On Aggressiveness
Driving home today, I realized the best philosophy is to be aggressive in life. Now I must first define my idea of aggressiveness. Usually the idea of being aggressive has a negative connotation attached. I don't believe getting what you want at the expense of others is the correct aggressiveness. I also don't believe it means trampling other people and having "the end justifies the means" as a life philosophy. I believe aggressiveness is about pursuit. Instead of being passive in life, I believe one should set very high goals, and work very hard to achieve them. The goal could be making other people happy. I guess it will be easier to comprehend if I used the word "active" rather than "aggressive." The active person does not wait for others. You make your left turn, not by waiting for the other cars to stop, but by inching forward enough that you can go through. Does it cause harm to others? In the whole perspective of things, of course it doesn't. Nice guys finish last not because they are nice, but because they are too passive. Ride the horse instead of waiting for the horse to take you somewhere. I feel people are becoming more and more apathetic to everything in life, from politics to their own personal life. It is time for people to take charge of their life, grab it by its throat, and make it do something useful.
Today in philosophy class we briefly discussed existentialism. In short, it is the theory that life has no greater purpose, we do not have a specific meaning, when we die we're finished, and death is eminent. Some people see that mind set as extremely pessimistic and depressing. I find it rather enlightening, because the very core of the idea is that we are free to do anything. We have this free will, with no preset purpose, and it is up to each person to decide their destiny, their life, and their goal. Is that not the most empowering idea in the universe? Each of us are our own God, and I adhere strongly to this belief. As many of you know, I am a very proud and outspoken atheist. I do not believe there is any other entity that has control over me, and can arbitrarily decide my fate based on their idea of right and wrong. Does that make me an immoral person? I would like to think not. In fact, many people see me as a very caring person. I can not argue for or against that, since I am inherently biased toward myself, but I do believe I have enough room to say that I am not a bad person by most standards. I have gone through many years of depression, which is further proof that the idea of full control of life with no greater purpose can be either very empowering or very depressing. I have finally wrapped my hands around the idea and now see it as extremely powerful and optimistic.
Driving home today, I realized the best philosophy is to be aggressive in life. Now I must first define my idea of aggressiveness. Usually the idea of being aggressive has a negative connotation attached. I don't believe getting what you want at the expense of others is the correct aggressiveness. I also don't believe it means trampling other people and having "the end justifies the means" as a life philosophy. I believe aggressiveness is about pursuit. Instead of being passive in life, I believe one should set very high goals, and work very hard to achieve them. The goal could be making other people happy. I guess it will be easier to comprehend if I used the word "active" rather than "aggressive." The active person does not wait for others. You make your left turn, not by waiting for the other cars to stop, but by inching forward enough that you can go through. Does it cause harm to others? In the whole perspective of things, of course it doesn't. Nice guys finish last not because they are nice, but because they are too passive. Ride the horse instead of waiting for the horse to take you somewhere. I feel people are becoming more and more apathetic to everything in life, from politics to their own personal life. It is time for people to take charge of their life, grab it by its throat, and make it do something useful.
Today in philosophy class we briefly discussed existentialism. In short, it is the theory that life has no greater purpose, we do not have a specific meaning, when we die we're finished, and death is eminent. Some people see that mind set as extremely pessimistic and depressing. I find it rather enlightening, because the very core of the idea is that we are free to do anything. We have this free will, with no preset purpose, and it is up to each person to decide their destiny, their life, and their goal. Is that not the most empowering idea in the universe? Each of us are our own God, and I adhere strongly to this belief. As many of you know, I am a very proud and outspoken atheist. I do not believe there is any other entity that has control over me, and can arbitrarily decide my fate based on their idea of right and wrong. Does that make me an immoral person? I would like to think not. In fact, many people see me as a very caring person. I can not argue for or against that, since I am inherently biased toward myself, but I do believe I have enough room to say that I am not a bad person by most standards. I have gone through many years of depression, which is further proof that the idea of full control of life with no greater purpose can be either very empowering or very depressing. I have finally wrapped my hands around the idea and now see it as extremely powerful and optimistic.
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