The Mind Of a Soul

A Collection of Quotes, Ideas and Opinions about the World, and the people in it.

[themindofasoul]

One of the biggest lies we are taught throughout childhood: that what we are good at is what we should do. That those activities we excel in should be our jobs, our careers. But what we’re good at is not necessarily what we like. In fact it may be what we hate. But you’re told to go for a major in college, to take the path doing the things you’re good at because it makes things easier. The problem is: you only find out you hate what you’re good at when you’re knee-deep in setting up the rest of your life. Some will keep going on and live doing what they hate. Others will stop, and reset, at the cost of being called drop outs, failures. There are those who love what they’re good at, but for those of us who are not, trust me when I say: do what you love, regardless if you’re good at it or not. Take a chance to find out what that is before you are too far into setting up your life.

[themindofasoul]

Trump’s Not The Problem

Yes, Trump is terrifying. He says “this country is divided” while actively taking actions & making statements which divide it even further, encouraging hate bred from fear & discrimination bred from ignorance. But that isn’t what terrifies me the most. It’s the fact of how far this country is willing to let people like him go, thinking it’s all a joke until it is far too late. 

Let me explain. Look at how we handle the first amendment of the constitution: all people remember out of that one is “Freedom of Speech.” Yet this is mainly used as an excuse, not a reason, for people badmouthing one another. “I can say whatever I want!” is a common misconception, & something which Trump & his supporters have taken to such an apathetic level it greatly concerns me. Are we that lax as to allow for such loathing behavior? Sure, we would not dare just sit back & watch as someone is stabbed in the name of the Second Amendment (which is about more than weapons); we would stop them because it’s inhumane. Yet if someone’s badmouthed & their life joked at, we sit back and let it happen, all in the name of this first amendment. Yet haven’t we proven time & time again that words, hateful & apathetic, cause pain & scars that never truly heal? It has been almost 10 years & I still have not recovered from the verbal abuse I experienced as a child. Yet we treat this mental trauma as something to just “get over.” Would you tell someone to get over their open leg wound as they bleed to death? It’s an open wound of the mind, made susceptible to more trauma, segregation from society, & destruction of personality. It’s literal mental death. Verbal abuse kills who a person is. Yet this society sits back and acts like it’s perfectly acceptable under the law. & that is what terrifies me, that for eons we have developed ways to prevent physical harm & death, yet we sit back and watch as people tear apart someone’s mind & soul. It’s wrong. I don’t care what any book says, religious or not. I know what’s right; I know what’s wrong. And allowing verbal abuse to exist nonchalantly is wrong. 

I don’t expect a change overnight, but I do expect people to consider how many times you’ve seen someone being verbally abused, yet you’ve done nothing because it “wasn’t your place to do so.” How many children have you let be verbally abused by their parents? How many workers by their bosses? How many people by other people? I am not guiltless in this. I’ve ignored it. No more. I don’t care how much I am reprimanded. Better to stand by the oppressed than to watch them bleed their souls dry by the apathy of humanity. 

[themindofasoul]

The problem with separating restrooms between boys and girls is that it tells everyone they can't trust the other gender. No wonder there is such a divide between genders in societies across the world; we are conditioned from birth to believe in a separation between genders. What would happen if we just used unisex restrooms? For some reason, people seem to think society would collapse and men and women would start destroying each other, which makes no sense. In restrooms everyone has a visually blocked off area to do their own thing. However, the risk of either gender accidentally seeing the opposite gender's genitalia is overdramatized, which explains the whole stigma around nudity. What harm does someone do by accidentally seeing something like that. Um, no harm. Looks can't kill. Looks can't harm. Granted, someone intentionally looking might be a problem, but people already do that today in the form of hidden cameras or hiding spots. And more people find seeing the genitalia of the opposite gender a treasure because by separating the two genders you make the other a mystery, and what good human doesn't want to solve a mystery? Look at human saying: "I'll never understand women." "I'll never understand men." Well maybe that's because we've been conditioned to be socially separate since we were born. My point? The difference between men and women is physical only. Get over the differences, grow up, and start treating your fellow human being as equally important fellow human beings! Gender matters in only bodily function and sexuality, not morals.

[themindofasoul]

Instead of raising taxes on the middle class, why not crack down on all the businesses and corporations dodging their taxes?

[themindofasoul]

No is far from the worst response you can get from asking a simple question

[themindofasoul]

Not Alone

Look through history. Nothing big was ever accomplished alone. Ghandi? He had abundant supporters. Jesus? He had his disciples. The presidents of the United States? An entire office of about 3000 people.

My point to you, and myself, is to accomplish your goals you need to look for people who will help and support you. This is not a weakness. This is true strength. Alone we cannot change things. Together we can. 

So to everyone who says “just do it on your own” sorry, but quite frankly, no. 

[themindofasoul]

The Hypocrisy of Fighting The Party System

Yes, many people, myself included, are not pleased with the partisanship of the current USA party system. However, fighting to abolish it entirely simply creates a new party system: people who want a party system and people who don’t, and so the loop continues. 

What we should look to do is not abolish the party system, but find a way so that interest groups do not hold as much sway over political parties as the people of the USA. To do that requires a lot of planning, but hey. There’s over 100 million people in this country who can help make this possible. 

[themindofasoul]

“Homework Should Take 2 Hours”

Never listen when someone says “homework should take X hours.” It depends on the person. You may start thinking of similar scenarios when doing your reading. You may find multiple different ways to solve one math problem. You may manage your time really well and finish your project early. 

So when someone tells you something should take X amount of time, know that’s the average. Find and work efficiently by your time, not someone else’s.

[themindofasoul]

Give Someone The Power of Choice

Ever been that person who didn't make a phone call because you were afraid the ringing of their phone would interrupt something important? Or something like this? For a while this was me, and while I thought I was being far too concerned and compassionate about other people, I was actually doing the opposite. When I call someone, they have a choice: to answer, or not. And for some reason I thought making that choice for them was the right thing. It isn't. When it comes to people outside of ourselves, give them the dignity of choosing for themselves, otherwise it can come across that you don't believe in them, or yourself. But this issue comes out of the guilt I felt from the kind of behavior that abuses this choice-giving. Like when you call someone and they try to blame you for interrupting a meeting you had no idea about. In that case, it was their choice to answer the call and interrupt their own meeting. And that's not on you; that's on them. So there's a balance in having a choice and giving a choice. It's a matter of which choices you are responsible for and which ones you are not responsible for.

[themindofasoul]

The Infinite Loop of Violence

It isn’t hard to see why so many people in the world are taking to extremes. Not that it’s a good thing; it’s just easy to see how it came about / is occurring. 

When we were all young we were told we had a system that worked in place, a social construct that we could depend on. Yet as we grew older, we came to realize what a lie that was. When change was presented in the name of progress, it was instead halted. No compromises, just simply halted through the power of discrimination and degradation. And so people act, trying to be their own crusaders against the corrupted system that appears to need extremes just to get anything done. 

And yet we wonder where violent extremists come from. Well,maybe if we stopped long enough to ask their opinions of what is wrong instead of outright killing them, we could learn something, learn what brings about that intense hatred that brings people to kill one another. And yet a hypocrisy lies there: the violent extremists cheer when they manage to kill in the name of their cause. But do we not do the same when we kill them in turn? We are simply saying: “We said you were wrong, but we’re doing it too, so here’s more validity to your cause.” 

In short, violence, segregation, discrimination, rigidity; all have never served the progression of this world, but instead they have all done the opposite. It has encouraged violent extremists to show the world what it’s doing to itself, in very horrific ways. And if you tell me that killing was “necessary” and that somehow justifies  your actions of killing other humans, think again. That’s how violent extremists justify their cause. Because for some reason they believed killing necessary. And when we show them we think the same, do you think they’ll stop? Or will that validity cause them to grow?

Basically: stop telling yourself that physically/mentally harming someone was the right thing to do, for any reason, because it is not. Granted, sometimes doing so is necessary in life or death situations. But necessary justifies nothing. Physical / mental harm is wrong. Period. And nothing will change that.

Because while everyone else cheers at the death of violent extremists, I cry at the loss of yet another life. What they do isn’t right. But killing them? Who made us the gods of life and death?

“How do we stop them then?” You ask. We are in an age where we could design and make a tranquilizer bullet that could stop someone without killing them. Among a myriad of other non-killing possibilities. Yet we’ve chosen the quick, easy, and honorless path of death. 

And next time you cheer at someone’s death, I want you to pause for a moment and think. Think of that person’s eyes losing that spark of life as blood coats the area around them. Think of what went wrong in that person’s life, and that in the end they weren’t shown a better way to do things, they were shown their own violent ways against them. Which does nothing but justify the violent acts of the violent extremists, in their own twisted logic. 

All because in over 5 millennia the human race hasn’t tried hard enough to find more ways to believe in our fellow human beings. Instead, we’ve found more ways to hate one another. And what the fuck does hate do for anyone? Nothing but pain.

And death. 

If you want to change the world, don’t commit acts of violence. Notice how nobody remembers. Yet those who did not act violently are, and they definitely changed the world. Because they saw that ages of violence wasn’t doing anyone any good. So they didn’t hop on that train. They took a rather empty train, headed down the path of understanding, love, compassion, empathy, and progress. 

[themindofasoul]

You can’t help everyone

It’s true. It is not possible to help everyone on the planet. It’s not possible to solve all of the world’s problems. If you try to, you put all your energy into just recognizing the problems, nothing more, not because you don’t care, but because you don’t have the time to fully support everything. 

That’s why you should choose only a few things to support, not because you don’t care about other issues, but because you can dedicate more time to the few issues you support. Yes, every now and then help solve other problems. Don’t limit yourself but don’t overextend yourself either. Because there are about 7 billion people on this planet, and if even a tenth of that number focused individually on a few problems to solve, the progress would be unfathomable. 

Me? I’ll mainly focus on social issues regarding acceptance and understanding of your fellow human being. If you don’t put energy into supporting that kind of thing a lot, that is 100000% okay. You’re human. Pick something you feel driven to support, and change the world :)

[themindofasoul]

Freedom of speech does not give you the right to hurt someone with your words, just like the Right To Bear Arms doesn’t give you the right to blow someone’s brains out.

[themindofasoul]

Don’t Label A People

There will always be good and bad people. What’s unacceptable is when you use the minority bad to define the majority good, or vice versa. If you do define humans that way, consider this: an extraterrestrial species comes to visit earth. The first humans they meet are violent extremists. They deduce all humans are like this and should be exterminated. Doesn’t sound very reasonable or fair, does it?

[themindofasoul]

Who’s Family?

We’ve all been there. Growing up with a family, biological parents or otherwise. We consider those closest to us and most valuable in our lives to be our family. Our home. Our place to return to. But what if you took a step back and looked around at your true family. The real people who’ve been keeping you alive and providing for you and everyone else. The people who grow your food, mine the ore that built your home’s appliances, drill the oil that keeps you warm, clean the pipes that filter your crap, build the phones you so desperately cling to, build vehicles so you can explore the world, and everyone else doing every single small and big thing that impacts your life. All these people are your family. They’ve never met you. Most likely don’t know your name. And you don’t know theirs. Humanity is your family. What’s terrible is being someone who believes this and watching the present world. Imagine hearing the news of people’s deaths. In wars. In crimes. In hospitals. Every death you feel like you just lost a brother or a sister. Every discrimination and hateful comment a fight between your siblings that you want to stop. For a long time I wondered why I did not cry at my grandfather’s funeral. I thought I was a terrible person for not crying, for not falling down in a fit of mourning. But now I realize why I couldn’t cry. Why I wasn’t a mess inside myself. I had seen it hundreds of times. Every day. Nonstop. It wasn’t that I didn’t cry for my grandfather; I could not cry for just him. Not when the rest of my family was dying all around me. And still is. Now after all this, you may think embracing all of humanity as your family will bring nothing but pain. Wrong. For every negative there is a positive. Every achievement someone makes, you feel their joy. Every friendly rivalry an inspiration. Every good deed an act of sibling love. And I’ll tell you what. Pain has not made me cry nearly as much as all the good I’ve seen in the world. I’ve cried when children embrace their parent, years gone, feeling that sense of love that penetrates the soul. When you feel things like that, how can all of humanity not be your family? Yes, some of your family members do bad things. But like my parents told me: it isn’t your behavior we love: it’s you. And that will never change. 

[themindofasoul]

Everything Is An Illusion

I mean think about it. Everything you perceive is an illusion created by your brain based on the stimulus it supposedly receives, interprets, then chucks an understandable perception out for you to enjoy. For pete’s sake (I don’t even know a pete...was pete’s fate so bad it became a phrase?) we can only see a small fraction of the light spectrum. We are constantly only seeing less than 10% of what the universe actually looks like. Probably less. Same for hearing; we already know there are sounds you can’t hear. Just blow on a dog whistle. So now that we’ve established our perception is limited and also merely what our brain wants us to know about the world, why is this so significant? Well, think about it. Every single perception is unique. Every illusion different. You know your illusion pretty well. Now try and see the illusion of your neighbor. Now your dog. Now that annoying fly. All of a sudden the illusion seems to have gotten quite a big larger and more awesome, hasn’t it? ;)

[themindofasoul]

The Seed of Humanity's Problems Against Itself

So many people look for the "root of the problem." The issue with that quote is there are many roots to a tree, and just as many roots to a problem. Thus we have to go back to what came before the root, what started it all: a seed. This seed for humanity is our perception of intelligence. From the moment we grow cognizant we are conditioned to separate living things according to their level of intellect. Thus we view other forms of life as inferior, since we believe ourselves to be the most intelligent on the planet. Thus we don't honor the importance of the lives of all other life on earth. And this leads to not only animal and environmental abuse, but also abuse to our fellow human beings. For if we can make other life obsolete by measuring their intelligence, so can we also do the same to our fellow human. Thus began religious discrimination, racism, segregation, etc., all because we started putting numbers to other life forms, and then to ourselves. This even spawns things like depression, questioning our "self-worth," as if life somehow had a measurable worth at all. For the value of life is immeasurable. Yet we are conditioned to believe and hold true that the more intelligent, the more superior. Thus individual humans can assume they are better than others because they believe themselves to be of a higher intellect. Thus humans can slaughter other lifeforms and other humans. Because we compare imaginary numbers that in reality only matter for that exam you have tomorrow. If we as a species are to build a world where more people can be happy, we must first be rid of this assumption: that intelligence dictates the value of life. It does not, whatsoever. My friend who has trouble speaking has just as much value in their life as I do my own. The earth worm squirming beneath the dirt I stand on has just as much value as well. So does every lifeform, flora or fauna, and this state of mind has been practiced before by humans such as some native americans. And if it could be done centuries ago, and is still done today, we can eliminate so many problems that plague us humans. Maybe not fully eliminate, but stop enough to make the problems so uncommon, they might as well be myths. And that, my fellow humans, is a future I want to fight for, whether I live to see it or not; at least someday, it will happen.

[themindofasoul]

What is Life?

What is life but another force of the Universe? And by a force I don't mean the kind you calculate in your physics class. I mean the kind that cannot be calculated and has a single purpose, and that purpose is to survive. But this purpose of survival does not merely extend to the individual organism, it extends to the Universe. Take for example us humans. We have evolved to become intelligent beyond most other creatures.The question is why, and one answer might be so that we can learn to survive in any environment. This, in turn, would allow us to expand our survival to other planets, other solar systems, other galaxies. And in time, we would eventually seek a way to survive the inevitable end of the Universe. This is because the Universe is expanding, because of universal entropy; the tendency of universal chaos. And naturally, life wants to survive, so it will try and stop this process or balance it is some way. Thus life is the force the Universe has made to help itself survive. We are like an immune system that can evolve over time, slowly realizing what we need to fight. Sure, we have billions of years to prepare, but life is fragile, and really is the only force reliant on luck. Luck that we aren't destroyed by an asteroid. Luck that we don't destroy ourselves. Luck that we understand the Universe enough to keep it alive. 

That is why I choose to live with the future in mind. I want to give the next generation not only better lives, but a chance to explore and save the Universe, because the world is too small a thing to think about in the context of everything. If we want to survive, we need to consider the present and future simultaneously, while using the past to not make the same mistakes. Maybe one day we'll learn the Universe won't destroy itself and this rant is for not, but then why have life in the Universe? Why create mass that seeks to understand itself and the environment around it? Why allow that in a space largely populated by inanimate, lifeless mass? There is a greater purpose, and it makes you wonder how this was all designed. For that, I have no answer, so I will keep observing till the day I die, hoping for some revelation, yet expecting none.