Assange, poor guy... I don't think I can say I have perfected the art of psychoanalysis, but my impressions of him were not negative, he lead an effort that setup a website that allows within international legal frameworks to maintain secret information and facilitates the release of that information. That's it, right? It seems to me that if anyone deserves prosecution it's 'scum bags' that steal this secret information from the government and other organisations? He can be viewed as an accomplice I guess, but not the initiator.
This recent article in the Economist is appalling, I cannot believe such a generally respected news source is capable of such tabloid crap, and lack of analytic skill: http://www.economist.com/node/17361416?story_id=17361416&fsrc=rss

This guy I think gets it right: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/oct/29/wikileaks-julian-assange

Anyway, this is rushed and not exactly gleaming with intelligence, but the desire to expose my 5c to the web is overwhelming :D
... and now back to work!

Fashion

I am sick again... what is this... I run, I don't smoke, I eat health'ily (when I remember), I have beer for dinner... anyway, usually even when I'm sick I run on account of it raising my body temperature and helping to kill off the disease, however, this time round... I feel tired just making lunch, so I'm going to have to pass for a few days. It is such a beautiful day outside, so hard to accept the fact that I can't really muster the energy to go even for a walk... so the sure way to make myself feel better is reading fashion magazines.

Fashion magazines are amazing, full of all kinds of interesting ideas, from the totally horrific, to the sublime. And to my great fortune, this month, also hilarious - the fashion lingo section: "Fancy a quick lunchetta?" - we'll have some 'fabola' bruschetta. "Look at her rocking a Robocop jean" - apparently it says a lot more when you're wearing 'a jean' (I hope this is in no way reminiscent of the denim trend of showing off lower than your navel - fortunately it stopped before the fabric connecting the two 'jean' was removed.) , teamed with deliciously feisty glove, and knee high sock. Hahaha... wait, and is that a Gooch (Gucci) boot? (I love it!) I am typing this from my very own HP Vivienne Tam Butterfly Netbook Clutch now successfully running the 'divine' Ubuntu-lucid!

And one of my fav'etta'?: (I don't think I'm getting it... :P)
"Darling, that camel number really adds texture to your ensemble..." what the???.... but it doesn't have to make sense right? it's fashion.

Military Incompetence and Being a Good Person

Living in central London means you hear a lot of drunk people spilling their souls or stomach contents onto the streets at night. This is fine of course, unless you're an insensitive, selfish person trying to sleep. I happen to be one of these people, and try as I may, even considering my almost inexhaustible capacity to sleep anywhere, any time, my sleeping powers have proven worthless. The best solution to this of course is to fall asleep late enough that your slumber is so deep as not to be interrupted by these noises. And for me the easiest way to achieve this is to fall asleep reading a fascinating/captivating book.

On recommendation of a very interesting friend of mine I started reading a book on "Military Incompetence" and it was indeed fascinating reading first facts of various conflicts which the British had engaged in, and then a psychological assessment of the leaders of the conflicts. I am not sure if this is an entirely correct view, but this assessment made me realise that most of the qualities that good commanders/leaders should have, I definitely want - not only that, I see as necessities for being a good/reasonable person.
This of course is a simplistic view - as being a good military commander doesn't mean you're a good person, and being a good person is definitely not going to ensure that you're a good military commander - or is it? I guess what I'm trying to say is that being a good military commander necessitates being in possession of some qualities of a good person (...terribly insightful :P).

Ah, why is nothing ever simple! One of the most interesting point raised by the book is this idea of 'cognitive dissonance' something I am feeling right now...
...as well as sleepy :) Yay! So I'm going to have to leave this - until I thoroughly mull over these ideas and achieve cognitive consonance :D

Lunchtime

So I have again noticed that I am reading too many work related texts, and forgetting who the Prime Minister of Australia is (yes... I have actually done that... Kev, who?... very embarrassing...)... so at lunch I decided to peruse a favourite journal - Foreign Affairs, and found this very interesting article: Hydraulic Pressures - http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66578/james-e-nickum/hydraulic-pressures?page=show.

The whole article I thought was interesting, well written, and especially at the end, some very interesting comments:

As water experts say, water flows uphill to money. The rich and powerful, frequently the urban and industrial, have the biggest pumps. And there often is an inverse relationship between economic rationality and political rationality: the economic laws of scarcity push prices up even as the political laws of scarcity give officials a reason to keep prices down. Another complication is that water problems are irremediably connected, sometimes as a symptom and sometimes as a cause, to many other issues: globalization, demographics, governance, energy, health, the role of women and children, the environment. The world's water problems reflect all the world's problems.

But finally, what made me reflect a little (off topic of the water crises), is the next to last sentence on the issues, and namely the particular mention of 'women'. It didn't say: people, children, the environment, women were singled out. I guess the reason this struck a chord was that as far as we have come in equality in Western countries, there are still so many many places where women are less than people.