Monday, October 21, 2013

Compassion

I think compassion makes the difference between humans and robots. Without compassion and emotion, we would only be thinking logically all the time. Sometimes, we need a little love in our life. It’s what keeps us sane a lot of the times. We need to have a balance between our mind and our heart. With the right amount of emotion and logic, we can most of the time make proper and right decisions. Of course there will be some times where they both clash into each other .For example, choosing the love your life and choosing you dream job thousands of miles away. Are you going to sacrifice your love or your dream? Both the situations are conflicted with each other. The logical approach would be to take the dream job; you are doing what you love and receiving money to keep you financially stable. For the emotional side, choosing the love of your life would make sense. You are most likely going to be spending the rest of your life together, why cause any rifts in it? For both sides to balance each other out, you would need to have a balance of both situations. If you think from both sides, you can have the best of both worlds. In the previous situation, you could have a long distance relationship and still keep the dream job. We need compassion to balance out our thoughts. This goes to same with rationality.  Two halves combined together make a whole. That is how we receive a harmonic virtue. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Positives and Negatives

With the amount of technology and materials we have today, it really is easy to get any information at the tip of our fingers. Regardless of who you are, there is information ready for you faster than the speed of light. And with that information, we are able to analyze where the problem lies in a situation. For example, an average person needs at least 2 meals to function. If they do not get enough food in their system, then that person cannot make it through the day. Regardless of how wealthy or poor you are, you need food to function. However, there are different methods of obtaining that food to eat. Again, depending on how wealthy or poor you are, you need some type of job or a way of receiving money to get access to food. Of course, the wealthy have no problem with this situation. They have the money to gain food 24 hours a day. The poor on the other hand, well it isn’t that easy. The word poor itself has a bad connotation. Anyone having to live with that connotation is obviously not going to have all the hopes and dreams in the world.
            Living in a dog-eat-dog world, we have grown accustomed to the circumstances that have risen in society. We ignore the problems which have been with us for several decades. We simply have given them the blind-eye and no longer see it. Society has done this for centuries, not because there isn’t an answer for any of the problems but simply because we do not know where to start.  We don’t know where to dive in first. The problem for taking advantage of the poor is such a massive hole, so that where ever you start, you end up falling. Tackling such a big issue will require a big effort and most importantly, will need to the acceptance of the average and wealthy people. If we don’t get their acceptance or even acknowledgment from them, there really is no point in continuing forward. After all, they are the people to keep carrying it onward after the initial stages.  
            There have been several social movements in the past which have tried to disrupt the vicious cycle. While one movement started off with a main cause, it later developed other movements which in a way deal with the main topic. It has been five years since the Occupy Wall Street Movement and we have yet to see a change in our society. The movement was about the 99% against the 1%. The 1% are basically the wealthy, the people who have taken most of the country’s private money. There have been statistics about who exactly were protesting, and I feel that the numbers are true. According to a 2011 survey1, 49% of the protesters were under 30. This technically shows who actually care about the movement. While there were many people over the age of 40, the mass majority were the younger generation. Yes, the movement did stir up quite a motion, saying how it was the next American Revolution. But here we are years later, still waiting for change.
            There is always a reason for everything. Whether it is a scientific approach or a spiritual approach, there is always a reason. And the fact that the wealthy are ahead of the poor is in fact a no brainer. The ones with more power will obviously be ahead of the others. Thus being the reason why the wealthy have a slighter edge than the poor. So the wealthy do deserve what they are receiving. In the end it makes sense.
            If we were to hypothetically let the poor flourish and give them benefits, what would be the outcome of it all? Would it benefit society in total or would everything still be the same? There is always a reason why someone is poor. It could be anything; gender, race, environment, ethics, priorities. But are we not giving them some type of benefit? I am sure that they are given some type of money from the government. But where is that money going? Are the poor using that money for education or lively use? I can guarantee that most of the time, that money is not used properly.
            Are we really providing lesser education to the poor? I feel as if the angle of how you see it matters. If you were to look at the situation from different sides, you are going to see totally different situations. From one side, the poor are getting no attention whatsoever and they are very miserable. On another side, it looks like they are getting the proper attention and materials but they are not using it properly. Another angle will show how the wealthy and normal society not caring for the problem. As you can see, there are different approaches and different ways to see a problem. You will know when a problem is big enough when all the angles and sides are showing the same thing.