Posted by psych at February 13th, 2008
A wise man once said (aforementioned wise man is my ex lecturer Mr Moaz of TaylorsUniversityCollege, if its still called that now) that humans spend their whole lives in boxes. He wasnt the first person to mention this but he gave the most dramatic (as usual) explanation for it so it kinda stuck.
For those who don’t know, we all live in rooms (except the homeless who literally, live IN Boxes of the cardboard variety), which are more or less boxes (they dont have to be perfectly symmetrical or even shaped like squares), those rooms are in bigger boxes (your house). You travel around in boxes (cars, buses, trains, planes) to go to boxes (malls, offices, buildings in general), when you’re older you work in boxes (cubicles or schools or offices etc etc) and don’t forget the everyday required box-visits (toilets). Eventually you’ll end up in a box (coffin or ash in a jar =p).
People who want to twist this logic for their own means usually add that people also watch too much tv (OMG its a box as well!) Well, I disagree with that because technically, we’re not IN the box. It just temporarily eats and spits out the mind(s) of viewer(s) =)
Anyway, you could possibly defy the last coffin one by getting yourself ash-ified and then spread in the wind but you’ll probably end up being blown into a Box of some kind. Sad reality, eh? Hearing that made me think that we needed to get out of boxes. Now I realize that theres no good substitute for boxes. Spheres? Whats the difference then? Someone would just mention that we were all trapped in spheres for our whole lives and we would just need to switch to another shape. The absolute lack of containers is definitely not an option. Obviously, right? Or have we gotten used to these things that we don’t see the happier and healthier container-less alternative. At least, I don’t see any better alternative.
Going off topic for a while, as I usually do and won’t stop doing since my thoughts often branch and I just pick the one that I think is easier to type out. Of all the subjects I endured countless hours learning, the one that made the biggest impact on my life is World Issues. If youre a student taking ICPU/CIMP and are deciding on an elective, TAKE IT. Its nowhere near an effortless course but its worthit. Chemistry,Bio,Physics,DataMangmt,Business (The first two which I actually needed) don’t hold a candle to it. Gonna go off topic again. People who want to pursue careers that mean alot to them don’t because of the awesomeness related to other careers. To motivate students in (Malaysian) schools, teachers often say things like “Nanti besar jadi doktor kaya” or “When you become an engineer later dont forget who thought you basic science ok?” Nobody says anything like, “When you bring attention to the starving orphans striken with HIV in Africa people will surely thank you for your efforts” or, “Bila besar kamu ada keupayaan untuk menghapuskan peperangan ataupun menolong negara negara yang kurang upaya.” Haha the last one was weird. My Malay kinda(really) sucks. I dont mean them literally. Just use your imagination and change them if they dont work for you.
Sucky thing is I don’t think theres any good possibility of building a solid career based on how much you care and not on how much money you make or how jealous you’ll make that-relative-you-dont-even-know-very-well or that-neighbour-who-doesnt-give-a-fuck-and-just-wants-to-push-
her-son-to-do-better-than-you-so-she-can-start-bragging. That is still an Malaysian middle aged auntie quality that I just cant stand. I especially get pissed off by the ones that brag like people actually care. =) Still, they don’t have much else to brag about so I guess they’ve earned it in some way.
In short, being a wartime journalist in Kenya/Palestine or a human rights activist in Myanmar will probably get you killed and therefore no girl will marry you and you’ll be poor before you die. So just choose something else. Most people have this mindset. So do I. Well, not about the marry and die part. Alot of girls IMO find dashing journalists a turn-on =/ right? For me, caring about people isnt enough of an incentive to possibly damn myself to lowpaying missions and lifethreathening situations throughout my life. After all I was raised in the above ^ system so I guess it did what it was supposed to do. Malaysia is bothered more with improving itself than helping others or getting some humanitarian recognition.
No point worrying about that now. I’m gonna go sleep for a while. On my box-like bed.
L8erz,
pSyCh
