Offended.

While reading about how The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, I came to think about how easily offended people where in the past. How the slightest nudity or profanity shook the general public to the core, even so while being afflicted by war and it’s likeness. It doesn’t quite make sense does it? How one could be so offended by nudity, whilst so pleased at the death and defeat of others? And so, we believe that we have evolved from that petty sentiment, that we are no longer offended by trifles and that we are wiser for it. If only it were so.
In this day and age it seems we are instead offended by anything and everything that doesn’t agree with “who we are”. People are offended people not agreeing with them, because everyone knows that what they believe is correct with little to actually back it up. Basically it feels like everyone is basing their ideological beliefs on Bro-Science and nobody can admit that not everything is so black and white. People aren’t making up their own minds about things and just basing their opinions on information they’ve heard from other people. I imagine a lot of the time it’s to fit in to a group of people you like at school or at work. It’s not right, people need to figure out what they believe and value for themselves and not based off what others think.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s OK not to like another person. You don’t even have to have a reason for not liking them. It’s OK not to like another person because of the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation or political ideology. You don’t owe them anything and they don’t owe you anything. What isn’t OK is treating other people unfairly because of your own opinions. You can’t pay a woman less, just because she’s a woman. You can’t strip a person of their rights, just because they’re transgender. All humans are equal and that is all that needs to be understood in society. Politeness is expected, but not owed. Just remember, YOU don’t like the people who don’t like you, either. Humans don’t have to like each other and get along, they just need to have the same rights, same value and equal opportunities in equal situations.

That’s my two cents at least.

pigeons.

I’ve found myself faced with my own mortality alot these past two years. More people i’ve known have died in the last two years than combined in my whole life. And I keep wondering, ‘when is it my turn?’ or ‘when is it my parents turn’. “When will someone I love dearly die next?”.

It’s something that is both unnecessary and necessary to think about. It’s unnecessary because it makes you worry and focus on something that prevents you from living, whilst it is necessary to think about because it reminds you that you have to live. We’re reminded every day that we need to act now, that we have to live now. Because tomorrow is uncertain.

But what if what i’m doing right now is to make sure I can do what I want to do tomorrow. I have to do things today that I don’t want to do, in order to set a foundation for a better life tomorrow. It feels unfair that I need to spend life to earn life. It feels unfair that we receive life, but haven’t earned it – according to society.

I received life, but that doesn’t put me in debt. At least not to society. I received life and for that I owe no-one. I received A life, and for that I am indebted to those you gave me it; my family and or my friends. Or in some cases only myself. In some cases the only person I owe anything is myself.

An unpopular opinion of mine is that – a person of privilege’s suffering is equal to a person of disadvantage (for lack of a better word). Pain is relevant. How can one measure who is suffering more, the child of war in a poor country, fighting for her life – or the child of depression in a rich country, trying to save herself, from herself. But most importantly, why should one measure who is suffering more? The core is that both are suffering and fighting for their lives. They both need help. They both need love. They’re both widely neglected.

Yes, Physiological and Safety needs are more fundemental for human existence than the need of Love and Belonging. But once one has transcended Physiological and Safety needs, the need of Love and Belonging becomes vital. It is crucial for a human who has transcended Physiological and Safety needs to have their Love and Belonging needs met, or else they are met with Anxiety and Despair – unless they descend back to their Physiological and Safety needs being in danger.

What i’m trying to say is that once you have food and shelter set, the next step – love and belonging – becomes equally important for suvival. Therefore, you can’t really say that just because one is more fundemental than the other, that it is more important, because the consequences of being without them are the same (depending on what needs are met). This got a bit blurry.

You can’t blame someone for being born. It isn’t their fault. You can’t blame someone for being born rich, you can’t blame someone for being born poor. You can’t blame someone for being on a different plateau when it comes to needs, because when you’re on that plateau that is what your entire world consists of.

Never feel bad about feeling sad. Focus on you and your needs. Focus on your friends and help them acheive their needs in any way you can. People need to stop pointing finding and start lending hands.

Regards,
Joshua.

 

 

 

Plateaus

As humans we are in constant conflict between who we are, and who we want to be.I am, afraid, altruistic, pitiful and disorganised. I want to be brave, (healthily) selfish, confident, disciplined and coordinated.
How can I become who I want to be? Perhaps I need a clear vision of how I want my life to look. Perhaps I need to just change.
I believe above all that you need to feel it. You need to feel the change, embrace it, and of course, execute it. The latter being where most fail.

New Year’s Eve, for example, is a perfect time for change. You have setting, support and reason. But it’s the execution that ruins it. There’s always that small part of who you are, tripping up the person you want to be. And only through discipline and perseverance are we able to break through our internal plateaus, to reach new ground and plant new seeds. Because most people want to think that there’s a specific way to blast through these plateaus, to, in an instant, smash through them and reach a higher level, whether it be through some magic pill or a secret technique. This is a lie. The magic pills may help and the secret techniques may increase your stamina, but in the end you pass through plateaus by chipping away at them, one hit at a time.

But that isn’t enough, because nothing in life is ever that simple. People would seemingly believe that once you break through a plateau and reach the next “level”, you can’t fall back through. But you can, and without determination to advance, you will. And not only will you fall, you’ll hurt yourself and the hole you fell through will seal itself up, leaving you to have to claw your way through once again.
We can be whoever we want to be. And I don’t believe determination is solely the key to doing this. Bravery is just as important, if not more so. We need the bravery to tear ourselves from the life we have sown ourself into. The bravery to brave through the inevitable pain we’re about to experience. The bravery to change at all.
Knowing this is not enough. By doing is how we prevail, not by speculation. But I know how hard it is.

Religion Vs. Nationalism (How shit culture and tradition is)

People defend religion literally with their lives, and for some reason I don’t think that it is as simple as defending what they believe in.
In Sweden, where we have a few immigrants (certain parties would argue that we have a lot of immigrants, but they’re wrong). And we have a lot of parties and groups and people that want to cut down/stop the immigration. A lot of these people hate immigration because it challenges their national culture and thus Nationalism is born. Nationalism is widely frowned upon and supporting nationalistic parties is dangerously unpopular.
Now, hopefully you’re familiar enough with nationalism that I don’t have to explain it, because I can’t be bothered.
The point that I’m slowly building up to is that religion = culture, on a global scale. Religious activists are willing to kill and die for their religion in the same way nationalists are willing to kill and die for their country, and they’re both ultimately only doing to either expand or defend what they already have (Hitler did that I think!). Now that’s one or two points as to how religion and nationalism are similar things (out of probably many more), and still religion is scarcely frowned upon while nationalism is condemning. I’m not saying that nationalism is good and that it shouldn’t be frowned upon, rather that religion should be practiced with the same amount of caution and respect as nationalism. And shut your stupid mouth before you type something along the lines of “How can you compare Nazis to Buddhists”. I can do that because A) I’m the one writing mother fucker, I can write anything I want no matter how unpopular or confusing it might be. And 2) If you’re going to focus on comparing Buddhists and Nazis, go ahead and compare the average farmer who loves his land but just sits on his rocking chair not giving a fuck, and terrorists. (Unless your point was the latter, in that case read the previous point and just switch it around).
Now I’m not saying that we should abolish nationalism and religion, my point is that culture is a stupid fucking thing to kill and die for. Tradition and culture are just illusions that sameness is safeness. And that is the major fucking problem with nationalists and religionistististss-whatever, that neither want to change and neither like evolving. Conservatism is what it is, and it’s bloody fucking stupid. Culture is a flat tire that slows us down and tradition is the nail in the tire (not sure I understood that metaphor myself, but hopefully you get the general gist of what I mean).
My point is that without this bitter hate towards people of other cultures, there would be no nationalism and there would be little violence in religion. Because without the hate of others cultures then we are without intolerance to other peoples beliefs and ways. And without that hate we can flourish and cooperate. But to be without that hate you have to be without thinking of your own cultures and traditions as the ideal.

Who am I?

I don’t know what to do or where to turn. I feel like I’m lost in life; at an infinite compilation of crossroads and dead ends. Life’s a maze and I’m really not that good at solving puzzles.

How am I supposed to figure out which path to follow when every step I take fills me with fear. It feels like every time a path started to become warm and sunny, I took another turn and it became cold and grey.

I’m mad all the time. Mad at myself and mad at everyone else. Because I don’t know how to help myself and nobody else knows how to help me either.

It’s like my life is a box of jellybeans and I’m always eating the ones that taste disgusting. Only now and then do I get the sweet ones. There are so many horrible jellybeans that I’m nearly convinced that I just was handed a rutty bag.
Yes that metaphor was shit, but jellybean Russian roulette was a bit too funny to pass up…

I just want to find the right path so I can follow it through thick and thin. Find the jellybeans with the right colour and stick with them, even if I do get a few liquorice flavoured ones along the way. (I bloody hate liquorice fyi).

Humanitarianism Vs. Other isms

People have for a long, long, long time been striving toward the succession of their moral beliefs.
These days it just feels rather inauthentic. People seem to acquire a brand new belief, that they’ve possible never even considered before, after viewing only a few pictures or posts on various social media. They then label themselves after these ideologies without actually having read into the (f)actual meaning.
This is what causes the complete and utter failure of communication between both parties.
For example, some feminists are all about the complete decimation of males. Whilst other feminists are about the equalization between men and women. However, they both label themselves as feminists and in most cases they even class each other as feminists, despite the fact that they both (sometimes) know the difference in their ideologies. So how can two separate groups of individuals, with completely different goals, class each other as the same and go under the same name? Because of the lack of analysis and proper interpretation of the ideologies people pick up on fucking Facebook!
Now I’m not going against feminism, I’m going against ignorance. Because all these different “isms” are all about different things although the majority share the same title.
However, as far as I can tell, most people are all about equality. So whilst they care about equality for their own ism, they also do really care about equality between different races, between homosexuals and heterosexuals, between poor and rich etc, etc.
Practically they are humanitarians or egalitarians, (depending on what word particularly tickles your own fancy). They care about the complete equality of all human beings, which in my eyes is the only way to go.
If your only goal is to see the suffering and demise of those who are ideologically opposed to you, then how are you any different than a racist or a homophobe?

By chopping ourselves into different groups, how are we making any difference? I mean, 10 groups standing as one group are still 10 groups.

I DO, however, understand the importance for the need for people to focus on particular sections of societies inequalization. But if you’re really coming in at it from a humanistic point of view, then be open about that and point it out!
Defend gay rights, but don’t forget to advocate humanitarianism at the same time. If you want the equal rights between homosexuality and heterosexuality, then don’t forget to support the equalization of all human beings as well.

 

Now, if there’s anything that you don’t agree with or if there’s something you think I’ve missed be sure to let me know.
Peace.

WordPress dot com

So actually starting a WordPress. I don’t know why, but it feels a bit too out in the open for me really. Like if you’re actually going to be successful or whatnot, then you’re going to have to put up real compelling heiroglyphic shit. Making a WordPress feels like putting on the big boy trousers when you’re still too small to fit them, (I should know, i’m 21 and I still can’t fill a pair of jeans that aren’t manufactured for women or 13 year olds). But still, “those who don’t jump, don’t fly”, I guess.

Joining WordPress is the blogger equivalent of going to Starbucks, when really you’re looking for a nice cozy little café to have yourself a coffee and a bit of pie; point is that a blogger website that fits you and your personal preferences is as scarce as hen’s teeth.
But if you spend all your time looking for the perfect match then your prime may pass you by before you find it, like an old single granny who never wanted to settle for a guy, and ended up being alone for 40 years instead.
I mean, maybe you have to settle every now and then if you want to reach your goal(s).

I don’t really know what I want to accomplish with this blog, but I do know I want to keep writing, and that’s the important thing I guess.

Cunt.

I’m sure some of you (mainly my own family) are wondering why I would name my cardinal post something as obscene as “cunt”. I can tell you that it’s not because I have an affinity for offensive humour (I do, that’s just not the reason why I christened it in a profane way). It’s because I reckon that holding back when writing as to not offend certain people, especially family, is actively holding yourself/myself back from reaching your/my real potential. So I chose to name this first post after the one word that I know would offend my own Mum most, that way i’m practically starting off dreadful and it’s not going to get much worse than that (in Mums eyes at least).
Unfortunately, if I want this to take off then i’m going to have to offend as many people as possible. Or at least, that’s how I perceive writing and literature, if you’re going to get anywhere then you’re going to have to offend some peoples vision of reality, a bit like J.K. Rowling did with Harry Potter. She literally created an alternative universe that was as real to us as kids as the one that we already lived in, which is practically spitting on real life; everyday life seemed really fucking dull and grey compared to Harry Potter, making every part of ordinary life less enjoyable whilst under the impression that it could have been in a different way.
Point is this: If you make people unhappy with their lives (consciously or not) then you’re probably going to be a successful artist of some sort. 
Now don’t take this too literally, I don’t mean that causing depression is going to make you famous, I just mean if you make someone go “Aw, I wish I lived like that”, or “Why can’t I fall down a rabbit hole into imagination land”, etc, etc.

Now, I have still to figure out what my USP is supposed to be with this blog. However, if you think anything of what I’ve written is smart or dumb, feel free to check in again some time.

And hopefully i’ll offend you at some point.