Torrenting at a coffeeshop? As stupid as it sounds, has anyone risked torrenting at a coffeeshop or workplaces? Do people get caught for that like in universities? I would assume so if someone does it excessively.
And a response was:
Don’t ruin public internet that has been provided as a courtesy because you don’t have $3 for a vpn.
But I thought, many people in India won’t bother spending even a small amount on vpn; they would just use the public wifi blatantly, spoiling trust-based public systems for all. This happens all the time. What’s the difference between people in the west and there?
The above response would deter the people in US because they understand it correctly that they would also be affected. They are part of the system receiving benefits nearly as equal as everybody else, so they wouldn’t want to spoil it.
In India, notice that the people who would ruin such trust-based public systems are generally from poor backgrounds – “cheap people” as some call them. The socioeconomic disparity is so high in India that these disadvantaged people don’t really feel equally treated in the society in the first place. Thus they probably develop this attitude of “Why should I give a fuck about the society if the society doesn’t give a fuck about me?”. Isn’t this the same line of thought as Trevor Noah gave even he explained the Black community’s riots in the summer?
People don’t understand that when they are arguing over something, they NEED TO keep their language unambiguous and clear to eliminate any possibility of doubt and misunderstanding. As it is, any language is not fully efficient in conveying the exact meanings. On top of that if you start using rhetoricals, sarcasms, taunts, it increases the ambiguity all-the-more. I mean, sometime person B won’t get your sarcasm while you assume he is getting it. And so B’s reply would seem more arrogant to you. Then again, there may come another sarcastic statement, or a rhetorical question, delaying the solution exponentially!
So here are some basic rules I believe should be followed when you are Arguing or Debating or Discussing a topic:
1) Remember that an argument has a solution / conclusion. The conclusion could be something that you commonly concur upon, or it may be identifying which on aspects your preference differs, or a combination. The common conclusion may or may not be in your favor but you should strive to work towards the true solution. In other words, drop your ego, and be honest & frank.
2) Try to keep the language down-to-earth. Be direct. And expect direct, sharp sentences. Because the truth can be bitter.
3) Get straight to the point without trash talk like above because it only increases tempers and delays the solution. Don’t beat around the bush.
For example: Don’t counter like this (like person B does): A: I have no idea what you are talking about X-( B: You know very well what I am talking about X-( Instead do this: A: I have no idea what you are talking about X-( B: I am talking about how that day you ditched me and went to play basketball with Katrinn. [Even though you think A knows what you are talking about, SAY IT so that further beating around the bush is avoided.]
4) For some mature topics, you may need to use profane words like sex. Don’t be prudish in an argument.
5) An argument/discussion/debate must be logical. Feelings and emotions can be considered within the logic.
6) At some point one may say “Pratyek goshtila karan astach asa nasta” i.e. “Not everything has a reason”. I think everything does have a reason, but it may just be really hard to find or identify. It may be difficult to put into words or too lengthy. Or it may be something too obvious to realize. Take your time to reflect, and try to explain the reason.
Abstract thinking / analogical reasoning / metaphorical thinking / mathematical thinking / symbolic thinking – This makes you intelligent and witty! Comedians probably develop this early in life, heading in the direction of street smartness rather than technical. Scientists, researchers and inventors do the same but on a very technical level, drawing analogies between mathematical models and real-world systems. Artists do the same which is why they see deep meaning in abstract arts. Movie directors do this so as to depict something with great impact.
Everything in our understanding of the world is probably analogical, for example, an atom may not be really an atom. An atom according to our understanding may be representative of something different but behaves in the same way.
Good movies to exercise this: Mr. Nobody, The Fountain.
About “expressing much, and being unperturbed / calm”
We use swear words to express some quick anger / frustration like –
fuck!
shit!
“abe yaar”
Some people say that expressing in such a way is good. But I have been believing otherwise since my childhood. I know from childhood that using swear words to express some tiny frustration momentarily actually amplifies the frustration at least a little.
If you force a smile now on your face, you do feel slightly happy! If you force your facial expression into that a sad, droopy face, you do feel sad. Hence, expression results in more of that emotion! When you use an interjection like “shit!”, or “abe yaar”, “damn”,… it increases that feeling. Instead, you should overcome the need to interject and continue being unperturbed. That keeps you more peaceful and lets you think with more clarity in the next moment.
Extension to this topic: While arguing with someone too, one can get annoyed, frustrated and either use swear words, or lose their calm. The above idea can be applied here to instead remain totally calm & unperturbed by the other person’s comments. When arguing with a friend / acquaintance, you can let go off the frustration / annoyance by thinking “this guy is an idiot, I’ll not get too involved in this subject; his loss!” and continue being unperturbed. But when arguing with a close person, you cannot overlook their potentially incorrect views because they matter to you.
A living cell is an organization of various organelles, DNA, chromosomes etc. An atom is an organization of sub-atomic particles. An organism is an organization of various organs. An organ is an organization of various tissues, cells etc. Similarly, a human being is an organization of various organs. The solar system is an organization of some planets, asteroids, sun, moons. The earth itself is an organization of various elements in it.
So, perhaps everything is an organization of many other things in it, in the mathematical model of the universe. These organizations coexist, and may affect others.
The human race is an organization which affects the earth. In this organization, political leaders serve the role of defining how to organize the humans thus making the organization more efficient.
With all the knowledge and videos I take in, I feel like I am getting a better and better understanding of how the world works. I now have a different understanding of religion and the origin of the concept of God than I did a few years ago, and I think this new understanding makes more sense. My currently trending word is “civilized”
We are animals by nature. We would be nihilists by nature if we grew up isolated from humans, in the jungle. Since nature has made us that way, I would think “what is wrong with being a nihilist?”. Joker was a nihilist in the dark knight movie. He wasn’t a planner, he just did things on a whim, did whatever came to his mind naturally. What is wrong in following our natural instincts? If naturally, a man want fell in love with another woman while being married, if he has an affair with that woman, he is just following his natural instincts – the way nature made him.
The answer is – Because we as mankind (humankind), in contrast to apes, have so much higher in intellect that we can choose to ignore the natural instinct and do something else!
The early man (from the time of the origin of Homo Sapiens, about a 250k years ago), probably realized that upon ignoring the natural instinct, there can be something else to do that could be favorable to him in the long run. This “something other than the natural instinct” can be favorable to your group in which you hunt and live. Then came the discovery of agriculture about 11k years ago due to which people could focus on other things than collecting food everyday and could settle in one place. Eventually we began doing more and more things that an animal wouldn’t do. Doing these things progress mankind as a whole and also gives benefits to individuals, such as not having to focus on food hunting everyday for yourself. Eventually, people developed a set of guidelines to follow that would help in advancing their settlement as a whole even though some guidelines may restrict an individual’s freedom to follow some of his natural instincts. These “guidelines”, obviously were based on their then current “way of life”.
At the same time, to explain un-understood phenomena like lightning, rain, birth etc etc, people came up with the idea that higher beings must be controlling those phenomena. Now, someone probably wanted to advertise these guidelines with the intention of doing good for the society. His own settlement would be following these guidelines, but how can he spread it to others? How could he convince other settlements to follow it? Some would get convinced but the majority of the world does not see the big picture and so does not understand the long term advantage. btw, this “someone” is a placeholder for either one person or a group. So this someone could have used the concept of God to sell his ideas. If he himself made 50% sense, the other 50% could be covered up under the name of God. These guidelines are nothing but religion. Over the years, such guidelines passed down for years with modifications and new clever people preaching their modified versions, thus forming new religions and prophets. Also over the years, guidelines should ideally change with changing technology and progress. Perhaps newer religions incorporated some of such changes.
Bottom line: Following these guidelines that help in the overall progress of society is the definition of being civilized.
To answer the initial question – what’s wrong with having an affair outside marriage since you are only following your natural instincts – if you are a nihilist, then there’s nothing wrong. But you can only either be a nihilist or civilized, not both because they are opposite ways of living life. Nihilism and being civilized are two nodes on the same level.
If you have grown in a country among the human society, then you have grown up enjoying the advantages of civilization and have also been taught to be civilized. So having an affair outside marriage is wrong w.r.t the idea of society in which one lives in. You have to use your human intellect to curb your natural instinct I.e. be civilized, in order to be consisted with the society which is for the purpose of advancement of humankind.
I feel great to have realized the significance of “being civilized” and be able to contrast it with nihilism. What I explained above is consistent with this video from PragerU –
All this new understanding makes me revise my position on religion. Religion could be separated into two things – Way of life, and God. I subscribe to the way of life*, but not to the idea of God. Moreover, as a civilized human being who understands the merits of being civilized, I don’t need to believe in a God to follow the guidelines as his commandments. eg. I understand the advantage of not murdering someone, so I don’t need a God to tell me not to do so.
*Regarding following the “way of life” aspect of religion, some guidelines would be outdated. They could either be not necessary or could have better, updated alternatives to follow. So, I wouldn’t follow any one religion’s ALL of the guidelines entirely. I would try to understand the original purpose of that guideline and check if there’s a better way to do it or check if it is even necessary for the progress of the current society. I wish someone or some institution had done this task of scrutinizing all religious guidelines, understanding their original purpose, updated or discarded them to create a new set of guidelines for our current world. It’s the 21st century! I’m surprised that this does not exist yet! We need to teach the people that the civilized guidelines (way of life) should be followed because of the merits of being civilized and not because of an outdated concept of god commanding people to follow them.
Corollaries and tangential topics to research
There are many tangential topics that could emerge from this article.
1) If being civilized is to curb your natural instincts for the betterment of society (which in turn benefits individuals), then should a civilized suppress his/her slightly homosexual tendencies?
2) Since humans have the option of being healthy by eating only vegetarian food and because humans feel sympathetic towards animals, should a civilized person avoid eating meat?
3) Why do people get married? The article explains that the institution of marriage exists because it is beneficial for the society. But why and how exactly is it beneficial to society? Is a monogamous marriage more beneficial or a polygamous marriage more beneficial to society? These questions are tough to answer. But perhaps, the best answer automatically evolves over time. This is an assumption. Under this assumption, I would say that “monogamous marriages”, as a way of life, evolved to be the most beneficial way of life for society. Could research more on this assumption and other possibilities.
Religion was useful for progress in the old days when people lived horribly. Now, however, I think religion has outlived its usefulness. It also depends on how you define religion. If you define religion as a system of beliefs pertaining to God and worship, then it has outlived its usefulness. If you define religion as just a way of life i.e. a collection of principles and following them for civilized progressive life, then it is still useful. But notice that this does not require the concept of God. The concept of God probably came about to attribute mystical phenomenons to in the ancient days. Now, we have better explanations to these phenomenons by science. Science is slowly but surely progressing towards answering more and more unexplained phenomenons. The “ways of life” derived from science are now more accurate than the ancient “ways of life” based on “Gods”. The basic idea behind both is the same i.e. ways of life help us being more civilized & progressive.
Whenever you learn something, you must apply it to assimilate that knowledge perfectly and to retain it. “Applying it” can include practising it, preaching it, even simply writing an article about it which will give deeper clarity to inculcate it in you.
For example, writing down this LOL. Another example, after studying mechanical engineering or while studying it, putting that knowledge into practice via internships or projects.