It seems my world and the people in my life are absolutely obsessed with being positive. Being positive has become something to flaunt to others that you possess. Proclamations such as, "I'm too optimistic to ever be negative" is something many say in a smug tone.
I have a few questions. Namely:
1. why so positive?
2. is it possible for everyone to be positive?
3. is it bad to be negative?
For one, being positive is easy if the circumstance are right. Nobody should be proud that they are positive-thinkers if their situation is favourable. If they have a promising future, good health, love and money, they have little to be negative about on a personal basis and therefore easy to be optimistic about life. But, if you are one of the billion people that go to sleep hungry at night; if you are one of the thousands of Iraqi mothers that watched their son be mercilessly murdered; if you are on of the many little girls that were brutally raped during a night raid by a militia group in Africa; if you are one of millions of Palestinians that watched with humility their home they spent a lifetime creating bulldozed to the ground in front of their family, then you have nothing to be positive about, and any positivity is admirable and commendable.
This leads to my second point, that positivity is not as clearly a mindset that you are born into or decide to have as it is a product of your thoughts and circumstances. It requires a certain amount of ignorance. It requires one to shield themselves in a bubble that blocks out the "downers" of the world, like the situations that one could find themselves in that I previously listed. You could know of the miseries in the world, but you can't sympathize and understand them at a deep level, for that will naturally make you less happy to feel their pain.
You must also only look at the bright side, and pay little attention to the negative side. What you decide to focus on is highly determinant of your mood. If you think of the bright side, and skim past the negative side, you'll be able to possess optimistic thoughts. This is fine, but it is nonetheless a conscious effort to ignore many sides of an issue.
One must, ironically, be very negative about the way things can change to be positive. The only way you can truly embrace the present, and not feel a malaise for society, is if you believe that now is good, and that it can't be drastically better. It also requires you to think that we are in a better or just as good a world relative to the past, for if you don't believe this, you will naturally have negative thoughts about your world.
Finally, the question, is being positive bad? Well, I would say no. If you are a person that sees the problems in the world and is positive and hopeful about change and are therefore optimisitc it is a very good virtue to have. However, I would describe this person more as a positive negative person. They do not say things like, "I'm so happy. I love this world. I love my life." If you want to be a happy wanderer it is okay, but you are part of the problem. Happy wanderers don't want change, or at least don't care to put in effort to make change. They have a good life and a clear head. Their life is good enough that it is not worth it to them to spoil their happy times with all the negativity in the world. But they consciously have to avoid raising topics about things that are important, such as wars, poverty, capitalism's ruinous and polarizing order. Instead they indulge in positive conversations about food, sex, wine, clothes, music, and the like.
I would say the best kind of person to be is a positive negative person. Positive negative people are aware and sympathetic to the problems of the world, but believe in change and know that things can't be perfect. They have hope and are the drivers of change. The understand that things can be much better and work towards those goals. The embrace the problems of their world instead of ignore them.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
mazeh
"Mazeh" is Persian for "taste". It is used in more ways than "taste" is in English, and I am concerned with one way in particular, when it is used to say something felt good.
If I say something "mazeh daad" or "mazeh kard" it is adding a verb to the word "taste," making it an event. Literally, "it gave taste" or "it did taste".
Something has to feel very good to say this expression. For example, taking a bite into a cold, sweet and juicy watermelon on a hot summer day... "mazeh meedeh (it gives taste). Or taking a plunge into refreshing water after hot and sweaty labour... "mazeh meedeh."
Or teaching your child how to read and then watching them become more and more skilled... mazeh meedeh.
I can't think of a literal English translation that really captures this sentiment. The closest would be "it feels satisfying" but this really misses the sentiment.
The point I wish to make is that rarely in life do you experience something that gives you "mazeh" if it comes upon you without effort. This is especially true for the bigger events in one's life. I am going to go out on a limb and make this assumption: people who had to really work hard to impress and "win" the heart of their loved ones are much deeper in love than those where things just seemed right and both decided to enter a relationship. If you had to "win" the heart of your loved one it makes her that much more precious.
The same is true for your job, your house, your car, your money, your life. If these things are handed to you, it is hard to appreciate them. If you work hard and earn them, it gives you mazeh.
The worst kind of parenting is that where you deprive your child of mazeh. If you want happiness for your child, let them earn their life. "There is no such thing as a free lunch" is true. You can offer them help and give it to them if they ask, but never go ahead and give it to them out of "kindness". And if they ask for too much say no. And if you do wish to help them get on their feet, do it in a minimal way and try to take some back.
Would you want a life where your career, your first home, your wife were all chosen and given to you by your parents?
Well neither do they.
If I say something "mazeh daad" or "mazeh kard" it is adding a verb to the word "taste," making it an event. Literally, "it gave taste" or "it did taste".
Something has to feel very good to say this expression. For example, taking a bite into a cold, sweet and juicy watermelon on a hot summer day... "mazeh meedeh (it gives taste). Or taking a plunge into refreshing water after hot and sweaty labour... "mazeh meedeh."
Or teaching your child how to read and then watching them become more and more skilled... mazeh meedeh.
I can't think of a literal English translation that really captures this sentiment. The closest would be "it feels satisfying" but this really misses the sentiment.
The point I wish to make is that rarely in life do you experience something that gives you "mazeh" if it comes upon you without effort. This is especially true for the bigger events in one's life. I am going to go out on a limb and make this assumption: people who had to really work hard to impress and "win" the heart of their loved ones are much deeper in love than those where things just seemed right and both decided to enter a relationship. If you had to "win" the heart of your loved one it makes her that much more precious.
The same is true for your job, your house, your car, your money, your life. If these things are handed to you, it is hard to appreciate them. If you work hard and earn them, it gives you mazeh.
The worst kind of parenting is that where you deprive your child of mazeh. If you want happiness for your child, let them earn their life. "There is no such thing as a free lunch" is true. You can offer them help and give it to them if they ask, but never go ahead and give it to them out of "kindness". And if they ask for too much say no. And if you do wish to help them get on their feet, do it in a minimal way and try to take some back.
Would you want a life where your career, your first home, your wife were all chosen and given to you by your parents?
Well neither do they.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
name one
101,658 civilians dead in Iraq. I watched the war report everyday. Yet I can`t name one. not even one name. Is our media that shallow and cowardly that it does not have the courage to name victims? Why are REAL wars watered down to the same level as hollywood blockbusters? for viewing pleasure is right.
in a bubble
a protective shell that keeps us sane, or often happy,
like the reinforced steel cage of a car that keeps us alive.
what a virtue to possess, to block out the world and see only light.
to read of the deaths of civilians while thinking about the freshness of the toast you are indulging.
to read of wars over water while enjoying the sweetness of your orange juice you are slurping.
like a child in a playground, like a fish unaware that it is wet, we live blissfully and ignorantly.
The woman singing in her car, believes she`s happy. knows she`s happy. feels happy. but does not know happy.
the man in his loft, believes he`s comfortable. know`s he`s comfortable. feels comfortable. but does not know comfort.
the man who thinks he's nice, but has never met a real nice person.
the woman who think's she's polite, but has not met a real polite person.
the boy who loves this song, but does not know music.
the girl who loves this boy, but does not know love.
who are we to proclaim, to feel, and to describe, when we have not seen, felt or experienced.
both children and adults only know what they know, but it is only adults who believe they understand what they know.
show me love, happiness, music, and comfort, and then i will understand what i know, and know what i feel.
take be backwards and forwards, so i know where i stand.
take me left and right, so i can stand straight.
take me into the fourth dimension, so i can understand the third.
like the reinforced steel cage of a car that keeps us alive.
what a virtue to possess, to block out the world and see only light.
to read of the deaths of civilians while thinking about the freshness of the toast you are indulging.
to read of wars over water while enjoying the sweetness of your orange juice you are slurping.
like a child in a playground, like a fish unaware that it is wet, we live blissfully and ignorantly.
The woman singing in her car, believes she`s happy. knows she`s happy. feels happy. but does not know happy.
the man in his loft, believes he`s comfortable. know`s he`s comfortable. feels comfortable. but does not know comfort.
the man who thinks he's nice, but has never met a real nice person.
the woman who think's she's polite, but has not met a real polite person.
the boy who loves this song, but does not know music.
the girl who loves this boy, but does not know love.
who are we to proclaim, to feel, and to describe, when we have not seen, felt or experienced.
both children and adults only know what they know, but it is only adults who believe they understand what they know.
show me love, happiness, music, and comfort, and then i will understand what i know, and know what i feel.
take be backwards and forwards, so i know where i stand.
take me left and right, so i can stand straight.
take me into the fourth dimension, so i can understand the third.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
full-time is for suckers
FYI: Full time work is a sucker's game*
*40 hours is not long enough to be so miserable as to rise up against it, yet just long enough and restricting enough that your life revolves around work and you never have enough time to really think about the actual quality of your life. You know things such as intellectual, social and philosophical pursuits that may just make you realize how abhorrent and complacent you have become in accepting a system such as this being the pinnacle result of 5000 years of civilization. I'm sure this is what our forefathers foresaw when they made strides in science, technology and thought. That their descendants would work in a cage without physical exertion but sedentary mental strain, would sleep far less than them, be impervious to weather; working in rain and snow and never seeing the sun, have their time and duties regulated so efficiently as to make an ant colony want to streamline, and to slave into old age to pursue a dream that was as easy to our ancestors as walking 100 metres down the road and cutting a days worth of trees; a plot of land around our home with a fence (hopefully white picket) to demarcate as our own and plant a little garden for wholesome food to grow. Today, only Tim Hortons and Wal-Mart seem to find the task of building homes quickly on ample plots of land easy. Yes, what a Brave New World we Nineteen Eighty-Fourers have grown into.
- T.K
*40 hours is not long enough to be so miserable as to rise up against it, yet just long enough and restricting enough that your life revolves around work and you never have enough time to really think about the actual quality of your life. You know things such as intellectual, social and philosophical pursuits that may just make you realize how abhorrent and complacent you have become in accepting a system such as this being the pinnacle result of 5000 years of civilization. I'm sure this is what our forefathers foresaw when they made strides in science, technology and thought. That their descendants would work in a cage without physical exertion but sedentary mental strain, would sleep far less than them, be impervious to weather; working in rain and snow and never seeing the sun, have their time and duties regulated so efficiently as to make an ant colony want to streamline, and to slave into old age to pursue a dream that was as easy to our ancestors as walking 100 metres down the road and cutting a days worth of trees; a plot of land around our home with a fence (hopefully white picket) to demarcate as our own and plant a little garden for wholesome food to grow. Today, only Tim Hortons and Wal-Mart seem to find the task of building homes quickly on ample plots of land easy. Yes, what a Brave New World we Nineteen Eighty-Fourers have grown into.
- T.K
a global shame
I should, and do, feel ashamed, because i live in a city where we waste our wealth on needless material possessions while people around the world struggle to fill their stomachs. I do not feel Canadian, or any other identity that uses political borders as its criteria for membership. I feel part of the global village, and feel an obligation towards my distant brethren to help them if they are in need. Yet i do not feel like my society is structured to care of any plight other than that of its own citizens.
I also feel dead, because a life without struggle is not worth living. Nietzsche wished his friends a life with struggle and hardship, so they could feel alive. Any existance that is too comfortable is worthless, he noted. We are too affluent for our own good, and therefore unfulfilled. This I believe.
I also feel dead, because a life without struggle is not worth living. Nietzsche wished his friends a life with struggle and hardship, so they could feel alive. Any existance that is too comfortable is worthless, he noted. We are too affluent for our own good, and therefore unfulfilled. This I believe.
Friday, June 24, 2011
work ethics are ridiculous
I am in utter disbelief that our system is naively accepted by all its sheep. Why do people accept to be treated as slaves? It must be that people are too busy to stop and think. Think about why they do what they do. Why we work harder than we ever did even though we are more efficient and productive than ever in our history, and should only have to work a fraction of our ancestors for the same yield. This is one reason.
Another reason: the human memory is shorter than we know. We can't remember how we were and felt just a few months ago, or a few days ago. The memory of an emotion is brief.
We barely understand how we feel now, let alone decades ago. But decades ago people were happier, they worked less and had more time for things that matter: family, friends, reflection, and appreciation of things around them. People were alive, had personality, and were not part of a rat race.
We are in a cage of modernity and have no idea how restricted the lives we lead are. Just like a fish does not know it is wet.
We are socialized from a young age with more rules than my harddrive can store. We are constantly trying to do what is appropriate, right, and in adherence to social norms, etiquette, and laws. We are bombarded with voices telling us to be a model citizen, to work hard, be successful, progress.
Children are happy, because they do not have these restrictions and speak, shout and live freely. They eat with their hands, fart, cry, shout and say "inappropriate" things. They do not carry the burden of being "successful"
Most of our problems could be solved if we worked less. The environment would be saved, because no longer do people feel a sense of entitlement to wasteful consumption simply because they work so hard and deserve it. We would buy things we need, and the list of what we need would be a fraction of today's list.
My generation has not experienced the 1960s, or the 1860s, or the 560s, to know that all our luxuries do not bring us happiness. What brings us happiness is good weather, socialization, and the arts. But today we live in shit weather with little socialization and little time for music and art. We have no time for our friends and children. We have time for our managers and bosses.
Our cities are polluted with the smell of exhaust rather than enriched with the smell of fresh bread coming from the local bakery down the street. We do not sing, dance, or play. We do not laugh. I do not hear laughter coming from my neighbour's house. They are alone on the computer, or with their partner watching a shitty reality show on television. People do not interact on the street with each other, but rather with their blackberrys, iphones, and ipods.
Our meals are not eaten at a human pace, but rather scarfed down like a whale.
We are losers. We are suckers.
It doesn't have to be this way. The solution is simple. We need to break down the capitalist system by slowly transferring our taxation to local municipal governments. It is national governments that sign trade agreements, start expensive wars, and make us work to pay taxes. The compete with other countries for a larger gdp.
But local governments are indifferent to the global rat race. The global race to the bottom.
Local governments are concerned with their environment, transportation, and good access to health care.
We need to stop buying junk we don't need from dollar stores, wal-mart, hardware stores, and the like. Once we only buy our necessities, such as food, shelter, public transportation, and health care, all other ficticious industries will simply collapse.
Once we stop competing at a global level, the capitalist system will fail and we will be free to spend time with people we care about and have conversations that are meaningful.
Another reason: the human memory is shorter than we know. We can't remember how we were and felt just a few months ago, or a few days ago. The memory of an emotion is brief.
We barely understand how we feel now, let alone decades ago. But decades ago people were happier, they worked less and had more time for things that matter: family, friends, reflection, and appreciation of things around them. People were alive, had personality, and were not part of a rat race.
We are in a cage of modernity and have no idea how restricted the lives we lead are. Just like a fish does not know it is wet.
We are socialized from a young age with more rules than my harddrive can store. We are constantly trying to do what is appropriate, right, and in adherence to social norms, etiquette, and laws. We are bombarded with voices telling us to be a model citizen, to work hard, be successful, progress.
Children are happy, because they do not have these restrictions and speak, shout and live freely. They eat with their hands, fart, cry, shout and say "inappropriate" things. They do not carry the burden of being "successful"
Most of our problems could be solved if we worked less. The environment would be saved, because no longer do people feel a sense of entitlement to wasteful consumption simply because they work so hard and deserve it. We would buy things we need, and the list of what we need would be a fraction of today's list.
My generation has not experienced the 1960s, or the 1860s, or the 560s, to know that all our luxuries do not bring us happiness. What brings us happiness is good weather, socialization, and the arts. But today we live in shit weather with little socialization and little time for music and art. We have no time for our friends and children. We have time for our managers and bosses.
Our cities are polluted with the smell of exhaust rather than enriched with the smell of fresh bread coming from the local bakery down the street. We do not sing, dance, or play. We do not laugh. I do not hear laughter coming from my neighbour's house. They are alone on the computer, or with their partner watching a shitty reality show on television. People do not interact on the street with each other, but rather with their blackberrys, iphones, and ipods.
Our meals are not eaten at a human pace, but rather scarfed down like a whale.
We are losers. We are suckers.
It doesn't have to be this way. The solution is simple. We need to break down the capitalist system by slowly transferring our taxation to local municipal governments. It is national governments that sign trade agreements, start expensive wars, and make us work to pay taxes. The compete with other countries for a larger gdp.
But local governments are indifferent to the global rat race. The global race to the bottom.
Local governments are concerned with their environment, transportation, and good access to health care.
We need to stop buying junk we don't need from dollar stores, wal-mart, hardware stores, and the like. Once we only buy our necessities, such as food, shelter, public transportation, and health care, all other ficticious industries will simply collapse.
Once we stop competing at a global level, the capitalist system will fail and we will be free to spend time with people we care about and have conversations that are meaningful.
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