Avalon

Thinker?

Monday, March 17, 2008

Personally I don't have anything against philosophy or profound knowledge, but I never really see a relation between that and myself. Not much of a surprise, since I am rather incoherent and senseless most of the time. That's how you become safe in a crazy world anyway. My own stubborn and rather warped theory.

But anyway, I was just chatting about I-forgot-what-topic after dinner over drinks with my friend today, and I don't know why but discussions somehow always lead to subjects that require a reasonable amount of brainwork, logic and seriousness... It's amazing how we 'manage' our conversations (obviously we didn't keep a tight rein on them) I sometimes feel like videoing it down for personal viewing pleasure when I am bored.. Reminds me of this movie "Before sunset" where the two leads meet after 5 years and start chatting about everything under the sun while strolling around the city... and the entire movie is about that.

Whatever it is, an interesting point to note is we came to a rather debatable conclusion that communication, or a need for it, and human interaction comes from ultimately, one word: interest. Interest in the form of the feeling of a person whose attention, concern, or curiosity is particularly engaged by something. Interest in the form of importance to oneself, one's welfare for instance. And we sort of agreed that if people stop thinking, there won't be any lines leading to conflicts, because your 'interest' won't be aroused, your beliefs and whatever you hold won't be challenged, you won't even bother the people around you, even if they are different, which is true inherently for everyone. It's sometimes just about how many similarities you can derive at. And people fight over differences, however small the magnitude of the conflict is. Kids fight in playgrounds over who gets to use the swing longer. Nation leaders fight for interests of their countries and people (well that's what we are told) and if diplomacy fails and should there be a need for aggression (which again is dormant in each of us) things will escalate to something bigger, from trade sanctions to military intervention to war... It's just the size of the playground. So thinking is the new root of all evil? And good as well... So if everyone can stop thinking and just go about their own lives until their time is up, without hindering others, assuming that everyone is contented with what they have, whatever they get, we might be able to truly form a utopian world, but I doubt it will be desired. 世界大同是如此恐怖。

That's what a cup of mocha latte can do to you.

I got acquainted with the term "rugged individualism" which I think is interesting from Yimeng a couple of days ago. Taken from Hoover's speech, the essence is (quoted from Ym) one should work hard and not depend on others. Somehow, it doesn't sound selfish to adopt such a set of thinking.. Especially in this age of personal expression, who can truly be selfless?

Envoy of the Stars @ 10:39 PM
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