The Meaning of Life

Hello lovely readers,

Did you miss me? I apologize for my impolite disappearance for the last who knows how long. Short month, but February stretched out quite a bit. Who would have known that an antisocial heartbreaker would be so bad at time management that she couldn't manage to write two posts a week? But I have complaints as well. The main motivation and purpose of writing a blog is to stimulate and initiate human conversation and communication, exercise the brain and explore the soul. Sadly though, I don't see much mind-workout-ing or soul exploration on the blog yet. Get in the intellectual groove, people! That being said, lets focus on a particularly subjective and fascinating topic, which I have thought of often over this time, and which has the capacity to draw us all in:  the meaning of life.

As religion goes, we are all created with a purpose. Our creation is meant to fulfill the physical or intellectual needs of the "greater good," which is the continuation and augmentation of the quality of life. The human species added a little spice the the well-turning world, bringing in gargantuan change- physical change, by reshaping the landscape of the Earth, and by linking the natural world with the nebulosity of  human psychology. This was perhaps the most important contribution. The accumulation of the power of the mind and emotion of humanity created an assembly of tools with which humans completely changed the meaning of the world, and the meaning of life. Every once in a while, something big happens on the planet, and the evolution of the human race was that big thing. It wasn't just the beginning of a new era of physical life, but a time which redefined the meaning of life.

The complex and incomprehensible capabilities of human mind and emotion made living life more than just survival. After all, mere survival has no meaning to it. Humanity brought a new definition of life to the table- life became less about surviving and finding a place in the interconnected biological systems of the Earth, and more about leaving an individual mark on the world: about creating change. The meaning of life became to create a change, to use the incredible dynamic of intellectual and social human ability to make the world better, to innovate and create.

But the question is, where is that meaning of life today? We believe that we are creating change with Apple, Google and the flattening of the world, but is it a good change? There are so many inherent flaws with the human race- genocide, global warming, prejudices- and yet, why don't we change anything? Before, the meaning of life for humanity was to create a physical change upon the Earth and unleash the physical wonders of life. As the world evolved, many of those changes became social, intellectual and the fight to create change centered more on the human mind than on the physical Earth. Today, most of the problems in the world exist because of stale, or in some cases, overly imaginative, human thought and emotion. Today, the meaning of life has been redefined. We must still strive to create change and leave behind a legacy, but this change must be produced within ourselves. In our mindsets, our prejudices, our hatreds, our fears. It took great power to create physical change upon the Earth. It will take great power to change humanity. But then again, that's the meaning of life: to be the power, and leave behind a mark.

Obviously, despite my rude disappearance and our rusty memories, I hope that atleast a few lonely bitter hearts missed me on Valentine's day- join the sardonic musings of your antisocial heartbreaker in mockery of the world of romance (For those of you who have love in your lives, congratulations. Good for you.) and lose yourselves in the depths of antisocial, philosophical thought. You know you love me,

Your wonderful Antisocial Heartbreaker.

What it takes to be Alpha

Hello lovely readers,

Did you miss me? Due to my odd week and temporary amnesia-like symptoms, I am posting today instead of yesterday. Now, it would boost my image to say that I was out doing some heartbreaking, but honestly speaking, I don't think there was as much heartbreaking as there were heartattacks. What can I say, its the effect. In all honesty though, I was doing quite a bit of interesting reading and writing, and the lightbulb clicked over my head for today's topic: leadership.

What does it take to be the alpha? (Being quite a feminist myself, I will not say alpha male. Woman power, people.) In animal societies, it is the biggest, strongest and fiercest member of the group. Of course, being sophisticated, complex human beings, we prefer to think that we have some higher standards for leadership. But taking a look at societies in the past and today, how different are we really?

It took centuries for us to reach the stage where citizens can elect their own leaders in democratic governments. But dictators still exist. And these dictators are living proof that our society still ends up being dominated by leaders who are bigger, stronger and fiercer than we are. The technicals of those terms have changed though. Years ago, might in dictators or authoritative leaders came from aggression of personality and brute strength and intellect, but today, the definition of mighty has changed, based on   ownership of one thing: weapons. The "natural" leaders that emerge today are the strongest, biggest and fiercest because they have the naturally aggressive/persuasive and bloodthirsty personality necessary to get control thousands of armed minions and 10 football fields of nukes and bombs. This is human nature in its crude form, or, a concept that we can relate back to Social Darwinism; the idea that some humans are superior to others, and therefore have the divine right to oppress the inferior beings. It's a nauseating idea. I was okay with animal and plant Darwinism, but when you begin applying these concepts of animal competition and the triumph of might in human society, you eerily take down every argument that humans are evolved enough to make leadership decisions based on deeper factors. (Like what a person's intellect, competence, morality and intention, maybe?)  So what is it, fellow humans? Is the leadership of the world based on animal instinct, like a leader's aggression or charisma, or do we make informed, rational decisions about who we choose to lead us?

Another important thing about leadership: how does it emerge? How do you pick out the genius future president 5-year-olds from the wailing 30 kids that are dumped into the room to do coloring together? Tell-tale signs of innate leadership. Even these 5-year-olds have leaders among them; children who are brave enough to take the reins and make decisions for the best interests of the group. Ideally in a civilized society, this is who we want to be our leaders. But then the kids grow up and they go to elementary school. The same kindergarteners who were admired for leading the group and taking charge become the bossy, bespectacled know-it-alls that nobody wants to sit next to on the bus, let alone listen to. So the ability to lead and make rational decisions isn't everything; there needs to be, to some degree, a charismatic personality in a leader. So the kids naturally gravitate toward the likable, cute-looking little hell-raising kids, who can't even decide whether they should throw water balloons at the principal or the custodian. (Not to say that these kids can't make good leaders though- some of them have what it takes.) But in the adult world, we like to think that our choice of leaders is logical, based on our estimation of a leaders true capabilities. However, this "logical" process is dependent on our opinion of a person's abilities, which (various studies have shown) is VERY dependent on our opinion of his or her personality. So in the end, how different are we from the elementary school kids? And the bigger question: is our democratic system of "logically" choosing the most charismatic leaders over the capable wallflower leaders from elementary school eliminating the good leaders in our society?

Well, you know the drill people. Question marks mean that you get to talk. And the best part of blogging is, you don't even have to interrupt my monologue- just comment! I love to hear people's thoughts. The ability to think coherently is the jewel of human capability. Use it. And let me know what all of you jewels have to say. So type away! Next week, let's take a look at something personal, a cliff that we all stand on at one point in our lives. Good lord, its the middle of February next week. Anyone want to be my Valentine? Actually, don't bother- too stingy to give you candy hearts. Love you too.

Your wonderful Antisocial Heartbreaker.

The Perplexing World of the Subconscious

Hello lovely readers,

Today's post comes to us at the wonderful suggestion of your fellow reader Frina. The theme: the subconscious. What is the subconscious really? For most people it is that unintellectual, cartoon-like, infuriating little voice that leads them onto the wrong path; beguiling, seductive, and self-destructive. For others, it is their conscience, the voice that is the deep-down candle of morality which cannot be extinguished by rational thought. And yet for others, the subconscious is nothing. A mere alter-ego of the mind to which they pay no attention. But no matter how we each individually view the subconscious, the incontrovertible fact is that this subconscious is a projection of our best and worst qualities, our darkest and brightest thoughts, our limitations and capabilities. The subconscious is our raw self, free of the imposed personality of society and the binds of rationality. And yet, we ignore it, despise it, giving in instead to rational thought. Why?

I believe that this practice of discrediting the subconscious is borne of necessity and fear. Necessity because of the demands of our society, and fear because of the limitations that we impose upon ourselves. Society has certain norms and schools of thought, and we subconsciously (See that? Pun. Wow- how do I do it?) adjust our rational thought to meet those prerequisites. This is the necessity that strangles the subconscious. But for the fear, we have no one to blame but ourselves. The subconscious is the voice of innermost thought and feeling, but we fear to listen to it. It disconcerts us and scares us because it is out of our sphere of safety. According to an article on the subconscious brain (click on link to read), the subconscious shows us the many paths we can take, but in the end we depend on rational though to choose the right one. Why?

We have more faith in our rational thought because it is logical, critical, and we have found that it offers the best judgement for survival. The logistics of that survival have changed somewhat with evolution- it used to be just physical survival, but now it means success, happiness by societal standards. We believe that rational thought is the best route to happiness and survival, so we disregard the subconscious. But how do you silence the subconscious? And how do we know if rational thought is truly the best route to happiness?

In my honest opinion, perhaps the subconscious does offer us a better shot at being happy. But unless we go against our ingrained nature and begin to listen to it, we will never know.
So what do you think, people? Everywhere you see a question mark in this post is an invitation to divulge the amazingly witty thoughts in your brains. I look forward to reading.

Your wonderful Antisocial Heartbreaker.