Philosophies

Because its Saturday, I am going to throw down, in brief, some of the philosophies and ways of looking at the world I have developed over the years. I should preface them by apologizing in advance to anyone who may be offended, though I reckon most of you are pretty open-minded.

1) Theory of Displacement: This is probably the weirdest one, and tilts towards Descartes. There is no "reality" as such, nothing that we can know actually exists. All we know comes through what we experience, i.e. our senses, and everything we sense we sense through a series of differences, not because there is actually anything tangible to be sensed. We know hot is hot because it is not cold, and vice versa. Soft is soft because it is not hard, and vice versa. My hot may *feel* different from someone else's hot, however, because of displacement, we can both agree that there is a difference between "hot" and "cold". Extending this, my perception of "red" might be completely different from someone else's perception of "red" but we can both agree on the color because it is different from blue or yellow. I'm sure science could be used to argue that everyone does, in fact, see color in *exactly* the same way (she says dubiously). But! I am not a scientist. 

2) Higher Thought as Wanking: Along the lines of #1, and completely nullifying any value this post may have, is my notion that a life spent in higher thought (that is, being preoccupied with philosophy, trying to unravel the meaning of the universe, trying to prove or disprove the existence of God) is the equivalent of a life spent masturbating. It feels good. You might even burn a few calories. But in the end you're left with a meaningless mess, while the real thing (i.e., real life) is so much more satisfying. This is why I can never pursue a purely academic path in life. I would come to hate myself. However, also like masturbation, going without is not healthy. Ceasing to think higher thoughts altogether is tantamount to becoming a vegetable. 

3) Everyone needs to believe in something, but its should be something they have a damn good reason for believing in: I don't care what you believe--whether you're christian, pastafarian, whether you believe in the almighty dollar, or whether you believe in science, or whether you believe steadfastly in believing in nothing at all--everyone needs something to believe in. Its what makes us human. However, these beliefs only really have value if we have earned them (rather than just inherited them). 

Yes, I realize that a lot of these are totally contradictory, so I guess I'll add a fourth to reconcile.

4) Life is full of contradictions. Deal with it.