What is Human ?

Why do we strive to set things right ? ... what is right ? Why do we seek freedom, justice, fairness ?
Is it human nature ? Or is it social indoctrination ?

Look deep inside yourself and you will find that using pure logic, this is a very tough question to answer.

In fact this question that seems on the surface to be a matter of conviction and belief and principles has been a subject of much debate. Which brings me to this post.

The great debate :

Human Nature : Justice V/S Power.

Prof. Noam Chomsky





Dr. Michael Foucault




Widely respected as two of the most influential intellectuals of our time, Chomsky and Foucault debated the idea of Human Nature, the concept of justice and the idea of power defining our interpretation of " what is right ". Firstly the amount of thought and logic put into the debate is truly astounding. But what is more important is to notice the distinctly opposing views despite the eventual goal being the same.

I have watched the debate over and over again and attempted to read some of the work written by both ( all though i admit it is very heavy reading). From a personal point of view, i tried to approach the matter with the assumption that it is possible for there to be a basic human idea of " what is fair ". So it might follow that i am with Chomsky on this one. However while Chomsky suggests a more evolved form of Anarchy as the solution, Foucault argues that it is impossible to be truly Anarchist since there are always power flows and balances in a society and any change can and will only come through them. There i agree with Foucault. While the idea of true Anarcho - Syndicalism might be close to an ideal to try and achieve, the path to affecting change comes from understanding the idea that change must come by trying to move away from social conditioning.

The debate - Part 1




On a personal note, this debate takes greater importance for me as i get closer to heading back home. My stay in the states, the education, opportunities and exposure it has given me are priceless. Like many of my friends i aim to go back home and do good things, both personally and socially. It is a time of great change and opportunity in India. Perhaps a better understanding of what to strive for goes some way in aiding the process of affecting change.

A couple of days back i watched the video about the violence in Assam. It was extremely disturbing and made me ask the very question this debate is about.

Was the video of the violence a true reflection of " human nature " ? Since we seem to see incidents like that repeatedly over the course of history.

It is still a tough question to answer, but there is at least an ideal to strive toward and there are beginnings of recognizing the path to change.

The only true way to move away from social conditioning, i.e move away from mob mentality and move away from being cogs in a machine, is to teach future generations to think for themselves and question everything, including their own nature.

Much debate and discussion

3 AM half asleep arguments seldom tend to be fruitful but here is one that defies the norm.

A friend : " Why does it take so much effort and time to convince you that you may be wrong ? "

Me : " Because if i didn't believe strongly that i was right, you wouldn't need to convince me in the first place. "

This got me thinking. Am i just obstinate ? or is there some merit to the way i am ?

All honest debates and discussions occur because each side believes it is right. Any pretense to suggest otherwise is merely a simple tact to soften the other sides defense of their idea. The idea of having an open mind to everything is in my honest opinion, pure fiction. In its truest form having an open mind to everything is quite simply not having an opinion at all. It is not stance of humility but rather a stance of indifference.

" A man will do anything, no matter what it is, to secure his spiritual comfort...A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. " - Mark Twain

When you believe in an idea or argue against one, it is simply because you either approve / disapprove of yourself for believing in it.

Now this is not entirely constructive and it is not conducive to learning new ideas but it is still necessary and has been an incredibly important part of our intellectual development as a society. Allow me to explain.

This conversation happened coincidentally at a time when i was reading a great book titled
"Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever "

Hall Hellman writes of some of the most interesting and intense disagreements of our time in Science. As i read through the book the realization that these feuds were more about personal beliefs and approval rather than science becomes very clear. These feuds changed science, religion and philosophy to shape those fields as we see them today.

Some of these arguments actually impeded the development of science in their time and although it is amusing and even irritating to see that from today's perspective, it is important to realize that the feud was necessary. The ideas, arguments and justifications thrown at each other from both sides were important to the evolution of new ideas.

It is the same on a personal level. The disagreement, the argument, the reasons, justifications and criticisms launched at each other during a discussion / argument are necessary to spark new thoughts and new ideas. That mental conflict is necessary to give birth to doubt which in turn sparks a quest to look for new answers.

We tend to shy away from conflict, diffuse the argument, agree to disagree, don't talk about uncomfortable subjects or worst of all, just agree that you could be wrong. Thus begins the process of dumbing yourself down to be agreeable.

So get out there and argue some, its good for you.

( Here is another Mark Twain gem to end this rant! )

" Oh, dear, we are all like that. Each of us knows it all, and knows he knows it all--the rest, to a man, are fools and deluded. One man knows there is a hell, the next one knows there isn't; one man knows high tariff is right, the next man knows it isn't; one man knows monarchy is best, the next one knows it isn't; one age knows there are witches, the next one knows there aren't; one sect knows its religion is the only true one, there are sixty-four thousand five hundred million sects that know it isn't so. There is not a mind present among this multitude of verdict-deliverers that is the superior of the minds that persuade and represent the rest of the divisions of the multitude. Yet this sarcastic fact does not humble the arrogance nor diminish the know-it-all bulk of a single verdict-maker of the lot, by so much as a shade.

Mind is plainly an ass, but it will be many ages before it finds it out, no doubt. Why do we respect the opinions of any man or any microbe that ever lived? I swear I don't know. Why do I respect my own? Well--that is different. " - Mark Twain

Addictions

Ok time to pick up a touchy subject. Addictions.

A few weeks back i read an article.

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/06/22/hscout605801.html


Then i imagined a world without the things that people get addicted to. After all , thats the cure we seek now isnt it ?

No alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs, no weed, no gambling, no chocolate ... no video games.

I can't bring myself to say people wont get addicted to something else. Yet again we seem to be shirking responsibility as a society. Addictions are a direct result of the addictive substances and not the fact that people get addicted to things to escape or to satiate. Thats what we try to convince ourselves of. Why ? ... Because its an easier pill to swallow. Because those of us who aren't addicted in obvious ways can feel better about ourselves. So more irresponsible parents, teachers and " experts " can feel better about themselves while the people they were supposed to take care of and nurture get addicted to these malicious addictive substances ... like nintendo.

Here is what is see to be the truth. Addictions are a symptom. An ugly manifestation of the huge holes that most people in our society find in their lives. Everyone is addicted ... to some extent. It is not going to change because we seem to be hell bent on treating the symptom. While the disease which is widespread and deep rooted we choose to ignore. Its almost as stupid as putting up a sign that says ' No drugs - School area '. The fact that people are distributing drugs and the fact that kids and adults alike chose to take these things in spite of knowing about the detrimental effects of some of them is a sign that the problem lies elsewhere and the anti drugs campaigns and signs are like putting a white sheet over the giant pile of shit in the middle of the living room that everyone wants to ignore.

There was another article on the web a few days back, where a doctor in the national psychiatric association was pushing to get video game addiction officially listed in the list of addictions because she found out her son was addicted to a popular online MMORPG.

How did she realize her son was addicted ? ( This is the fun part ).

One day she found that ...
a) He had lost all his friends b) His grades slipped from As to Cs c) He spent inordinate amounts of time in his room.

I find it astounding that she couldn't tell this was a problem long before her son lost his social life, ignored his education and became a recluse.

She chose to blame the video game. I blame the lack of guidance and attention from the boys parents, friends and teachers. But hey they probably don't want to hear that ... so lets start up a campaign to get this video game classified as a " disease ".

Most of all ... I blame the kid if he got addicted. IF he did it by choice ? more power to him. Maybe his friends suck, maybe he doesn't have the desire to be educated and maybe his parents suck so bad that he chooses not to see them. But if he got addicted without realizing it ... it is pathetic. A strong lack of personal conviction and control which no one should be required to teach someone. We all make choices ... everything is a choice ... and we have no right to shirk that responsibility.

This isn't the first time human beings have looked toward an outside entity to blame / praise when they want to shirk the responsibility that falls upon them. We've been doing that for ages and it isn't about to change. I doubt i'll be seeing ' religion ' being classified as an addiction anytime soon though.


Our problem is the inability to face our problems, take the blame and work toward improving. Perhaps if we all did that from time to time ... people could all be drinking, smoking, video game playing, chocolate eating, gambling bastards with perfectly happy lives.

Anger is good

A chance discovery on a mostly mundane Tuesday afternoon at work sparked what promises to be a most interesting phase in my intellectual growth. ( What little there may be! )

I am sitting at work watching a clip of Lewis Black, thinking ' this guy is pretty hilarious' and agreeing with most of what he had to say. I had thought about a lot of stuff he was talking about ... not being from the US i could only be amused by the truth in what he spoke about.

Reading the comments under the video led me to the name of another comedian who apparently was the inspiration for Lewis Black's style of comedy. The name was " Bill Hicks ". I had never heard of Bill Hicks before but i had heard him unknowingly.

For all the tool fans out there that didnt know it ... the guy on Tool's Aenima cover is Bill Hicks ( shown above ). The 3rd track ' Third Eye ' comes from Bill's comment ... " Watching Television is like taking a can of black paint to your third eye. " The opening lines asking you to question authority are written by Bill Hicks himself.

A connection between Tool and Bill hicks was enough to get me interested. I finished watching every clip there is of Bill Hicks, on youtube. I came to a realization of why Bill Hicks was so impressive as a speaker and why his views were so profound.

He was truly Angry.

Angry at a world where human beings invested in keeping other human beings divided, because it is easier to control a divided society. He was Angry at a government or for more philosophical purposes an " Authority " that took away choices from people and most of All he was angry at people who were happy and content with not having those choices.

Anger is good. To me it is a reminder that i am not happy with the satus quo. I am bothered and irritated by the fact a large portion of Humanity has resigned itself to " falling in line " and subscribing to ideologies that take away their choices. And no i am not talking about just totalitarian governments, or religion, or politics or any of these things. I am talking about this tendency some people have developed, where the less choices you have the happier you are because it is easy to pick from a smaller pool.

That is devolution. That is not natural selection. If you or I start finding it too tough to pick from all our choices, if we are too lazy to educate ourselves about our choices and their consequences, and if we want our choices made for us, thats devolution. By natures law our lack of thinking will and should lead to our demise.

And time and again we have people who grow and think beyond that devolved form of existence. They should be our teachers and philosophers. Instead we censor them, brand them as rebels and kill their creativity. And in many cases, we just plain kill them. We grasp at straws to hang on to our devolved existence and in the process kill anyone or anything that threatens to wake us up.

It makes me sad as i am sure it made Bill sad, that such a large portion of such a promising species does not understand this and chooses not to realize its potential.

" The world is like a ride at an amusement park. When you chose to go on it, you think its real cause thats how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and its very brightly colored and its very loud and its fun ... for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, " Is this real ? .... or is this just a ride ? " ... other people have remembered and they come back to us and tell us when we are afraid, " Hey! Dont worry. Dont be afraid, ever... cause this is just a ride! " and we ....

... Kill those people. "


This little routine of his comes of as funny, and light hearted. It is however a sad reflection of our reality. We should be angry that things are this way. We should not be fearful though ... because fear leads to anger expressing itself through violence. We need to express anger through a positive channel ... like Bill did. Make people aware ... encourage people to think ... make a difference, some difference ... no matter how small. Don't sit quietly taking all the crap that comes your way ...

... cause it makes me angry to see you do that.