A beautiful mind

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Philosophically~~

I could still remember Glenda whispering into my ears 3months ago, that our new colleague actually knows her bf back in secondary school days. It was meant to be a surprise/ shocking news, whatever you call it. But I wasnt surprised at all and of course she commented about my reaction, if not I wouldnt remember til today. If there were any expression on my face, probably it was my stoic expression.

I've come to realised in my life that we shouldnt put too much energy into anger, frustrations, worries and other form of emotions. If we were to do that. It'd drained our lives. Look at the old people in Japan. How they behave. Do they get angry easily? Do they speak at the top of their voices? Showing your emotions publicly may also make you appear weak at times. But for most of the time, we assume people who know nuts make the most noise. 'Empty vessels make the most noise' and 'Those who usually knows keep quiet'. Confucius believed that a knowledgable person need not flaut his knowledge to attain happiness and recognition.

Confucianism recently has been the topic of the Chinese. Despite being deemed years ago as a system which hinders the progress and advancement of human beings. This is mostly because the dark side of Confucianism, namely, the patriarchal system, familism and nepotism, justified authoritarian ruling and the state's strong role. But has come back strongly due to its fundamental virtues and values for Asian's upbringing, namely hard work and frugality.
Ok, I've digressed.

I've been a strong believer in stoicism since I was Secondary three. Mainly due to the literature text book I was reading at that time, ' Julius Caesar'. There's a character in the shakespeare's play, 'Brutus' . His role was a righteous, and stoic person. Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions.

Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how they behaved. Later Roman Stoics emphasized that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness," a sage was immune to misfortune. This belief similar to the meaning of the phrase stoic calm, though the phrase does not include the "radical ethical" Stoic views that only a sage can be considered truly free, and that all moral corruptions are equally vicious.

But I'm also a sceptic who deemed humans as superficial beings. I strongly questioned how a person is judged today. Definitely not by how he behaves, but what he says in this Era. Having walked through the ERAs of 'you are how u act', 'you are what you eat', 'you are what you buy', 'you are how you dressed', 'you are who you think you are' and 'you are what they say you are', 'you are where you study'. I would suggest that we're now in a 'you are how you speak' era. Even the emptiest vessel could fool us into thinking its at its fullest. Probably that's why u see fraud case on the rise in recent years. 'The conman and his magical stones.'

As much as I hate to judge people, I'd predict outcomes. I wanna think more positively about humans. I wanna speak with more passion. ( I doubt so)

To end this off, I'd like to 'borrow' an abstract from my fren, sherrina's blog.

"What if, for all our life that we've been taught that 1+1 = 2, someone comes along and tells you its actually equals nothing? What if he manages to prove to you that its the case?

Will you then start to wonder that maybe the sky isn't blue and that for all we know, we're just walking cells on another man's microscopic slides?

Whoever said that whatever we learn now is the truth? When deep down inside we all know that someday, someone else is going to come up with an argument that's going to shake the very foundation stone and bring our logical theories down.

I'm just waiting for that day to happen"

PS: You may see this post as a ridiculous/random one. Or its of no relevance to you. You can't relate to it. Either Its too profound, Or you're turning dumber. Your call.