About Opinions, Free Will and Choices ...

This morning, I was reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. An amazing story about an ordinary guy who does extraordinary things. Unlike the regular superhero stories that are as common as the common cold in this season, this superhero is just an ordinary guy with an extraordinary gift. A person who can hurt, fear and feel like a living breathing human. Granted, he's a weirdo unlike most of the so-called "normal" people on this planet, but then, that's not such a rare disease. One person known to you who belongs to this distinguished category is yours truly.

Anyway, I'm straying away from the topic at hand. Everyday in the news I hear about mass murderers, terrorists, everyday people who go crazy and murder their own families and so on. What really amazes me is the confidence with which these people impose their "views" and "opinions" on other people by such "honourable" means such as terror and fear. It's one thing to believe in whatever sick, misguided viewpoint you have about this world and quite another to impose it on others.

I believe this is a monster which has spawned from the innocent and good-intentioned way in which the parent, the teacher, the government or even society in general decides what is right and wrong for the general populace and merrily dictates rules to them. The individual has no option but to fall in with the general opinion. To break the predefined code is to invite censure, condemnation, isolation, excommunication and sometimes even punishment.

Not that I'm against law and order. To some extent, it is necessary. Without it, humans would be like a pack of wild hyenas ready to hunt anything and everything down. But now it is turning into a twisted automaton, a relentless juggernaut ready to crush anything and everything that stands in it's way. And one misguided individual with enough mana, be it charisma, power or money, is sufficient to bring unbelievable evil into the world. Case in point, Adolf Hitler.

Regardless of what the society thinks, your own opinion as an individual should always weigh more. And more importantly, it should not matter to you what the person beside you thinks. There is a reason God allowed Free Will. You should be free to choose your own path, regardless of the consequences. Some wise guy said, "Tuam ipsam vive vitam quia tuam ipsam oppetes mortem". In simple english, it means, "Live your own life, for you will die your own death".

All the same, never take a decision that will harm another. Just like you, others also have a right to live their own life in a way they see fit. You have no right to decide for them. The terrorists who used the airline flights as guided missiles to "make a point" were never concerned about the countless innocents they had sentenced to death. All those people were just collateral damage. This is what I hate. If you want to blow yourself up, go on by all means. But don't drag innocents into it.

In this world of evil and hate,

For a few who have twisted their fate,

So many have lost their life and love

Making this earth like Hell below.

- A few lines penned by me

Money - Root cause of all evils??

"Money is the root of all evils."

I really pity the misguided soul who made this stupid observation. People have been fooled by it for decades, centuries even.

Money is NOT the root cause of all evils. Rather, it is the LACK OF MONEY which is the root cause of all evils.

"Why?", you ask. Elementary, my dear Watson. When you don't have money, you miss out on a lot of things. This lack breeds desire, which in turn breeds discontent and so on. It is like the legendary monster, Hydra, which keeps on sprouting more heads to devour and destroy everything it can lay hands on.

The myth of the happy and contented poor man is just that, a myth. You want proof, go and look at the people living in the streets. You can look for (and will most probably, find) almost each and every social evil there.

And lastly, happy and sad people will always exist irrespective of the amount of money they have. But, it is equally obvious that the amount of happy people having money far outnumbers the amount of happy people not having money.

Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while,

I Think I see my friends coming, Riding a many mile.

Friends, you get some silver?

Did you get a little gold?

What did you bring me, my dear friends? Keep me from the Gallows Pole.

What did you bring me to keep me from the Gallows Pole?

I couldn't get no silver, I couldn't get no gold,

You know that we're too damn poor to keep you from the Gallows Pole

- Lyrics from Gallow's pole by Led Zeppelin

The Swansong

Hear my swansong, strangers near and far,

As I walk on, bearing both scent and scar,

The scent of happiness, joy and boundless fun,

The scar of follies performed, sins I have done.

These few years of my life are now fading fast,

Soon to be a distant memory for aeons to last,

But never will I forget my life within these walls,

For here I achieved undying happiness and suffered endless loss ...

My Heart

My heart has endless secrets to keep,

I close my eyes and tuck me to sleep.

Sleep will I for an eternity and twoscore,

Troubles will haunt my mind nevermore ...

My poor little heart, so dark and cold,

Once it had hoped for someone to hold.

But what it found, chilled it to the core.

Now all it says is, "nevermore, nevermore ..."

Darkness is not necessarily a vice,

Though it makes you cold as ice.

In this world, wicked and full of fear,

'Tis foolish to shed for someone a tear ....

In this world, there is only one creed,

Worship the one for whom you have a need.

And soon the time and need is past.

And out into the shadows is he cast ...

Dark words are these, I do agree,

As I laughingly hear your furious decree,

"Cast him out into the bosom of the night,

Never again shall he see the light ..."

Why, my friend, the night was always mine,

She embraces me, happily her eyes shine,

Even in your bluster, I can smell your fear.

Is that why you don't dare come near?

Ballad of a Beast

My friends, both old and of the new mould,

Both from the shadow and the realm of gold,

To each when you became so dear,

A shard of my heart I had given to keep near.

Over the years, now I have found,

Of all the shards I had passed around,

A few were lost, a few thrown away,

A few found to be a burden on the way.

A fragment is all that is left of my dear heart,

I guard it zealously from all who would tear it apart,

And yet to you, so naive, so gay,

I grant you my life even as you unthinkingly say...

"What are you, but a beast without a heart,

A stranger, a wanderer, is this all you can grant?"

'A beast without a heart', 'tis very true,

But only because my heart bled for each one of you...

To feel or not to feel . . .

I wish to put forth a question for which I have yet failed to find a convincing answer.

Would you prefer to Feel or not to Feel (even if choosing the former means risking exposing yourself to senseless, mindless pain)?

It is often said that it is better to feel even pain than not feeling anything at all. I believe otherwise.

What is your take?

Masks

Masks. We all must've used one at some point of our lives, maybe at a play in school or college, maybe to some Halloween/Masquerade party.

But the masks which I mention are the ones not visible on our person, the ones we wear either consciously or subconsciously to trick the people around us into thinking of us as someone/something which we are not.

Since time immemorial, people have been pretending to be something they are not. It is a subconscious reflex, thanks to the primitive and powerful survival instinct. Everyone is unconsciously trying to increase their odds of survival.

Not just people, even animals do the same. Only it's called 'Camouflage'. Since evolution did not find it necessary to provide us with masks such as skin that can change color, we had to resort to more subtle ones.

Let me suggest an interesting trick. This only needs patience and some amount of keen observation.

Next time you see a boy talking to an attractive girl (or vice versa) or a student talking to a teacher (or an employee talking to his superior), just count the number of times he laughs. Compare it with the number of times he/she laughs normally. I bet you will be surprised.

At one point of time, I used to look down on people who behave in this 'two-faced' manner. Now I realize, this is the way it is supposed to be. Lies and deception are something that is hard-wired into our system. The better you are at it, the further you will go.

The bible couldn't have been more wrong when it said: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Not even close. The meek shall be lucky to survive on this earth.