I managed to salvage this from my (now-defunct) blog:
Lifelong learning, the folks in white emphasis on this in hope for our nation to cultivate our most abundance resource...the familiarity of the 'iron-rice bowl' is a passe concept in today's society...even more pronounced at such perilous times...
From the first moment of conciousness, we start learning, our brain... simply its like a sponge...our eager minds learn from every sensory experience..
It starts at an exponential rate and plateaus when we reach young adulthood...the fundamental techniques of acquiring knowledge is supposedly from reading and writing..
"To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries."
Writing is a form of expression, of creativity to evoke emotion, social influence, to immortalise a thought or an event...in essence, writing allows us to apply our knowledge and our ability to express ourselves in any agenda..
Reading was (and is still is) something that I truly enjoyed, I'm the classic geek, who was introverted, shy, soft-spoken (do not snigger) who would rather make-up excuses not to be out with my friends and curl-up in bed with the latest fiction.. reading fuels my imagination...its my own private paradise where i can envision the characters in my head and play out the scenes of the story...when in secondary school, i took up the opportunity to express all the ideas in my head like fish to water... when i was writing...everything just flowed... my mind was running with a multitude of ideas and scenes... it was overwhelming, i was penning 1000+ words essays when the assignment only called for 500 haha
Throughout childhood, we continually learn everything, how to walk how to run, the associated cause and effect teaches us the expected response to every situation, anything that's deemed 'bad' is associated with pain and displeasure anything that's deemed 'good' is linked to approval and rewards...
From the cherubic wide-eye 'angels' we were...gradually our distinctive personalities are manifested...and yet the stereotypes are endless...the rebel, the clown, the nerd, the easy-going one, the freak etc... i shall not continue with how we progress to our eventual self, as it will take a lifetime... literally
we branch out only to be compartmentalise and categorized...the Americans readily embrace the notion of inidividualism, thus harbouring delusions of grandeur evidently in the American Idol franchise...
Don't you agree that a person views himself or herself through others' perceptions in society and in turn gains identity. The self is the result of the concept in which we learn to see ourselves as others do. One will never stop modifying their self throughout the entirety of a person’s life unless all social interactions are ceased
The question is, how do we define ourselves?
Are we conditioned socially from young, so our eventual selves is a sum of all the external agents?
Is there an intrinsic self that is autonomous from our making into our passing of this phenomenal world?
Is our physical and psychological-being mutually exclusive such that if our psychological self were to inhibit another physical being, we will be the same? having the same thoughts, same feelings, same neuroses...
A self that is not defined by others and not affected by externalities...
Otherwise, is there a definition for the self? what makes us special or different from others? if we're born as a blank slate, awaiting to be written, by whim, chance, luck, not within our control? what makes me.. me? if 2 babies grew up in the exact same conditions, will they turn out the same? save for their genetic makeup?
We started out in our lives, thinking that we're special and different... then as our social network expands, we realise that there's a whole new world out there and an array of personalities that are similar and opposite from us...we get drawned to someone similar or someone who complements us (but that's another argument for another day)
If we're defined by our personalities...which is the defining trait that we can claim ownership to? The answer is doubtful, as somewhere out there, there will be someone else who exhibits that similarity...
We are all different and the same? Therein lies the paradox...
That.. my friends... is the question that was posed to us in 1999.. after 3 years and 25 grand, it still baffles our minds...
What a morose and fatalistic thought to throw at young and eager students striving to the future of our nation (go MOE!)
Insightful indeed, it makes one take a step back and think of the big picture, perceiving the world through the looking glass... it takes cynicism to a higher level...
It was overwhelming for little me to bear, the decison was to detach myself and take an objective stance and continue with my life with hope, faith and delusion...
Lifelong learning, the folks in white emphasis on this in hope for our nation to cultivate our most abundance resource...the familiarity of the 'iron-rice bowl' is a passe concept in today's society...even more pronounced at such perilous times...
From the first moment of conciousness, we start learning, our brain... simply its like a sponge...our eager minds learn from every sensory experience..
It starts at an exponential rate and plateaus when we reach young adulthood...the fundamental techniques of acquiring knowledge is supposedly from reading and writing..
"To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries."
Writing is a form of expression, of creativity to evoke emotion, social influence, to immortalise a thought or an event...in essence, writing allows us to apply our knowledge and our ability to express ourselves in any agenda..
Reading was (and is still is) something that I truly enjoyed, I'm the classic geek, who was introverted, shy, soft-spoken (do not snigger) who would rather make-up excuses not to be out with my friends and curl-up in bed with the latest fiction.. reading fuels my imagination...its my own private paradise where i can envision the characters in my head and play out the scenes of the story...when in secondary school, i took up the opportunity to express all the ideas in my head like fish to water... when i was writing...everything just flowed... my mind was running with a multitude of ideas and scenes... it was overwhelming, i was penning 1000+ words essays when the assignment only called for 500 haha
Throughout childhood, we continually learn everything, how to walk how to run, the associated cause and effect teaches us the expected response to every situation, anything that's deemed 'bad' is associated with pain and displeasure anything that's deemed 'good' is linked to approval and rewards...
From the cherubic wide-eye 'angels' we were...gradually our distinctive personalities are manifested...and yet the stereotypes are endless...the rebel, the clown, the nerd, the easy-going one, the freak etc... i shall not continue with how we progress to our eventual self, as it will take a lifetime... literally
we branch out only to be compartmentalise and categorized...the Americans readily embrace the notion of inidividualism, thus harbouring delusions of grandeur evidently in the American Idol franchise...
Don't you agree that a person views himself or herself through others' perceptions in society and in turn gains identity. The self is the result of the concept in which we learn to see ourselves as others do. One will never stop modifying their self throughout the entirety of a person’s life unless all social interactions are ceased
The question is, how do we define ourselves?
Are we conditioned socially from young, so our eventual selves is a sum of all the external agents?
Is there an intrinsic self that is autonomous from our making into our passing of this phenomenal world?
Is our physical and psychological-being mutually exclusive such that if our psychological self were to inhibit another physical being, we will be the same? having the same thoughts, same feelings, same neuroses...
A self that is not defined by others and not affected by externalities...
Otherwise, is there a definition for the self? what makes us special or different from others? if we're born as a blank slate, awaiting to be written, by whim, chance, luck, not within our control? what makes me.. me? if 2 babies grew up in the exact same conditions, will they turn out the same? save for their genetic makeup?
We started out in our lives, thinking that we're special and different... then as our social network expands, we realise that there's a whole new world out there and an array of personalities that are similar and opposite from us...we get drawned to someone similar or someone who complements us (but that's another argument for another day)
If we're defined by our personalities...which is the defining trait that we can claim ownership to? The answer is doubtful, as somewhere out there, there will be someone else who exhibits that similarity...
We are all different and the same? Therein lies the paradox...
That.. my friends... is the question that was posed to us in 1999.. after 3 years and 25 grand, it still baffles our minds...
What a morose and fatalistic thought to throw at young and eager students striving to the future of our nation (go MOE!)
Insightful indeed, it makes one take a step back and think of the big picture, perceiving the world through the looking glass... it takes cynicism to a higher level...
It was overwhelming for little me to bear, the decison was to detach myself and take an objective stance and continue with my life with hope, faith and delusion...
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