Friday, February 17, 2006

a cause, a cause, my kingdom for a cause

or is it a horse? a fox, a whale, a forest, a bunker-holed pussy, a buffalo, a country, a race, a laborer, a prisoner, a king, an emperor, a fuehrer, a prophet, a god?

it never ceases to amaze me (a selfish, myopic, capitalist, libertarian, pig) how some people lose themselves in some cause or other. i, pretty comfortable with myself and with close to zero traces of guilt, try my best to live my life the way i want, while generally letting others live the way they want as long as they don't try to interfere with my and other people's freedom to live so.

on the other hand, these causeniks will so 'unselfishly' renounce so much of what i would call little creature comforts of life and put themselves in harms way. instead of enjoying the spectacle of police or whoever, beating up, tear gassing, and drenching people, while sitting comfortably at home as i do, these people will actually go and endure all that humiliation. some of course will go further than that, they will beat up, kill, bomb, fly airplanes into buildings, and commit suicide too.

all because of a cause 'greater than themselves', that will supposedly and probably (who knows?) improve the wellbeing of somebody or something, even if that somebody or something not heard, never desired, and even possibly actively opposed, that cause. it is not as if these causeniks will gain anything material personally now or in future. posterity will only remember founders or leaders of movements or causes not the cannon-fodder. btw here i am not talking about the leaders, who after all are selfishly expressing their personal will when founding or leading a cause, but about the 'unselfish' followers only.

i like other cynical bastards used to measure people, actions, and ideas, by price than by value, by clarity and sharp edges than by dimness and bleariness, by foundation than by decoration, by vigorous application than by enervated refinement, probably do not get them or their motivation. i actually think they are in fact running away from themselves, their miserable lives, and their petty insecurities when they bury themselves inside a cause (how ghastly to think so, no?). according to me they crave the security that a cause with its followers and opponents, rituals (ranging according to cause, from brown shirts to polished boots to periods of fasting to vegetarianism), and unquestionable beliefs provide. they invariably delude themselves into thinking that this is not so, and that they are acting rationally for the good of others.

i also think that once these people get past a certain age and get a paying nine-to-five job, a half decent fuck, a pretty house (similar to others in the neighborhood), a vehicle, and a kid or two, they will forget all about the cause, except as rather exaggerated anecdote material when they had a glass or two and an occasional check when they can spare the cash. imo that is as it should be.

as i said i may be wrong and may be doing them 'an injustice' by belittling their causes and beliefs when fancy takes me, but that's just me. as a thoroughly selfish person, who believe that nothing is greater than self, i cannot and will not spare any such 'unselfishness' to thrive or let it interfere with my freedom to potentially do anything i wish, even by word.

to do so will simply be dishonest. dishonesty to oneself is the greatest and probably only crime in my book.

--
apologies to shades of shakespeare and richard the third. richard actually died heroically, defending his crown from a pretender with a flimsy claim; leading what was probably the last such charge of the heavily armored medieval knights after most of his army had deserted him. elisabeth the first, that pretender's granddaughter, was in throne when shakespeare wrote the play.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have reached greater levels of objective rational thought than the rest of us :) You'd be quite right in a purely rational and objective world, there really isn't much more than the self. But, as human beings our actions are guided not just by reason but by emotion too. And most of the causes you refer to are a blend of reason and emotion. I think you go too far to say that ppl following these causes are being dishonest with themselves, it's just that they (we) are guided by emotions along with reason.

Also, isn't shakespeare a tad over-rated? I mean, the stories are good but there's way better writing out there. Maybe he had a really good publicity campaign back in the day. A Madonna of Stratford maybe?

sittingnut said...

ddm:
good to hear from you. :-)
talking of emotions, one has to question why ppl lavish so much emotion on some cause or other and not on things that really matter personally. i for one, love my partner, family, and friends, hate my enemies (that is ones who really want to hurt me, i have one or two of those), admire some piece of art, feel contempt for some piece of human garbage etc. than devote myself to some animal or god.
as for shakespeare, i adore his work but that is a subjective statement.
as i have said in several places i consider that only objective ways to judge a piece of art is it's longevity and the amount of money it earns. well he passes those with flying colors.
madonna on her own way passes them too, keeping in mind that she had only a shorter period. i also believe that her earlier works will last longer than us but that is again a subjective judgment. :-)

ashanthi:
:-)
yes it may be boring in the level of politics, war etc. but if we keep our passions for our personal friends and enemies i think or life will be richer.
as for buffalo's ladies if there are any, that is quite ok from my point of view certainly better than the condition of nameless jvp underlings collecting money so that wimal can by hair cream.
vote in SL on the basis of age & gender as opposed to race. S/nut - you'd know these figures?
why not check polls in the centre for policy alternatives (cpa). they usually have breakdowns based on other criteria as well as race.

ivap said...

Ouch, did you get dumped or rejected by a so called causenik?

Along with what ddm said, some people are more emotive while others are more rational when approaching issues. This could be a left vs right brain oriented way of participating in the world.

I think emotional people are more sensitive to percieved injustices and thus are more reactive and want to fight the system via radical change, while the rationalists tend to take a detached 'systems' view and attempt to fix it where there are imbalances.

As for shakespeare, isn't Othello very topical right now? Each time I visit sri lanka I usually get to observe a fair share of shakespearean tragedies being played out amongst exsended family and friends. Sad actually

sittingnut said...

ddm:-I think you go too far to say that ppl following these causes are being dishonest with themselves,
ashanthi:Oi - what's rattled your bones, easy with the f word too.
ivap:Ouch, did you get dumped or rejected by a so called causenik?
errr... i hope you are not taking this post too personally bc i didn't. it was just something that came to my mind after that cartoon and fox hunting things. if it sounds too strong that is a stylistic error on my part along with countless grammatical and spelling errors that plague my posts.
my apologies anyway.

ashanthi :
thanks for the links
- you are welcome
...a whole new dimension to mutton dressed as lamb...
- :-D hope there was no pork in there.
but i do like her songs, always have. why ? no idea. just like them and her earlier self, not the present fake self.
Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor in the Taming of the Shrew
-never saw that. thanks will look for it. :-)
he is over-rated
- so who do you prefer?

ivap :
you are probably right along with ddm about emotive ppl.
'othelo' ...hmmm probably. though in terms of topicality with sri lanka, nobody can beat the greeks.

btw you wrote, will comment when i have more time , in toon post . so do you have some time? will like to know what you think about that.

Keshi said...

heyyy mate me bakkk...wow I have missed so many posts of ur's :(


** dishonesty to oneself is the greatest and probably only crime in my book


I totally agree with u...


Ashanthi hey how u been? :)

**So buffalo is probably the first president to win the SL female vote on the basis of a moustache & red shawl

lol is this true? But why...:):)



Keshi.

Anonymous said...

sittingnut - Didn't take it personally at all, not to worry :D That said, i'm surprised curious yellow hasn't commented!

Anonymous said...

verry nice
Greetz from holland , the Netherlands.
Spion.

http://spion.punt.nl

Keshi said...

heyyyy Ashanthi hugggggggz! I missed u too...

So Mahinda is messing things up more n more for SL...what a loser...guess what Ashanti...it seems that each time a leader is chosen for SL, it's always a selfish person...why is that?

Keshi.

ivap said...

s/nut - i hope you are not taking this post too personally bc i didn't

no skin off my back, it's just the way it reads.

I'm working on a blog post for this, hopefully by this weekend. before that , i have to put up another promised post.