Category: Youth of my old age – 2021

Random thoughts in September and October 2021

SUNDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER 2021

I consider it more than a small triumph that I was able to work out – for myself at least – what life is about, what it means to be human, what I need to do with my life, what the meaning of life is, and what the basis should be of my ethics.

I had to work all these things out because, as REM famously expressed it in their big hit of the early nineties, I had lost my religion.

Religion played a most significant role in my life until my early twenties. It explained what the purpose of my existence was, where I came from and what would happen when you died, how you had to lead your life, and why you had to do certain things and not do other things. It provided me with a worldview. It explained how everything – the cosmos and planets, and humans and animal and nature – fit together. I even strongly considered pursuing a career where religion would have played an important role.

All of this came crashing down on me like a house of cards. I had to start all over. And I did it in writing, one set of paragraphs after another, until I figured out enough to say, “I understand again. I can now do more than just function.”

THURSDAY, 16 SEPTEMBER 2021

Reasonable objectives of an adult life:

1. Survive, physically and mentally.

2. Try not to do harm. If you do harm in the process of survival, try to keep it to a minimum.

3. Try to do good – protect other people, animals and nature from harm, aid in the maintenance of life, aid in the improvement of the lives of other people or animals.

4. Try to live an authentic life that corresponds to the realisation that you are not a machine controlled by unseen forces.

TUESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2021

I don’t like this idea of conditional happiness: “I’m happy because …”

I like delusional happiness, crazy happiness: I’m happy despite …

Can the same be said about feeling good about yourself – a necessary ingredient of positive self-esteem? You feel good about yourself despite X, Y or Z.

THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2021

If the measure of success is that you can create things from wood and steel, then my father was a success.

If the criterion is to be able to fix cars, even turning a wreck that used to stand on bricks into a road-worthy vehicle with which the family goes on vacation, then my father was a success.

But if the criterion is to work for someone else and say, “Yes, Boss … no, Boss” and keep your mouth shut the rest of the time, well, then it’s just one of those things.

SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2021

“I’m sad.”

If you choose to be.

(And yet, it feels appropriate in certain circumstances.)
[Thursday, 11 November 2021]

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Is it possible for a fundamentally bad idea to receive broad support?

TUESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2021

I saw this satirical headline on Twitter: “Parents who think that their children don’t belong to the State are dangerous, explained.”

Of course, most people won’t accept this idea (right?) and the headline itself is from a non-existing website with satirical headlines. Yet, if an article like this were to appear on mainstream media like CNN or BBC, I bet at least 20% of readers would support the idea.

Imagine being the editor of the online media that publishes such an article. The person truly believes in the concept that children belong to the state. They are committed to pushing this idea.

Now imagine this editor is not alone. Hundreds of other editors, journalists, reporters, and presenters at high-profile media outlets agree with them.

Imagine thousands of academics also support the idea. So do TV and movie stars, and other celebrities – once it has been convincingly framed as “progressive”.

Parents who believe they have a right to educate and raise their children as they see fit, and that their rights supersede any claim the state has over their offspring, are presented in hundreds of TV shows, talk shows, academic journals and newspaper and magazine articles as “traditional”, “unbearably conservative”, “radical” and even “fundamentalist”. Because the idea that children belong to the state is being presented as cool and progressive, teenagers increasingly show their support to the idea, and in timeless fashion influence their younger siblings to do the same.

And yet, is the idea good? (Remember: the state claiming your kids is just a useful example.)

Is it possible for a fundamentally bad idea to receive broad support amongst those with the most powerful voices and with access to millions of minds through social media and educational spaces? And how many millions of readers and viewers would support such an idea simply because of its favourable framing?

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Media and other voices creating a narrative

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I’m not a world-famous pop star (but I did manage to get a scooter license)

FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

Elon Musk is one of the most famous people in the world, is considered an inspiring cultural icon, and his business projects have brought him billions of dollars. He was born in the same year, in the same month, in the same week, in the same city as me.

Dexter Holland from The Offspring is a successful pop star. In 2017, he also received his PHD in Molecular Biology. He also started his own business selling hot sauces – made according to his own recipes. He also has a pilot’s license.

The guy from Pizza Rock arrived in Taiwan in 2000 – one year after me. He’s been all over Taiwan – in his own words, he has traversed every road, highway, and dirt road in the mountains. In 2011 (same year as me) he got married. He and his wife decided they wanted to start a business. They had no experience with restaurants but decided to start a pizza place. Went to Italy for a few weeks, ate lots of pizza, asked questions, and learned what to do. Back in Taiwan, he made his first pizza in a little Costco oven. The night before the Grand Opening, he reckoned it might be a good idea to see how the commercial oven delivered earlier in the day works. The first attempt was a total failure. Still, the next day they opened, and everything worked out well. They recently opened their 27th restaurant on the island. Three years before he opened his first restaurant, he also started a popular website with dozens of interesting articles about Taiwan.

Me?

I wanted to work out who I am or should be. I wanted to work out what the story is with religion, and with ethics without religion. I wanted to work out how one experiences meaning in your life. I wanted to work out what one has to do to be happy; that is, what people who experience happiness in their lives do right that people who don’t experience happiness in their lives don’t do or do wrong. I am satisfied with the answers I have worked out. Because I’ve carefully taken notes of the process, I have hundreds of pieces of publishable text – which I have already made available in various formats for other people to read. Sometimes other people read it. I further reckon that failures and successes of the last decade or two, as well as thoughts on other topics, have given me enough material for at least a couple more collections.

I am not a world-famous pop star. No one is going to Mars one day thanks to my hard work and ingenuity. I don’t have a PHD; I don’t have a pilot’s license, and I’ve never invented any sauce recipes. Nor have I started a successful business in my more than two decades in Taiwan that provides hundreds of people with jobs and thousands of people with delicious food. Like the guy from Pizza Rock, I also have a Taiwanese themed website. But there’s not much of value on it, and it receives little traffic.

Oh yes, after three attempts I also recently managed to get a scooter license. And – I make my own granola every week.

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Even the cruellest behaviour and the most senseless policies can be justified

TUESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2021

15:00

Someone puts a plate with something that’s supposed to be edible in front of you.

You look at the plate and try to work out what it is.

“This is not a banana,” you then declare. “It’s not a piece of meat. And it’s definitely not a potato. I don’t know what it is, but if people claim it’s a banana, a piece of meat, or a potato, they are definitely trying to deceive you.”

[click here if tweet doesn’t load]

Are all these mandates and regulations part of an evil conspiracy to regulate ordinary people with an ever heavier-pressing iron thumb? I don’t know. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is not about Covid-19, or people’s health.

15:12

The Nazis justified it in academic works at university, sermons in the church, lessons at school and in public speeches, and clearly explained why Jews should be deprived of their German citizenship, and why the government should come up with … a final solution.

For decades, the Soviet government justified why dissenters should be thrown into prison, deported, or executed as enemies of the state.

In South Africa, white governments for decades convinced the public that Apartheid is the only solution for South Africa’s racial relations. Pastors justified it to congregations from the Bible, and teachers explained it to pupils.

In Mao Zedong’s China in the 1960s and early 1970s, teenagers with red booklets in their hands could justify why teachers should be humiliated, and why it was absolutely necessary to kick people’s doors off their hinges in the middle of the night to search for Western musical instruments and books which could undermine the revolution.

Fact is, anything can be justified. Words are extremely useful means of spinning just about anything to make wrong look right, and right wrong.

Be aware of what you are saying. Express, as a matter of principle, the other side’s argument in such a way that that person must admit that you understand it correctly.

Can’t do it, or don’t do it because some crisis currently doesn’t allow the luxury? Then I have bad news for you: Your opponent is also inventing excuses as to why your argument is not worthy of proper consideration.

Do you furthermore find that you increasingly think of your ideological opponent as a caricature, not someone with a complex personality and dreams and fears just like you? Guess what? On the other side of the dividing line are people who make a similar caricature of you.

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My life on the train

THURSDAY, 1 JULY 2021

I made a deal with myself years ago. Like a being from outer space left here by his spaceship, or like a person stranded on a deserted island, I will make the best of my time: I will write about my experience.

FRIDAY, 16 JULY 2021

Fact is, in the end, everything returns to dust. Most works of art, most masterpieces of literature, sculpture, architecture, music, beauty, and wisdom. And people, and animals.

And I say this as someone who believes it makes more sense to be optimistic, to believe your life has value and meaning.

[15/06/22: Dust, in the digital age where everything is remembered and stored forever? Physically people and animals, and printed material and buildings and paintings can disintegrate, but audio and video recordings and digital copies and blueprints will remain. Even so, you are more than a collection of photos or video clips or sound recordings. And once a building has been demolished, the blueprint won’t be a place to reside in, or to provide a warm or cool and pleasant space to rest or work in.]

TUESDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2021

The human condition is like a runaway train unstoppably on its way to a cliff overlooking a stormy sea [perhaps there used to be a bridge that’s been washed away].

Your life is being a passenger on this train.

The train will reach the cliff. It cannot be stopped. The end cannot be avoided.

But – it may take years.

In the meantime, life goes on aboard the train. People mingle, make new friends, and meet life partners. They procreate and raise children. They are sometimes sad, and sometimes happy. Most find some kind of purpose and meaning to their lives.

But still the train continues to its inevitable end.

How you respond to this reality has a profound impact on your quality of life, and on the impact you have on the lives of other passengers on this train.

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(For years I’ve thought of the 1985 film, Runaway Train, with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, as a metaphor for life. The image of the Voight-character standing on top of the train towards the end of the film, knowing that it was heading off to a rocky dead end, made a big impression.)

Runaway Train

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