Locked out

KNNBMCH. I'm locked out of my Facebook.

Sigh. I should have listened to my own advice. Never make an important decision when tired, like changing your password, especially with a 12-digit number while on layover at a busy airport like Hong Kong. What was I thinking.

In the midst of changing the password, I got distracted with ordering dinner. Tak sempat nak write it down yet and by the time I had a pen in my hand, my short term memory had gone blank and I couldn't remember some of the digits in the sequence.

Facebook tried to get me to use photo tag recall for password recovery after that. Jeez, seriously, how many of us mortals can remember who we tagged objects with when we were half drunk months ago? So that went well... not. None of the other memorized info challenges worked either. My fault for being too lazy to give complete info during registration. My give up.

Never mind....

Anyways I'm still groggy with jet lag. Had a few serious conversations with myself during the flight. I think I need to find a quiet place and seriously reconsider my investment portfolio in the East. I didn't like the signals I saw. Planning to speak to a few people here so I'll probably be staying longer than planned. Perhaps its not such a bad thing as it'll give my sister a chance to get used to looking after mum and dad for longer stretches than a weekend.

Here's my formula for happiness. What's yours?

~

Ignore the bad things that you find depressing. Just focus on the good.

~

Does that describe you? If it does, good. You have most of humanity on your side.

That happiness still eludes you despite ignoring the bad things probably didn't escape you either I'm sure.

Yea everybody who ignores the bad looks happy for a while. Soon enough they become like any other dissatisfied ranter on facebook, twitter and myspace. They can tell you exactly what they're unhappy about. Turns out they're very aware of what's going on all along. Well, so much for taking their own advice to ignore bad things.

It took me a while to understand that when people say ignore, what they really mean is repress and if I know dumspters, I know you can only press in so much.

No wonder polite ladies and gentlemen erupt into raging fits when they can't fit any more in.

This is something I've thought about for years but at this moment, if I could squeeze my formula for happiness into one line, it would be this.

~
Understanding is happiness.
~

Let me qualify that a bit so stay with me here.

First let me illustrate how understanding works. When we understand that there's no such things as ghosts or evil curses, through our knowledge of physics, chemistry and stuff, we stop being afraid of them. In fact we laugh at the very idea. That is what understanding does. It shines a powerful light onto our dark fears and reveals them for what they are.

Now what's stopping you from shining the same light on every nonsense that hits you, from useless traditions to silly political news? Yes, your stress would evaporate or at the very least, shrink to half its usual size. You can finally laugh when everyone's having a fit. Wouldn't you be happier becoz of it?

You have to appreciate that to understand, you can't cherry-pick only the realities you like and pretend the rest don't exist becoz let's face it, you can't choose what hits you. But you can learn the skill of taking each nonsense by the horns and busting it through critical examination so it won't ever trip you up again.

I have even suspected that might be the purpose of our brains.

When we understand, we're enlightened. When we're enlightened, we walk steady in the storm. Nothing shakes us.

But as to how we went from "lets get enlightened" to "lets ignore the problem so that we would be happy and problem-free," I have no idea.

Now, we all love shortcuts and I wanna talk about this instant-noodle method of achieving happiness through wisdom-quote programming.

We seem to have this idea that the secret of happiness lies somewhere in those wisdoms. We believe the conclusions of Voltaire, Nietzche, Confucius to be absolute and if they say can means can, cannot means cannot.

I don't buy that. The invention of the Internet itself is enough for me to take Plato's and Socrates' truths about man with a grain of salt. One fact about us is we don't stagnate. We evolve, and it is precisely becoz we evolve that we need to critically look at everything again, especially if those ideas were cast in a different age. Otherwise we risk running into 2,000 year old brick walls. (Child brides and honour killings come to mind.)

But there's a problem. We're lazy. Too lazy to think, to ponder, to test wisdoms. We believe no more new realizations are possible, and that everything worth understanding is already revealed to us through those wisdoms. Just follow them lah.
 
So armed with all the motivational quotes we found we should be happy. Right?

Wrong. In truth we're more like the donkey that carried the holy scriptures.

Hey I got bags of wisdoms. I'm happy!

The fact that our troubles and our anger haven't left us makes it self-evident that those quotes are worth jack.

Sure we can argue that its the person's fault, not the wisdom's but seriously, does it matter? If so little of humanity can extract enough good from it to make a difference, doesn't it make you wonder if revealed truths actually work for our species?

Now there's nothing wrong with indulging in second-hand wisdom if it can help us find our own wisdom, those personally discovered truths that are so necessary in our journey to finding understanding and happiness.

Two things I'll say about discovered truths. First, if you're lazy, forget it. This journey requires you to think and meditate on issues, study new things and worse, change mindsets. Second, discovered truths don't negate second hand truths. Well, not always. They just give us a chance to test them for validity. However, if releasing your happiness from the clutches of fear is your priority, revealed truth is a poor substitute for discovered truth. Simply put, you can watch Oprah all you like but it ain't getting you anywhere if you refuse to walk through the fire.

That is why I don't think you can find lasting happiness by being lazy or being voluntarily ignorant but then again, that's just me.

Migrating

Whenever people tell me that those who migrate are an ungrateful lot, I always ask them this question.

When a beautiful girl you don't give a shit about leaves you for someone else, why do you call her a bitch?

I usually get no response.

Anyway, when it comes to the subject of migration I'm old school, if you could call the motivations of Marco Polo (1271), Christopher Columbus (1492) and John Cabot (1497) old school.

Old school means believing that if there are opportunities for a better life out there, go! Just don't kill the natives when you get there. And may the force be with you.

I admit I've never understood the fuss about cherishing your fatherland or your motherland but maybe that's because I think like a bird. I see the whole goddamn planet as my house, not just that tree in rural Johore. I should be able to fly and sleep anywhere I please.

Home

Patriotism? Pffft.

Patriotism is for romantics. I can see why some people are attached to identity that's behind patriotism but identity gives me a headache. What's your name? Which country are you from? What's your religion?

Wait... why is this any of your business again?

How does knowing that I'm Mr. A from country B of race C and religion D tell you if I'm worthy? You only ask me so that you can fit me into your mental pigeonhole so that you can treat me the way you think people of my profile deserve. Right?

Gratitude? Yes I am grateful, but not just to you. To the whole world. Actually more to the whole world. You see, I'm just like you. The gadgets I use, the books I read, the movies I watch and stuff, they're mostly made overseas. I owe them all my gratitude so whatever stuff I consume, I show it by paying for those things, sometimes in ridiculously inflated amounts that make wealthier foreigners cough and spit out their coffee.

But that's okay. Its a willing exhange. You give me something, I pay for it, we owe nothing more to each other, we both happy. I also paid income tax which paid the salaries of a number of government servants for a few years. And then you should see how much I gave to charity. Rumah kanak-kanak cacat, orang buta, orang tua, and orang kaya. I even helped clean many a longkang in the neighborhood. So yes I helped spread joy to others in my own time out of my own free will. Is there something else in the gratitude department that I missed?

Know what? Actually I am proud to have explorer blood running in me. My late grandpa used to tell me his father was a ship's hand. We actually didn't know very much about him, not even where he was buried but one thing's for sure. He wasn't from around here.

Grandpa is that you?

Yes, migration is in my blood and unless you're an Orang Asli, you are a descendent of migrants too. Now aren't you glad your ancestors didn't listen to those rants about patriotism and ungratefulness during their time? Because if they did, where would you be?

That is why I've got two words about migration. Actually three. Big.effing.deal. If you are upset that the beautiful girl is leaving you, instead of calling her names, how about asking yourself why she left you? You might actually learn something.

Can ordinary Malaysians live up to their own demands of others?

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the topic on Facebook.

A little self critique is therapeutical every now and then so I won't mince my words. Many of us are hypocrites, myself included. There I said it.

While not forgetting that we are nice people with big hearts, we try to bribe our way out of trouble while protesting corruption.

We buy skin whitening creams while protesting racism.

We enjoy unfair business arrangements while protesting cronyism.

We take people's money under false pretences while protesting theft from the national coffers.

In our defense, we say aiyah we are small potatoes lar. Give or take a few dollars what's the problem? But those leaders, they are taking millions! How can?? They are supposed to set an example!!

Right, so we've made our principles elastic, like a rubber band, to be stretched whenever it suits us. We defend it becoz that's how we've survived. Who plays fair anyway and everyone knows the best way to beat a thief is to be a better thief, which is okay if its our own asses that we're saving. In fact, you'd be stupid not to.

So now do you know why I sometimes find it comical to see all the outrage against corruption, cronyism and racism among civil society people?

How not to laugh when the same people who scream bapok and pondan at our infamous ministers also lament the discrimination against gays and transexuals? Wakakaka.

How not to laugh when the same people who say woi mamak kutty, balik Kerala lah on FB also appear in threads lamenting racism in our schools? Wakakaka.

Do Malaysians actually have principles? Of course we do, but do we actually believe in them? Or are we more like the famous donkey that carried holy scriptures on its back?

Yup, its still a donkey.

This guy says it better than I ever can:

The first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself. Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, and humility.

~Nelson Mandela~

Thanks to FB friend Stephen Felix Grosse for digging out this wonderful quote!

I am back

Sorry if anyone had missed me here. I've neglected this blog far too long. People do that when they get sucked into Facebook I guess. I hear some don't come back.

But I'm back and to shock myself awake I decided to paint this blog pink. Dowan to be so serious lah. Hehe.

I am on the road so to speak... in Taipei as I write this. Tomorrow its off to Seoul and then a week after, London. I promise myself to try & write my longer thoughts here as they arise.

Meanwhile if you are on FB, do look me up at www.facebook.com/johan.t.harris

Have a great day guys! :D