Saturday, July 21, 2007

Whoa! I’m so impressed, for after such a long time of secretly hiding his powerful linguistic skills from the rest of us, shida’s finally beginning to show it! We finally get a small glimpse of shida’s imba writing… F34R T3H PR0! I’m probably getting everly excited over just seeing the tip of the iceberg, but still there is reason for me to do so since all or at least most of what shida has been writing until now are self esteem destroying rants…

Despite the excitement, I cannot agree with Shida’s viewpoint.

Note: I am going to be a hypocrite here, since I don’t believe in the load of rubbish about the greater good, about the society or about the welfare of mankind. My faith lies in only my own desires, and I see no importance to ensure the survival of any other being other than me, myself, and me again. Besides if you look at things from purely my perspective, the only thing that even exists in the universe is myself anyway. However, as the morally upright human being who cares about the survival of your species, and whose actions contribute to the success or failure of your species, (no, I really don’t consider myself human) apparently you should follow my advice.

That ‘famous person’ is obviously a self-absorbed person who doesn’t give a damn about the survival of his own kind. Okay, that might sound a bit like me, but still I spite him for trying to spread such lies to the rest of humanity. It is true society can possibly take care of itself, if there only exist a minute, negligible minority of individual with the same mentality as that “famous guy”. The human race would be able to do well with the majority of the population still contributing to its success. The small minority would be shunned and effectively denied the right to pass on their thinking, since firstly females would not desire them because of their flawed character, and their children would not respect them because of the teachings in school.

However, when these people decide to try and justify their selfishness and people actually begin to be convinced, the problem starts, for the mechanism preventing selfish people from getting too numerous is defeated, and soon you will see the downfall of the human race when the majority of it become overly smart and selfish. Selfishness by itself does not do much harm, for the low levels of selfishness, which is what we see in animals, actually advances the success of the species rather than cause its downfall, since selfishly trying to satisfy the organism’s most instinctive desires is almost identical to preserving the welfare of the species. However, because of the fact that humans are clever, this selfishness becomes lethal because as you see in such cases humans cease to follow their instincts to satisfy low level desires, in fact sacrificing them to further “higher level” goals. In this case, their desires no longer overlap with the welfare of the species, and the success of the species is compromised.

You look at the global warming which is making our climate go all crazy (flood in Singapore, then super hot days); the falling birth rates in developed countries and the crazy population increase in undeveloped countries (when it is the developed countries that should be having increase in population because they can give their children better nutrition and education, ensuring the superiority of future generation); terrorism and wars (equal to advanced forms of cannibalism, really); which are all different manifestations of the progressively selfish mindset of humans. Now tell ‘society is taking care of itself’!

Wow, all that just to argue against one sentence… I guess I need quantity to make up for the lack of quality in my writing… never mind lets continue. :D

Next, it is an unfair comparison between the economy and the attempts of humans to reproduce.

Let us think about how buying and selling even causes economic growth in the first place. Buying and selling on the market does not even directly increase the productivity of the producers. How it works is: When there are buyers and sellers, one party would receive more, and when this happens there is a small concentration of resources on the person who received more from the trade. Since that person now has more capital, he is able to utilize better technologies and/or specialize, thus increasing his productive capabilities. This reduces the average total cost of products, and allows the entire human race as a whole to benefit. What this means is, buying and selling is only good for the economy to a certain extent, beyond which additional increases in the rich-poor gap due to large amounts of trading would not result in any further growth in productivity. Simple way to put it: do you think an additional billion in bill gate’s pockets would allow him to make the windows OS better or the cheaper to produce? Apparently there is a maximum to how much a pooling of resources in can increase efficiency of productivity. (I think I made the same point some time ago in the 1kg of gold post, just reiterating it here)

Next, even if we were to assume that everything the individual puts from his pocket would contribute to the economy, we still have to account for the fact that economic growth is not an end by itself for the human being. Economic growth is only good because of the indirect benefits it brings to human race, such as a better standard of living, so that a greater number of humans would have a greater chance of surviving till the age for reproduction, and hence a greater absolute number of individuals well equipped with adaptations for survival. Or if great catastrophes were to occur and the environment changes drastically, the greater total population would mean a greater chance of the existence a sizeable number of people who can survive the change. Take note that allowing individuals to enjoy a better lifestyle is not an end by itself. If they enjoy better lives with the booming economy, and then decide that they don’t want to have any children due to the access to contraceptives, then no your economic growth is not doing a favor for mankind.

On the other hand, there are also five fingers. I mean, reproduction and the continuity of the species is an end by itself. It might be bad if one lives and works till thirty and spends every cent he earns and then when there is economic recession he loses his job and starves in three days, but the praying mantis (ok, so I am using this small insect too many times; fine, the black widow spider then) that sacrifices itself to the female has served its purpose, regardless of whether or not he actually managed to fertilize the eggs. Simply put, the importance of reproduction is direct while the importance of economic growth is derived.
Thirdly, on the point about initiatives, I believe shida is confused between trying and failing, trying and succeeding, and then losing after trying and succeeding. The loss of initiative is like a sunk cost, for even if you do not try you will still have no control at all over the outcome. In fact, at least by using up your initiative and not allowing it to fade away and disappear by itself, you are doing something active and then waiting for the passive results. There is nothing certain about life, it is really a game of input and output where you make your attempts and await for the unsure outcome. Does it mean that nothing challenging should be attempted for the fear of failure? Also, the prerequisite for there to be a “contrast” in the first place implies a certain level of success, for only after you obtain something can you lose it. If you fail to even get it in the first place, how can you lose it?

Even if say we were to assume the case is as shida mentioned, and can be compared to the case of Algernon, I still believe in the phrase “不求天长地久但求曾经拥有”. Life is short compared to the eternity that the atoms in your bodies have spent, and will spend as lifeless, inactive molecules floating around with no consciousness. Does it mean then that you should not try your best to keep yourselves alive because you will eventually die? The same thing here, the inevitable should not alter your decisions.

Lastly, while it’s true there is a chance the probability that the glimmer of hope would become bigger and bigger, but as you mentioned, JC time is precious, soon everyone will be occupied with more and more schoolwork, and before you know it we would all be separated going our separate ways. What are the chances of the glimmer of hope growing, as compared to it slowly fading away into oblivion? Besides, how certain can you be that one who can be destroyed by rejection would be unaffected by all that uncertainty floating about his mind?

No really, it is exactly because you care about the consequences that you should try. It is much better to try and fail than to not find out at all, and live your life in a shadow of doubt. Why yes, recovery from cancer would be tough, but is that reason not to have your body checked by the doctor? Of course there is a matter of timing, but let that be no excuse for procrastination. Why, do yourself and the people around you a favor. Try, fail or succeed as the case might be, and get over it already.