This is definitely a spam!!
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 2 July 2004, 5:32am
I have started reading Atlas Shrugged again(for the nth time)...this time online..
I'm about 1/4 of the way through (it's a LONG book..at least when viewed in a computer screen) and am beginning to wonder if I'm doomed to an unhappy life because I have no purpose.
I have began to ask everyone I encounter what their purpose is. It amazes me how empty many peoples purposes seem to me. I often feel like telling them that, they too, are purposeless and just don't realize it. What is your purpose?
I'm glad that I'm getting caught up in such big questions!
My view of 'purpose' is rather different from Rand's. I believe that most of us humans should not so narrowly focus long-term obsessions. In many ways, psychologically, 'specialization is for insects'.
When it comes to big questions like 'purpose', I see the world more as a naturalist and less as a philosopher. Three films spring to mind: the PBS Evolution series, Microcosmos (the dramatic lives of insects & flowers), and Adaptation (a story weaving human goals with the evolutionary success of life throughout history).
Our minds are huge, and we face a wide range of choices. Nonetheless, we are organisms -- and are never really removed from the fabric of life. (That may sound somehow environmentalist for a moment here, but I totally don't mean it that way. Species compete with each other & use each other, and the naturalist perspective should have no problem with that!) What I mean is mostly that our species has evolved to find some (kinds of) goals inspiring/uplifting/meaningful -- and to be unable to sustain real thriving interest in other kinds of goals.
Looking as a naturalist, the big question is whether a human is thriving -- and what they might do to better that. Making yourself more vital to your tribe (especially those you care most about) is often the best way to thrive more. That one is what drives a lot of idealistic-type people into medical professions -- and it's what haunts them once they're out there working & often feeling interchangeable with other doctors & nurses (which they might describe more vaguely as feeling caught up in a big impersonal system).
What's my personal purpose? Insight. I'm not unique in this lifelong periodic obsession, but my evolving structure of insights becomes more distinctive every year.
Okay, back to reading a book that really depresses me... ;-)
Current Mood: Grand
Current Music: Grandaddy - "Now Its On" & Skyflakes - "Bad Thoughts"
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Optimists vs. Pessimists..
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 1 July 2004, 11:37am
This is a little tricky..for most part of my acquaintance with decisions and views I consider myself a natural optimist. I do sometimes think of myself as a realistic evaluator of events, not biased by any fixed tendency to interpret things positively.
I am optimistic most of the time and about most issues 'coz-
Most bad things that happen do not seriously affect my ability to enjoy life as an individual. Most good things contribute to my ability to enjoy it.
I am tremendously aware of the power of good ideas over bad, and see the evil of the world as inherently weak and self-destructive.
The first was with me for most of my life. The second is acquired, and I think the more I learn history the more optimistic I get.
I've met a lot of Objectivists who are perpetual pessimists. They are dropping the context, since they seem to see only the bad, and ignore the good.
Some, however, seem to see both and focus on the bad, while I see both and focus on the good. The reason I do that is that on the basis of the good, I can work.On the basis of the bad, I can only quit or whine.
Is this merely a sense of life issue, or a complex historical evaluation in which different people get different results?
Current Mood: Happy Indeed!
Current Music: another stop sign..u keep moving!
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Art of denouncing - I quit says Russell!
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 30 June 2004, 10:01pm
I find young men or women who aspire to become thought leaders everywhere..A rational and truthful thought leads me to the conclusion that I was also one..But I do hope they will avoid certain errors into which I fell in my youth (not too long ago :)) for want of good advice. When I wished to form an opinion upon a subject, I used to study it, weigh the arguments on different sides, and attempt to reach a balanced conclusion. I have since discovered that this is not the way to do things. A man of genius knows it all without the need of study; his opinions are pontifical and depend for their persuasiveness upon literary style rather than argument. It is necessary to be one-sided, since this facilitates the vehemence that is considered a proof of strength. It is essential to appeal to prejudices and passions of which men have begun to feel ashamed and to do this in the name of some new ineffable ethic. It is well to decry the slow and pettifogging minds which require evidence in order to reach conclusions. Above all, whatever is most ancient should be dished up as the very latest thing. There is no novelty in this recipe for genius; it was practised from the time of our grandfathers, in the time of our fathers, and it has been practised in our own time. One of the most important elements of success in becoming a man of genius is to learn the art of denunciation. You must always denounce in such a way that your reader/listener thinks that it is the other fellow who is being denounced Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age.
and not himself; in that case he will be impressed by your noble scorn,
whereas if he thinks that it is himself that you are denouncing, he will
consider that you are guilty of ill-bred peevishness. I remember some noble writer of my time screamed: `The population of this country is Nine hundered millions, mostly fools.'' Everybody who read this considered himself one of the exceptions, and therefore enjoyed the remark. You must not denounce well-defined classes, such as persons with more than a certain income, inhabitants of a certain area, or believers in some definite creed; for if you do this, some of you will know that your invective is directed against them. You must denounce persons whose emotions are atrophied, persons to whom only plodding study can reveal the truth, for we all know that these are other people, and we shall therefore view with sympathy your powerful diagnosis of the evils of the age.
Current Mood: Triumphant
Current Music: sshh....
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Ramblings of a crazed confused insomniac:
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 30 June 2004, 8:25am
I feel like I can see every ebbing soul, every broken dream, every shattered memory, every emotion that passed by... like a stranger in the night.
Current Mood: Bad Hair Day
Current Music: Do NOT make friends with the rock stars!
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Journey, With Eyes wide open
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 30 June 2004, 8:10am
Being in transit is my favorite time.
I define *in transit* as being between one place and another, experiencing the true potential of transitioning between a nostalgic past and a shining future. Though I know that it could be said metaphorically that all life is like that, it
Current Mood: Heroic
Current Music: Sea Ray - "Revelry"
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your struggle to shrug your shadow off
Stand-Alone Dreamer | 29 June 2004, 9:40pm
it is a dream..to get ur mind..ur thots obey you..How many times during the long and drab day at work or in school that you felt you are wandering around in premises of which you probably haven't even though of previously..you think about it..fantasise about it..nuture a little dream out of it..and then wake up next day completely unaware of it...it is time for another dream...another piece of thot..they come and go..
how often do you get to think of what you want to think? Or is there something called 'What you want to think? '.. Isn't what you are thinking now what you want to think..??
Current Mood: Feeling Better
Current Music: wanna walk agin in the sun...
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