It is the thought that counts

My brother is a good kid. My brother is a good kid relative to the bunch i had to handle today. Actually, they were a nice fun energetic bunch — overly energetic, that is. For one, my brother actually sits there to write/draw while talking to me in my/his room. More importantly, he does not climb onto my head. Incidentally, a boy his age (but most thankfully not his size) did so today.

(Brother+175% Energy Points) x20

“iruvyou iruvyou iruvyou~! ^_^”
“kyaa~! uguu~! gaou~! uhn~! No, no, no, getoff, getoff. Don’t come to me go to – ><” (truth be told, i didnt make noise..)

Despite not much being done due to an unusual unexpected unexplained change in circumstances, I had fun, I guess.

But what did I learn? I went with the intention of learning what I can do in tutoring. Most unexpectedly, I have been misinformed about the age group. (Not as if those i may help next year are *that* young) I also went with the intention of looking out for uh, CAS opportunities — to meet the hours and what not. Unlikely that such an objective was met since this thing seems mainly for weekdays where I’m jampacked cos of school…

I’m left to wonder if I’m there truly because I wish to help children or if I’m there for the hours (I don’t think I got any today) or at least personal benefit. Heck, is it considered as personal benefit if I do so because I get a Feel-Good from it? (Hmm, I recall hearing this off a certain TV show)

Whatever.

As if that matters — remember, intentions do not matter, thoughts are worthless. It is the action that counts. It does not matter why I do something, as long as I do it. (I am justifying my habit of complaining but doing the sai-kang task anyway) Giving grudgingly still has the same benefits. Murdering with a cheerful heart is still malicious. I can think that it is inhumane to eat meat, but as long as I continue to eat meat, I still support eating meat. It is the action and the consequences that matter, not the thought. Thoughts, after all, are so subjective. All I need to do is to psyche myself to look at the other angle.

The company (if there is a CEO and it is profit motivated, it is a company) I have been going to for the past four years often likes to say “God loves a cheerful giver”, therefore if don’t just give a bit, give a lot cheerfully. (or some more sweet soundingly masked line) But I’d often ask myself: wouldn’t that mean that God doesn’t love a not-cheerful giver, so if we are not cheerful, we shouldn’t give at all? Biased as i may be, I think I make more sense.

I received an sms on the -afternoon- of Christmas Eve: “Would have bought you a new sports coupe but its the thought that counts”
Hurhur, yeah well, I would have gotten a Shotgun for myself for a certain purpose , but I guess the thought is enough…

Perhaps we can even say that if one really had such a thought/want, they will do all they can to achieve it. If I say I want to watch I Am Legend and Warlords (this is for real btw) but decide to just laze around and do nothing about it — can we really say that I want to watch those two movies?

Since I have been asked to go uh do some other thing that involves my brain and time, I shan’t bother organising this muchly scatter-gunned post.

(Eh, why is there a Tag “school”, I didn’t talk about school what, as in really!)

 

Fairness (and meat-eating)

It is 2AM at night. It appears that reading about philosophers in an attempt to get to sleep was not such a good idea. The very fact that I’m still typing right now is proof of that.

One guy I happened to read up on was John Rawls. I’m quite sure my dad mentioned this guy a few years ago. His main point of view is basically as such: if we are behind a veil of ignorance about who we will be born as, what kind of society will choose to be born in? Is it one where there are the extremely rich people and the extremely poor — and you could be one of them? Or is it one where everyone ends up equally well-to-do, not too rich and yet not too poor?

To be honest, his argument does appeal to both reason and emotion. I would have chosen the latter world. But then again, that’s just due to my personal preference — there’s no need to be too rich and I don’t want to be too poor. On a more caring note, it’d in fact be better if poverty was non-existant! This may explain how my views are pretty much socialist thus far. (reading Free To Choose hasn’t seemed to change that)

However, let’s extend his logic. Behind this veil of ignorance, we may very well end up as an uh oh, aborted foetus. We shouldn’t have abortion either. I sure as hell won’t want to be a to-be-aborted-foetus just cos of some wild party regardless of the reason.

More importantly, we shouldn’t even eat meat! Behind this veil of ignorance, we may end up as some farm animal, we may very well end up getting abattoired , chopped up after death and well, eaten.

Consider this scenario: in a futuristic world, a new breed of superhumans have evolved. They are stronger and smarter than the average human being by a difference of heaven and earth. But there’s one problem — they enjoy feeding on human blood. For the purpose of illustrating my point, these vampires do not need blood to survive, they just enjoy sucking the blood of humans. Man is subsequently locked up, force fed and bred specifically for the purpose of providing blood for this new elite superhuman race.

We cringe at the very thought of being drained of blood, let alone getting killed and eaten like animals. We detest the manner in which a supposed “elite” breed of people would like to take control over us. Yet we are all guilty.

Perhaps no matter what we do, animals are going to continue getting killed for food anyway. But then again, shouldn’t we show even the slightest support against the act of eating animals. In fact, more people eating animals will result in more animals being killed to meet the demand.

Do bear in mind — that eating meat is in no way necessary for us. But we do so anyway. I find no justification in the killing and eating of animals, but I’m going to continue to do so anyway. Most people will.

Enjoy Thanksgiving! We weren’t born as turkeys!”

I’d like to find a justification

(But back on John Rawls, one must bear in mind not to be hypocritical. In accepting John Rawls theory, it has to be applied to both abortion and the issue of meat-eating — otherwise reject it. )