My Three "Laws"
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Dearest NaiveGirl,
If I will ever break my first law because of you, you must really be a very very special woman in my life. I think the 2nd law and 3rd law would still hold because they are just observations and I just see it as a way of life.
Take care, and have a good day. Still 3.5 hours away, and I have not finished packing yet.
yours,
Prodigal -
james,
you mean freud to psychoanalyse you - jung doesn't deal so much with sexuality. i'm getting a clearer picture of where you're coming from. and if you are a hegel fan, you'll know that since governments are the highest form of civil order contemporary man can throw up, and its with this apparatus that will-to-power may be channeled constructively. (of course mr H. was sucking up to the Prussian govt. but that is beside the point).
nothing wrong craving for power - my question is, do you think might is right?
also, i think to compare your plight to the holocaust is very disingenuous. are you saying your 23 year existence in s'pore mirrors the atrocities faced by the jews? don't be flippant...or melodramatic.
meanwhile, continue pumping in the coffee. its the juice of life.
[This message has been edited by Bohemian (edited 05 September 2000).] -
bohemian,
Of course, you are right in saying I am impertinent in using the holocaust as an example. They suffered so much throughout history that they will not tolerate any more racism against them, using might to equal their relationship with the rest of the world. I had enough of poverty and abused from the rich to know where power lies and what power can bring me. ItÂ’s a matter of degree but the argument is the same. To put it crudely, once you have tasted shit, you wouldn't want it anymore.
I have not read everything Hegel had written but his words on Napoleon strikes me deeply...""It is a truly wonderful experience to see such an individual, on horseback, concentrating on one point, stretching over the world and dominating it". It was a profound impact for him and one for me too. His acknowledgement to power and might is unmistakable. And so does his sucking up to the Prussian government, an organisation whose authority derived from might.
Is might right? I can't profess to answer that, although I might have inkling that it might not be so under a jackboot. The world is changed and moulded by great men, hard men even. It can hardly be right when might is all about forcing people to do things your way. We see it everywhere, from the most liberal US of America to draconian North Korea. States forcing their policies on their people and on other states, leaders dictating their orders to their people, managers asking their workers to do this and so on. I always scream murder when might are imposed on me and I know that realistically, the only way out of this is to acquire might myself. I will be the arbiter of whether it's right or wrong.
I agree with you that caffeine is what drives the human spirit in times of difficulty and I tried not to think too much of Freud (inevitably crediting everything to his rival.my fault), cos he gives me wet dreams with his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.
"Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar."
Sigmund Freud
------------------Originally posted by Bohemian:james,
you mean freud to psychoanalysise you - jung doesn't deal so much with sexuality. i'm getting a clearer picture of where you're coming from. and if you are a hegel fan, you'll know that since governments are the highest form of civil order contemporary man can throw up, and its with this apparatus that will-to-power may be channeled constructively. (of course mr H. was sucking up to the Prussian govt. but that is beside the point).
nothing wrong craving for power - my question is, do you think might is right?
also, i think to compare your plight to the holocaust is very disingenuous. are you saying your 23 year existence in s'pore mirrors the atrocities faced by the jews? don't be flippant...or melodramatic.
meanwhile, continue pumping in the coffee. its the juice of life.
The heartless and souless fool. -
dear pretty,
if everything is fine with you, so it is for me. you should know very well that the first law of prodigal doesn't apply to me.
cheerio
james
------------------Originally posted by Matahari:funny thing is, once i said to my friend, "hey, why am i the one who's supposed to make a choice? i mean i'm having the best of both world, i am having a good time here, why should i be the one to choose and decide?"
and now that the ball is on my court you call for the morality in womanfolks, ha! it takes two to clap....
The heartless and souless fool. -
james,
in a way i empathise with you. survival of the fittest, may the top dog triumph and may the ruling ideology be the ideology of the strongest. i have no qualms with zarathustrian principles but then one must be prepared to live in a dog-eat-dog world in ALL aspects of life, not just the working world.
freud's great for toilet reading, but there is more to the man than just oedipus complexes and dirty combs. if i may, i recommend 'civilisations and its discontents'. it rocks my oceanic world.
proddy,
ah well, maybe you're too nice for your own good. be open to all experiences, sexual, emotional, deceitful, honourable, malicious, loving etc. there is no such thing as a bad experience...experiences are experiences. maybe your trip will open the doors to mystical enlightenment vis-a-vis the manuals for the senses carved on the temple facades. remember them well for thy time will come. -
Michiavelli sums it up best in the 18th chapter of The Prince "to turn and turn about as the winds and the variations of fortune dictate".IT's a dog eat dog so we must know what are the right things to do at the right time to survive even if what we do may not be considered right in the eyes of others,eheehOriginally posted by Bohemian:james,
i have no qualms with zarathustrian principles but then one must be prepared to live in a dog-eat-dog world in ALL aspects of life, not just the working world.
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Makan begins with a drool, grows with a chomp, ends with a burp.When you were born, you were hungry and everyone around you was full. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one full and everyone around you is hungry.
~~~
Diablo 2 rockzzzzzz -
Prodigal...
Like I have said, I would love to test your limits...
I am a spoil child, I must admit. Which means I will get anything I set my eyes to!
hahahahahhahaa
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Float like a butterfly...Sting like a bee... -
NavieGirl:
wah, u a bit scary to me leh.... -
How could there be no such thing as a bad experience? There are experiences and experiences, some simply are more pleasant than others. I do not need to be burnt to know that fire is hot, thus, sometimes it is better to avoid some experiences if circumstances allow it for they bring nothing but pain, even if during their course, happiness is experienced, but the pain always outlast the brief happiness. Life is already quite a pain when unavoidable events take place, why add to its misery by consciously choosing experiences that may just up the stakes in experiencing pain?
[This message has been edited by certifiable (edited 06 September 2000).] -
Oh.......I see, I seeOriginally posted by prodigal:Well, Stingray,
The 2nd law is to disqualify the claim by most men that women have either brains or beauty and not both. Hence it is a statement that we can always find one with both, but whether she is available or not, is another question.
Hmmm, Revey still did not manage to catch u and make dinner....
yours,
Prodigal
Rev???? He???? He so slow in the water how to catch me?????
Heeheehee :p :p :p
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~ JuSt AnoTher StiNgrAy iN thE sEa ~ -
bohemian,
Yes, to stand by my views, I have to take into consideration what it might have on my life, not just in work, but in relationship too. You are putting me down for my cynicism but a gal once told me that most idealist are veiled by cynicism, and I might just be a guy praying for someone to deliver me out of my views.
I will check out Freud's 'civilisations and its discontents', after I get through Rousseau and Locke. You did complain that I missed out on the Enlightenment period right? Yes, Kant is on my list too.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bohemian:
[B]james,
in a way i empathise with you. survival of the fittest, may the top dog triumph and may the ruling ideology be the ideology of the strongest. i have no qualms with zarathustrian principles but then one must be prepared to live in a dog-eat-dog world in ALL aspects of life, not just the working world.
freud's great for toilet reading, but there is more to the man than just oedipus complexes and dirty combs. if i may, i recommend 'civilisations and its discontents'. it rocks my oceanic world.
------------------
The heartless and souless fool. -
certifiable,
some experiences are pleasant, some unpleasant. but the unpleasant ones are not necessarily bad. they jolt the soul and leave the taste of the world on your tongue; and if one learns from them, their 'badness' is education. if 'pain always outlasts brief happiness' then, according to you, life is one long bad experience. hmmm, and i thought i was pessimistic! suck in the 'badness' and learn from it.
james,
to hide behind cynicism is cowardice. but i get your drift. there is no room for cynicism if one follows zarathustra's footsteps. only breaking and living! if you have to look for a saviour from your views you are not a true nietzschean. you ARE your saviour!
"but a mightier power and a new overcoming grow out of your values: egg and egg-shell break against them. and he who has to be a creator in good and evil, truly, has first to be destroyer and break values."
thus spoke zarathrustra
"with thy bootstraps, pull thyself up from the mire of mediocrity. be neither halfway good nor halfway evil for beauty is only found in extremes. and when ye comes into thyself, beauty will be waiting."
Bohemian -
Bohemian
Of course not all unpleasant experiences are bad experiences, just that some experiences are better off not being experienced. Naturally, we learned from our experiences but I wonder if it is necessary to learn about betrayal from the loss of good friends? Or the humilation of having your dignity stripped when one decides to persecute another? Sometimes one bad decision can result in an experience that may takes years to set right again, in cases like this, isn't it better to have experience nothing?
I am not saying that life is one long bad experience but that some experiences are just better off not being experienced. And no, I am not a pessimisstic person, in fact, I am quite optimistic in nature. -
To all,
Since loading a SGforums page takes me a very long time in India, this is perhaps one of the post which I will write long here in reply to various people, in no order of preference, using one reply in one go.
Dear Bohemian and perhaps to James,
First of all, I am not really that good as you have spoken of me. I have been a bad boy before, otherwise, I would not have avoided the forum, trying all means and ways to hide who I am, now that it no longer matters.
I believed in Darwinism, that there is a survival of the species. I believe that there is strong and weak and only the strong will prevail, and I believe that it is a dog-eat-dog world because someone once said, when there are people, there are always turbulence and conflict, because humans would by nature make them happen. But that does not mean that I am cynical to hide behind some mask and be ugly. Because I feel that cynicism is a loser's mentality, and cynics can never achieve anything or make a difference in life. I used to believe in Kant in total enlightenment, but now I prefer a mixture of Nietzsche and Kant, to give myself more space to grow, to be expanded to more experiences and have a balanced view to things. I believe that experience is the name which everyone gives to their mistakes. Experience only allows me to re-adapt and select what is useful and not useful to me, and some painful ones change me and kills part of me.. If someone thinks that I am still the same as ever, then he or she would suffer the consequences later. I believed in constructive competition, people help each other to grow, to work for a greater course. I don't see any point in destructive competition, because it is not economical and pragmatic at all.
I can choose to be evil and ruthless, if I want to. Don't think that I will stick to the first law as if it is some religious dogma. If things change, and I change as well, I may just break it because things become dogma, when someone forgets why he or she believed in it the first place.. But there is no need for me to do that now, since I am still living in a idllyic world of academia. I prefer to be kind and nice to people since I think that it is the right thing for me to do. Maybe after 2 years from now, I think that I will be change as well, since I have more or less know what I am going to do next. However, I am aware that there are people who take that for granted, and think that I can be bullied around or I am too nice to be pushed around. If one attempts to stretch my tolerance to the point which I finally get mad and angry (which has not happened yet), I would not hesitate to pull punches on anything, meaning that I would pay an eye for an eye, if not 10 times the treatment to some moron who attempt to hurt my family. One should take kindness from me as weakness since I know that I have acquired my fair share of adversaries thru confrontation as well...
My passage to India was quite bizarre. I was chatting with an American blonde who sat next to me on the plane to Calcutta. I was telling her that I still could not believe that I am now heading to India and know what I would be doing exactly or expecting there since everyone painted negative pictures of the place to me. Going to Calcutta was a new experience for me, and it is now an exciting adventure for me to be in a world different from ours which we take it for granted, from the clean water we drink to the clean streets we have in Singapore, and to the wide disparity of wealth from the rich to the poverty.
Dear NaiveGirl,
I would just do my best to prevail your tests, in view of your attempts to stretch my limits. Like I said before, if you are like Jennifer Anniston or Gong Li, saying that "I am worth it" and if u are the One, I would push myself to persist or even break my laws for you. If you are not, then I would not be bothered anymore but still be a good friend who can support and help u whenever u need me.. Let's wait and see...
Btw, please fall in love with me when u see me in real life someday.... hahahhahahahahahhahaha
*confident smile*
Dear Tet,
James~ would be a good choice if you are seeking men to lust after you since u are open to people in breaking your committment and those who violate my first law... *lol*
Well, Matahari,
We all make choices in life. Sometimes, it hurts one and heals the other. Some people are lucky because they always choose, and some people are not lucky, because they are always stuck as being people's 2nd choice, or never a choice at all. So, make wise choices.
Dear Revey, Qwerty, Ocean, UBA, Callan, Colette, Pacman and Sparkle,
Hope that you all are doing fine. Wishing you well, from Calcutta. I will be heading to Chennai (Madrus) tomorrow, and my adventures will be to the south of the exotic India.
Do take care.
Luv Always from Calcutta,
Prodigal
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.." -
hiiiii proddy!!
i'm still alive!!! heheheeh
got ur letter already, do i have to reply?? hahaha...
anyway, have fun in india!
sparkle...
(hmm..why is my name beside pacman's?) -
Originally posted by prodigal:
sounds fierce mannnnn! But I refuse to test your limits! ahahhahahha
However, I am aware that there are people who take that for granted, and think that I can be bullied around or I am too nice to be pushed around. If one attempts to stretch my tolerance to the point which I finally get mad and angry (which has not happened yet), I would not hesitate to pull punches on anything, meaning that I would pay an eye for an eye, if not 10 times the treatment to some moron who attempt to hurt my family.
anyways...I don't think you have the heart to harm me in any way... *wink*
Enjoy India, I will be flying off to Hong Kong soon... =D
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Float like a butterfly...Sting like a bee... -
bohemian,
Sometimes, thriving on cynicism isn't such a bad idea after all. ItÂ’s like being the devil's advocate all year round, taking pleasure in people breaking down your cynicism. A case of reverse psychology at work? Man U disgust me and I consistently buy them to win. I am my own saviour? Sounds like some new age hocus pocus but yes, perhaps I will be my own saviour after all.
"with thy bootstraps, pull thyself up from the mire of mediocrity. be neither halfway good nor halfway evil for beauty is only found in extremes. and when ye comes into thyself, beauty will be waiting."
I feared for my mediocrity. I am just an average man and who remarked that moderation is the key to long life?
The word average haunts me since I was young. Deep down inside, there is always this belief that I am capable of greater deeds and the world is waiting for me to conquer it. Reality steps in soon and I realised that instead of being smart, I am just an average guy struggling on his academic career. The curse of mediocrity and averageness is that you THINK you are capable of better, but you are not. Neither are you at the bottom of the pits.
Zarathrustra says beauty is in the extreme, i feared i could only be stuck in between them, forever chasing the tail of both
------------------Originally posted by Bohemian:james,
to hide behind cynicism is cowardice. but i get your drift. there is no room for cynicism if one follows zarathustra's footsteps. only breaking and living! if you have to look for a saviour from your views you are not a true nietzschean. you ARE your saviour!
"but a mightier power and a new overcoming grow out of your values: egg and egg-shell break against them. and he who has to be a creator in good and evil, truly, has first to be destroyer and break values."
thus spoke zarathrustra
"with thy bootstraps, pull thyself up from the mire of mediocrity. be neither halfway good nor halfway evil for beauty is only found in extremes. and when ye comes into thyself, beauty will be waiting."
Bohemian
The heartless and souless fool. -
dear prodigal,
Got your message loud and clear. Must be enjoying yourself over in India and hey! why this gender bias? Only mail to sparkle but not to the guys ah? And talking about my Manchurian pearl, she seems to disappear from my icq. Busily working on her thesis i presumed, or walking and enjoying the moonlight with you don't know who.
yours truly,
james
P.S. Our friend is afraid to invite me over to her place because i put in no clear terms what usually happens between me and a girl alone on a bed. She is afraid she can't resist me and my skills.
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The heartless and souless fool. -
yo baby, you can roll in my sack anytime you want. they dun call me the king of flings for nothing and anytime your bed feels cold because someelse is not around, feel free to call me gigalo and i will be coming over. yeah baby. i am your man, um um. :p
------------------Originally posted by tet:Yo Prodigal,
James is a good choice, but he is a committed man... not a good target for a fling.
Married, but availiable,
tet
The Far East Pilgrim -
dear james~
yup, i'm busy wif my thesis, i'm not even going out on dates anymore. it's the hols, and i'm still stuck in school...arrggg..is today already thursday? oh my, where did my hols go????
heehee..you'll see me online soon, once i submit my first draft and b4 my sup throws it back at me..
happy holidays -
Prodigal:
Not much I can say on your first law, a die-hard romantic like you won't let might or what's-not ruin the beauty of love. Besides, there are enough number of wannabe heroes galloping on their high horses saving damsels whom are not interested to be saved.
On the other hand, why not try? If she can be taken away (not by devious methods of course, what about -sorry to use the M word- moderation?) then what she has with her current guy may not be worthwhile. If you can always flash your new Merc and some Hollywood sparkling, pearly teeth without having to spread rumours that her current bf is a pederast who's moving on to lambs, colts and puppies, why not?
PS: of course you should flash the goodness of your heart as well, and i know that in third world countries like india and indonesia, sgforums take forever to download.
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Why would I make one woman so miserable when I can make so many women very happy?
Benny Hill (when asked why he never married) -
James:
cynicism is a coward's broom, his way of sweeping everything to the lane he lives in and know's well so that he's proven right over and over again. so is being extreme. tempting, perhaps, considering the most famous people are charting their own path but beware of letting others dictating your life by putting a show of living life to their extreme.
being a bad boy who litters and breaks hearts is not the opposite of mediocrity. don't tell me it's better being a loser because at least you know what to expect. and one day if you win the lottery what will you do? kill yourself? alanis morisette would love to write a song about you. there are good things that I know and if I want to be anything, they are the ones that should be my aim. They are harder to reach but I am not going to fool myself and be self-destructive just to be something.
lofty... -
mata,
lets get lowdown, cynical and totally self-destructive together baby.
that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, i like it.... -
prodigal,
don't worry, i know you are a bad biker boy! eh, if you were sitting beside an american blonde why didn't you ask her if she wanted to join the mile-high club? -
Dearest NaiveGirl,
Well, if you want to test my limits, just go ahead. Yeah, you are right, I don't have the heart or strength to hurt you or any woman who is my friend as well. *wink back to NG*
So, you will be flying to HK again. Well, wish u all the best in your journey.. So, staying there for some time or just having fun for a few days? I suppose you can mail me in my [email protected]
Good luck with whatever you are doing.
I have just made it to Chennai after numerous security checks because of some bomb scare in the airport, and it was really annoying to be searched over and over again. Finally I got to the place where I will be doing some constructive work (and now I am at a place where I have fast connection) for a few days. Hope to see you soon thru the net, or wait to hear from you over email....
Have a good day and do take care.
yours sincerely,
Prodigal
"Life is a little road now moving on, starting out on the journey.. love is a river flowing thru, then I will be standing at the beginning with you...."
- "At the Beginning", theme song of Anastasia