Logic
It isn't inherent in our minds--logic. It's another system we've created. If it was the foundation for our mind and dictated everything that happens within it, it would never be able to be suppressed. If you've ever been in a relationship you've had first-hand experience with logic going out the window.
I don't like to base my existence upon concepts man has created, because there is usually something deeper; and usually said concepts eventually become too constricting to produce brand-new and extremely useful ideas that life requires. So thinking that something man has created is the basis for everything else you view and experience in your life is like looking at a grain of sand and thinking it is the smallest, most indivisible element there is and everything must be built from these sand grains. While sand is very useful for bricks and glass, the day you want to build a strong skyscraper or have something to drink that doesn't itch your throat, sand is no longer relevant or useful.
It's a good thing we at least somewhat understand atoms and that sand wasn't the only thing we were provided when we decided to discover the world.
So I like being creative. Everyone is creative, whether they know it or not-- it's simply been exploited in all the ways we see every day. In fact, if anything is truly fundamental to the human mind, I would argue that being able to express what the mind creates is one of them. But I digress. I liked philosophy for a short amount of time when I took it as a class two semesters ago because it provided a new perspective-- one I thought useful for some sort of answers to my life. I now hate philosophy and stand by the opinion that it is complete and utter bullshit, not to mention the strong hold futility has on it. Logic is philosophy's life-blood. Logic also dictates that if that previous statement is true, philosophy must be bullshit as well. But if logic is bullshit, then that whole statement--which is based on logic--is bullshit just as well.
This is where things get fun. As I've said before, the world works in twos. Logic had it good with true and false, but the occasional "maybe" that comes up every so often blows its cover. So it seems to me that logic is just another way of communication-- like language. When it's blown out of proportion and treated as definite, logic has no hope. Its purpose is moot. This entire argument--the statements I've made--they don't mean anything unless you find them meaningful and "true" to you. Otherwise they don't mean that what I think is absolutely true; they don't mean what I think is absolutely false. They create one big "maybe" that simply floats, not properly grounded to anything solid; just there for the taking-- or the leaving. And if you don't have the thought in your mind that you need another person to agree with you to be able to accept your own thoughts (as classic "creatives" don't), this whole "maybe" thing is kinda cool.
Assigning Meaning
When you break everything down in life, you soon learn that nothing in life has an inherent meaning. I might've said this before, but now I'll take it a step further.
The only fool-proof way to have meaning to anything in your life is to assign a meaning to it. By the time you're the age you currently are, reading this, you've already assigned meaning to many things; fairly universal objects you've assigned meaning to would be money, time, your mortality, family, possibly spirituality, etc. But what about those things you don't quite have down so much as these? A common phrase I hear is "I'm [so many] years old and I still don't know what I want."
The truth is you'll never know. In fact, you'll never know anything for sure in your lifetime.1 Scary thought, possibly, but in this case it is a matter of choosing-- realizing that ultimately, all the decisions you make come down to you. Confidence is such an envied personality trait because it take a certain kind of individual to be so certain of oneself. Anyone who has this trait has had the balls to disregard external forces for one second, make a decision on what he/she likes, and just go with it. The same is required when deciding what you want.
On a personal note, when you break existence down as much as I have, you get to the point where you have all the pieces spread out before you and the only thing left to do is find out what to do with them, because they do you no good on their own. This is probably where the cliché "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"2 comes from.3
Some people are content working 9 to 5 all their life, retiring, and dying at a "reasonable" age. Some would rather do what they want to regardless of the standard. Some want kids, some don't want to get married. Some people believe in a higher power, some don't. These are all examples of different assigned meanings, each one specific to the individual who created them; it's in our nature.
1 For example, a discipline such as science involves using precedent and a created method to produce meaning out of rationalizations and logic; essentially nothing says the results produced are correct besides a set of guidelines.
2 In fact, life itself is lemons and, really, lemonade is simply one option.
3 It's always interesting how clichés usually have some kind of ridiculously true meaning to them but aren't ever explained. So when used when giving advice or something similar, the effect is next to nothing due to the fact that the phrase only scratches the surface.
What will this new age hold?
Lately I’ve become interested in what major societal changes are going to occur in this “Information Age†we’re currently living in.
In my daily visit to Twitter today, I saw that “#thingsdarkiessay†was trending and then shortly removed. Upon a search I saw @studentactivism tweeted this:
Overnight black South African tweeters trended #thingsdarkiessay. In SA "darkies" is inoffensive. But when the US woke up hell broke loose.
This is a clear case of different cultures clashing. Yes, Twitter is US-based and having that as a trending topic on the home page of one of the largest sites on the web could compromise its image. To my slight surprise, not a whole lot of Americans seemed offended.
But what does this mean for this increasingly global society?
I see more and more cultures blending. New ideas are being shared constantly and with more speed than ever before. Naturally, as someone deals with others outside their own little private social circle, they change their viewpoints—they have to if they’re not the majority, for the simple fact of fitting in. And this is where I see society going.
Granted, with the internet and these new tools for communication, ignorance is being perpetuated just as fast as (if not faster than) new ideas and actual rational thought. But thus is our existence. As long as humans are around, there will be ignorance and irrationality. And above all, I think an evolved society will eventually be the one to rise.
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