Occupy Wall Street

Summary of my thoughts on Occupy Wall Street (OWS)
- Not all 99%'ers are good and uncorrupt
- Not all 1%'ers are bad and corrupt
- All corrupt entities should be held accountable for their corruption and should be punished accordingly

Urge to Purge

I am not referring to bulimia but referring to my constant urges to purge the various the contents I have produced on the internet. I've deleted all my Xanga blogs, which had material spanning from 2001 to 2007. I've deleted one Facebook account only to restart another one. I've deleted hundreds of reviews on Yelp and gone incognito.  I just have a constant desire to purge whatever I put out on the internet. Oftentimes when I re-read what I have written, I think about how stupid the stuff I've written and just feel the need to delete it; I'm constantly washing myself of my dirt (or stupid writings) and attempting to start afresh, only to repeat myself over and over again. I do regret deleting a lot of the stuff I've deleted, which is why I've started blogging again. So much of my history has been erased. I would love to re-read my old Xanga entries to see how much I've changed over the years. From now on, I will resist the urge to purse and keep whatever bits of text I throw out into the cyber world. I will try to choose my words as wisely as possible but at the same time, I will not take myself too seriously. I just need to find a good balance between just throwing nonsensical noise out there and spending hours trying to compile ingenious works of art. I think part of me constantly becomes ashamed of the persona I've created online causing me to constantly attempt to recreate a better version of myself, but I need to just accept who I am with all my flaws.

Dichotomizing Common Sense

The US is the land of dichotomizing common sense. Issues such as circumcision, universal health care and water fluoridation are 'hotly debated' here while such issues are non-issues in most other countries. It just seems we waste a lot of precious finite time and energy on distractions. This has led to a great stagnation culminating to the current horrible state we are in. I suppose this is a result of a corporatacracy that has greatly influenced the public's perception of the world to favor the few wealthy corporations. Perhaps our bickering about distractions isn't so much the cause of our stagnation, but is a result of having been ruled by corporations whose quest for money leaves many of us in horrible situations.

For-profit medical care has made circumcision a lucrative business for doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic companies, etc. The amount of money to be made from foreskins is too much to pass up, and those in a position to profit from foreskins are either blinded from the realities of circumcision or are aware of them but just don't care. The same can be said about companies who make lots of money selling toxic waste aka fluoride to municipalities, health insurance companies who act as middle men and siphon money away from people and numerous other entities who are in the position to make lots of money in unscrupulous ways.

The pursuit of money makes us all more sociopathic. We are often more willing to look the other way or willing to suspend our belief of reality to make more money. If one is making millions from installing asbestos prior to it being banned by the gov't, of course the asbestos companies will do all they can to justify continuing profiting from selling asbestos. It took a law banning the sales of asbestos after many years of the known links between asbestos exposure and cancers to stop companies from selling it. I'm sure many things that are currently known to be hazardous to one's health such as BPA, teflon coated cookware, etc will eventually be banned, but only after many people have suffered all sorts of health issues for many years. It is unfortunate that banning toxic substances takes many decades while numerous untested potentially toxic substances are constantly introduced to the market. Trying to ban toxic substances is like trying to damn Niagara Falls with pebbles, but I suppose it's better to throw pebbles than do nothing.

So here we are in America where circumcisions, fluoridated water and privatized healthcare are the norm in spite of their known drawbacks which have prompted many countries to ban such things. Since these things are so normal for us, many of us have just accept them as good. It's amazing how corporations in America have convinced many people that the things that are harmful are actually good for them. It's hard to not be cynical of Americans as many have been socialized to believe in certain things that are go against their best interest. All I can do is act in my best interest realizing the world has set parameters where people will act a certain way and events will pan out as they will.

Bad Habits

Just saw an episode of 'My Strange Addiction' featuring a lady who's really into bodybuilding and a lady who constantly sucks her thumb. I'm not sure I'd consider their habits addictions, but it makes me think about the human drive, and our rationalizations for and against the habits we form. We're good at lying to ourselves about our habits we don't like because they are just so comforting and hard to undo. When we do come to terms with our bad habits, the unconscious mind clings to the habits while the conscious mind tries in vain to overcome them. I'm going to compile a list of habits I'd like to overcome ranked according to level of detriment to my life then do all I can to overcome the ones most detrimental to my life first and work my way down. I do suppose that being overly obsessed about breaking bad habits can be a bad habit in itself if the obsession becomes a compulsion to be nearly perfect and free of bad habits. Moderation!

Shortcuts to Happiness?

According to various studies performed by psychologists, human brains produce happy brain chemicals while experiencing 'flow' or while being 'in the zone' while and after achieving goals of moderate and above difficulty. Humans seem to thrive on overcoming obstacles, but I wonder if there are shortcuts to happiness that don't require having to continuous overcome obstacles? Is it absolutely necessary to continually overcome obstacles to be happy? It just seems so convoluted and bizarre that humans have to engage in certain pointless activities such as climbing Mt Everest or running marathons to experience happiness. I suppose there's no way around the fact that I have to continually overcome obstacles just to remain happy. Being naturally lazy myself conflicts with having to do stuff in order to be happy. Also, my brain often rationalizes certain pointless goals all for the sake of achieving certain pointless goals as being absurd (see my post about the Effi0-Absurdity Paradox). I suppose I must tell my brain that for the sake of my well-being, I have to yield to my human need to achieve in order to be happy. I suppose one shortcut is to pursue things that pique my interest without over-analyzing the meaning behind it and without thinking if it's absurd. I already know eating well and exercising promotes happiness, so I should continue my pursuit of obtaining optimal health through eating well and exercising. Perhaps taking legal happy pills is another viable shortcut to happiness that I should investigate? Transcendental meditation and eastern philosophy may provide some answers?

Why is overcoming certain obstacles more noble than others? Why is the brain buzz a gamer experiences considered lesser than the buzz an avid reader of literature experiences? I don't know, and I shouldn't care. We all draw happiness from doing different things for different reasons; from one person's perspective, the things we derive happiness from may seem totally absurd while from another person's perspective it may seem like a no-brainer. However, we shouldn't have to justify the 'lesser' activities that provide us with happiness. Society attaches all sorts of stigmas and ennoblements to everything, but we should ultimately ask ourselves if deep down we truly enjoy the things we engage in.

Luck

According to studies performed by Richard Wiseman, lucky people tend to be open to new experiences, which leads to a wider range of opportunities. Unlucky people tend to be rigid in their thoughts and habits and often have very specific ideas when searching for what they want, which leads to a reduction of opportunities. Essentially, lucky people see the world with few preconceived notions and assumptions while unlucky people see what they want to see in the world that confirms their notions of the world.  Wiseman also mentions that lucky people tend to listen to their intuition and consider how they will feel if they pursued a certain option while unlucky people tend to dismiss their intuition and just look at the rational side of options.

Keeping an open mind allows one to become more adaptable by providing one with more opportunities, which leads to more good luck. Being rigid-minded makes one less adaptable by causing them to overlook other opportunities, which leads to more  bad luck. If I am intent on buying a pre-WWII 3 bedroom 2 bath single family house for under $300,000, yet most 3/2 houses sell at $500,000 and very few pre-WWII houses even exists in the area I am looking, I am setting myself up for disappointment or bad luck, as my chances of finding that one house that fits my criteria is low. However, if I am willing to buy  a place with fewer rooms  and/or something built after 1950, I will be more likely to fulfill my criteria and thus be more lucky.

Effio-Absurdity Paradox

The effio-absurdity paradox (EAP) is a term I coined while thinking about how some people consider enjoying watching football games as being absurd because it’s just a bunch of guys running around tackling each other and blah blah blah. EAP refers to the reduction of enjoyment derived from certain things due to realizing their absurdity and/or due to being unable to explain why we enjoy them. For example, one may be enjoying a game of golf only to realize that swinging a tiny ball with a stick into holes is absurd, which leads to a reduction of enjoyment of playing golf. Cynical and analytical people seem to be prone to experience EAP.

Anything can be considered absurd. People often complain about how most TV shows are shallow and mindless. Do all shows have to be full of deep meaning and be highly intellectually stimulating? Actually, so called mindless shows can lead to great intellectual stimulation if one analyzes the show in a way that leads to great insights about human behavior. But that’s beside the point. The point is we all enjoy certain activities mostly because the chemicals in our brains compel us to do pursue certain activities and humans have a tendency to defend their absurd preferences while declaring others’ preferences as absurd. EAP constricts one’s world and can lead to depression because it’s a buzz kill mindset that seeks reasons for not liking things on the basis of it being absurd, but what in life isn’t absurd?

Blog

I feel compelled to maintain a consistently updated blog, as my life has turned into blankness that will mostly be forgotten when looked back upon. But what has been holding me back from writing is the lack of things to type about. I suppose I can type all sorts of incoherent gibberish without worrying too much about publishing mind blowing entries. I have lots I can type about, but I often tell myself most of it just boring noise that's not worth projecting out into the world or even just to myself. I think I'll just type whatever without being overly conscious about it now on. If what I type is on the same league as some of the world's most popular bloggers, then so be it. If what I type is the opposite of that, then so be it. I need a written record of my life to see how I've changed throughout the years. I can also possibly learn a lot from reading past entries by reminding me how stupid I was at certain points in my life and remembering to not make those same stupid mistakes. I can also be reminded of great thoughts I've come up with that I would have otherwise forgotten about. Writing will also allow me to declutter my mind and make better sense of my thoughts. It's really difficult to hold so many words in the mind and being able to see the words from my mind in a readable format will allow me to back track and switch between thoughts with greater ease than just mentally juggling them.