Monday, April 6, 2009

Sadness Being Felt By Great Individuals

I find it so incredibly shocking, and it saddens me to such a great degree, that I have decided to post a comment reflecting on my feelings in regard to the sadness which I have seen felt by people who are, in my view, great individuals who deserve the highest level of respect, honour, and admiration. When we, the lay individuals of society feel some pain, sadness, or even a sense of sorrow, we accept it. Reflecting on our own faults, we draw the conclusion that we probably deserved it in some way, and find a way of getting over the pain. Such is the normal cycle of the world, we tell ourselves, and try and move on.

When, however, we find people who we have such a veneration and respect for being treated in a horrible manner, it is difficult to make sense of it. I am not following the misconcieved principle that some people are perfect, but I do believe that there are certain individuals who of such potential, and possess such a level of 'amazingosity' (a new term for the Oxford English Dictionary), that we don't care if they do have the tiniest faults. It has saddened me to such a great degree to hear of individuals who I believe make the world a better place, who fill the earth with radiance and sunshine, to have been treated like dirt by others. How is it possible, for a person to be so hurtful to such amazing people?

I do not wish to sound like an alarmist, but I fear that the world is becoming a worser place than it had been 20 years ago. Morality and manners seem to be increasingly replaced with a focus on hedonistic pleasure and immorality, even if we do harm others in the way. It is so sad that people who have the such promise are being treated in such a way that their aspirations, hopes, and dreams are affected. It is not right.

The only solace we can draw, I suppose, is from the notion that 'what goes around, comes around.' These people will, to use the much-used phrase, 'get their just desserts', and will realise just how wrong they had been, just how hurtful they had been, to another individual. I only hope we are around to see it.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Happiness and Frivolity: Is There A Point?

how does one experience happiness, when he or she is aware of the extreme temporality of it? Happiness, as experience has shown many a person, never truly lasts, and we wonder, therefore, if there is any point in engaging in frivolous activity. Such activities which we classify as 'having a laugh', and 'just having some fun' become useless, when a person contemplates upon not only the temporality of such joys, but also, on a wider scale, the temporality of life itself. We have around 60 odd years to make a positive difference upon the earth we walk, upon the people among whom we find ourselves. If laughing and joking achieves no end, what then, is the point of it? A person opposing this argument against firvolity may argue that we engage in such acts to relax, to de-tox in an increasingly overwhelming world of stress and tension. Granted: our lives within the metropolis that is London are full of chaotic tension, and we need some time to ourselves to relax. But a quite half an hour is sometimes all that is needed, for even the most stressful of days. This work-life attitude, of spending 5 days a week working, and spending the last day of the week laughing incessantly among others seems to go against any idea of progress. Surely, if we spend our lives following this rather mundane pattern, we risk becoming repetitive creatures, just living life in a robotic fashion? I ask you this: If we fail to change our lives, to make a positive alteration to our weekly actions, how are we to make a change to society for purposes of improvement? More to the point: If we argue that our aims are not to make a positive improvement to society, we need to start asking ourselves why, and what our goal is-if indeed there is one.