Year 2008

Assortment of Things




I am truly enjoying my days off this time. I was advised by my co-workers to fly out of state, enjoy and leave all things behind. I agreed initially until I found that vacationing alone would really be very very sad. So I told myself to spend these days off in ways I'd happily spend them. Do the things that would make me happy. It did not take me long to figure that out. What will make me happy? Stay on bed late will make me happy. Read a book will make me happy. Run a couple of miles would make me happy. Watch a good movie will make me happy. To be outdoors will make me happy. Write something like this will make me happy.

First, I started adding kayaking to my exercise routine. It was one of the easiest thing to learn on earth and it could really provide a perfect cross training routine for my regular running. It is one of the most relaxing outdoors activity I have encountered and one thing I'd most likely do for my remaining years.

Second, I started reading the books and topics I've been dying to get a hold of. I renewed my commitment to get the basic tenets of some of the great Philosophers of our time and also to resume my reading of the science fiction and fantasy genre. Yesterday I bought a book entitled "A Brief History of Philosophy" by Derek Johnston and re-opened my old book "From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest" by T.Z. Lavine. So there, I pretty much have something to read and think about now. I also got a hold of some books pertaining to exercises and health maintenance. Finally I opened my old copy of "Dune" by Frank Herbert.

Anyway, there are a few philosophers I'm so dying to learn from, namely, Friedrich Nietzche, Sartre, Hume, Spinoza , Kant, Descartes, well, all of them I guess. I am currently reading Existentialism by Sartre. I even borrowed his book "The Age of Reason" from the library. Existentialism is the driving force of modern human thought. It is based on the idea that man exists without a predetermined fate or without any reason for existence. Existence is nothing.

A very common example is this: When a tool maker creates a tool, say a hammer, it is created for a purpose. So its essence comes BEFORE its existence. Man is different according to Existentialism. His essence comes AFTER its existence.

Which brings me to a life as a blank page. You create something out of it in many ways: You can burn the blank page to give you warmth or you can use it to wipe your ass or you can write on it an immortal poem. Still, it is nothing until you make something out of it.

Atheism, obviously, is a direct descendent of this philosophy. Absence of morals is another. For Sartre and Nietzche, God is dead and there is no Force out there that had a 'Plan' for your life. In existentialism, man comes from nothing and he can be free to do anything he wants. His world becomes subjective compared to objectivism of Empiricism. In other words, your life was created at random, out of nothing and with nothing, and it's free to do and create what it wants, which becomes its art.

Some writers I read, like Camus (and this is my personal perception), seem to promote existentialism. The characters they create are devoid of fate, they live lives according to the 'curse of free will' and accept the consequences like it's but a natural course. Sentimentalism gets out of the way. The drama flows without the drama. Things happen as dictated by the choices of the character.

How do I see existentialism in my life then? I see it among artists who do not follow conventions and are free to create what they want without any restrictions. I see it among intellectuals who believe that morality is relative, it changes according to free will of each person. For them there is no such thing as Absolute. And hate people who insists on Absoluteness of Things. Like the morality we insist on our people. Sartre has once claimed that Absolute Morality is the weapon of the weak. The Weak uses it to bring down the Strong.

This is how I illustrate morality as the weapon of the weak: An individual among us is very much more superior than others, intellectually and monetarily and this he accomplished through hard work and honesty and free will. A weak individual, seeing all these would begin to question 'the immorality' of this superiority by invoking the Absolute Power above everything else. Intellectual superiority will become a sign of pride or shrewdness or bragging. Financial superiority will become a sign of either corruption (especially if it comes in swiftly) or selfishness especially if it is not shared with those who, by free will, chose to be poor.

The effect is the pulling down of the strong to the level of the weak. The Weak successfully destroys the Strong by invoking Morals.

We see this daily in our lives: Morality makes a homosexual unpopular no matter how excellent he may be. Morality would rather see a prostitute dead than see her feed her children. Morality would rather see the newborn child dying of starvation and neglect than letting the mother use contraceptives. Morality makes us surrender to Fate and Destiny. Morality gives us convenient excuses to our failures. Morality gives us a reason to blame something else. The worst part really is this: Morality changes according to what we want.

Existentialism believes in the freedom of choice and owning the responsibilities associated with that choice.

Of course I am not fully sold out to Existentialism - though humans exist without essence, he is gifted with attributes that are natural with him. He withdraws from pain, he eats what is palatable, he goes to where he survives the best. What is this? It is the gift of Self Preservation. In other words, man has physical attributes that negate the nothingness of his existence. And as far as free will is concerned, Sartre believes that anyone is free to do anything he wants. That may be true but given a choice between eating nails and steak, I wonder how many would eat the nails. A person is free to save the life of a victim of terrorism and is also free to sow terror if he wants to. Basically, Sartre insists there is no Moral Code in man. The morality is created among men differently. Christians will condemn the terrors, Islamic fundamentalists consider terrorism as the highest form of morality. But which would eventually be the highest Morality here? For me it is one that will Preserve the Self.

Sartre would eventually defend the Palestinian terrorists in Munich bombing of the 1972 Olympics. He will also kindle the fires of French youth uprisings. Later he would state that governments are continually a system of revolutions between the current government versus the one that wants to depose it.

I should one day write a story based on Existentialism.

Personally of course, I still believe in my God.