Influences Part 1

I can tell you that I am only influenced by God and the Bible, that I run my life strictly based on what the Good Book says. If I did, I would be lying to you. Sometimes you just can't help it, some things just grab hold of you and never let go. Therefore, I have decided to post some of the things that got a hold on me so that perhaps you can get a better idea of where I come from when reading my other posts. I intend to make this a series. I hope...

Last week I caught the local debating TV show on Channel 5 called "The Arena". Its basically a revamped version of the traditional debating format that school students compete in. The topic for the week was that if people were self centered by nature. While the debate was pretty much a one sided affair, the topic reminded me of a school of philosophy called "objectivism". I came across it while doing a bit of research for a philosophy and worldview course that I did few years ago.

In this philosophy, a man's sole purpose in life is the pursuit of his own happiness through logic and reason. In that pursuit of happiness that man must not expect others to make sacrifices for his happiness nor must he sacrifice himself for the sake of others, that is considered immoral. It was created by a philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand. So fascinated I was with her thinking that I bought one of her best selling books titled "Atlas Shrugged".

The reason I guess I was so taken by her philosophy was because it flies in the face of what "traditional" philosophies tells you about altruism, caring for your fellow men. But objectivism frowns upon altruism as evil, a total opposite. The movement waned somewhat after Ayn Rand's death and other more traditional philosophers have branded objectivism as just a fad, something that has faded away. But I disagree, if you look at how the world is at the moment and the way people think, you will come to see that objectivism has more of a hold now than ever before.

The videos below are parts of an interview she did for television so you could hear it right from the horses' mouth (so to speak). I think you will agree with me that she is brilliant, flawed maybe but brilliant nonetheless.

Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3

Yesterday Night

Yesterday night, I was watching "Arts Central" in my room, the channel was airing a documentary series called "Taboo" which delves in how different cultures have different reactions and practices to certain things and what might be taboo in some cultures are perfectly ok in others.

This particular episode I was watching was covering different definitions of beauty by different cultures and what extend they go to to achieve their definition of beauty. Some of them were pretty extreme, for example the women from a tribe in the island of Java willingly chip their teeth to look "beautiful." The process of "teeth chipping" (so to speak) involves some shaman chipping the teeth with nothing but a wooden hammer and a parang so it is a pretty painful.

But what caught my eye was the part about people in China who purposely break their legs and forcefully lengthen them just to look taller. The reason they do this is because short people are looked down upon and shunned in China. My uncle once broke his leg while playing football a few years back and the pain and suffering he when through was enormous. Even now, being fully recovered he still feels occasional pain and weakness in that leg especially during rainy weather. But now we have people willing to through twice the hell my uncle went through just to get a few centimetres of height. Twice because my uncle only broke one leg. :)

There is no doubt that being "pleasant looking" does give you a headstart in life. It will help in getting a job, attracting a mate and even being socially accepted. But are we going to change a part of ourselves just to be accepted by a social circle, just to get that job or even just to make that guy/girl fall in love with me? Or are we going to stay true to ourselves and find friends that will take us for who we are, make the effort to look for a job we truly enjoy and find fulfilling and fall in love with someone who will truly love us for who we are? Is changing who we are whether physically or otherwise a betrayal to the way God made you? These were the questions I asked myself in my sleep yesterday night

Craziness

2006 is gone and right now we are about a week plus into 2007. But as I look back into 2006, I can't help thinking what a crazy year it was. Taking it from a worldwide perspective, the most powerful man in the world (for those of you who do not know who I am talking about, maybe it is better that way) dug himself into a deeper hole than he was in, Iraq being a big factor in that. Sometimes when I watch some of his speeches and press conferences on YouTube, It feels as though he is talking to a five year old kid.

Then we have North Korea, one of the poorest and isolated countries in the world whose all powerful leader managed to gather enough resources go nuclear while their people starve in famine. I guess that is what happens when your priorities are screwed up, people closest to you suffer.

Closer to home in South East Asia, we have a coup in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines each got two visits from typoons where people were killed, causing much destruction and suffering. It rained like never before in December which caused floods in neighbouring Malaysia displacing tens of thousands from their homes and again causing much destruction and suffering. The fact that Singapore managed to get by relatively unscathed amist all this chaos is nothing short of God's grace and mercy.

Yes 2006 is a crazy year but 2007 looks set not to disappoint. Already an execution of a former dictator (Saddam) has already gone horribly wrong turning him into a heroic icon even a martyr. Not only was the execution badly timed (it coincided with the Islamic Haj celebrations), it has also become a farce. Apparently, someone decided it was a bright idea to tape the execution and when the video leaked out into the mass media, we see people taunting him telling him to "burn in hell", while Saddam seemed to have this otherworldly dignity about him waiting for his time to come. Now I do not know much about executions but I think if the most dignified looking man in an execution is the man who is about to die then I think the whole thing could have been better managed.

Now with all this craziness one might be tempted to think that he or she is the only sane person in the world, but in this crazy world being sane might be very unhealthy. :)