Good and Bad?

Was just thinking..What is a "good" person? What is "goodness"? What is a "person of strong character"? Conversely, what is a "bad" person? What defines a "person of weak character". Here's my view...

Before I talk about a good person, I need to define goodness. According to me goodness is a relative term and its definition varies from one person to other according to age, experience and location. Nevertheless in its most general characteristics practical goodness may be defined as an act that benefits people in some way. The people benefited may include the person engaged in the action. However the person's profit should not exceed that of the group and he should not be the only person in profit. Any person who can judge effectively such acts for a particular society and does them is a good person for that society. A person defined as good in majority of the societies is a good person.

Talking about character, according to me it is the iron in the person. A person perfect in action, word and mind (the most important) is a person of strong character. I think character is not only what you do when people are looking at you but also what you do when people are not looking at you OR when people don't matter to you. But it has nothing to do with good or bad.

Defining bad is easy now. Badness or evil is an act that harms or hurts anybody. Any person who engages in such an act deliberately is bad.

A person of weak character is one who is what he is because he has to be, not because he wants to. They don't have courage to either be evil or good and hence die hanging in between. Of course all people don't lie on the extremes and hang or oscillate between good/bad/strong/weak. A person of strong character may be good or evil.

This is my opinion.

What is your definition of a "good" person? How do you define a "person of strong character"? What is "goodness" for you? Conversely, what is a "bad" person? Define a "person of weak character" and tell me about your understanding of "evil" or "badness". And then, tell me how you see yourself in the mirror of truth and what makes you think so? Why? If no, how do you judge people? (Don’t give me that crap that you don’t "judge"!). Do we manipulate our definitions to put ourselves with the so called goodies/ not look at our "bad" side? Or do we accept ourselves for what we are without any regrets?

And I Write...

Movement is life. We move from one point to another. Sometimes with an aim and sometimes(eh..) aimlessly. Moving because we want to or because there is no choice. The essence of movement is action. No action can be perfect. Yet perfection is the aim of many if not all. Aim as in theory. Realistically and practically it is love and its permutations that drive the mind and the self to movement. Movement as we know it and as we don't know it..

In my words you may have seen or felt the stress on complements. The twin complements which form the heavenly libran balance, the driver and the driven, want and aversion, love and hate, God and Devil... I see them as the whip of the taskmaster we call life. They get the job done. But what exactly is this "job" is difficult to write for me.

And yes, then there is this life. The life that does not have any certainities, no single and final "truth" as we know it/want it. In the end it is all but a matter of perspective and the want within. The hollow, meaningless, haunting, unfathomable rage the soul feels from time to time due to an incompleteness it cannot comprehend. Pointless! The writing, the thinking; the living... Self-preservation, relativity, laziness and directionlessness are the words that cross the mind. The mind, of course, registers them as old-old words: overused, misused, abused, repeated... And so it goes with the questions that shall remain, I now understand. Here enters the silence (clap-clap-clap!) I try to break with these mute words of mine. As they break free from my pen (figuratively, of course!), I look at them hoping they are not the ghosts I left on some other paper or the ones I read somewhere.. Hoping they will find an end for themselves so as I can go on with a work to occupy the thought that is not there. Yet.

I close my eyes and try to let go of the labels I hold on to. And I write for the pain that nobody would know and the eternity that awaits... For the joy. For love and peace..

A Bad Day

I have never felt at home on this strange planet that I have been sent to. But since I have been sent here, I must deserve to be here. But God, I don't understand... And (as usual) I think..

days will pass, nights will go
years will pass, years shall show
love will fade, friends will vanish
doubt will creep, trust shall tarnish
eternity and I are friends, I know
"happiness is a state of mind"
and so is everything else
generalizations are cheap and easy
yet they work and are convenient
everything is a matter of convenience
and profit
..and courage
courage is a relative term
everything is relative, huh?
life is the search for the absolute
the absolute is me
where?
being human is tough
being an animal is easy
I don't want to live in tomorrow
I want what I can have today
Life will take its own course
In the end they will tell me it was planned and destined
then they will ask me what I learned..
if I feel like I do right now, I may say f$%k u
and they will send me again down to another hell
because I "deserve" it?
the chains are real. What is real?The pain is..

At times like these I find happiness in falling because there is nothing I feel to rise for or rise to. Selfishness, the inseparable basic animal instinct can permutate to take form of good or/and bad deeds. Love becomes the instrument of fate. Destiny awaits. I am human and I have my weaknesses. I learn slow and steady what I don't understand. My eyes don't tell me if it is night or day. My skin feels no snow or sun. But I do suffer for reasons I never know or comprehend. Somewhere caught in the cob-webs of my sentiments and ego is my happiness. Want to break free of everything, want to feel only peace. Can you hear me...

Getting Your Facts Right!

"Much of the information that people assume is "factual" actually turns out to be inaccurate. Thus, any piece referred to as a 'fact' should be mistrusted since it may well be proven false in the future."

Hindu philosophy defines truth as something that was, is and will be. This is the definition that people associate in general with "facts" they collect from science journals, newspapers, television etc. The people who think they know it all are in for a rude shock the day they decide to open their eyes a little more. The truth is that there are no static and absolute facts.

People talk about religious superstitions. They are the well known ones. Another kind of superstition has taken root of late : scientific superstition. If you recite something said by a scientist, the chances are that the listener will accept it as it is. The truth of the statement will seldom, if ever, be questioned. Any keen science student can tell you that modern science is highly applicative and totally result oriented. Constant experimentation, documentation, visualization, study and accidents by some of the greatest minds has given science its present face. There is only one thing : we do not really know how it happens. We just know it does and we know how to do it. Theories are put forward to answer many questions that have teased the human mind for eons. Theories and hypotheses come and go. Facts of one era become good but incompetent theories for the next. Be it evolution from Bohr's model of the atom to Schrodinger Wave Equations or Newton's classical mechanics to Einstein's relativity, there is nothing called fact. There is only evolution.

Why only science? There is no branch of studies in which rules/ facts/ theories/ hypotheses have remained invariably same. The pattern has been the same. Since the natural tendency of human beings is to progress, it is but expected that a statement that is a fact today may well be proven false in the future. Assuming any statement to be a fact is an unscientific attitude. One should always take a statement as an argument, an intelligent one if it has weight. We may not have any answers against it and it may even feel correct. Nevertheless the truth remains that it may not be correct.

If this sounds like a perfect recipe to become a skeptic, it cannot be helped. This is how it is going to be for anyone who will not settle for anything but the truth.

Nobody said anything about definitely finding it!

Can Conformity Kill Creativity?

"Conformity almost always leads to deadening of individual creativity and energy"
How can conformity always lead to deadening of individual's creativity and energy?If you want to learn something you do not know, you have no choice but to be a conformist. It is so because we need a place to start, a standard to refer to. It is by using this standard that we can gauge our success or failure. Everyone has to begin somewhere as a conformist.

The problem is not in beginning as a conformist but in remaining one! One has to remember that once you understand the rules, you need not get stuck in them. You can bend and break them as you please in order to get a good result. This is what is creativity all about. Creativity is the intutive ability to see and manipulate the rules of a trade or art to give results different from the ordinary. The problem begins when one looses sight of the goal and gets stuck in the means. The map becomes the prison and creativity meets a sad end. In this case conformity indeed leads to deadening of individual creativity and energy. Else conformity is just one of the many steps towards creativity. Even if you want to break the rules, you need to know them first. Conforming is a positive step in the growth of an individual. It becomes an act that enhances or updates the knowledge of an individual. If one is pursuing a branch of knowledge, it is sure that some people may have pursued it earlier. Benefitting from their experience is a wise thing to do. Getting stuck in it is not. Swami Vivekananda said that it is good to be born in a temple but bad to die in it. This means that religious ceremonies are just means to attach the mind to the supernatural. It is good to have them when the mind needs something concrete to hold on to the idea of God. All the same if you get stuck in the rituals and forget the real aim, it is bad for you. The message for us : start as a conformist to learn but do not get stuck!

Here comes up the role of a teacher. A good teacher can make the student aware if his conformity is helping him grow or is deadening his creativity and energy. Other deterrents are self-awareness, clear aims and intense desire to grow.

Concluding, conformity is not the enemy. Our approach towards it can be. Conformity without any aim or ambition is a sure road to kill creativity. Else it is just a step towards creativity. So, be a conformist. Just do not remain one forever.

Is Loyalty Good or Bad?

"Most people are taught that loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty--whether to one's friends to one's school or place of employment, or to any institution--is a destructive rather than positive force"

Loyalty is one of those qualities that we really look for in fellow human beings around us. In a highly competetive world it is comforting to know that you have someone reliable around you, someone who will not stab you in the back. Saying that loyalty is a destructive force may seem absurd. Is it like condemning an act of goodness?

If we assume that loyalty is indeed a destructive force, this implies that one should not be loyal. In the absence of the concept of loyalty, the person is free to follow a course which pleases him the most or suits his interests. He is also free to ignore, even harm, the interest of organization or people to whom he was supposedly loyal. This can be his workplace, school, college, friends, girlfriend, spouse, children or teacher. What would you call such a person? Opportunistic, egoistic, egocentric, unreliable : you have your choice of words to take and add. Would you like to be such a person? Would you like to have such a person around you?

In this era of globalization and fierce competition, many free lancers and professionals sell their brains to the highest bidder. Even for them commitment is a commitment. One takes the money one wants and delivers the result expected with no strings attached. It is said that even the world of crime has ethos. Without loyalty and the trust generated by such loyalty no project on the face of this earth can move forward.

So why do I say loyalty can be a destructive force? Loyalty can be a destructive force if it is selfishly bent and twisted to take some ugly forms like bigotry or chauvinism. Loyalty cannot be used as an excuse to harm or look down upon others. The feeling of mutual loyalty binds a family. The same feeling may be said to bind a terrorist organization! When we insist on being loyal and steadfast, sometimes we tend to overlook the mistakes of the people we are loyal to. One has to remember that being loyal means being dependable and trustworthy. It does not mean condoning or assisting in wrong doing. If your friend is digging his way down to hell, as a loyal buddy it is your duty to stop him and not to help him. Nevertheless some people do interpret loyalty as closing their eyes and ears.

Loyalty also does not mean that even if people use you, abuse you, walk over you with hob-nail boots; you still stick to them! Sticking to a company that pays you less and uses you more, staying in an abusive relationship, siding with your friend even when you know what he/she is doing is downright evil, indiscriminately promoting useless people because they belong to your region/religion/caste/country are some examples of how loyalty can be a destructive force.

Concluding, in the final analysis loyalty in itself is a neutral quality. Obsession with it can be destructive and so can be its total absence. It is definitely indispensable for successful group work. Whether it shows up as a positive or a destructive force depends on the kind of work the group does and the discretion/intelligence of the individuals. Unfortunately in today's world it is more of a destructive rather than a constructive force...

Freedom or Restriction?

"Most prefer restrictions and regulations to absolute freedom of choice, even though they might deny such a preference"

Who has ever heard of a "restricted" fun or party? Democracy works on the basic principle of freedom. People have fought and died for their freedom. The basic nature of any living soul is to be free. Even in a war it is a bad strategy to not give enemy any room for maneuver. Every cell in our body screams that we are free.

Yet we cannot deny that without rules and restrictions our life would come to a standstill. Yes, most people do prefer restrictions and regulations in many things. Law and order, schedule, time-table, organization : these are some of the words that have become embedded in our daily lives. These are the words which are enough to remind us how much we prefer restrictions and regulations. Without rules lives would go haywire. There would be utter chaos and total destruction.

So, what is wrong? What do people really prefer, after all!

The truth is that people in general prefer stability, fun, freedom and growth. The people are supposed to be free. However this freedom needs to be defined clearly and enforced equally to hold any meaning. Failing this it will not be freedom, it will be anarchy. Absolute freedom may work perfectly for a hypothetical perfect society. In real life it amounts to anarchy. As ironical as it may seem, the aim of regulations and restrictions is to make freedom flourish! It also has an additional task of preventing chaos and misuse of freedom. A man is free to move, eat, talk, vote, love, work, spend and worship. He is not free to steal, kill, loot, threaten and fight! A schedule has to be maintained so as you can do your work more efficiently. A organization needs regulations to ensure smooth working. Nevertheless it cannot dictate its employee's personal lives, discriminate between them on racial grounds or refuse to pay them. There are rules that prevent them from encroaching on an employee's freedom and vice versa.

Concluding, freedom and regulations co-exist in a delicate balance.Saying that most people prefer absolute freedom is as absurd as claiming that they prefer restrictions and regulations! Preferences of the people in particular and masses in general differ from place to place, situation to situation. Generalizing such preferences is simply not possible. The boundaries of freedom and regulations have always clashed trying to strike the right balance. But that is another story...