We are all different. Or are we?

Oh what horrors! Heck, don‘t you just hate those Americans and their stupidity? Damn those rednecks and their big cars and guns. Don‘t you just hate those Russians? Damn communist scum. The Germans are ok, German quality all the way. And those Chinese !! Oh my god, somebody send them some condoms! Same goes for India damn it. Let them wage war with each other and lower their populations. Oh, and don‘t you just hate gays? How dare they walk around in public and marry each other? Bastards. Lesbians are ok as long as they let us watch. Oh and those black people! God, I hate their rap and that damn mugging. I‘m tired of being mugged by some random black dude each week ,even though It only happened once and all the rest were done by white guys. My country is the best. Oh and I like chicken.

What‘s written above is an example of the common thinking amongst the worlds population. The horrors of divided thinking indeed! Sometimes I just don‘t get it. Why does everyone think that we are so different? Like there‘s a difference between a white guy punching you in the face…or a black guy. I think not! What you would care about at that very moment is how fit( or about the pain you’re about to feel) the person punching you is, not what skin color, sex or sexual orientation he has.  

And that‘s where the differences kick in. We are different only on the level of thinking and the realization of it  – be it our beliefs, the things we like, the things we hate etc. But ONLY on that level. We are all human – we are selfish, egocentrical, we need to take a shit, we need to breathe...we need to eat and drink, we all adapt, we all have the same instincts. The different skin color? I‘d say it‘s the same thing as different clothes or different hobbies. Well obviously the different skin color came to be in another way.

My theory is that when the humans migrated through-out the world and settled at different sides of the globe, after thousands of years they adapted to the climate of the region to such an extent that even the skin color changed on a genetical level( there is some biological mumbo-jumbo involved in all that, but I’m no scientists damn it!). Not only that, but there were other minor changes. (like narrow eyes for instance).

And does that make us different? If the whole world would have the same climate, we would be the same even in that. Same goes for sexual orientation. It does not make a difference. Not tolerating gays is the same as not tolerating people with beliefs, that do not sit well with you personally. And having different beliefs is a very normal thing to us humans and does not make us different – same goes for sexual orientation. It’s a normal thing...to have one that is (even not having one …is the same as having one…in a way).

But at the same time…we ARE different aren’t we? I mean it could be because of the settling in different parts of the world at the early days of our race. Since we humans have this interesting ability…the ability to choose. And even when having the same conditions, the same situation - multiple human beings may choose different choices. I guess that’s how such completely different cultures came to be. ( Asian cultures...and European for example. A huge difference and most of the common things in them came to be from our interaction with each other). Another idea would be that our surroundings influence us to such an extent that different environments dictate our choice to a scary degree. Maybe that also had a hand in this different culture, language business. Perhaps.

Now where am I going with this? What I was trying to reach was our divided thinking ( which I mentioned at the very beginning). We divide ourselves so thoroughly – into races, cultures, countries, minority groups. Even on an individual level – we seek different hair styles, different outfitting, cars, social act …everything! Now the difference on the individual level is impossible to deny, but I’d say that the need to be different is what makes us so similar. Not only the ability to choose, but also the work we put in trying to stand out of the rest. 

And we try to stand out of our crowd so much, that it’s just scary sometimes (well there are exceptions, some of us want to do the opposite – blend in). Decades and decades of such divided thinking, the need to be different plus the brainwashing that tells us it’s good to stand out and climb higher up the stairs of society… all that made this bullshit a norm, something that has to be the way it is.

That in turn gave birth to nationalism. Indeed! The idealization of your own “culture”, your own “country” as something better than the rest, something – different (again with that word! ). How fucked up is that? I mean, are the countries themselves THAT different? Well it's true that they put in different mass-brainwash mechanisms and perhaps are trying to reach different results. But they all propagate love for their country. And all countries pollute the environment and don't give a shit about nature enough in the same way. All countries suck the life out of their surroundings, since all humans do that. And since a country consists of a number of individuals( humans that is), thus that fact remains - even the countries are the same.

Well maybe it’s just me. Now that we fell prey to such extreme thinking - that "my" country is the best, the most unique. That "My" culture is the most superior, then  there is no way back I guess. Only a total change of mass brainwashing around the globe ...and a few decades of it. Perhaps. Because the only way to stop this kind of thinking is for one of those countries to take over the world it seems. At least that’s what a lot of people think. 

And in a way they are right I guess, since now that everyone heightens their country above others, no one will back down and there will be no compromises. No common language, no nothing. Oh well. Maybe I should also join my country in its national thinking and be one of the crazy fans at the national games or be an active citizen to a scary extent? Maybe. Or maybe not! Damn I’m stubborn.

Indeed...are we different or are we the same? I vote for the second.

And god! If you really read ALL that then you seriously need to find something better to do. Go read a book or something ( oh wait..who reads books these days?), it'll be more worth while. Writing out of concern obviously.

The Illusion of Knowing!

Ah, it’s been a while since I sat down comfortably in front of my laptop and vomited out a work, for my own personal satisfaction.

Now I’ve been reading the shit I drop into this blog and noticed something strange. It seems that I magically missed a topic very dear to me. A topic that I come across day in and day out in my life...and that is the Illusion of knowing! Indeed. A fantastic and a tiring thing, always hitting you in the most painful of spots.

Let’s imagine a situation. You’re talking to your friends and you say something. But you say it in a way that it is easy to misinterpret. Now, you mean something entirely different, but your friends are laughing their ass off, after understanding it in a different way. And even after you wait for them to calm down and try to fix the misunderstanding – they just don’t listen to you. They choose their interpretation and stick to it, thinking that they know better than YOU what was said. YOU, the one who said that “something”. You, who knew the real meaning of the words that came out of your mouth. Yes...that is indeed very annoying sometimes. 

But such a situation is just one of the simplest examples of the “ Illusion of knowing”. Such a thing goes deep, and can reach the deepest parts of our life. Now first of all I would like to point out the moral of that little story with zero specifics – Only you and you alone know what you were really trying to say and no one else will find out that if you do not wish it. Simple.

But we humans think of ourselves just way too good. We think that we are able to correctly interpret everything that our fellow man and woman do, that we can find the real answer behind those actions. Oh, the arrogance of humans. But what do we really know? Do we know anything at all? Can you trust what you read in the paper? Can you trust what you read in history books? Can you trust anything? How do you know that something is in the way you are told it is and no other?

You don’t.

We only know what is taught to us, and what is taught to us is not necessarily true. Well in a way, a lot of things can be partly true. There are a lot of partial truths. Be it in physics, math or other sciences. But even there - the knowledge we have could be only a piece of the whole apple. Indeed, knowledge is limitless in a way and we will always find something new, we will always move forward on that way. But then there is another question. Are we moving in the correct direction? Ah, now that’s a confusing question. How do you know that you chose the correct path? Was there a correct path to begin with? We don’t know. Now that’s something we should indeed know very well – that we know nothing at all.

And that’s how it really is. We live our lives in society, confident in the way of the humans, but never stop to think about the possibility that everything around us is fragile. Like glass that breaks easily.

Does god exist? We don’t know. What were the exact things that happened in the past, that none living human can remember of? We don’t know. Are there any universal truths? We don’t know. And no matter how much we heighten the achievements of man, we still live without real and solid knowledge of the truths that the universe is made off. Only the truths that are given to us are the real ones. That it is a crime to hurt another man, that we have to serve our society, that history is like it is written in the books, that we are informed of everything as it really is. And yet…we still do not know anything for a fact. Even the moral truths we are taught, that you must respect others like you respect yourself, equality, politeness, proper ethics – all that could be as much of a lie as it is true. It all depends on what we are taught from the beginning of our lives and what we see around us. Given enough time killing each other and stealing could be as normal as not doing such things is to us now. Indeed - the “Illusion of knowing”. Such a scary thing it is. Indeed.