In all fairness

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:32:00 -0500

When Calvin complained to his dad about something, his dad replied, “The world isn’t fair, Calvin”, to which Calvin retorted, “Yeah dad, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?”.

It’s true. The world just isn’t fair. Though we may always think that the world is mostly always unfair to us, this thought frequents the mind of our 7 billion other fellow humans on the planet. Before we are born, we have no say in the womb we are placed in, the family that nurtures us or even the atmosphere we might grow up in. Starting from birth, nothing seems fairly distributed - access to resources, facilities, money or opportunities. Growing up too, humans are always discriminated on the basis of gender, religion, color, creed, caste and a zillion other discriminators. Even Lady Justice with her balanced scales and blindfold isn’t fair. When such is the scenario, I have wondered how two universal concepts - time & death are so undiscriminating. Everyone on the planet has 24 hours each day and time just doesn’t wait for everyone one. Similarly, death too catches up with everyone, one day or the other. I fail to understand how a world enveloped and ensnared by unfairness can have two great, universal levelers. I don’t buy it. There has got to be a catch somewhere.

Despite Father Time’s unrelenting effort to be fair to everyone, there is a small hitch. Not everyone lives the same number of years or for the same amount of time. Ergo, not everyone is able to pack as much into his or her years (counting just the number of hours lived. How much he or she packs into those years is an altogether different matter). Thus, Time is not entirely fair I think.

Death, on the other hand, seems to be a truly impartial judge. James Shirley wrote,

“The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against Fate;

Death lays his icy hand on kings:

Sceptre and Crown

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.”

Is this fairness however only outwardly? How can one thing, just one thing in the whole, wide world be impartial? I thus wonder sometimes if there is indeed that concept, a light perhaps, called the soul that maybe lives on or dies depending on your deeds or your actions, after being judged at the alter of justice of the Great One. If indeed the soul is rewarded or punished, that may seem fair again, but is it so truly? Aren’t our deeds or actions influenced by circumstances which somehow force us or lead us to make choices that may seem “good” or “bad”? Even if we assume that our actions are not influenced by circumstances, can we say that God, the Great One, or the Ultimate Judge in whose court we must all appear is indeed impartial? If he is so in Death, then why isn’t he in Life? Why doesn’t he infuse some semblance of impartiality in Life itself and create a more even footing. That’s maybe because he cannot and thus is indeed partial and flawed himself?

Is there thus nothing at all that is fair? I wonder…

Self

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:31:05 -0500

“The need to reconcile the first person and third person accounts of the universe… is the single most important problem in Science” - V.S.Ramanujan

Human Consciousness, our sense of self, is one of the most fascinating problems modern science faces. While Darwin’s theory of evolution explains how we, as a species changed, it still fails to explain how, when, and why we developed our sense of self. When I call myself ‘I’, what am I referring to? Am I referring to my body, my brain, or some inanimate object within me? It is also fascinating to think of the origin of consciousness. For some reason, I just can’t imagine one of our ancient ancestors just waking up one day and telling himself, “I think, therefore I am”.

The issue of consciousness, and self, also brings to the fore other fascinating questions, like, ‘Is the way you feel pain the same as the way I feel it?’, ‘Do you see the world, with all its colors, the same way as I do?’ and so on. The thing is, there is absolutely no way of knowing the answer to these questions - because I can never look at the world as you, never really feel pain as you. The only thing I can do is to assume that your perception of the world is the same as mine, and extrapolate my ideas to be the same as yours.

Untitled

In all fairness

Self