Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed a controversial bill that had passed a few days previously, which would have allowed businesses to refuse to serve gay people, on the basis of religious beliefs.
Whilst I have rarely agreed with Governor Brewer in the past, I applaud her decision this time.
The bill was just morally unacceptable, in my opinion. There are absolutely no religious beliefs that require a person to refuse to serve gay people that I am aware of. There are people with religious beliefs that oppose gay weddings being held in their church, but no country in the world has made that kind of 'service' compulsory for any church to offer to anyone in the first place.
Therefore, let me put it bluntly - the bill was all about being mean to gay people, in my opinion. It's not acceptable to me morally, and I believe it's not acceptable to many people morally. If this doesn't deserve a veto, I don't know what does.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
How Facebook Distorts the World
Most of us have Facebook. You probably have one. And many people log onto Facebook multiple times a day. You probably do, or you may know somebody who does.
But paying too much attention to Facebook may not be that healthy.
In an ideal world, people would post their happy moments as well as their problems in life to share with friends. However, many people like to look better than they really feel in life. Therefore, many people only share the best moments in their life. As a result, there are often way too many picture perfect lives in Facebook Land.
Don't feel like you need to live up to those picture perfect lives. They don't exist in reality.
On another note, I wonder what part of human nature has caused this phenomenon? What's the shame in sharing the less glamorous moments of your life, I wonder?
But paying too much attention to Facebook may not be that healthy.
In an ideal world, people would post their happy moments as well as their problems in life to share with friends. However, many people like to look better than they really feel in life. Therefore, many people only share the best moments in their life. As a result, there are often way too many picture perfect lives in Facebook Land.
Don't feel like you need to live up to those picture perfect lives. They don't exist in reality.
On another note, I wonder what part of human nature has caused this phenomenon? What's the shame in sharing the less glamorous moments of your life, I wonder?
Monday, February 24, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Three Things to Do for Success
Every now and then, we need some motivation to carry on. So here's something my friend and I want to share with you. Success in life doesn't come quickly, but if we do these three things right, it will come eventually.
1) Start Working ASAP
Many dreams and goals in the modern world require complex navigation to achieve. This has meant that some people plan obsessively. But this wastes your time. When you move forward with your project, whatever it is, you will find out more about it. By the time you get some significant progress, things may have changed so much that your plans have become irrelevant. So have rough outline type plans to guide yourself wherever you are going, but never plan obsessively.
2) Stay the Course
As we all know, dreams take long to achieve, and they take even longer in this complex and big modern world of ours. We must keep ourselves motivated enough to stay the course, which can be many years. Or else, we would just have a long list of uncompleted projects and goals.
3) Keep a Firm Eye on the Target
As we come across barrier after barrier and detour after detour, it is easy to lose sight of our actual target and get distracted by other things. We need to remind ourselves to keep a firm eye on our actual target, and brush aside things like irrelevant comments, difficult people and unfair circumstances (as long as not grossly unfair enough to warrant a complaint). These things should not be able to stop us.
1) Start Working ASAP
Many dreams and goals in the modern world require complex navigation to achieve. This has meant that some people plan obsessively. But this wastes your time. When you move forward with your project, whatever it is, you will find out more about it. By the time you get some significant progress, things may have changed so much that your plans have become irrelevant. So have rough outline type plans to guide yourself wherever you are going, but never plan obsessively.
2) Stay the Course
As we all know, dreams take long to achieve, and they take even longer in this complex and big modern world of ours. We must keep ourselves motivated enough to stay the course, which can be many years. Or else, we would just have a long list of uncompleted projects and goals.
3) Keep a Firm Eye on the Target
As we come across barrier after barrier and detour after detour, it is easy to lose sight of our actual target and get distracted by other things. We need to remind ourselves to keep a firm eye on our actual target, and brush aside things like irrelevant comments, difficult people and unfair circumstances (as long as not grossly unfair enough to warrant a complaint). These things should not be able to stop us.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
It's a Long Ride: Living the Practical Life whilst Chasing your Dreams
When you were younger, you could have all these wild dreams about the future. But then, you also needed to deal with the reality of what was then right now - schoolwork, exams, all the practical stuff associated with your life at the time. After all, if you failed that test, your parents would likely give you a hard time, and you didn't want that.
Now that you are an adult, it's a similar situation. In parallel with dreaming big and trying to achieve your dreams, you also need to take care of things like making ends meet and paying bills. It's just how life is. It's just that these things have replaced your schoolwork and exams as the things you 'just need to do' in life.
Don't let all these things drag you down though. Although like school you need to do these things 'well enough' to avoid trouble, you shouldn't let your spirit of dreaming get tarnished by any setbacks in these practical everyday things. After all, a poor score on one test at school didn't affect your dreams about the future, right?
Another thing is that, for dream chasing young adults these days, 'settling down' has become a thing of the past. The practical realities of the biological clock and dreams taking longer to come true means that we often will need to think about starting families before the dreams in life have come true. However, starting a family doesn't mean we need to adopt the 'settling down' philosophy of previous generations. To us, the duties and hard work associated with starting a family is just another thing we have to juggle in life, on the long road towards achieving our dreams.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
Now that you are an adult, it's a similar situation. In parallel with dreaming big and trying to achieve your dreams, you also need to take care of things like making ends meet and paying bills. It's just how life is. It's just that these things have replaced your schoolwork and exams as the things you 'just need to do' in life.
Don't let all these things drag you down though. Although like school you need to do these things 'well enough' to avoid trouble, you shouldn't let your spirit of dreaming get tarnished by any setbacks in these practical everyday things. After all, a poor score on one test at school didn't affect your dreams about the future, right?
Another thing is that, for dream chasing young adults these days, 'settling down' has become a thing of the past. The practical realities of the biological clock and dreams taking longer to come true means that we often will need to think about starting families before the dreams in life have come true. However, starting a family doesn't mean we need to adopt the 'settling down' philosophy of previous generations. To us, the duties and hard work associated with starting a family is just another thing we have to juggle in life, on the long road towards achieving our dreams.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
Monday, February 3, 2014
Taking your Dreams Outside of the System
As we discussed in the last section, the world, when taken as a whole, can often be seen as being run by one big impersonal and unemotional system that 'just works' but will sometimes quash your dreams without even trying. Realising this, one great way to protect and nurture your dreams is to take as much of it 'outside the system' as possible.
But what is 'in the system' and what is 'outside the system'? Anything that requires input or approval from established interests as an essential ingredient for success is relying on part of 'the system', I believe. If your life goals are that you want to travel the world or write a novel that other people will want to read, they really don't rely much on any company, government or any established interests, if you think about it. Surely, it may take some time and money, but you can work towards it with your own effort. But if you dream relies on a series of promotions within a corporate or political hierarchy, then they essentially rely on the decisions of powerful people in charge of different parts of the system. I am not saying that those dreams are any less valid, it's just that putting all your dreaming eggs in a basket like those is a big risk to take in life. It essentially sets you up to have a high risk of being quashed in spirit.
Fortunately, there are many ways of achieving the same kind of dream in this world, and usually not all of them need to involve 'the system' that much. For example, if your dream is to 'make a difference in the technology world', you can either work for a tech company, hope to climb up the ranks there, and eventually influence the kind of products it makes or the ethics it conducts its business by. But another way of doing it is to learn some programming yourself, and write and release your own dream software. Yet another way is by starting a tech blog, and sharing around ideas that may help shape the tech sphere. The difference is that first way relies on the system, and the other two ways don't. You mileage may vary even with the two ways that don't rely on the system, but it's not like another year without a promotion can quash your spirit so easily. In this world where dreams take so long to achieve, it's really an advantage not to be subjected to barrier after barrier where you may be quashed by the system each time.
I am not saying that you should give up your dreams that are somewhat tied to the system. What I am saying is that, you may need to develop other dreams in parallel, if your primary dream is tied to the system. This way, your dreaming spirit cannot be easily quashed by some random corporate decision, perhaps caused by some random economic event. This alone will make you feel much better about yourself in the longer run, trust me.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
But what is 'in the system' and what is 'outside the system'? Anything that requires input or approval from established interests as an essential ingredient for success is relying on part of 'the system', I believe. If your life goals are that you want to travel the world or write a novel that other people will want to read, they really don't rely much on any company, government or any established interests, if you think about it. Surely, it may take some time and money, but you can work towards it with your own effort. But if you dream relies on a series of promotions within a corporate or political hierarchy, then they essentially rely on the decisions of powerful people in charge of different parts of the system. I am not saying that those dreams are any less valid, it's just that putting all your dreaming eggs in a basket like those is a big risk to take in life. It essentially sets you up to have a high risk of being quashed in spirit.
Fortunately, there are many ways of achieving the same kind of dream in this world, and usually not all of them need to involve 'the system' that much. For example, if your dream is to 'make a difference in the technology world', you can either work for a tech company, hope to climb up the ranks there, and eventually influence the kind of products it makes or the ethics it conducts its business by. But another way of doing it is to learn some programming yourself, and write and release your own dream software. Yet another way is by starting a tech blog, and sharing around ideas that may help shape the tech sphere. The difference is that first way relies on the system, and the other two ways don't. You mileage may vary even with the two ways that don't rely on the system, but it's not like another year without a promotion can quash your spirit so easily. In this world where dreams take so long to achieve, it's really an advantage not to be subjected to barrier after barrier where you may be quashed by the system each time.
I am not saying that you should give up your dreams that are somewhat tied to the system. What I am saying is that, you may need to develop other dreams in parallel, if your primary dream is tied to the system. This way, your dreaming spirit cannot be easily quashed by some random corporate decision, perhaps caused by some random economic event. This alone will make you feel much better about yourself in the longer run, trust me.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
Saturday, February 1, 2014
When Does Somebody Become Old?
So where do we draw the line between 'young' and 'old'? Is it 25? 30? 40? 50? Or 60?
I actually believe being old is not a number, but a life stage you enter when you are ready to. When 25 year olds get told that they are old, it often causes a crisis (as we have been talking about so far). When 40 year olds get told that they are old, it doesn't cause such a major crisis usually, but they surely don't like it much either. But when a 70 year old gets told that they are old, chances are that they would be willing to accept it as a matter of fact. The typical 70 year old doesn't enjoy the physical limitations of being old, like lower mobility, back pain and having to take their medication every day, but they are probably not that bothered to be considered by society as old people.
I believe people are content to accept the label 'old' when they are ready. This would be when they have done what they set out to do in life, and have played the role they were born to play. This surely can be said of most 70 year olds out there, hence their contentment with being old. At 40, chances are that you have only very partially achieved the above contentment, hence you don't want to be old yet. At 25, chances are that you haven't even fully explored your dreams and your own narrative in life, to be told that you are old is like being told that life is almost over even before it really had a chance to bloom. In other words, you are old and are contented to be so when you feel that you have done your life's work. To tell a 25 or a 40 year old that they are old is simply illogical and cruel, even if that is what our media is effectively saying.
Old is settled, content and accomplished then. The opposite of 'old' is 'young'. If that's the case, then young must carry with it ideas of being unsettled, not yet content and wanting more in life. Because being old is settled and content, it is calm and charming in its own way, and not only the people who are ready to be old can appreciate that, we the not-yet-old can also appreciate these qualities in old people. Because being young is unsettled and unsatisfied, it carries with it an energy to do things, an energy to dream, an energy to achieve. In other words, the state of being 'young' carries with it the required energy to do what it takes to become accomplished and contented in life, and when the work is done, this energy ceases and is replaced by a calm contented feeling that is the state of being 'old'. In life, if you want to live it fully, first you need to be young and fully embrace that spirit of being young by embracing your dreams and going for it with all your energy. Then, when your life's work is done, you will enter into a contented old age. The more you are able to embrace being young, the more you are able to have a contented, golden old age.
Therefore it is important for young people to embrace being young, and it is truly toxic that some sections of the culture are making them feel old. This is why we must fight back against the distortion.
30 is the new 20, we often people say. And 40 is the new 30 too, apparently. Many people have laughed at these slogans, as if they are silly things people say. After all, physically 30 cannot really be the new 20, right? And a 40 year old will always look and function like a 40 year old, no matter if it's 2014, 1984 or 1954, right? They are just thing people say to cope with getting older in a youth obsessed culture, making this difficult reality easier to swallow, right?
Physically, thirty is the new twenty really makes no sense, I agree. But socially, it makes perfect sense. Why? As we concluded in the last section, people need to be 'young' so that they have the energy to achieve their life's work, and then when they feel accomplished they can enter old age contentedly. In a previous section we also concluded that people actually generally take longer to find their dreams, to work towards their goals, and to do their life's work to their contentment. That naturally means that people NEED to remain in the state of being young for a longer period than ever before in human history. A longer life expectancy has made that convenient too, but the driver behind this really is the delay in being accomplished in this day and age, rather than the fact that many people live into their 80s and beyond.
Many people have a strong reluctance, consciously or subconsciously, to embrace this concept of an extended youth. After all, this goes against our logical upbringing. Many things in this world have an absolute value that is objective and unchanging. Your ten dollar note cannot be extended into twenty dollars after all. This leads many people to think that any extension in the state of being young is purely wishful thinking from those who do not want to age gracefully. But as we have established, the states of being 'young' and 'old' shouldn't be defined by absolute numbers, but should be seen as two different life stages. Unlike your age, which is a simple mathematical calculation whose formula stays constant throughout history, life stages are relative, and in different periods of human history, different life stages have emerged (and more rarely some have been erased). The life stage of being a teenager, for example, only emerged during the last century, even though it seems to be just part of common sense nowadays. Even though it wasn't there for most of human history, for our generation the extended youth is real - you can embrace it, or if you don't, you will be forcing yourself to grow old before your time, a truly bitter experience.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
I actually believe being old is not a number, but a life stage you enter when you are ready to. When 25 year olds get told that they are old, it often causes a crisis (as we have been talking about so far). When 40 year olds get told that they are old, it doesn't cause such a major crisis usually, but they surely don't like it much either. But when a 70 year old gets told that they are old, chances are that they would be willing to accept it as a matter of fact. The typical 70 year old doesn't enjoy the physical limitations of being old, like lower mobility, back pain and having to take their medication every day, but they are probably not that bothered to be considered by society as old people.
I believe people are content to accept the label 'old' when they are ready. This would be when they have done what they set out to do in life, and have played the role they were born to play. This surely can be said of most 70 year olds out there, hence their contentment with being old. At 40, chances are that you have only very partially achieved the above contentment, hence you don't want to be old yet. At 25, chances are that you haven't even fully explored your dreams and your own narrative in life, to be told that you are old is like being told that life is almost over even before it really had a chance to bloom. In other words, you are old and are contented to be so when you feel that you have done your life's work. To tell a 25 or a 40 year old that they are old is simply illogical and cruel, even if that is what our media is effectively saying.
Old is settled, content and accomplished then. The opposite of 'old' is 'young'. If that's the case, then young must carry with it ideas of being unsettled, not yet content and wanting more in life. Because being old is settled and content, it is calm and charming in its own way, and not only the people who are ready to be old can appreciate that, we the not-yet-old can also appreciate these qualities in old people. Because being young is unsettled and unsatisfied, it carries with it an energy to do things, an energy to dream, an energy to achieve. In other words, the state of being 'young' carries with it the required energy to do what it takes to become accomplished and contented in life, and when the work is done, this energy ceases and is replaced by a calm contented feeling that is the state of being 'old'. In life, if you want to live it fully, first you need to be young and fully embrace that spirit of being young by embracing your dreams and going for it with all your energy. Then, when your life's work is done, you will enter into a contented old age. The more you are able to embrace being young, the more you are able to have a contented, golden old age.
Therefore it is important for young people to embrace being young, and it is truly toxic that some sections of the culture are making them feel old. This is why we must fight back against the distortion.
30 is the new 20, we often people say. And 40 is the new 30 too, apparently. Many people have laughed at these slogans, as if they are silly things people say. After all, physically 30 cannot really be the new 20, right? And a 40 year old will always look and function like a 40 year old, no matter if it's 2014, 1984 or 1954, right? They are just thing people say to cope with getting older in a youth obsessed culture, making this difficult reality easier to swallow, right?
Physically, thirty is the new twenty really makes no sense, I agree. But socially, it makes perfect sense. Why? As we concluded in the last section, people need to be 'young' so that they have the energy to achieve their life's work, and then when they feel accomplished they can enter old age contentedly. In a previous section we also concluded that people actually generally take longer to find their dreams, to work towards their goals, and to do their life's work to their contentment. That naturally means that people NEED to remain in the state of being young for a longer period than ever before in human history. A longer life expectancy has made that convenient too, but the driver behind this really is the delay in being accomplished in this day and age, rather than the fact that many people live into their 80s and beyond.
Many people have a strong reluctance, consciously or subconsciously, to embrace this concept of an extended youth. After all, this goes against our logical upbringing. Many things in this world have an absolute value that is objective and unchanging. Your ten dollar note cannot be extended into twenty dollars after all. This leads many people to think that any extension in the state of being young is purely wishful thinking from those who do not want to age gracefully. But as we have established, the states of being 'young' and 'old' shouldn't be defined by absolute numbers, but should be seen as two different life stages. Unlike your age, which is a simple mathematical calculation whose formula stays constant throughout history, life stages are relative, and in different periods of human history, different life stages have emerged (and more rarely some have been erased). The life stage of being a teenager, for example, only emerged during the last century, even though it seems to be just part of common sense nowadays. Even though it wasn't there for most of human history, for our generation the extended youth is real - you can embrace it, or if you don't, you will be forcing yourself to grow old before your time, a truly bitter experience.
Some Related Musical Inspiration:
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