Context:
http://theconversation.com/czechs-and-slovaks-still-search-for-truth-and-love-25-years-after-the-velvet-revolution-34260
I see "searching" as a concept. The act is done for a quantified thing in a quantified universe. In the universe called haystack, searching is done for a needle. In the universe called Facebook, it is done for a "friend". In the intangible universe called "a-just-world", it is done for the intangibles truth and love.
I create my universes. I create my haystack and then lose my needle in it. I create my facebook account and then search for a lost friend in it. I also create my sense of a society that is "just" and then search for truth and love in it. When I created something, I probably knew that I could lose something in it. The very definition of my universe is that there are no guarantees. But, as I live in my universe, I want to see what I expect. The probability of losing my needle in a haystack is very low and hence I'm happy with my haystack. The need to search for a lost friend on facebook is not so vital often and hence I'm happy if I don't find a friend. Given my problems with the intangibles in life, like fairness and crime, I set about quantifying social values and create my just-world. Unfortunately, I lose the intangible love and instead find the quantified love. My search for love in this quantified just-world has now become problematic.
But, may be I don't mean to search in a literal sense for truth and love. May be I mean I want to work with the society towards a just-world. My belief is that I can create a just world from what exists today. I don't know who put this belief in me, but I grew up in a world where this idea of "making something better" exists. The idea that yesterday was messed up, today is bad and tomorrow can be better. Sure, the cycle might repeat, but the idea is to make tomorrow better. I could end up in a bottomless abyss if I start to question this very notion instilled in me. I'm scared to question the point of all this in life. Well, at least there's some hope that science gives us when it says, "we are finding new things everyday and things will be better". I'm scared though that science is just like religion. "Finding something tomorrow" by the atheists sounds quite like "God will rescue you" by the religious.
Anyway, anyway, anyway, my mind is spinning. Let me calm down and eat some ice-cream!
Back to the original topic of the search for truth and love is Czechoslovakia. May be I'm comparing this country with developed countries like America? It's probably well off in some sense. The article talks about citizens enjoying the gifts of democracy, but sad about lost social values, crime and employment. When I look at the world through the lens of the newspaper, everything seems off. That's probably because newspapers are the watchtowers of justice. Now if justice itself was a make-believe idea, surely I can write about it in the papers for literary pleasure, but may be I don't need to worry about it. What if there was no such a thing as justice? That doesn't need to sound cynical because it is an expectation from my creation. Then what's the purpose of life anyway if we let things be the way they are? :) May be I need to step out of this universe I created. When I have troubles at home with family, I could either create a universe of rules or simply accept them for the way they are. The obsession with wanting to make something better is probably a drug in me which I'm so illusioned in. Surely some illusions last the distance though! May be my country is just in a bad one at the moment.
Instead of looking at the Czech and Slovakia republics from a newspaper, may be I could talk to my neighbor, my classmate and my colleague what their worlds are like. If they talk about how they view their worlds from a newspaper, then I'm in for some bad luck! But, lives could be as simple and lovely as what my neighbor cooked, what subject my classmate failed in today and who my colleague married. It could also be as ugly and grotesque as which neighbor killed his child, which classmate lost his legs in an accident. and which colleague is playing politics in the office. I could make the most of the lovely illusions and be blind to the bad ones. For, all these are worlds I create.
Closing notes:
I'm starting to get conscious of my rambling. I'm merely rambling, not writing ;) So, pardon my quantum leaps!
http://theconversation.com/czechs-and-slovaks-still-search-for-truth-and-love-25-years-after-the-velvet-revolution-34260
I see "searching" as a concept. The act is done for a quantified thing in a quantified universe. In the universe called haystack, searching is done for a needle. In the universe called Facebook, it is done for a "friend". In the intangible universe called "a-just-world", it is done for the intangibles truth and love.
I create my universes. I create my haystack and then lose my needle in it. I create my facebook account and then search for a lost friend in it. I also create my sense of a society that is "just" and then search for truth and love in it. When I created something, I probably knew that I could lose something in it. The very definition of my universe is that there are no guarantees. But, as I live in my universe, I want to see what I expect. The probability of losing my needle in a haystack is very low and hence I'm happy with my haystack. The need to search for a lost friend on facebook is not so vital often and hence I'm happy if I don't find a friend. Given my problems with the intangibles in life, like fairness and crime, I set about quantifying social values and create my just-world. Unfortunately, I lose the intangible love and instead find the quantified love. My search for love in this quantified just-world has now become problematic.
But, may be I don't mean to search in a literal sense for truth and love. May be I mean I want to work with the society towards a just-world. My belief is that I can create a just world from what exists today. I don't know who put this belief in me, but I grew up in a world where this idea of "making something better" exists. The idea that yesterday was messed up, today is bad and tomorrow can be better. Sure, the cycle might repeat, but the idea is to make tomorrow better. I could end up in a bottomless abyss if I start to question this very notion instilled in me. I'm scared to question the point of all this in life. Well, at least there's some hope that science gives us when it says, "we are finding new things everyday and things will be better". I'm scared though that science is just like religion. "Finding something tomorrow" by the atheists sounds quite like "God will rescue you" by the religious.
Anyway, anyway, anyway, my mind is spinning. Let me calm down and eat some ice-cream!
Back to the original topic of the search for truth and love is Czechoslovakia. May be I'm comparing this country with developed countries like America? It's probably well off in some sense. The article talks about citizens enjoying the gifts of democracy, but sad about lost social values, crime and employment. When I look at the world through the lens of the newspaper, everything seems off. That's probably because newspapers are the watchtowers of justice. Now if justice itself was a make-believe idea, surely I can write about it in the papers for literary pleasure, but may be I don't need to worry about it. What if there was no such a thing as justice? That doesn't need to sound cynical because it is an expectation from my creation. Then what's the purpose of life anyway if we let things be the way they are? :) May be I need to step out of this universe I created. When I have troubles at home with family, I could either create a universe of rules or simply accept them for the way they are. The obsession with wanting to make something better is probably a drug in me which I'm so illusioned in. Surely some illusions last the distance though! May be my country is just in a bad one at the moment.
Instead of looking at the Czech and Slovakia republics from a newspaper, may be I could talk to my neighbor, my classmate and my colleague what their worlds are like. If they talk about how they view their worlds from a newspaper, then I'm in for some bad luck! But, lives could be as simple and lovely as what my neighbor cooked, what subject my classmate failed in today and who my colleague married. It could also be as ugly and grotesque as which neighbor killed his child, which classmate lost his legs in an accident. and which colleague is playing politics in the office. I could make the most of the lovely illusions and be blind to the bad ones. For, all these are worlds I create.
Closing notes:
I'm starting to get conscious of my rambling. I'm merely rambling, not writing ;) So, pardon my quantum leaps!
