I know this is not part of the series I said I would write but it was something that just struck me a few hours ago… A thought that has touched me as I am sure it has touched every one of us...
Here goes...
Only the weak need acceptance from others, only the self conscious need validation from others, only the insecure need confirmation that they are good enough…
And you know what… A weak, self conscious and insecure person I most certainly am…
I do, as does everybody else in this world need to have myself and my decisions validated, I need acceptance from others, I need to see approval in some one’s eyes to be able to feel completely good about myself. Who of us doesn’t need that, and for those of you who are thinking “I don’t” you are in all likelihood more insecure and weaker than anybody else or you are simply crazy
We all need acceptance, approval, validation and confirmation of our decisions, actions, morality, and choices… and it takes a brave person (bearing in mind that bravery is not strength or absence of fear, but rather weakness and presence of fear and yet possessing the will to move forward) It really does take a brave person to admit his or her weakness and vulnerability and to admit that they do require a certain measure of acceptance and approval from somebody
Now with that being said the options in this world are slim pickings as to who we can depend on or seek approval or validation from… It starts off with parents and family, moves to teachers, crosses to peers in school, to colleagues at work and finally to society at large or a combination of any of the above… It is only natural to turn to these sources for one of our most basic of needs… acceptance and validation
Now that on it’s face sounds pretty ok… only when you consider that they too are looking for acceptance and approval and are seeking it in the same areas you are, which in turn creates a vicious cycle where everybody is looking for the same thing in the other while no one being able to actually provide it for the other, I remember I used to think about the “hip” kids in school and how everybody admired them (or in other words approved of them and gave them acceptance), and how I wanted to be like them also to be approved of, and usually these kids were the buff type of guys that could get any girl and were suave and cool… of course naturally they also had people who they admired and simply mirrored and those people also had people who they were simply mirroring and so on and so forth… and when I think of those days I realize how ridiculous I was to seek acceptance from equally weak and insecure people who were only accepted because they were mirroring other insecure and weak people as well…
Finally now I realize where true power and comfort and confidence are derived from, for you see I am still equally as weak and insecure as I ever was towards He who I seek acceptance from, but what changed is that now I am strong and confident and no longer seek approval from other people…
Now the “Person” I seek approval and acceptance from is not a human being like me with all the inherit flaws and weaknesses that I and every human being have, but rather from a superior Entity, from a source that can actually give me that measure of approval of who I am, the confidence in my choices, the strength in my decisions, the acceptance and validation of what I do letting me “know” that I am right because I am following an entity who is never wrong…
And Ultimately that acceptance, and validation finally gave me the confidence and stability that enable me to look the world in the eye and truly and in all sincerity not give a crap what it thinks of my desicions, and not give a damn if it approves of my actions.... for I have already found my acceptance, and have finally been approved
Peace out
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
From Frank Sinatra to 50 Cent and back!!!
How the hell did we go from Frank Sinatra to freaken Akon and 50 cent…
Just in case you are not familiar with the show business industry, let me provide a context…
In show business of any kind, movies, magazines, songs, music videos, TV shows… whatever the nature (and for the purpose of this post we'll take music as an example)… all of these things have one thing in common…Their success is all based on either sales, or ratings. Of course like everything else the people in those industries are in it for the money, they want to make profit and produce, record, shoot, or write what they believe will be attractive to the Listener, viewer or reader, basically they make what they believe is a product that will meet the audience’s expectations and taste. And it is those who make what appeals to the audience that make it big and become rich and famous… In other words, when the song or movie or music video is produced and it appeals to people’s taste more and more people will buy it or pay to see or listen to it which in turn makes the creator of that product rich and famous
And herein lays the context… If we look at this theory from the opposite angle, then we can say that whatever hehe “Art” that is out there today is a mirror reflection of people’s taste… and that the most accurate way of gauging society’s general taste and what appeals to it, is by looking at who the biggest players are in the market. For example the biggest “musicians” these days are people like Lady Gaga, Akon, Justin Timberlake… The reason why they are soo successful is that their product aka “music” is making great sales records, because more and more people buy and listen to it since it is actually appealing to the general taste of society…
Now that we have established a context we can move on to the truly ugly reality… when you look at what these people produce and realize that this is what people actually like and want to listen to, the picture becomes truly scary.
How the hell did we as a society go from “Love & marriage go together like a horse and carriage” to freaken “I’m gonna take you to the candy shop and let you lick the lollipop”… how the hell did female artists change from “you made me strong when I was weak because you loved me” and singing about love and intimacy to a super freak singing songs like “3” talking about how much fun it would be to have 3 or 4 or 5 guys in bed all at the same time… And for the love of God somebody please tell me how it is actually the standard today where a guy says “I am trying to find the words to describe you without being disrespectful” and then immediately moving on to describing (very respectfully so) how fine that girls booty is shaking on the floor and how he would “very respectfully” like to take her back to his place for a one night stand until they both get sore.
The horror is not in the nature of the music or in the words, the true horror is in the fact that those are the most successful “artists” of our day, which according to the context provided above, means that their so called music actually matches society’s taste…
I don’t really know how this happened, and how society’s taste of art has sunk soooo low and become that vile and despicable, but I know one thing for sure… we are definitely doing something wrong, and a change needs to be made. Something is certainly not right when art goes from “I can’t live without you” to “I can’t live without banging you”…
And to be perfectly honest, whatever is wrong with society just has to be in some way or another linked to our standards of behavior… what we now define as acceptable practice… I mean it is not so surprising to see how low art has sunk when teenagers in schools are wearing pants that say “juicy” on the butt, or wear hot shorts to P.E class, or when guys are exposed to an insane amount of nudity everywhere they go and their sole priority / interest in anything is primarily sex…
Is it really that surprising that we have sunk so low with our taste and preferences, when the average age of first sexual experience was 18 just a mere 70 years ago and now it is 14 and sometimes 13 in some countries, when now even Nuns in churches who used to protect and cover their bodies can now display a bit of cleavage, when a guy who is 21 or 22 that is still a virgin is considered a retard, and guys are only granted bragging rights dependant on how many girls they have had… when dating at the age of 13 and 14 is “normal” practice and completely acceptable by parents and teachers and society as a whole, when the words “saving yourself for marriage” are cause of laughter not admiration, when looking good is now defined by how much skin or curvature a woman exposes, and that beauty now needs to be validated not by how feminine a woman is or by how beautiful her face is but rather validated by how many men are ogling her and thinking up the most obscene of thoughts, when now sex is not even something that 2 people do when they are in love “let alone married” on the contrary, we are coming up with crazy insanities like swinging and sex buddies and it is now more of a physical sport rather than an intimate pleasure between 2 people… And finally when being faithful is something to be ashamed of and being secular is what is “in” these days, when a belief in a set of moral principles set forth by what faithful people believe is an Almighty God himself is something that is just silly, and believing that we all evolved from a giant bowl of undercooked chicken cream soup is making quite a bit of sense
And I know that we are not all doing what I mentioned above, but apparently whatever the heck it is we ARE doing is somehow causing it
It’s time to wake up and realize that what we as a society believe to be ok… is anything but.... not to mention that the line we drew to separate what is acceptable and what is not needs a serious change
And for the love of God, recheck and revisit what the hell we as a people should define as… "Normal"
More to come soon isA
Peace out
Just in case you are not familiar with the show business industry, let me provide a context…
In show business of any kind, movies, magazines, songs, music videos, TV shows… whatever the nature (and for the purpose of this post we'll take music as an example)… all of these things have one thing in common…Their success is all based on either sales, or ratings. Of course like everything else the people in those industries are in it for the money, they want to make profit and produce, record, shoot, or write what they believe will be attractive to the Listener, viewer or reader, basically they make what they believe is a product that will meet the audience’s expectations and taste. And it is those who make what appeals to the audience that make it big and become rich and famous… In other words, when the song or movie or music video is produced and it appeals to people’s taste more and more people will buy it or pay to see or listen to it which in turn makes the creator of that product rich and famous
And herein lays the context… If we look at this theory from the opposite angle, then we can say that whatever hehe “Art” that is out there today is a mirror reflection of people’s taste… and that the most accurate way of gauging society’s general taste and what appeals to it, is by looking at who the biggest players are in the market. For example the biggest “musicians” these days are people like Lady Gaga, Akon, Justin Timberlake… The reason why they are soo successful is that their product aka “music” is making great sales records, because more and more people buy and listen to it since it is actually appealing to the general taste of society…
Now that we have established a context we can move on to the truly ugly reality… when you look at what these people produce and realize that this is what people actually like and want to listen to, the picture becomes truly scary.
How the hell did we as a society go from “Love & marriage go together like a horse and carriage” to freaken “I’m gonna take you to the candy shop and let you lick the lollipop”… how the hell did female artists change from “you made me strong when I was weak because you loved me” and singing about love and intimacy to a super freak singing songs like “3” talking about how much fun it would be to have 3 or 4 or 5 guys in bed all at the same time… And for the love of God somebody please tell me how it is actually the standard today where a guy says “I am trying to find the words to describe you without being disrespectful” and then immediately moving on to describing (very respectfully so) how fine that girls booty is shaking on the floor and how he would “very respectfully” like to take her back to his place for a one night stand until they both get sore.
The horror is not in the nature of the music or in the words, the true horror is in the fact that those are the most successful “artists” of our day, which according to the context provided above, means that their so called music actually matches society’s taste…
I don’t really know how this happened, and how society’s taste of art has sunk soooo low and become that vile and despicable, but I know one thing for sure… we are definitely doing something wrong, and a change needs to be made. Something is certainly not right when art goes from “I can’t live without you” to “I can’t live without banging you”…
And to be perfectly honest, whatever is wrong with society just has to be in some way or another linked to our standards of behavior… what we now define as acceptable practice… I mean it is not so surprising to see how low art has sunk when teenagers in schools are wearing pants that say “juicy” on the butt, or wear hot shorts to P.E class, or when guys are exposed to an insane amount of nudity everywhere they go and their sole priority / interest in anything is primarily sex…
Is it really that surprising that we have sunk so low with our taste and preferences, when the average age of first sexual experience was 18 just a mere 70 years ago and now it is 14 and sometimes 13 in some countries, when now even Nuns in churches who used to protect and cover their bodies can now display a bit of cleavage, when a guy who is 21 or 22 that is still a virgin is considered a retard, and guys are only granted bragging rights dependant on how many girls they have had… when dating at the age of 13 and 14 is “normal” practice and completely acceptable by parents and teachers and society as a whole, when the words “saving yourself for marriage” are cause of laughter not admiration, when looking good is now defined by how much skin or curvature a woman exposes, and that beauty now needs to be validated not by how feminine a woman is or by how beautiful her face is but rather validated by how many men are ogling her and thinking up the most obscene of thoughts, when now sex is not even something that 2 people do when they are in love “let alone married” on the contrary, we are coming up with crazy insanities like swinging and sex buddies and it is now more of a physical sport rather than an intimate pleasure between 2 people… And finally when being faithful is something to be ashamed of and being secular is what is “in” these days, when a belief in a set of moral principles set forth by what faithful people believe is an Almighty God himself is something that is just silly, and believing that we all evolved from a giant bowl of undercooked chicken cream soup is making quite a bit of sense
And I know that we are not all doing what I mentioned above, but apparently whatever the heck it is we ARE doing is somehow causing it
It’s time to wake up and realize that what we as a society believe to be ok… is anything but.... not to mention that the line we drew to separate what is acceptable and what is not needs a serious change
And for the love of God, recheck and revisit what the hell we as a people should define as… "Normal"
More to come soon isA
Peace out
Saturday, February 27, 2010
let the therapy begin
Dear friends and readers…
As opposed to my usual articles which are quite long this one is different… this one will be… Extremely long ;) haha
WOAH WOAH wait a sec, hold your horses… just hear me out for a sec…
This is one of those topics that I have been very eager to discuss and share my thoughts about, but the problem is that it is a topic that is soooo multilayered and goes deep into several other issues that make it impossible to discuss all at once… Therefore I will be releasing this topic as a part of a series…
The first chapter of the series is this one which will simply introduce the general theme and the issues I wish to discuss in future posts… so here goes
Practice, Practice makes perfect…
If it is one thing our world and the people who manipulate and steer the world have learned and applied picture perfectly… it is definitely that… That practice makes perfect… or in other words “conditioning”
As a society we truly have become conditioned, and I am not talking as in physical condition or conditioned to harsh times or to running 12 miles a day or even to accept the horrible corruption and insane freaky norms of today’s society… all of that is nothing compared to the ultimate conditioning tune up our world has gotten latley…
To become so conditioned that all of that not only exists and we accept it’s existence in a deffening silence… but we have to the point where we now believe it to be………………… “normal”
It is a strange thing this “normal business… and even stranger when people are conditioned (re-engineered sounds more accurate though but whatever) to start thinking that what we have now is normal.
A study was done in the 1960s in the U.K in a series of schools when they made the move from Grammar schools to a more comprehensive schooling approach. Basically what they did is, they tested the Kids and they told the kids that got a mark of “D” that they in fact got an “A”, and the told the kids that got an “A” that they had scored a “D”… They continued that approach for the three months duration of the experiment.
Not surprising was the result… at the end of the 3 months the kids had become conditioned, the ones that actually scored “A”s were scoring “D”s, and the “D” students were actually scoring “A”s now… But the wasn’t the interesting part, although it quite adamantly shows the power of conditioning, but the most amazing bombshell was not the transformation that happened with the Kids it was what was happening with the teachers.
See the results of the kids were switched without the teacher’s knowledge, and after being their teacher for quite a few years, their teachers started talking and behaving very positively towards the “A” students which were in fact the “D” kids, and they started ignoring and paying less attention to the “D” students although in reality they were the “A” Superstars
Again it all just goes to show the power of conditioning… and how people transform and shift their behavior depending on what they have been conditioned to…
In the upcoming posts I will be discussing a wide range of fields, and issues that we as a society both Egyptian and as a global world have become conditioned to accept as normal… Issues, like Politics, relationships, Education and general social dynamics… so stay tuned… and start considering as of now… exactly what in the name of everything that is holy is NORMAL…
Peace out
As opposed to my usual articles which are quite long this one is different… this one will be… Extremely long ;) haha
WOAH WOAH wait a sec, hold your horses… just hear me out for a sec…
This is one of those topics that I have been very eager to discuss and share my thoughts about, but the problem is that it is a topic that is soooo multilayered and goes deep into several other issues that make it impossible to discuss all at once… Therefore I will be releasing this topic as a part of a series…
The first chapter of the series is this one which will simply introduce the general theme and the issues I wish to discuss in future posts… so here goes
Practice, Practice makes perfect…
If it is one thing our world and the people who manipulate and steer the world have learned and applied picture perfectly… it is definitely that… That practice makes perfect… or in other words “conditioning”
As a society we truly have become conditioned, and I am not talking as in physical condition or conditioned to harsh times or to running 12 miles a day or even to accept the horrible corruption and insane freaky norms of today’s society… all of that is nothing compared to the ultimate conditioning tune up our world has gotten latley…
To become so conditioned that all of that not only exists and we accept it’s existence in a deffening silence… but we have to the point where we now believe it to be………………… “normal”
It is a strange thing this “normal business… and even stranger when people are conditioned (re-engineered sounds more accurate though but whatever) to start thinking that what we have now is normal.
A study was done in the 1960s in the U.K in a series of schools when they made the move from Grammar schools to a more comprehensive schooling approach. Basically what they did is, they tested the Kids and they told the kids that got a mark of “D” that they in fact got an “A”, and the told the kids that got an “A” that they had scored a “D”… They continued that approach for the three months duration of the experiment.
Not surprising was the result… at the end of the 3 months the kids had become conditioned, the ones that actually scored “A”s were scoring “D”s, and the “D” students were actually scoring “A”s now… But the wasn’t the interesting part, although it quite adamantly shows the power of conditioning, but the most amazing bombshell was not the transformation that happened with the Kids it was what was happening with the teachers.
See the results of the kids were switched without the teacher’s knowledge, and after being their teacher for quite a few years, their teachers started talking and behaving very positively towards the “A” students which were in fact the “D” kids, and they started ignoring and paying less attention to the “D” students although in reality they were the “A” Superstars
Again it all just goes to show the power of conditioning… and how people transform and shift their behavior depending on what they have been conditioned to…
In the upcoming posts I will be discussing a wide range of fields, and issues that we as a society both Egyptian and as a global world have become conditioned to accept as normal… Issues, like Politics, relationships, Education and general social dynamics… so stay tuned… and start considering as of now… exactly what in the name of everything that is holy is NORMAL…
Peace out
Monday, February 8, 2010
The Ultimate Truth... redefined
I know that sounds like a pretty darn cocky statement, like I actually know what the ultimate truth is and even more that I would be able to redefine it…
I have heard from quite a few of my friends that it is impossible for them to believe in one ultimate truth... and to be honest who can blame them I mean look at the world around you… every time we think we finally found the truth, it up and changes again… We “KNEW” at some point that the earth was flat, we were “CERTAIN” that the earth was the center of the universe and there is no doubt in our minds that the “facts” we know now are just that… irrefutable “facts”, solid “truths” that no one can argue
Gravity, the fact that the sky is blue, so many facts and truths that as far as we are concerned could change tomorrow or at least our understanding of them and how we define and quantify them changes… I mean heck, even damn Facebook changes… every time I get used to it and start thinking this is it, they change it to what apparently is a much better user interface… And I am sure that like facebook, everything in this world will “improve” or change or be enhanced, and all of that is again relative to how much we know and how we as individuals identify what exactly is “better”.
All in all it is safe to assume that there is no certainty in life, everything changes and our understanding and development of new technology also changes our own capacity to look at the same thing and see it from a different angle or see it in a different light all together... so considering what I just mentioned and by looking at history, the smart money says that it is impossible that there exists an ultimate truth that is everlasting or won’t change in time. It would be nonsense to believe that there is a single truth or fact out there that was, is, and forever will be… the idea of an absolute ultimate truth is just absurd…right???
This kinda made me think about something… in my mind I started saying “hey wait a second” that doesn’t make any sense at all… I mean yeah all the physical solid things change but what about the metaphysical… what about the stuff that you can’t really put your hands on but know is there for sure…
It could be that they discover years from now that what runs inside my body is not blood it is just over priced ketchup that yes… but it is impossible that anyone tell me that my feelings are false, no one can tell me that in my deepest moments of fear that what I feel is not true, that in my greatest moments of triumph my Happiness is not real…
Which in turn has led me to think, if my emotions are true, and considering of course I cannot touch anger, smell love, hear hatred, or taste fear, then how on earth can I quantify or measure them…?
I thought and thought and thought but was never able to put a number on it. I mean I thought I can measure how angry I become by how bad I punch something or someone, I thought I could measure how much love I have for someone by figuring out exactly how much I want or need or even desire that person but ultimately I failed miserably to define those feelings. But one thing was certain in my mind… those feelings although I cannot quantify or measure them are nevertheless “TRUE”
And then it hit me… and I realized how wrong I was in my approach…
Have you ever tried measuring heat for example using a pair of socks, or measure how fast a car is going by using a skillet. Of course not, you are smart enough to know that for everything in this world there is a specific approach and that you don’t try to understand or comprehend things by using methods or equipment that is not designed for that purpose at all…
Apparently I wasn’t so smart, and I had finally realized what was wrong in my approach… it was not the desire to prove or disprove an absolute truth or understand it if it exists, it was in how I was trying to define it calculate it or relate to it all together
At last I had come to realize that to measure or even understand what is metaphysical I should not use my physical senses… trying to use physical senses in order to understand what cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled was futile… it was a dead end…
Finally, I realized what I should have ages ago… in dealing with what is supernatural in what is beyond the limited ability of my physical senses to comprehend… I had to rely on something else entirely
I started remembering what went through me when I stood in front of the many miracles that surround us day in and day out, The sunrise, the waterfalls of Brazil, the serenity of the desert… what it is like to love, and as I remembered, I realized it wasn’t their size, or smell, or sound that overwhelmed me… it was the humility and sheer happiness I felt that was amazing… and as true as my feelings were and are, I remembered one final thought…
Although Allah has said
"We will show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls until they clearly see that this is the truth..." (Quran 41:53)
I realized that my eyes can deceive me, my ears can play tricks on me, my nose may be runny from my last cold, but what will always be true, is my happiness as I read the Quran, my humility as I pray, my anger when I hear someone insulting Mohamed, or Jesus or Moses or all the other Prophets… and my serenity as I sleep with Allah's name being the last I mention
Ultimately I realized that to connect with God or Allah, or any spiritual essence, to be able to relate to what is truly “true”… my body wouldn’t really be of any help… I cannot quantify spirituality by the miracles I measure with my physical sense, but I can relate to it using my spiritual senses… and therein lays the ironic twist…
To make sure my spiritual / metaphysical sensory systems were working I had to nurture them just as you have to eat to taste touch to feel, see to watch… My soul needed to be alive, it needed to be nurtured with humility, faith, submission, gratitude and love for something that is much greater than any one person or anything material… And that that way was the only way I ever would be able to grasp the beauty in things, the spirituality in myself, and to understand the “truth” that a body cannot… the “truth” that only a spirit can comprehend…
Inspired by a song called “open your eyes” by Maher Zain and the amazing story of an Australian dude called Rubben Abu Bakr
Here are the links for them
Rubben’s story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFGYendf-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9yaxDn1_MQ&feature=related
Open Your eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm6NtnU0yXw
Peace out
I have heard from quite a few of my friends that it is impossible for them to believe in one ultimate truth... and to be honest who can blame them I mean look at the world around you… every time we think we finally found the truth, it up and changes again… We “KNEW” at some point that the earth was flat, we were “CERTAIN” that the earth was the center of the universe and there is no doubt in our minds that the “facts” we know now are just that… irrefutable “facts”, solid “truths” that no one can argue
Gravity, the fact that the sky is blue, so many facts and truths that as far as we are concerned could change tomorrow or at least our understanding of them and how we define and quantify them changes… I mean heck, even damn Facebook changes… every time I get used to it and start thinking this is it, they change it to what apparently is a much better user interface… And I am sure that like facebook, everything in this world will “improve” or change or be enhanced, and all of that is again relative to how much we know and how we as individuals identify what exactly is “better”.
All in all it is safe to assume that there is no certainty in life, everything changes and our understanding and development of new technology also changes our own capacity to look at the same thing and see it from a different angle or see it in a different light all together... so considering what I just mentioned and by looking at history, the smart money says that it is impossible that there exists an ultimate truth that is everlasting or won’t change in time. It would be nonsense to believe that there is a single truth or fact out there that was, is, and forever will be… the idea of an absolute ultimate truth is just absurd…right???
This kinda made me think about something… in my mind I started saying “hey wait a second” that doesn’t make any sense at all… I mean yeah all the physical solid things change but what about the metaphysical… what about the stuff that you can’t really put your hands on but know is there for sure…
It could be that they discover years from now that what runs inside my body is not blood it is just over priced ketchup that yes… but it is impossible that anyone tell me that my feelings are false, no one can tell me that in my deepest moments of fear that what I feel is not true, that in my greatest moments of triumph my Happiness is not real…
Which in turn has led me to think, if my emotions are true, and considering of course I cannot touch anger, smell love, hear hatred, or taste fear, then how on earth can I quantify or measure them…?
I thought and thought and thought but was never able to put a number on it. I mean I thought I can measure how angry I become by how bad I punch something or someone, I thought I could measure how much love I have for someone by figuring out exactly how much I want or need or even desire that person but ultimately I failed miserably to define those feelings. But one thing was certain in my mind… those feelings although I cannot quantify or measure them are nevertheless “TRUE”
And then it hit me… and I realized how wrong I was in my approach…
Have you ever tried measuring heat for example using a pair of socks, or measure how fast a car is going by using a skillet. Of course not, you are smart enough to know that for everything in this world there is a specific approach and that you don’t try to understand or comprehend things by using methods or equipment that is not designed for that purpose at all…
Apparently I wasn’t so smart, and I had finally realized what was wrong in my approach… it was not the desire to prove or disprove an absolute truth or understand it if it exists, it was in how I was trying to define it calculate it or relate to it all together
At last I had come to realize that to measure or even understand what is metaphysical I should not use my physical senses… trying to use physical senses in order to understand what cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled was futile… it was a dead end…
Finally, I realized what I should have ages ago… in dealing with what is supernatural in what is beyond the limited ability of my physical senses to comprehend… I had to rely on something else entirely
I started remembering what went through me when I stood in front of the many miracles that surround us day in and day out, The sunrise, the waterfalls of Brazil, the serenity of the desert… what it is like to love, and as I remembered, I realized it wasn’t their size, or smell, or sound that overwhelmed me… it was the humility and sheer happiness I felt that was amazing… and as true as my feelings were and are, I remembered one final thought…
Although Allah has said
"We will show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls until they clearly see that this is the truth..." (Quran 41:53)
I realized that my eyes can deceive me, my ears can play tricks on me, my nose may be runny from my last cold, but what will always be true, is my happiness as I read the Quran, my humility as I pray, my anger when I hear someone insulting Mohamed, or Jesus or Moses or all the other Prophets… and my serenity as I sleep with Allah's name being the last I mention
Ultimately I realized that to connect with God or Allah, or any spiritual essence, to be able to relate to what is truly “true”… my body wouldn’t really be of any help… I cannot quantify spirituality by the miracles I measure with my physical sense, but I can relate to it using my spiritual senses… and therein lays the ironic twist…
To make sure my spiritual / metaphysical sensory systems were working I had to nurture them just as you have to eat to taste touch to feel, see to watch… My soul needed to be alive, it needed to be nurtured with humility, faith, submission, gratitude and love for something that is much greater than any one person or anything material… And that that way was the only way I ever would be able to grasp the beauty in things, the spirituality in myself, and to understand the “truth” that a body cannot… the “truth” that only a spirit can comprehend…
Inspired by a song called “open your eyes” by Maher Zain and the amazing story of an Australian dude called Rubben Abu Bakr
Here are the links for them
Rubben’s story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFGYendf-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9yaxDn1_MQ&feature=related
Open Your eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm6NtnU0yXw
Peace out
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Animal Planet live and talking
You are as brave as a lion, beautiful as a Gazelle, disgusting and perverted as a pig…
Throughout history, our fellow inhabitants of this earth from the animal kingdom have been used to describe our behavior or looks or attitude as humans.
We use animal attributes to either praise, or denounce and insult one another depending on the message we wish to convey.
Now I don't really consider myself a big student of Philosophy or anything but I must say, this is one of those times where I had a philosophical epiphany and thought of this from a very unique perspective.
Science has now proven without a shadow of a doubt that animals communicate in their own languages. Turns out there is more to barking, and meeeyawing that meets the...ear... hehe. But it has been proven that for example whales and dolphins communicate using sound waves, birds have specific chirps that they use to assemble their ranks, even the darn philosoraptors in Jurrasic park had this squeaky sound they made to coordinate an attack.
And here is where I started thinking about the reverse theory of us using animals to praise or insult other people.
When we talk and we wish to praise or even glorify the action of a person or that person themselves, we usually do so by comparing them to certain animals and likewise when we want to insult or ridicule a person. We say things like, blind as a bat, dumb as an ox, strong as a bull, brave as a lion, beautiful as a gazelle, or also to describe actions we say things like, swims like a fish, is sharp like a hawk, or eats like a pig, and many many other things…
And here my friends is the 64 thousand dollar Question I guess…
If when we as humans talk and want to praise or insult other people from our own species, we do so using other species and their attributes, and now that we know that animals do in fact communicate and have their own languages,
I wonder if they also praise one another or insult one another, and the even bigger question, is…
If they do insult and praise one another, do they do so using other species and their attributes too???? Species like uhhhhh say uhhhh…. Human beings for example…..
If yes
I truly am scared to wonder if they use us to praise… or to Insult one another and too afraid that technology might once go as far as translating what animals say…. Will we here a Gazelle praising a lion and saying "wow Mr. king of the jungle, you are truly Nobel, a real (human)"
Or would we actually hear a Lion insulting a hyena by saying "you are such a treacherous bottom feeding piece of shit... I mean God Damn... you are practically........ (Human)"
Peace out
Throughout history, our fellow inhabitants of this earth from the animal kingdom have been used to describe our behavior or looks or attitude as humans.
We use animal attributes to either praise, or denounce and insult one another depending on the message we wish to convey.
Now I don't really consider myself a big student of Philosophy or anything but I must say, this is one of those times where I had a philosophical epiphany and thought of this from a very unique perspective.
Science has now proven without a shadow of a doubt that animals communicate in their own languages. Turns out there is more to barking, and meeeyawing that meets the...ear... hehe. But it has been proven that for example whales and dolphins communicate using sound waves, birds have specific chirps that they use to assemble their ranks, even the darn philosoraptors in Jurrasic park had this squeaky sound they made to coordinate an attack.
And here is where I started thinking about the reverse theory of us using animals to praise or insult other people.
When we talk and we wish to praise or even glorify the action of a person or that person themselves, we usually do so by comparing them to certain animals and likewise when we want to insult or ridicule a person. We say things like, blind as a bat, dumb as an ox, strong as a bull, brave as a lion, beautiful as a gazelle, or also to describe actions we say things like, swims like a fish, is sharp like a hawk, or eats like a pig, and many many other things…
And here my friends is the 64 thousand dollar Question I guess…
If when we as humans talk and want to praise or insult other people from our own species, we do so using other species and their attributes, and now that we know that animals do in fact communicate and have their own languages,
I wonder if they also praise one another or insult one another, and the even bigger question, is…
If they do insult and praise one another, do they do so using other species and their attributes too???? Species like uhhhhh say uhhhh…. Human beings for example…..
If yes
I truly am scared to wonder if they use us to praise… or to Insult one another and too afraid that technology might once go as far as translating what animals say…. Will we here a Gazelle praising a lion and saying "wow Mr. king of the jungle, you are truly Nobel, a real (human)"
Or would we actually hear a Lion insulting a hyena by saying "you are such a treacherous bottom feeding piece of shit... I mean God Damn... you are practically........ (Human)"
Peace out
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Weapons of mass distraction
That was the title of the new comedy show by brilliant comedian Robin Williams, and a comment he made, while he was running for president in his movie "Man of the year"
I have to say though, there may just be a bit of truth to that statement, much more than it being a simple comedy quip it actually holds a whole lot of truth in it.
It seems that in every time in age, the world can always rely on it's greatest weapon yet… Not nuclear, bio, or chemical warfare no no no… but rather the weapon that has become the weapon of choice for corrupt governments, the weapon that uses fear as bullets, and gullibility as its primary target. That weapon is also the same thing used by any good magician. They make you look to the right, while on the left they are moving an elephant to the top of a tall building or making a tank disappear. A simple equation of "Misdirection"
Unlike Magicians though, that use misdirection to awe their audience and entertain them. Governments are now trading on fear and using misdirection as a way to either justify horrendous acts, or to get people to not pay attention to them and shift their focus on something else entirely.
Now is it really a surprise to anyone nowadays that whenever shit happens or is about to happen, we are thrown a bone which usually appeals and triggers our deepest and most profound fears to the point that we just simply sit back and look the other way while unspeakable crimes and monumental failures are silently accepted all because we are afraid…
It's just like that anchor news caster in the 1976 movie "Network" once said
"Banks are going bust, supermarket clerks keep a gun under the counter, punks are running around in the streets and there seems to be no body that knows what to do, and there is no end to it… We know the air is unfit to breath, and the food is unfit to eat, We sit in our homes watching TV and we see the news man saying today there were 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes and we sit there as if that is the way it is supposed to be… We know things are bad, worse than bad, things are crazy… So we don't go out any more, we sit in the house and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller and all we say is "PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE IN OUR LIVING ROOM, JUST LET ME HAVE MY TV AND MY TOASTER AND I WON'T SAY ANYTHING… JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!!!"
That is exactly what happened and is exactly what is still happening…
Neo Con theorist Karl Schmidt says that in order for a society to exist they need an enemy image. And the best way to unite a people is by giving them a common enemy image they can all relate to i.e hate and fear. Today, right now, apparently that has worked on pretty much the whole earth. Today the whole world is joined in fear and horror, from their common enemy… Terrorism... a fabricated enemy, designed to serve a certain purpose and so far quite successful in doing so I must say
Is anybody surprised that every time, things are going wrong, somebody somewhere launches a terrorist threat or attack?
Years ago, 9/11 was used to justify what we now know was an illegal war, and every time any body questioned the war, all news papers published headlines of "Arrested suspect of terrorism" "Terror suspect interrogated" and my personal favorite "Believed to be linked to AlQuaida"… What you don't know is that almost all of these suspects are released without charges… but that is after they make the headlines for you to see and fear
It seems terrorism is in our face 24/7 as the inescapable focus of our existence.
I mean common, track down the history of events in the last decade. Every single time shit happens somebody blows something up in the name of a holy Jihad, or is arrested mere seconds before he executes his dubious ploy. Not to mention that every time the world kinda forgets a bit about Alquaida, immediately guess who is back, just like Tupac, Osama bin Laden pumps out a new video to the world pretty much saying HELOOOOOO, I am still kheer… be afraid…BE VERY AFRAID
And today is no different. The COP15 is falling to shreds, nothing has been concluded except that the Kyoto protocol is no longer applicable and the world is outraged by the fact that nothing has come of it except that they now realize that the need to set another summit and talk maybe in 2 years time. The whole world is outraged and suddenly shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Silence as the world watches in horror as another terrorist trying to blow a plane up. Over night the focus shifted from the environment to "oh crap it's terrorism"
How much longer will we be fooled by this nonsense, how much longer will we be played, and will our fear of this super monster who's power is only exceeded by the brilliance of the governments who created it to serve a a political agenda.
By the way a kinda interesting timeline can be seen here
1993 attacks on the world trade center …2 weeks later legislation for the initial draft of the patriot act was voted on in congress but didn't pass cuz unfortunately that particular attack only killed 6 people
1995 bombing the Murrah Federal building Oklahoma City, immediately afterwards a legislation was passed that stripped Americans of some basic rights, but still that wasn't enough to pass a full scale monstrosity like the Patriot act especially because the "terrorists" in this event were actually American and in no way whatsoever related or linked to Islam or Alqaida or anything of that evil sort ;)
Then finally…
9/11… staged, deliberate and either designed and executed by the government or at least they allowed it to happen to justify horrible actions later
7/7… same case… and was used to remind the British people of why Britain followed suit and went to Afghanistan
All the Osama videos… perfectly timed to shift the focus of people from the world falling apart to OH MY God he is still alive… ok Obama take 30,000 more troops, take the whole damn country if need be, illegal wire taps… sure why not, torture and denial of due process…absolutely… just make "them" leave me alone and let me be safe in my bubble"
The U.S was on the brink of revolution… they threw a black man on stage and now everybody is happy
And now that silly Nigerian fellow, and all of a sudden nobody is complaining about the war, about the deployment of more troops, about the fact that there is no withdrawal plan or date, people even gave up on their worries of global warming and the environment… just protect us from terrorism is the general concenses
Whether you believe in my theory that it is all a planned strategy based on creating a fictional monster to strike fear into the people and distract them from the real issues… whether you believe that or not… you simply have to admit
Something is really fishy about all this
Adlai Stevens once wrote
"The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to the freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism."
What has changed now is that cloak has morphed into anti-terrorism.
One last thought before I end this… Mark my words… there is a reason why American media is constantly writing about and showing demonstrations and riots in Iran… I promise you this is a prelude to a train that never comes late… next thing you know they will be talking about Iran is an unstable government and cannot be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction (kinda reminds you of the rants they made about Saddam doesn't it)… but I promise you it is coming sooner than you think
First they create the monster image, sell it to the people, make them afraid, and then say we will save you… but it's gonna cost you some freedom and a little bit of your dignity...
fair price if you ask me :(
Peace out
I have to say though, there may just be a bit of truth to that statement, much more than it being a simple comedy quip it actually holds a whole lot of truth in it.
It seems that in every time in age, the world can always rely on it's greatest weapon yet… Not nuclear, bio, or chemical warfare no no no… but rather the weapon that has become the weapon of choice for corrupt governments, the weapon that uses fear as bullets, and gullibility as its primary target. That weapon is also the same thing used by any good magician. They make you look to the right, while on the left they are moving an elephant to the top of a tall building or making a tank disappear. A simple equation of "Misdirection"
Unlike Magicians though, that use misdirection to awe their audience and entertain them. Governments are now trading on fear and using misdirection as a way to either justify horrendous acts, or to get people to not pay attention to them and shift their focus on something else entirely.
Now is it really a surprise to anyone nowadays that whenever shit happens or is about to happen, we are thrown a bone which usually appeals and triggers our deepest and most profound fears to the point that we just simply sit back and look the other way while unspeakable crimes and monumental failures are silently accepted all because we are afraid…
It's just like that anchor news caster in the 1976 movie "Network" once said
"Banks are going bust, supermarket clerks keep a gun under the counter, punks are running around in the streets and there seems to be no body that knows what to do, and there is no end to it… We know the air is unfit to breath, and the food is unfit to eat, We sit in our homes watching TV and we see the news man saying today there were 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes and we sit there as if that is the way it is supposed to be… We know things are bad, worse than bad, things are crazy… So we don't go out any more, we sit in the house and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller and all we say is "PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE IN OUR LIVING ROOM, JUST LET ME HAVE MY TV AND MY TOASTER AND I WON'T SAY ANYTHING… JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!!!"
That is exactly what happened and is exactly what is still happening…
Neo Con theorist Karl Schmidt says that in order for a society to exist they need an enemy image. And the best way to unite a people is by giving them a common enemy image they can all relate to i.e hate and fear. Today, right now, apparently that has worked on pretty much the whole earth. Today the whole world is joined in fear and horror, from their common enemy… Terrorism... a fabricated enemy, designed to serve a certain purpose and so far quite successful in doing so I must say
Is anybody surprised that every time, things are going wrong, somebody somewhere launches a terrorist threat or attack?
Years ago, 9/11 was used to justify what we now know was an illegal war, and every time any body questioned the war, all news papers published headlines of "Arrested suspect of terrorism" "Terror suspect interrogated" and my personal favorite "Believed to be linked to AlQuaida"… What you don't know is that almost all of these suspects are released without charges… but that is after they make the headlines for you to see and fear
It seems terrorism is in our face 24/7 as the inescapable focus of our existence.
I mean common, track down the history of events in the last decade. Every single time shit happens somebody blows something up in the name of a holy Jihad, or is arrested mere seconds before he executes his dubious ploy. Not to mention that every time the world kinda forgets a bit about Alquaida, immediately guess who is back, just like Tupac, Osama bin Laden pumps out a new video to the world pretty much saying HELOOOOOO, I am still kheer… be afraid…BE VERY AFRAID
And today is no different. The COP15 is falling to shreds, nothing has been concluded except that the Kyoto protocol is no longer applicable and the world is outraged by the fact that nothing has come of it except that they now realize that the need to set another summit and talk maybe in 2 years time. The whole world is outraged and suddenly shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Silence as the world watches in horror as another terrorist trying to blow a plane up. Over night the focus shifted from the environment to "oh crap it's terrorism"
How much longer will we be fooled by this nonsense, how much longer will we be played, and will our fear of this super monster who's power is only exceeded by the brilliance of the governments who created it to serve a a political agenda.
By the way a kinda interesting timeline can be seen here
1993 attacks on the world trade center …2 weeks later legislation for the initial draft of the patriot act was voted on in congress but didn't pass cuz unfortunately that particular attack only killed 6 people
1995 bombing the Murrah Federal building Oklahoma City, immediately afterwards a legislation was passed that stripped Americans of some basic rights, but still that wasn't enough to pass a full scale monstrosity like the Patriot act especially because the "terrorists" in this event were actually American and in no way whatsoever related or linked to Islam or Alqaida or anything of that evil sort ;)
Then finally…
9/11… staged, deliberate and either designed and executed by the government or at least they allowed it to happen to justify horrible actions later
7/7… same case… and was used to remind the British people of why Britain followed suit and went to Afghanistan
All the Osama videos… perfectly timed to shift the focus of people from the world falling apart to OH MY God he is still alive… ok Obama take 30,000 more troops, take the whole damn country if need be, illegal wire taps… sure why not, torture and denial of due process…absolutely… just make "them" leave me alone and let me be safe in my bubble"
The U.S was on the brink of revolution… they threw a black man on stage and now everybody is happy
And now that silly Nigerian fellow, and all of a sudden nobody is complaining about the war, about the deployment of more troops, about the fact that there is no withdrawal plan or date, people even gave up on their worries of global warming and the environment… just protect us from terrorism is the general concenses
Whether you believe in my theory that it is all a planned strategy based on creating a fictional monster to strike fear into the people and distract them from the real issues… whether you believe that or not… you simply have to admit
Something is really fishy about all this
Adlai Stevens once wrote
"The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to the freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism."
What has changed now is that cloak has morphed into anti-terrorism.
One last thought before I end this… Mark my words… there is a reason why American media is constantly writing about and showing demonstrations and riots in Iran… I promise you this is a prelude to a train that never comes late… next thing you know they will be talking about Iran is an unstable government and cannot be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction (kinda reminds you of the rants they made about Saddam doesn't it)… but I promise you it is coming sooner than you think
First they create the monster image, sell it to the people, make them afraid, and then say we will save you… but it's gonna cost you some freedom and a little bit of your dignity...
fair price if you ask me :(
Peace out
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Naked truth
Hey all
this time it is just a question that I would like to state, in the hopes of finding an answer that is the least bit logical
Why is it that Donald duck is always walking around butt naked, but seems to insist on wrapping a towel around his usually naked butt everytime he comes out of the shower :)
Peace out
this time it is just a question that I would like to state, in the hopes of finding an answer that is the least bit logical
Why is it that Donald duck is always walking around butt naked, but seems to insist on wrapping a towel around his usually naked butt everytime he comes out of the shower :)
Peace out
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