Today, I completed one year at my current job. MY thoughts? Well, I honestly feel grateful for the livelihood it gave me and my family in the past one year. I've grown up, matured, learnt new skills, developed a few invaluable friendships with good people, pushed myself to new challenges, become more confident, acquired higher material and social status, started to set objectives in life and feel determined to work towards them. On the downside, my boss is not the mentor-type I expected. He has been unwilling to take a few minutes of his busy time to do a review of my performance for the past year. I am uncertain as to where I stand in the company or what opportunities for progress lie ahead. I am not working in a field I specialised in. I am underpaid. My potential is not exploited rightfully by this job or the company. Everything in life comes in packaged deals. This is the subscription plan I picked an year ago. I have 2 choices; be content with what I do have and keep going OR actively go looking for what I need and move on. Very simple, theoritically speaking.
Life is a funny thing, on one end someone extends you a hand and pulls you out of your despair. And then you turn around and see another in despair, and realise you can and should help. Empathy, sympathy, charity, generosity, compassion, kindness are all very Noble things ONLY if used wisely. It is easy to fall prey to being an "innocent fool" after rushing to help without first arming oneself with the necessary knowledge and equipment first. Much like a paramedic is of not much use without proper background knowledge of the accident and without his medical equipment. After all, the cause is lost if you do more damage than help or worse, end up damaged. These things make more sense as I get older and I leave behind my cocoon of naivety.
I've had better luck with the second book of Bertrand Russell I am reading. With the first one, I tried too hard. The vocabulary and writing style seemed beyond my level of comprehension. However, I am curiously drawn to the wide variety of topics he tackled in his works of literature. Not ready to give up yet, I picked up a smaller book of "Bertrand Russell's Best" from the library the other day. And like most secondary school kids who turn their Biology textbooks directly to the chapter on "Reproduction" when they need an interesting appetizer before starting the dry main course (of studying for the finals, of course! - in case you lost me there), I jumped to a random chapter on "Sex and Marriage". He wrote this in 1929 and eventhough his arguments were directed in opposition to teachings of the Church on the same topic at the time, I find that even in 2011, they still hold remarkable significance in certain conservative cultures (like mine). One simply feels challenged to argue back with his flawless logic, eventhough there were a couple of eye-brow raising moments for me here and there. Not only that, his wit and logic combine in some places and the resulting lines are too hilarious!
On the topic of "Sex and Marriage", he says in one place,
"If the old morality is to be re-established, certain things are essential....The first esssential is that the education of girls should be such as to make them stupid and superstitious and ignorant; .....the next requisite is a very severe censorship upon all books giving information on sex subjects.....These conditions, however, since they already exist, are clearly insufficient. The only thing that will suffice is to remove from young women all opportunity of being alone with men; girls must be forbidden to earn their living by work outside home; they must never be allowed an outing unless accompanied by their mother or an aunt;.....It must be illegal for an unmarried woman under fifty to possess a motor-car, and perhaps it would be wise to subject all unmarried women once a month to medical examination by police doctors, and to send to a penitentiary all such as were found not virgins. The use of contraceptives must, of course, be eradicated,.....These measures, if carried out vigorously for a hundred years or more, may perhaps do something to stem the rising tide of immorality. I think, however, that in order to avoid the risk of abuse, it would be necessary that all policemen and all medical men should be castrated. Perhaps it would be wise to carry this policy a step further, in view of the inherent depravity of the male character. I am inclined to think that moralists would be well advised to advocate that all men should be castrated, with the exception of ministers of religion....."
Perhaps, the world needs a couple of more Lord Russells on the Eastern hemisphere so that mental evolution (with regards to social problems) - constipated as it is - can progress steadily and healthily.
Looking forward to reading what he has to say on drier topics.
Life is a funny thing, on one end someone extends you a hand and pulls you out of your despair. And then you turn around and see another in despair, and realise you can and should help. Empathy, sympathy, charity, generosity, compassion, kindness are all very Noble things ONLY if used wisely. It is easy to fall prey to being an "innocent fool" after rushing to help without first arming oneself with the necessary knowledge and equipment first. Much like a paramedic is of not much use without proper background knowledge of the accident and without his medical equipment. After all, the cause is lost if you do more damage than help or worse, end up damaged. These things make more sense as I get older and I leave behind my cocoon of naivety.
I've had better luck with the second book of Bertrand Russell I am reading. With the first one, I tried too hard. The vocabulary and writing style seemed beyond my level of comprehension. However, I am curiously drawn to the wide variety of topics he tackled in his works of literature. Not ready to give up yet, I picked up a smaller book of "Bertrand Russell's Best" from the library the other day. And like most secondary school kids who turn their Biology textbooks directly to the chapter on "Reproduction" when they need an interesting appetizer before starting the dry main course (of studying for the finals, of course! - in case you lost me there), I jumped to a random chapter on "Sex and Marriage". He wrote this in 1929 and eventhough his arguments were directed in opposition to teachings of the Church on the same topic at the time, I find that even in 2011, they still hold remarkable significance in certain conservative cultures (like mine). One simply feels challenged to argue back with his flawless logic, eventhough there were a couple of eye-brow raising moments for me here and there. Not only that, his wit and logic combine in some places and the resulting lines are too hilarious!
On the topic of "Sex and Marriage", he says in one place,
"If the old morality is to be re-established, certain things are essential....The first esssential is that the education of girls should be such as to make them stupid and superstitious and ignorant; .....the next requisite is a very severe censorship upon all books giving information on sex subjects.....These conditions, however, since they already exist, are clearly insufficient. The only thing that will suffice is to remove from young women all opportunity of being alone with men; girls must be forbidden to earn their living by work outside home; they must never be allowed an outing unless accompanied by their mother or an aunt;.....It must be illegal for an unmarried woman under fifty to possess a motor-car, and perhaps it would be wise to subject all unmarried women once a month to medical examination by police doctors, and to send to a penitentiary all such as were found not virgins. The use of contraceptives must, of course, be eradicated,.....These measures, if carried out vigorously for a hundred years or more, may perhaps do something to stem the rising tide of immorality. I think, however, that in order to avoid the risk of abuse, it would be necessary that all policemen and all medical men should be castrated. Perhaps it would be wise to carry this policy a step further, in view of the inherent depravity of the male character. I am inclined to think that moralists would be well advised to advocate that all men should be castrated, with the exception of ministers of religion....."
Perhaps, the world needs a couple of more Lord Russells on the Eastern hemisphere so that mental evolution (with regards to social problems) - constipated as it is - can progress steadily and healthily.
Looking forward to reading what he has to say on drier topics.
I just started reading Bertrand Russel. Presently on 'In Praise of Idleness'. Loving it!
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