Saturday, February 12, 2011

In

about 2 weeks I'll be off to Auckland again. This year I have planned a few (really a few) stuff to do that will keep me occupied and still have time for studies and wasting (I hope).

Top and foremost is to continue my philosophy studies. If there is one thing I seriously realized from my trip overseas, it is that I cannot only focus on engineering studies alone. That would mean I am following along the path that has been well laid out (more on this). Hence, I took up philosophy as an interest, and to guide my life along, myself.

Second is a tentative plan to volunteer. I considered SPCA and Greenpeace, and some slight internal debate raged until I asked Aimee Lee and her reply was 'if the planet is not here the dogs won't be either'. Makes sense. But I proceeded to lecture her about 'saving the world'. Because its fun.

These few days will be silent contemplation while I finish off a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Talk about multitasking. I actually think a lot while I'm doing something that requires a small degree of thought and heaps of concentration. Weird eh? I'm like 'Ethics of humans should be like.. oh this piece goes here... now where was I? Oh space travel is currently...'

But enough about me. It is dangerous to share too much info about yourself on the net. Many people have been receiving death threats for ill treating a dog they didn't have because some guy had a tattoo and they didn't. Talk about common sense.

Now, the police said they don't know who tortured poor Sushi. Oh of course, the owner should not ill treat his pet, which he bought to love. I wonder why do people not become outraged at the cruel way we're slaughtering chickens or cows. Oh, they're not animals, they're food. My bad. Talk about common sense.

But really, a national outrage over dog abuse? Death threats? My goodness, there's even much hoo-haa over some child custody case that is so high profile. And of course, there is the ever entertaining side such as banning Valentine's day, fear of evangelism and conversion, sin polices etc. Really, talk about common sense.

And of  course, racism.
(Racism is only there because we are conscious about it. There is some weird psychological thing going on here, why do we discriminate when we are recognizably the same species? It is one thing I think I will find notes about. Philosophy dabbles with psychology much, you see.)

And the moral police in Malaysia is always the interesting group. Imposing one's will upon others tends to be a messy business, unless you are a mighty king who has the adoration and worships of your people. Otherwise, attempting to tell people what to do (or what not to do), especially people who thinks they are (or in fact, are in some sense) free people, will be difficult. Now, its not hard to see where they are coming from. Generally, religion requires us to control our desires and be one who is nice and fair. No problem there. Problem comes when different people try to pick apart word by word what the religious scriptures tell. A picture tells a thousand words, a thousand people looking at the same picture will be telling what... a million different words? Talk about common sense.

In the words of a friend, "I feel insulted they feel my faith in my religion is so easily swayed by something such as a party celebrating a special day of another religion".

And the more I read of philosophy, truly the more ignorant I feel. Yet at the same time it is fascinating.

And at the same time, I am no nearer to figuring out why are we still running education in the first place. Besides churning out workers. To help the country progress to... I don't know where.

I still feel strongly that the first step is to pick up the trash in your own home and make life easier before we consider ambitious goals. Easy to say, doesn't it? But nooo, we humans are complicated beings. We MUST complicate stuff because 'its not so easy'. Try calling your telco customer service and see what I mean.

(I just suddenly remembered the 100 storey project to flaunt our country's wealth. Talk about common sense).

So, this blog post ended up being another rant on multiple topics in one go. Talk about common sense.

But at least I realized throughout writing this post, that common sense doesn't seem so common after all.

2 comments:

chelseaorange said...

Hahaha this actually made me laugh but i suppose that wasn;t your intention.

I noticed there have been some changes around here. Why is my blog and Zhi Wei's the only ones left on your annoying list?

The Annoying Bird said...

Because the others are highly inactive, and I guess its time to reduce the clutter :P

It is always good to make people laugh I suppose