Tag: adult life

How are things on Tuesday 30 January 2024?

TUESDAY, 30 JANUARY 2024

For new readers: I am 52 years and seven months old. I’ve been living in the south of Taiwan for more than 25 years, for the last 15 years or so with my wife, and for the last decade with two cats. And so on and so on.

Israel and Gaza: If one observes what Israel has done to Gaza and the Palestinians since 7 October 2023, I imagine a conversation between the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and an advisor:

Netanyahu: “What should our response be to Hamas?”

Advisor: “We need to destroy Hamas, even if we destroy the entire territory of Gaza and wipe out every man, woman and child who live there.”

Netanyahu: “Wouldn’t that be considered genocide?”

Advisor: “I guess it would.”

Netanyahu: “Let’s go.”

Trump as next US President: What do I know about American politics, and I am exceptionally bad at predictions, but I think Trump is indeed going to win the election in November 2024. Why would the Deep State and their thousands of collaborators in the political establishment, the media, academia, and the entertainment world allow this? Because Trump will give them what they need. He will put a stop to the waves of undocumented immigrants flowing across the US border. They would criticise him while he’s doing it, even though they’ll know he is solving a problem they caused. He will put a stop to the excesses of the so-called Social Justice Left of the last decade or so. Of course they would pay lip service to the ideology while he tries to bottle it back up. He will also at least make an attempt to negotiate with Putin – for which they will also criticise him, knowing that everyone including their pet project Zelensky needs it. Israel is not a problem, because Trump would continue to support Israel in their effort to empty Gaza and probably the West Bank of Palestinians.

America in the Middle East: If America continues to assist Israel with weapons, money, and moral support in their mass murder of the residents of Gaza in an attempt to prepare the area for colonisation by Israeli occupiers, armed groups in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and perhaps Egypt will continue to attack US troops and bases in the Middle East. This will put America in a difficult situation. More American boots on the ground is not going to work. Bombing campaigns will only work on a scale that does not involve Iran. If Iran gets involved, it would likely be with missiles against which America cannot protect its assets in the region. America knows this, which means they know they are playing with fire. Are they stupid enough to dip their fingers in gasoline and then stick them in the flames?

Russia and Ukraine: A few more months of thousands of men (and women) desperately pushing against Russian military supremacy to keep a morally corrupt government in Kiev in power, enabling their bloodthirsty political masters in Washington to steal several more billion dollars from the American taxpayer. Eventually, Russia will occupy Kiev, and among other places will also incorporate Odessa into the Russian Federation – to the approval of the majority of the population in those areas. What would remain and continue to be known as Ukraine would move its capital to Lvov.

Next South African election: Unfortunately, South Africa does not have a viable alternative to the ruling African National Congress. However, if a coalition does emerge between opposition parties and it seems that there is a greater than 50% chance that they might unseat the ANC, the government would suddenly discover that the American government is interfering in the election in order to punish the ANC for the case the government brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice in January 2024. I suspect this is what actually moved the ANC government to make the case against Israel in the first place, seeing that it is common knowledge that the ANC government itself is morally corrupt. The government would then use this real or imagined interference to postpone the election, or if the election actually takes place and they lose significant enough support, refuse to accept the results.

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As for the existential experience of being a 52-year-old man living in southern Taiwan, married, two cats – actually my wife’s pets because they simply accept me as a fourth animal in the house … Stay tuned.

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Why the truth doesn’t have to be a black pill

FRIDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2023

Once again, what is life about? It’s a struggle for survival, and for some degree of happiness to make the struggle worth it. And at the end, you hope you don’t die a painful death. And when you are dead, a few people will miss you for a period of time, but the rest of the world will continue as if you were never alive.

These are cold, hard facts.

But one is tempted to wonder if the pill is not a little too black to swallow.

The key is in the degree of luck.

There are also different degrees of survival. If you are optimistic and you believe in the wide range of possibilities available to lead a good life, your survival can be relatively comfortable – from the food you feast on three to five times a day, to the drinks you pour down your throat, to the bedding you sleep under, and the amount of time you spend exploring the world and with your loved ones and friends.

The quality of your survival also contributes to your sense of happiness.

And if you assist other people in their struggle for survival and their efforts to make life worth living, it increases your own awareness of a life worth living.

However, the ending is usually not your choice.

Which makes it that much more important to be happy before the end comes – slow and gruelling, or mercifully quick.

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Better than no plan

MONDAY, 16 JANUARY 2023

If a sensation of happiness is not a regular experience in your daily existence, or if a net positive consciousness is not something that characterises your life, some people might come to the conclusion that their daily existence is not worth the effort and the occasional hardship.

If your daily existence is not worth the effort and the occasional hardship, some people would argue that you might as well end your own life. Unless – your life-ending act will do too much harm to people you care about. In such a case, you simply must make the effort to survive and endure the occasional hardship.

If you are religious, you may have other reasons to continue with your life – even if you don’t think it’s worth it. You may believe that it is not your right to end your own life, or that the god you believe in has a plan for your life. That you simply must endure the hardship and the effort until the plan is revealed, or until the time comes for you to do what you were put on earth to do, so to speak.

Sounds bleak (especially for a first piece of text of the year), but this was also the idea behind a piece from a number of years ago: Life is sometimes hard and difficult. Experiencing happiness sometimes balances the hardships and struggles of daily existence. It’s also easy enough to end your own life. If, however, you don’t want to cause more hardship and misery for your loved ones, do what you can to make your life worthwhile. In this way, you may also facilitate your loved ones’ (and even strangers’) efforts to make their lives worthwhile, so that they don’t end their lives making your life more miserable.

In other words: I make myself happy so that my life is worth living, and in doing so I help you to be happy so that your life is also worth living.

Doesn’t always work, but it’s better than going through life with no plan at all.

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Everyone can do better

MONDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2022

Everyone has the ability to earn at least one million US dollars per year in ethical and legal ways. This is even more true if you live in a developed, industrialised country and have at least a high school diploma.

If you’re not making at least one million dollars a year ethically and legally, you’re not working hard or smart enough.

Of course, everyone has excuses, but the fact of the matter is, for every excuse you make, someone can stand up from the crowd and say that they were in a similar situation as you – or even worse, with fewer resources at their disposal – and they were able to achieve that type of income. (And, by the way, this wasn’t by winning the lottery either; we’re talking regular annual income.)

If, like most people, you don’t earn at least one million US dollars a year, you have no legs to stand on to criticise someone else who doesn’t either. Just because you make double, or triple, or ten times more money than your neighbour, or your brother, or your cousin, doesn’t mean you have license to criticise them for their failure to make more money. You yourself, after all, fail every year in earning the income that you are capable of!

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Set yourself up for opportunity and luck – even if you never become a superstar

WEDNESDAY, 5 JANUARY 2022

To build on a thought from last week or so: If you look at most people in their middle years or later, it’s clear that they never became superstars. They may be “superstars” to their families, but very few people end up with exceptional talents and achievements in any area, much less in more than one area – such as sports and art, or engineering and cooking.

The other part of the thought is that even people who achieve superstar status sometimes do more harm than good. Despite all their achievements and prizes and status.

So even though you never achieved superstar status, never won any prizes for your work, never achieved much in any field, but it can also be said that you did little harm to other people, to animals, and to the environment, I think it’s entirely appropriate to say that you can hold your head high – you’ve done well.

MONDAY, 24 JANUARY 2022

Point 1. As already mentioned, very few people become superstars. Only a select group of people achieve more than one or two of the things they once set out to do or hoped to achieve.

Point 2. One person criticises another for his unimpressive income and low contribution to a common cause. Asks the latter: “Are you making as much money as you possibly can? Are you doing everything in your power to get more done? Why don’t you make more money? Too busy enjoying life? Can’t figure out how? Tried but failed? Tried but didn’t try hard enough?”

Point 3. Few people create income opportunities out of thin air. Most people accept opportunities offered to them, and then they work hard to maintain these sources of income. But did they create the opportunity for themselves? No.

Point 4. What does happen is that people prepare to profit from existing opportunities by training in a certain field and by gaining certain knowledge.

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I. Identify a good opportunity – for you. People’s needs and desires are all opportunities.

II. Get trained or gain experience in a particular opportunity field. Then set yourself up to profit from existing opportunities. (Training doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re twenty, you have the option to get trained for several things. If you’re fifty, you can still get trained or develop skills yourself, but you’re more likely to look at what you’re already trained for, or at what you’re already experienced in.)

III. I initially thought that 99% of all the money I made in my life came from opportunities that were presented to me – from people asking me if I was interested in a position in a gift shop when I was a student to people in Taiwan walking up to me or calling me at home or knocking on my door and asking me if I had time for another English class. Then about a minute ago I realised: I was set up for the opportunities, in the case of the latter examples, by coming to Taiwan and being contactable.

Another thing: Most people don’t hustle on a street corner for money. Strangely enough, the only people who do this, who make cold calls and ask people for money, are beggars – who are seen as being on the lowest rung of the economic hierarchy. I wanted to say that street vendors hustle too, but they also set themselves up for opportunity: people walking past them who happen to want, or need what they are selling – “I’m hungry, and here’s a guy selling hot dogs”.

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