Shine on you crazy diamonds

Diamonds are forever because they are rare. We human love owning scarce objects; unfortunately we human ourselves come at a large number – 6 billion. Thus, our society loves to –

Rank the diamonds, count the pearls, and screw the marbles

The society classifies us into diamonds, pearls and marbles through many aspects, or I’ll even say every aspect. Education wise, we always witness the glory of the top scorer; “share the joy” of the handful number of smart students whose results can be labeled as outstanding; as for the majority or the average, we just don’t give a shit about them, do we? (Of course unless it’s your own score……) Lets shift our attention to sports now! There are more than 5000 football clubs in the world, yet the two strongest clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona own approximately 1 billion fans. That’s more than the total number of fans of the bottom 4000 clubs. Our society is like a pyramid that shines brighter and brighter towards the top. My examples can go on and on the whole night, but I guess my point is clear enough:

Put in a nice way, our society adores meritocracy.
Or in a blatant way, shall I quote Charles Darwin “the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals”
Or even in cruel words, the world pretty much doesn’t give a shit about the average.

Ironic yet interesting, the majority of our society loves to engage in a pursuit of “fairness”. WE DEMAND FAIRNESS, WE DESERVE EQUALITY! Indigent folks scream at the world demanding for a satisfying unemployment benefit; feminists claim for equal rights as men have; Students like us beg for moderations to polish our unexceptional grades. On the other hand, we don’t often see rich people complaining that they are rich, nor smart people suggesting that the less intelligent ones ought to take easier papers, not even to imagine women being eager to join the National Service. I admit, it’s just our human nature; we love to ask for more. And because of our imperfect nature, sadly the world can never be “perfect” nor “fair”.

Not all of us are diamonds, but nobody can stop us from pretending as if we are diamonds!

And we gave this phenomenon a beautiful name – the Narrative Fallacy.

Ever thought that you are special? Ever believed that you are luckier than most others? Ever wondered if you are god’s gifted descendant? Perhaps some are, but for most others including myself, I am sorry to say that all along we are just swimming in our own pool of delusion. When you walk into Starbucks and see a gorgeous girl looking at your direction, the first idea that brushes through your mind is probably “she’s glancing at me!” If you are a 4A student sitting in the hall waiting for your result, and you hear that there is an 8A top scorer in your school, you seriously hope that the person is you, even though you should know the probability is just ridiculously miniscule. You love to buy lottery, because you think that one of these days “I am going to be lucky and I will win.” Now here is my question, if there is only one winner, why do you think YOU deserve it more than anybody else?

Perhaps you want to refute, “Hey Douche, I’m not one of those idiots who falsely believe that they are special, I clearly treat myself as an ordinary being as the other people are. It’s not like I am narcissistic or what!” Is it really so or have you just not realized that you do think that you are special. Remember the time you received an email stating that “This is a letter specifically for YOU?” Do you first choose to immerse yourself in the joy of being noticed or do you instantly realize that the very same email is sent to a million other people, thus meaning that you are just another random dude.

Here’s a lame joke:
A man asked a mathematician, “what do you think about the million dollar lottery?”
The mathematician replied “Lottery is stupid!”
… “How if you won the lottery?”
“It is still stupid!”
Then the man said, “Dude, I’m actually here to tell you that you’ve won the lottery.”
The mathematician paused for a second, and he went “WTF++#@@, OMYGAWD!!!”

GREAT, the false joy of believing that he is a diamond caused the mathematician to forget that he cannot win a lottery without buying a lottery at a first place…
Anyway, as much as I have said, I myself often fall into the trap of narrative fallacy, trying to link happenings around me to myself. But GUESS WHAT, doing so actually makes us feel happier. And here I conclude to a long debated argument, “Is false hope also hope?” Should some of us believe that we are diamonds even though we are not?

Real diamonds or counterfeits, the eventual happiness one gains is always real!
So,
Shine on you crazy diamonds, who’s there to say no?

For Stephen

Quite some time ago, I once raised a question in front of some of my friends including Stephen. “Upon death, if you have to choose between vanishing into absolutely nothing and to go to hell, which option will you choose?” Forgive me for forgetting what Stephen’s choice was (I always had bad memory); nonetheless, I believe that most chose to fade into eternal emptiness than to embrace the agony awaiting them in hell. Sure, which sane person will wish for pain?

Perhaps Shao had a serious thought between the two choices. He must be f**king stupid.

Of course, coming to think of it now, the question I asked actually had a few underlying assumptions that I didn’t bother to address back then. By vanishing into absolutely nothing means that one will no longer sense or feel anything, not even his basic existence. One will feel neither happiness nor grief; one will not even feel oneself anymore. Perhaps it doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Or shall I put this another way? If you are feeling that the person(me) who is writing this shit is stupid and weird, GUESS WHAT? You can’t feel that if you choose to vanish into nothing, simply because you don’t even exist anymore. On the other hand, if this piece of junk writing can lighten up one’s miserable day in hell, well, CONGRATS, at least the poor soul can feel something in hell. Hence, by choosing the former option, you will surrender your one and only hope to feel and to sense. Technically, you’ve also surrendered the word “hope” since you will not exist anymore, not in a million years, not even when the whole solar system falls apart……

My point is that feelings and emotions, regardless of good and bad, define me as a person. Surely joy and excitement makes me feel alive, but then… sorrow and despair also reminds me that I am alive, just in a miserable way. And I believe that the most important thing for a person is to feel alive, to know that his soul still exists. For all that I know, pain is relative. If you always fail your test papers and get mocked by people around you and feel miserable. However, if you always got below 30 and this time you received a score of 40, even though you still failed, you actually achieved an improvement which may eventually turn into the slightest bit of solace(a positive feeling). Similarly, if you are banished into hell, you will probably suffer from pain everyday; nevertheless, if today’s suffering is somehow less than the suffering you had yesterday, you may actually feel relieved(another positive feeling). The crucial element here is “hope”. When you feel alive, be it in your unlucky moments of your life or even in hell, you still have a future that lies uncertain. Thus, there is always hope – Who knows? Maybe one day God just become extraordinarily merciful and promote you into somewhere better… As long as there is future, there is Hope.

Pain sucks and suffering is bad. But you know what’s worse – Not being even able to feel pain or suffering!

Well, now Stephen probably wants to ask me: Why the f**k is this writing addressed to me? My reason is simple. You may feel that you are trapped in the lowest point of your life, struggling between despair and confusion, but need I remind you my friend: at least you are still alive! You are worrying about your future; what if you can’t find the guiding light of your life which directs you to success? What if you can’t find the meaning of your life at this very moment? You hate these feelings and you wish to be happy. However, bear in mind, these feelings too define your life. If from the first moment you were born everything you ate was sweet and you never tasted sourness or bitterness, then you will not even know what sweetness is. A candy is sweet if it is compared to a piece of lime, but it isn’t as sweet compared to pure sugar. Ultimately, you need these upheavels to define who you are. So stop complaining about how miserable life is, and start realizing your greatest advantage: you have a future that you can work on to make yourself happier!

For the rest of you, some may argue: “How do you know what hell is? You’ve never been there. How do you know that there are only two options? I am definitely going to heaven! Blablabla…..”

Well, for those surely going to heaven, congrats and good luck to you when you walk up the Stairways to Heaven and enter the Pearly Gate, or if you choose to embrace 72 brand new virgins… I’m happy for you. For those who question me what hell is – personally I just assume it to be a place of suffering in one’s afterlife, as that is also our common conception of hell. Besides, the centre of this writing is not to debate upon the existence of afterlife, physicalism or dualism, it is only to show that pain is also essential in one’s life.

Gosh, guess the effect of beer is kicking in. So I better end here.

Think about my question again, what is your answer?