It is fun to think sometimes....

"My head was too crazy. The thoughts bounced around inside my skull like a disoriented swarm of bees. Noisy. Now and then they stung. Must be hornets, not bees. Bees died after one sting. And the same thoughts were stinging me again and again."

Stephanie Meyer, Breaking Dawn



The Mind is a curious thing. This is a little heady, but it is fun to think sometimes and to see where the currents of the mind may take you, sometimes it you are pushed along gently and steadily by one particular enthralling idea, other times it is like a Hurricane in your head, with idea after idea swirling in and out of your consciousness.




One such thought that struck me today as I was reading an online comic called Freak Angels, which was suggested to me by a friend of mine. Are the thoughts we think our own or are they put there by someone/something else? In the story there is a character who can put thoughts into peoples minds. He says at one point that he is giving a lecture on the nature of time in the minds of several, randomly chosen people. This got me to thinking... he was putting thoughts into my head too apparently. Occasionally I will be thinking to myself, but it won't be thoughts that are in my own voice, rather it is like someone else is speaking in my head. No, not like voices in my head, just thoughts that are out of the vein of my usual thoughts. The process of thinking is strange and mysterious to me, that is why I struggle to abstain from it as often as possible. These thoughts, though, must come from somewhere. For every causes there is an effect, this surely must be true of thought. Someone tells you Not to think of two apple pies having a lightsaber duel, suddenly, that is the only thing you can think of... cause - effect. Is there ever any such thing as a truly original thought? Logic would say that there must be, original thought breeds innovation. But does it really? The Light Bulb, Edison's wonder, but really it was just an improvement on the candle.

One day Thomas Edison was working in his lab when he thought, "We need something that can help us to see when it is dark..."
His assistant said to him, "It is called fire... a candle"
"Yes, but I want to make the candle better"
"It is already pretty good, I mean we even have scented candles for when you not only want to see, but smell as well."
Edison promptly fired that assistant for being a jerk, and just to stick it to him, named his candle improvement after him... the assistants name was Benjamin Lightbulb, and man did he feel like a dork.
This is a completely made up, original, story used to illustrate my point of complete non-originality. Edison's idea for the light bulb wasn't an original idea, man has been trying to see in the dark since the beginning of dark, he is simply the only one to do something about it... well, the second one anyway, someone, I'm sure discovered fire way back when.


The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that the vast majority of my thoughts are not really my own. They are the product of my environment, what I hear, see and do. On the other hand, Where I take those thoughts, or rather, where those thoughts take me is completely my own... I think. Just like Edison. Sure, tons of people probably thought that the insubstantial light from a candle should be improved upon, but Edison actually did it. While the thought may or may not have been original, the result was.


No one thinks in the same way, which is why presented with the same prompt or stimulus people will invariably develop their own unique perspectives (or conclusions). I think this is why one person can love a book or movie or song and someone else can completely abhor it. how do you feel about country music in general?


But what about someone actually having the ability to implant their thoughts, ideas, views, into someone else's mind... telepathy? Is it real, is it possible? Probably not, but maybe, let's pretend it is. It is an incredibly ubiquitous idea. In Harry Potter Voldimort uses a form of "magic" called Occlumency to see into the mind of others, and on occasion to plant thoughts and ideas in the mind of his victims that will cause them to bend to his will (whether they are aware of it or not). Professor Xavier of X Men (as well as a few other mutants) has the power influence read/manipulate/control minds, and with the help of his "Crerbro" could connect to every human and mutant mind on earth. He used his power benevolently. I am sure you can think of other examples form some of you favorite books, TV shows, and movies. So, how about it, The thoughts you are thinking right now might not be you own. They could be mine. What if I placed them there for my own amusement? For the betterment of mankind? For my own nefarious purposes? What if it was Professor X's thoughts? what if they are "The Man's"? Well...?


I don't have an answer, I was just thinking. It is a scary thought, but I suppose it wouldn't make much difference to me as ling as I remained blissfully unaware. But what do you think? ... think for yourself

Tangent:

Each of us has a completely unique mind. It is this that has allowed for the Einsteins, and Edisons, and Schrödingers, Galileo, Newton, etc. of this world to thrive. The uniqueness of the human mind has also allowed the Alexanders and the Napoleons and the Atillas... even the Hitlers of the world to be in some sense great, if only for a time. The Builders and the Destroyers. It is said that some people have the ability to capture peoples imaginations. This is a particularly worrying thought if the people who are doing the capturing are of the destructive persuasion. These people who "capture the public imagination" have the ability to put thoughts into peoples heads. Not like mind control of course, not like Professor X (although I think I remember reading somewhere that Hitler did experiment with mind control, good thing he didn't get his hands on "Cerebro"). They have power, derived from who knows where, but it is the power to tell us, the normal people, exactly what and how to think, and we willingly, dumbly, even enthusiastically oblige. Unquestioningly.


That power can also be used for great good. Revolutions that freed oppressed people, Revelations that freed men to explore the earth. Thinking men and women, who could capture the imagination of the world, have changed the course of history, many for the better, some for the worse. Despite this, people have decided somewhere along the line that it is OK to not think for themselves. They have decided that because they don't know something, aren't experts in the field, they are somehow incapable of understanding a concept. They will defer to the "experts". No one can know everything about everything... philosophers will tell you that no one can know anything about anything. Philosophers are silly sometimes (sorry Tom). The fact that the extent of human knowledge is finite should not, however, cause us to limit ourselves in what we are willing to try to understand, or know, or believe. Take any topic you fell strongly about... Global Warming, Abortion, the Existence of a God or gods... or how bout something less controversial, like the best kind of car, or your favorite music. Are your thoughts (beliefs and opinions) about those things your own? Have you tried them and found them to be ...well, as correct as you can know them to be? Or, do you hold on to thoughts that other people who are "smarter" than you claim are the only correct thoughts? Don't limit yourself. Search. Understand, if for no other reason than the fact that you can. Try new things. you like *insert musical genre here* why? Did your friends tell you that it was cool and *other genre* was not, so you stopped listening to it because they told you to? global warming is a problem because Al Gore says it is, or because the surface temperature of the earth is truly rising because of human action? what is it isn't, what if it is a cyclical change that occurs every couple of hundred years? I'm not telling you how to think, I'm just asking that you do.

this has really been nothing more than a thought game I played with myself and unfortunately for have written down for you to ponder. Do you want to know the point, here it is:

It is fun to think sometimes...

A Penny For My Thoughts...

I walk into my building the other day and the RA's are hosting a "penny war". A penny war is apparently the same thing as a coin drive (also known as begging). So, I do what I always do when confronted with a bum or vagabond on the street... I set my gaze straight ahead, clench my jaw, quicken my pace, and hope that they are good at reading body language.

"Do you have any spare change to donate to *insert charitable organization here*?"

Damn, so close, My key was in my hand and almost in the door.

Now I don't want you to misunderstand me, I think that is a good and necessary thing to support charities, but I don't see how begging for the .67 cents that I have in my pocket is really going to make the difference in St. Jude's research budget I would much prefer to support the charity directly. I do like how the Ronald McDonald House Charity works, they are usually un-invasive, they just have their collection boxes set up near the registers and drive-through's to that you can, if you choose, deposit your change from breaking a 20.

Now you are going to say "Kyle the two are no different blah blah blah..." to you I say, pish. McDonald's is not accosting me and literally begging for my money like a common bum in the B2 lot. But, I have digressed from the main point of my story... actually I haven't even gotten to it yet. Perhaps some other time I will talk about my views on charities.

She asks me for change and I dig in my pockets, and much to my chagrin I pull out a couple of quarters, nickles and pennies which I had picked up off of the ground earlier that day. I toss them in the Ziploc Tupperware thing that they have set up on the table with a thin smile (giving cheerfully is not as easy as it sounds). As I start to turn to walk away, she says to me, "now you have good karma points, don't use them all at once."

Karma Points, really?! Oh boy, I must really be a good person, I grudgingly gave 67 cents to a charity I don't care about! That has to be equal to the inverse of kicking a box of puppies!

The rule of karma is something like "Do Good things and Good things will happen to you, do bad things and bad things will happen to you." but let me ask a simple question: isn't that a selfish reason to do good things, or not to do bad things? And isn't selfishness a bad thing? so it would logically follow that someone who does good things to get "good karma" is in fact causing his karma to be worse. The way I see it, someone who acts solely out of self interest, so that others will think better of him, and so that some mystical force will heap good luck on him is really not a good person at all, in fact he is probably the biggest jerkface around.


It seems silly to me to think that two random circumstances in a persons life are somehow related - cause and effect style - through the apparatus of Karma. I help an old lady across the street, a week later I find a quarter on the ground. Karma? Coincidence? It seems far more likely that the Karmic result of me approaching an elderly lady to help her cross the street would be a beating with a purse if I'm lucky, and pepper spray in my face if I'm attempting this in Greenville. As for the Quarter, well, I look for change on the ground all the time, the only reason I find it is because someone else dropped it, and didn't pick it up. Karma had nothing to do with it. besides, some might even go so far as to say that picking money up off the pavement is dishonest, because that money never belonged to you, you should therefore turn it in to the authorities, regardless of the amount. so picking up the change off the sidewalk, you would actually be causing yourself "bad karma" because you are stealing and being dishonest. finding money = bad karma... are you starting to see my point.


And what about the whole "no good deed goes unpunished" thing, how many times have you done something good and gotten a whole mess of trouble for it. Again I ask Karma? Not likely. Take last night for example; a friend calls me around 11:00pm. She is at the Commons, a park by the River, she had been running there earlier that night when she lost her keys. She needs to break into her car to get her stuff out for her work today, and wants to know if I can help her break into her car. I did what I could, took her to Wal-Mart, helped use toasting forks to break in... that didn't work. So we go looking for the keys, 45ish minutes later I find the keys and we all go home... I get back round 1am-ish. I set my alarm, and go to bed. I wake up at 8:59, my alarm did not go off, I have class @ 9. I am not blaming my friend by any means, that would be retarded, it is not her fault. According to the laws of karma, However, I should not have missed class for doing a "good deed" according to the laws of nature on the other hand, I needed the sleep class or no class. Karma doesn't enter into it.


You have probably heard the "Golden Rule" which goes something like "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." many people will say, "that is karma, you do good things to/for people, they'll do good things for you." Bull Shit! that is not what that means at all. this old adage is actually a bible verse *gasp* and actually says (NIV) Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. I personally like the way The Message translation puts it: Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get. The "saying" doesn't mean "I scratch your back, you scratch mine", it means that you should always, in every situation, treat people with respect and kindness and love... in short the way you would like to be treated by others regardless of how anyone treats you.

You have probably also heard the cliche "Do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good" that one can actually be found in Romans 12. It goes on to say that in doing so, you will "heap burning coals on his head." this means that in treating those who treat us badly with love and kindness we cause them pain. think of it like this, have you ever treated some one badly just to get a funny reaction from them (Be honest. I've done it. It is OK, we all do.)... but then they didn't react the way you expected, they react with kindness, or didn't really respond at all. Did you feel hurt or embarrassed? Did you lose a bit of pride? I did, and that is what this is talking about.

I am not a good person, this I know is true for many reasons, but lets start with the Bible.

Romans 3:10-12

10The holy writings say, `No one is good. No, not one person.
11No one is wise. No one wants to know God.
12They all have turned away from the straight road. Together they have gone the wrong way. No one does good, not even one person!

This is not a particularly uplifting scripture, especially when lifted out of it's context, but what it says is true at face value. there are many other scriptures that deal with the not goodness of man such as Romans 3:23, and there are many more that deal with Gods forgiveness, but that too is not what this is about.

People are basically bad, and nothing they do is ever really good. that is the exact reason why we cannot got to heaven through any work of our own, and why Jesus had to die a horrible, painful death to pay the price for our sins (if this doesn't make sense to you, you should take a look at Jewish sacrificial customs... or just ask me, and I'd be happy to further explain). Sure we do good things from time to time, then we feel good about ourselves because of all the altruistic things we have done, you know what that is, it's pride, which is bad. I am not saying that you should not feel good about yourself when you do good thing, you should, but don't kidd yourself into thinking you are any better that anyone else just because you tipped well to a person who didn't give you particularly excellent service. No matter how much good you do, you can never do enough good to outweigh your bad... your sin. Isaiah 64:6 says; For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment. That is why Karma doesn't work.



This one went on a bit, I'll try to keep them shorter from now on.