Yaw and Mog

If you have visited Turkey, you must have been amazed at the vast extent of Turkey’s cultural and historical heritage. From Roman architecture to Greek influence, and structural manifestations of Biblical events, Turkey, the once Ottoman Empire, has a lot to offer the world.

I have been to Turkey and the people I have met, the people I have seen in the streets and workplace, all have one trait in common: They are a very industrious people. They are also open-minded and far too friendly. They are more cultivated in grace and manners than some nations that call themselves civilised.

But these are trying and difficult times. America’s so-called war against terrorism has blurred the lines between religion and terror, and the layman’s definition of terrorists have equated it with the Muslim world.

The majority of the French are narrow-minded and most lack foresight. They have advocated against Turkey’s entry in the European Union. What they are profoundly ignorant of is that Turkey is a secular State.

It would be a great loss for Europe if they shut the door to Turkey’s entry to the Union. If ever there were to be an alliance of Muslim nations, a possibility provoked by the Western world’s defeatist propaganda, Turkey will be accepted by this alliance with open arms.

Nicolas Sarkozy is probably the only likely person to change France for the better. But whatever his reason for being against Turkey’s entry in the EU — either to please the French majority or to adapt to the general mood of the world at this time of war and hate — it would be unfortunate, for the international community in general and the EU in particular, that an opportunity, to have a secular Muslim nation under the guidance and protectorship of Europe, be irrationally allowed to slip by.

What is reality? What separates the dream state and the waking state? When does awareness step in? You sweat and wake from a nightmare. It seemed real. You are happy, and ask yourself if you’re dreaming. Who determines reality?

(More than a discussion of reality, philosophical views are expressed in its different perspectives).

“Yaw, have you ever felt that everything you do, you somehow do it all wrong? You try to be principled and you get stepped on. You try to please and all the other one does is to criticise. You try to see the good in people and they betray you. Is there something wrong with me? Or is there something wrong with the people around me?”

” You’re just too naive or too good for this world, Mog.”

“What do you think I should do about it, Yaw?”

I really don’t know. Maybe you need to seek the company of a different society. Mix with people your own kind.”

“That won’t be easy. There are some people I just can’t avoid.”

“Well, you could keep your distance, Mog. I don’t mean physical distance, but mental distance.”

“Yes, I suppose I could do that. So don’t be surprised when I shall be unusually quiet, because I will lay back and simply observe the madness around me. Don’t wonder why I shall no longer be nice, because I will retaliate when wronged. I will regard people with a wary and cynical look — from now they will have to prove worthy of my trust.”

“But if all the decent people of the world would do the same, Mog, you will have stooped down to the level of animal — the same class of people you’re up against.”

“No, I don’t agree with you, Yaw. I will keep my integrity, but in order to put animals in their place, you have to speak their language; and the only language animals understand is their own.”

People who have been given love, education, and everything necessary to succeed in life — why are many of them failures? They go into drugs, religious cults, and listen all day to music in ear-piercing volume. And people who have nothing to begin with, and have experienced hell — why do many of them succeed?

You need meaning in your life. You need a purpose. Whether it be getting out of the rat-hole you’re in, or defeating monsters from your past, you need focus, you need to find an objective for your life.

You must grow. Grow up. You can do extra-ordinary things. You must think for yourself, believe in yourself. You must make a difference.

Your life is yours to create. Take responsibility for who you are. Live.

The reality you want to achieve is all a matter of quantum physics. Or is it the power of positive thinking?

see also: Quantum Physics: The Double-Slit Experiment

On this day, the 14th of May in 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion establishes the State of Israel.

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Father of the Zionist Right, affirms that Zionist colonisation can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach.

Israeli brutality against the Palestinian population remains unchecked and is condoned by the United States.

In 1951, Solomon Asch conducted an experiment in which subjects were asked which line best matched the reference line in a series of diagrams. Among the participants in the experiment, only one was the test subject. When the non-test subjects gave the wrong answer, the test subject did likewise, in spite of the answer being obviously incorrect. Asch concluded that group or social pressure can distort your own judgment.

The results of this experiment have wide implications. One stark example is the democratic election process:

In many countries, the majority of the electorate is composed of the politically-illiterate and in many cases, they are also ignorant and uneducated. One case was when the French voted “No” in a referendum to ratify the EU Constitution. The majority of the voters in the “No” camp were farmers and the working classes. Those with higher education and those earning above-average incomes voted “Yes.”

Another case was when the Filipinos voted Joseph Estrada for President. An actor with a high school diploma, he had absolutely no qualification as leader of a nation. But the poor and uneducated, which comprise the majority of the Filipino electorate, propelled him into power only because of his popularity as an actor.

The precedent was perhaps set by the actor Ronald Reagan in the United States, the Philippines being a puppet of that first-world nation. Some people say that if simple-minded Americans were disqualified from voting (among other things that need to be de-merited like biased news-reports, propaganda and corporate lobbies), Bush and Cheney would have never been allowed to destroy the good standing of America in the world (although anti-Americanism had begun way before, the current Administration only made it worse).

The popularity of an incorrect answer does not necessarily represent the truth; nor must it allow the distortion of what you know to be right, because the majority is not always right. So while the rest of the population, the minority, stand seemingly helpless in the face of the incorrectness of a situation, will you shrug your shoulders and accept it?

Band-Aid Democracy

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Click on the diagram above to watch a short film of the Asch experiment. Also see: The Power of the Situation

Also see: The Engineering of Consent

Results of the French Presidential elections in Tokyo:

About 57.04% or 2,097 of the total French electorate in Tokyo voted:

Nicolas Sarkozy … 1,166 (56.7%)
Ségolène Royal … 891 (43.3%)

And as of 3am Tokyo time, the final results were:

Nicolas Sarkozy … 53%
Ségolène Royal … 47%