Why I stopped facebooking

Ever since I pondered on the way of living, natural inferences amazed and helped me in strengthening my stands. I intentionally left some incomplete phrases in my last post to elaborate further in the upcoming posts after a thorough scientific understanding. This post has some extensions from the previous post.

Human exceptionalism distinguishes us from other animals through cognitive thinking. More often than not, Bateman's principle (of promiscuity and selectivity), homosexual animals, etc., help us understand a wide variety of human behaviors and tendencies. Societies evolved from polygamy (group marriages) to monogamy. LGBT groups have become less and less vulnerable after the recent US Supreme Court ruling. Even otherwise, if a person exercises his conviction, why doesn't the same cognitive thinking prevent homophobic attitude? Why such hatred if we are kind and willing to talk to anyone without any expectations?

Such behaviors tend to stem from religious norms and reluctance to empathize. I was one of those indifferent people before I learned about the biological traces in forming sexuality. Today's ever fast paced world inspires many of us for technological breakthroughs. Irony as it sounds, the same internet which makes our lives cozier, also ignores to advertise, to a large extent, the science behind such tendencies, owing to religious beliefs and invented social taboos.

This leads to a generalized thinking of what's right and wrong. Someone might have a wrong or completely different notion of what's right in our opinion. That's fine as long as we are convinced of our judgement. In such circumstances, one cannot rule out a theoretical case of society having all possible combinations of right and wrong ideas, on a whole.

Conflicting behaviors can be attributed to this notion of conscience. To illustrate this, people have different perspectives on alcohol consumption. One cannot say if alcohol consumption is right or wrong in a universal setting. Some human traits are inherent and we frame other abilities from the living environment. Some love travelling, some excel in arts, some are passionate about hands-on things, etc. Why should people be judgmental over anyone's conscious behaviors? It is fortunate that constitutions devise plans to blend all the possible diversities in harmony. Social norms fill in the rest of the blank spaces if any. There are definitely many things to learn and adopt, if we understand different kinds of lifestyles.

We seek pleasures in boasting and uploading pictures on social media. This is where most of our time is invested apart from the main stream profession. Although, there are very good platforms like Gmail and LinkedIn which made life easier, the beneficial use of other online media is questionable. Certainly, these companies make a lot of money by innovative and selective product lines. To the contrary, nomadic travelers prefer social disengagement for however short or long time. This distinction certainly bothers me as to what level of online social engagement one should have. This might seem old-fashioned but as long as one conveys intended things to general public or specific audience through some online medium, one wouldn't overuse such forums for an indefinite long period.

Having said that, it's natural to have a similar take on money. So long as one has sufficient money for food, appearance (off course to impress partner), health care, home, personal luxuries etc., one doesn't need any extra money. Now, do we let go our passions and overburden ourselves to make extra money for no reasons? It's fine if money comes naturally but why do we need to sacrifice and rip-off poor people to save money for the next generation, if we teach our kids about independent lifestyle?

We certainly don't need others to police us as long as we understand our mistakes and not repeat them. If we brood over the past, we are for sure killing the precious use of the current time. I was a complete failure until my 7th grade in school. I didn't show any interest in learning, ventured into all lame things and never seriously understood the reality of life. We can always make a better life than the previous day's, if we aspire for new learnings and honestly work to fulfill small goals one at a time. We don't have to fear anyone until we deliberately make mistakes. No one is absolutely perfect, everyone always has someone he/she tries to compete with. It's therefore in us to choose whether to improve living standards or lag behind in a mundane life style. As the world is becoming more and more competitive, every moment of life matters. If we look back, it's hence up to us to make moments either cherishable or regrettable.

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I credit some of the ideas to my colleague. He helped me conceive some of the vague ideas I already had.

An atheist brahmin...

I contemplated on writing blogs as a hobby but here I am, genuinely looking for some rational views and not really worried about the fame, humorous poetic and soothing words. To start off, I may have a poor English vocabulary but that doesn't wary me from putting my point across. This is an honest take on things each one of us face and if you are looking for some fiction, you probably may not like all of this.

Never really had I thought that I would become so self esteemed until Summer 2015. This realization came through meeting a colleague in my internship. Thinking how awkward my thoughts may sound to others, I was intimidated with almost everything until then. I am sure many of us have stigmas which keep bothering all the time. When I look back, I see all the conscience efforts I put in to survive the hypocritical world.

Imagine an innocent child who had no intentions other than to follow his passion. He starts from an ordinary childhood like Lincoln or Escobar, commits certain mistakes like any other while in a ghetto gang and realizes at some point. It is in not repeating the mistakes that makes him who he really is. He truly believes in his guts and never gives up. Society has a way of helping him with education and money if he is a rare situation. Parents may not realize that the kid is gonna be on his own and challenge the mediocrity someday. They may not give an unconditional love until he proves himself in the society. Is this life of caring someone based on his capabilities worth it? I don't think so, you can love a person for who he is and not judge his convictions. It is just the environment they grow up, that makes everyone behave differently.

What makes some one different from a famous or infamous persona? Why should there be incentives all the time if you are good and confident at what you do? Are we not looking up to some one and always trying to imitate, sacrificing your own thoughts and reality? This is a very general statement which can apply to every walk of our lives. If we sit back and think about all the celebrities, they have one thing in common- to do whatever they love. Even if we truly believe in ourselves, we can all be celebrities in our own world. Now, this comes with a cost. You would have to be independent, learn all the things that you need for your career, get exposed to all the different things out there in the world, make it a habit to always try and enjoy what you work and the worst part is to deal with people, building your credibility. If you feel that you cannot handle working your job for a long time, then you definitely are not worth trying it. This is difficult but needs some perseverance to try and understand if the difficulty is inherent within the work or if it's testing your limits.

There is no reason why you have to be afraid of anyone. You need not have to compare yourself with others. This is not to say that you don't care about others, it's just that you take inspiration and don't have to over stress. Needless to say that the more you get exposed to the world the clearer your perspectives become. This way of new learning and exposure everyday could make you feel the worth of life for a better living. We always try to push things onto someone and not consciously think about them. Let's say the A/C in your car failed, you could just give it to a mechanic or do some basic diagnostics by going online and looking through forums. When you give it to a mechanic, you rely on him and expect that he is honest. Otherwise, you can see if you can buy some stuff and do whatever is possible before giving it to him to take care of the complicated things. We not only learn some new things about the car and with practice at some point, you can also take care of the entire repairs if you have the necessary tools.  

I totally agree with my colleague's take on Religion. It's similar to the car repair case, when you believe in religion, it gets worse if you blindly push things onto god and never really care about how much effort you're consciously putting in. I used to believe in god until recently but, in retrospect, he didn't help me for sure at bad times. Some times religion makes you do what you never wanted to do in your life. I am perfectly fine being a vegetarian until my parents force me to eat meat as part of some traditional festival. 

Science is an art and it's not too difficult to understand. So are other arts and disciplines. If we work the best, spend time relaxing, know what we are doing, explore things, not worry about petty things, then we will definitely be our own stars. The best belief you can count is, after all, on you. There is never a single chance that can go wrong if you are in the driver seat. Everything becomes normal in life including death. Lives of Neil Armstrong and 50 cent (after the deaths of biggie and tupac) are perfect cases. It's hard to digest but such is life.

About me:

I grew up in a ghetto like environment, had tough times with my education. I graduated from IIT Madras and now am in UT Austin for my masters in mechanical engineering. I believe in a free speech society and that's why I am here to get some inputs from different kinds of people.