Anchoring your brain

The other day I was asked this question- which year did Napoleon become emperor of France?
Despite being a history buff, I did not know the answer. but I could not accept defeat and attempted answer the question. I formulated a base educated idea that he was first exiled to Elba in 1814 (which is true). so he must have become king a few years ago at the very least because I had read several stories about his glorious reign and his bravery in battles. But I did not go as far back at the 1700s because the French Revolution had just ended and there was a lot of turmoil for at least a decade. so made a wild guess of 1802. I was two years off. 
Contemplating my failure, I came to realise that my whole 'thesis' arose from one main piece of knowledge that Napoleon was captured in 1814. Had I been wrong then, my whole reasoning would have tumbled down the hill. I came to realise that these base assumptions or 'anchors' are essential to any sort of educated guess or claim. 

An anchor is a bias which leads people to rely too much on the fist piece of information or the 'base', from which they make their final answer. The anchor can be compared to the foundations of a building. If the foundation is weak, no matter how well you build the rest of the building, your creation will collapse. similarly, if your anchor is wrong, your reasoning, no matter how perfect, will implode.

In one study, Nobel award winner Daniel Kahneman carried out a study where he tested a bunch of students with multiplication. They were asked to multiply the first 8 numbers from one onwards. The students were given 5 seconds to do so. After the first few multiplications, they had to guess the rest and make assumptions. since the sequence started with small numbers, the median they estimated was around 512. The correct answer was 40,320. The anchoring comes in here when after a first few multiplications, the students began making increasing adjustments on their answers. Almost all the answers answers were usually not sufficient and a great deal of importance was given to the anchor. 

It is said that before answering a question or making a base assumption as your anchor, one must at least have three source of information which are credible. So, back to the Napoleon question, apart from the abdication year, had I known the age he became emperor and the age when he abdicated, my answer would have been surely correct. 

Anchors are dangerous territory and do not let the grim sirens attract you to their jaws. Be careful treading in their paths and always have a back up no matter what. If you do not know the answer to a question, simply give up and say "I don't know" (benefits of that in my other blog -http://bagriaanjaneya.blogspot.in/2016/12/the-three-hardest-words-in-english.html)

everybody or nobody

Either everybody person does it or nobody does it.

 This is the famous statement made by several people on several matters, but what is the real meaning of this?We often feel awkward when ever we do something new, especially when we are with a group of friends who are also not used to doing nothing. We can often get criticised for doing it and can also be insulted. But why is this? 
This can be related to the fact that if something is new, everybody is sceptical about it. For examples, in Renaissance times, nobody supported the printing press or inventions or even any literature which was against the papal authority or against anything which the people at that time believed in. But there is always one person in the herd to come up with something new. More than often would he get ostracised for his actions. He could also get excommunicated. This is because not everybody is  in open to change. Nobody wants to go out of their way to discover something new or evil step out of the shell. We are lethargic and want everything handed to us. This is why when something new is first discovered, we are very sceptical and do not believe in its use. That is the same reason as to why several poets and alchemists have been persecuted and executed for their works. 
It is the ignorance that causes problems with society. But, let's not digress for this is a separate topic for a different day. 
When cars were introduced in India in 1826, nobody saw the use of a car. Everybody thought that the horse and carriage will be much better and much more officiant in the long run. But, when all the officials and the rich people started using cars instead of horses, everybody realised how useful they were and began using it as soon as possible. In another incident, when telephone and telegraph lines were introduced in India, people were very ignorant and did not think that it was good but thought that it would be used to hang prisoners. Little did they know that it would revolutionise the way of communication for ever.
This is the problem-we are never open to new things and always remain attached to the past and the simplistic ways of life. We never want to advance that even though progress is the goal, we stay relaxed without the thought  in mind about the future.

We should try to enjoy new experiences and not shoot them down the moment we hear new ideas. If we have a crazy idea, we should always be open to try it out for new experiences need to creativity which have led to the greatest of invention of all time. Even these 'happy' accidents I was out from creativity and trying a new experiences. We should truly be more progressive in our thinking and always look for a scope to advance and do better. Just because nobody is doing something, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. But definitely you should understand between doing something new and creative and doing something bad. there will always be people who try to bring you down but you have to move past that and only when you do so you can move up the stairs of glory.

why aren't kendrick Lamar or logic anybody's role model?

The 21st century is one where a lot of genres of music has emerged and 2017, in fact, is the first year when the hip hop genre surpassed the rock genre in most heard genres. Kendrick Lamar's album, 'DAMN', was deemed the most popular album in the USA this year.

Logic's song '1800-273-8255', on the day of its release, increased calls to suicide prevention lines by 27%. 

So why aren't people like these role models? why do we always take the great people as role models? 
A role model does not have to be a great person. It can be anybody who inspires you in some way to live in a particular way. there is so much to learn from the shadows as compared to the light.

Kendrick uses his power and status to talk about social issues and problems in the government and society. He himself says that he is gifted with a voice to translate what he feels and what those who cannot voice out feel.
Kendrick asks us to change the negativity around us to positivity. We can really learn from his raps, but instead, we prefer to just hear them for how dope they are. A lot of raps have deeper inner meanings which really mean important things. 
Logic is a new and upcoming rapper. To me, he is an amazing person and rapper. His verses are one of a kind and always leave me amazed. 
Logic's main aim is life is to spread peace, love and positivity. He mentions it in many of his songs and says that these make you versatile.
Logic wrote 1800 because he was inspired by one of his fans. While on tour, he went a fan's house for dinner and saw that the fan had his lyrics tattooed on his arms and kept telling him that he saved his life. Logic just wanted to make good music and had no intention of 'saving lives' but now that he realised this, he decided to help save lives and wrote 1800. 
Logic tells us to move away from positive and negative appraisals. Positive appraisals, he says, make you develop a big head and ego while negative appraisal makes you depressed and dark minded. 
Both these rappers are extremely authentic and have very devoted fans who often claim that they save their lives, literally. 

We can learn a lot from our world indeed. all the teachings are right in front of us but we need to interpret them. If we are successful in doing so, we can achieve great heights. 

More teenage stereotypes

Lets tackle some stereotypes

There are a lot of stereotypes about teenagers going around whether they are good or bad. Lets discuss a few-

1) The average teen
Every teenager today is more or less the same. We have become robots and are shadows of our true selves. We do what everybody does and individualism does not have a place in society. It is either be like the rest or be a nobody. It is  pretty cut throat. So, what is the average girl like? 
The average girl:
a) Has an instagram account
b) Uses obnoxious and played out quotes from a stereotypical        book or movie like The Divergent Series or from wattpad
c) Has at least one beach photo in which she is looking into the ocean
d) Has at least two photos with a snapchat filter
e) Loves 'The Chainsmokers' or any other musician she can 'relate to'.
f) Has read less than five books in her life.
g) Always complains about how nobody 'gets her' even though she treats everybody like a personal butler.

The average boy:
a) Always looks down in any given photo or covers his mouth.
b) Has medium to long hair to look emo.
c) Does not smile in any picture.
d) Supports a football team-without knowing the players in the team-because it is cool.
e) Behaves like an emotional person and keeps posting emotional pictures with abhorrent quotes about life which were probably said by felons.

2) Clothing 
Every girl dresses with as less clothes as possible. Their clothes are all from the same brand and they all wear rings, necklaces and played out lipstick colours. They colour their hair to copy their favourite artist or to show how 'punk' they are. They all adore the 'Adidas superstars' which are now a standard for teenage girls' footwear.
Boys wear the same baggy jeans and hoodies everywhere even if it is a beach. They all wear snapbacks and Nike shoes. 

3) Activities
Every girl wants to feel special and dates boys so that the boy can 'understand her'. Boys date girls because they don't want to be lonely or the laughing stock of their friend circle. Every girl tries to get popular on social media and hence tries to socialise a lot. This includes backstabbing friends and relations as well. A lot of teenagers consume alcohol and drugs because of peer pressure and a chance to be 'cool'. Nobody focuses on academic excellence because to them, their parents are always there and 'life will work itself out'. Stereotypical girls adopt shih-tzu dogs and take like 37 photos of every thing they come across. 

There are many more stereotypes which I will discuss later in my blogs. These are the basic ones.
Are you one of them? If you are, there is nothing to worry about. Everybody is like this and nobody will judge you. However, if you are not, then you will often be regarded as different or weird even though you are trying to stay authentic. Be yourself and be unique. God has not created us to be like another or to follow a herd. We should be individuals with different interests and disinterests. Liking or doing something which everybody is doing is useless and is like bringing sand to a beach. There is no shortage of typical boys and girls because if there would be, there would be more leaders of the world and lesser people who believe that the earth is flat.

PLOT TWIST

Don't ask for the change, bring the change.

Said the bus conductor with a very annoyed tone.

The petty and insignificant German tourist was being teased for his peculiar moustache 

With a fire in his heart,"One day they will regret teasing me and know my name." said Adolf to himself.

We all love the highly underrated style of story telling, also known as plot twists. They are random, out of the blue and exciting. a few famous plot twists are: Star Wars episode V, Fight Club, any given episode of Game of Thrones, sherlock s4 ep 2 & 3 and Rick and Morty s3 ep7. This blog focuses on how to write insane plot twists and a few gags.

Step 1: Eliminate obvious facts and details 

The primary way to make funny and clever plot twists is to remove all possible doubt that something cannot be the reason for the story. For example, in Hounds of Baskerville, nobody expected the sugar drug to be the causative of the crazy things people saw. The reason is that Doyle removed all possible evidences. sugar was used quite often in the plot but never so much or so importantly that people would think that it was relevant to the plot.

step 2: Throw off the reader 

It must be kept in mind that in mystery books, readers are aware that something will jump out onto them with a twist. The aim of the writer must be to throw off the scent of the reader. Make something look like the big solution to the problem but hide the real solution. Use the alibi to throw off the scent the reader. You aim to make the reader say,"wait...what?"

here are a few funny or creepy stories with twists for your mind to tie a knot:

I saw my reflection blink.

He was hesitant to talk and hoped she wouldn't look into his eyes. he was sweating for he knew he was not ready. he couldn't think straight but looked blankly at her. suddenly, the teacher said,"Mike, get up and tell me what a mitochondria is."

"Its a boy! It's a boy!", he shouted as he ran out of the room,"I'm never coming back to Thailand again!"

I saw a picture of me sleeping on my phone. I live alone.

Wubba lubba dub dub

Rick and Morty is arguably the best animated show on air. It has three seasons and is already loved across the world. In fact, it has a Monopoly game made after it. It portrays the various adventures of the smartest man on earth, Rick, and his not so smart grandson Morty. Every episode is different and the duo cross galaxies and planets to do different things. The show uses the concept of infinite alternate universes. so, in a few episodes Ricks from other parallel universes meet and confront the main character- Rick C-137 - and often arrest him. the show relates a lot of its episodes to current events and entertainment. For example, one episode is based on The Purge (2013), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). the rapper LOGIC features in one episode. The latest episode, season 3 episode 3, is probably the best featuring rick turning himself into a pickle and surviving for a day while taking down a bank.    

mad max 

the purge

PICKLE RICK

SO WHAT MAKES THE SHOW FAMOUS?

The show implores hilarity in rick's adventures and innovation from the producer's -justin Roiland- mind. But for me, the best part about the show is the philosophy it gives to the viewers through quotes and inner meanings. 

Rick is the smartest person in the universe and not all of his quotes are funny or scientific. Rick's wife died very early when his daughter Beth was born, delving him into science. over the years his view on life has changed many times and e has often tried to commit suicide. He tells Morty, who wants to fall in love, that love is a chemical reaction which compels animals to breed. It hits hard and fades away leading one to be in a loveless marriage, much like Morty's parents'. 

Rick also talks about not caring for others' opinions and tells morty to take his opinion and shove it waaaaaay up his butthole. 

Not caring about others' opinions is the most important thing to do if you're about to do something new or different. Half the enthusiasm and motivation is lost when you pay heed to criticism. Several great thinkers and inventors were heavily criticised for their actions and creations but they never took heed and believed in themselves and went on to make a mark in history.

Rick also talks about mental growth and tells Morty on an alien island, that even though he is afraid and in a new place and the situations are intimidating and scary, charging them head on like a bull and meeting them face to face is how we grow as people. this is my favourite quote in the show. This shows us that we should love and cherish new situations, hardships and experience and not run away form them. We should boldly face them and brave them for that is how we grow as people.

Rick and Morty is a one-of-the kind tv show that is a must watch. it is, in my opinion, better than all other animated shows including The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Futurama, and Archer, amongst others. its funny, smart and different. 

imdb- 9.3/10

Hulu- 4.8/5

rotten tomatoes- 100%

leave bad habits behind

Leaving bad habits behind

 We all have bad habits and we all wish that we can quit them. But if we keep thinking 'I wish' and not 'I will', we can never break the bat. here are a few ways to reduce, if not stop bad habits:

1) Identify your problem:

If you're an alcoholic, accept it. If you're a drug addict, accept it proudly and say that you plan on ending this addiction to drugs or alcohol or any other vice. Tell your friends about your decision and your plan. 

DO NOT try to rationalise your problem by saying that you're just going to drink one glassier check your phone 10 times. 

2) Take active steps and incentives

Teach your garden how to weed it self. I've written a previous blog about it and for more depth, check It out.
incentives play with your mind and reward you for completing certain tasks. 
For example, if you're a smoker, set an incentive that if you don't smoke for a whole week, you will get an extra cigarette on the last day of the week.


The main problem with incentives, however, is the people are not alway honest to themselves and the incentives. 
To solve this, tell somebody to conduct the incentive plan.

3) Interventions, interventions and more interventions:

If you know anybody close to you who has a problem like alcoholism or drug addiction, stage an intervention.
Talk about how you feel about it and get a bunch of people close to the person whose to be spoken to and ask them also to say things about the problem.
Find the root problem of the addiction, be it peer pressure or pleasure and try solving it by calm talking and reassurance.
This is by far the most helpful thing to do for somebody who has a bad addiction.

Summing up

1) Accept your addictions and vices and get prepared to leave it
2) Get a hold of friends who are willing to help you
3) Set up incentives to make your plan work
4) Hold interventions for friends who are influenced by vices.

Work hard to play hard

Have you ever thought, "I'll do it tomorrow", and you never found time to do it because some activity always came up? I've been there several times and I'm tired of not completing my tasks and jobs. In fact, sometimes, blogging also becomes a chore when I don't have any idea in mind. 

After much thinking, I decided to compile a list to make stuff better for myself and you, the reader-

1) Stop procrastinating 

Procrastinating is the act of delaying important activities for a later time. It mostly never gets completed.
People often tell me to make schedules or timetables to solve my problem of excessive gaming but I never seem to be able to comply to the table. There is no consequence for failure to do a task. My class, during value education class, discussed ways to prevent procrastination and we concluded that that we can prevent it by:
a) Downloading app locks which completely block opening apps on mobile phones for a while 
b) Tell parents to make consequences for failure in doing tasks or chores 
c) Do the worst task in the morning, forcibly if possible so you're free for the rest of the day
d) Crave finishing work to be free so that time does not seem to go by so 'slowly'

2) Set incentives
I've previously written a blog on setting incentives
Example: If you finished a chapter of economics today, you get to play video games for 2 hours or go out for dinner. if not, then suffer the consequences (1.b) 

3) Get proper sleep

This is, as funny as it may be, a real problem! I cannot study half the time because I sleep at 12:30 am and wake up at 6:30 am for school. My best suggestion is to come home and sleep for an hour or if you can, sleep during English literature or another boring subject.

4) Be enthusiastic 

Ryan thinks studying is fun. Ryan is cool

Make studying fun. Use highlighters of all colours, make jokes out of the things you study and make acronyms or sing the words of the definition of 'national wealth'. This is really helpful and also helps you sing better in front of the public.

summing up 

a) Procrastinating sucks so always finish your work first then do your time pass and even if you don't get time to play, Always remember that you'll be the only one who finished homework.

"A stitch in time saves nine"

b) Make your garden weed itself by setting incentives for you to work at and consequences for failure.

c) Sleep well because if you can't be awake, the day is as good as wasted

"Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite"

d) Enjoy studying. It is not as bad as it seems and the more you do it, the better you become. Studying harder a lot does not make you uncool or a nerd but it makes you rich.

Old vs new

As a 2010's kid, I can say that my decade is much better than the 2000s. We have the newest iPhones, newer Playstations, super fast computers, the internet of things, and a lot more technology. We also have better medical care, scientific advancements and a lot of activities to do if we are bored. But this is my perspective. If an adult is asked, he will surely say that the 2000s were better. So let us  compare a few offbeat points to show the real winner-

Socialising:
In the 2000s, there was not really a whole bunch of ways to socialise or go out with friends and family. There was no Snapchat or Instagram to get by. People would normally have to call others and remembering their numbers was a pain. Facebook was not so much a big thing back then as a it is today (even though it is slowly dying out) and transportation was not as advanced as today. There were fewer restaurants, clubs and social gatherings. Shopping centres were less in comparison to today.

Fitness:
Today there is a serious lack in fitness as compared to a decade ago. At least among teens. Mobile phones have ruined teenagers' postures and nobody goes to out to meet friends. A decade ago, instead of messaging friends, people would actually go out and meet them. Nowadays, you can do it at home via Skype, WhatsApp and other social media sites. This causes lethargy and a lot of children and teenagers are getting fatter.

Food;
We can all say that today's food is much better than the food a decade ago. However, there is a lot of junk food in markets causing various horrible ailments such as diabetes, obesity, heart failure, etc. A decade ago, Lays, Doritos, Gatorade, Maggi, cup noodles, and packet fried foods were barely, if not present at all. Today, every store has a stock of such foods and they cause the maximum of child problems.

Technology:
Hands down today's technology is better than a decade ago. Come on, the best game of the 2000s was Mario and today you have Overwatch, the Witcher 3, Dark Souls and The Last of Us. the best phone of 2000s was arguably early model of the iPhone. Today you have phones with 24 megapixels back cameras and phones which tell you the price and kind of shoes just by pointing a camera at it.

Television:
In the 2000s, we had memorable shows like Friends, Two and a Half Men and a few more but in the 2010s, there are shows like Game of Thrones, the Big Bang Theory, Suits, etc (although some started in the late 2000s, they became really famous in the 2010s). You also have curved OLED and UHD television today compared to those boxes in the 2000s.

Fashion:
Needless to say, 2000s fashion was better. Today you have celebrities wearing clothes made of beef and steak. You have lady gaga wearing God knows what on every single occasion and 21 Pilots accepting a Grammy in underpants.

There are a lot more points which can be discussed but these are the most standing out points which are not too deep unlike finance, population and poverty which normally would swoosh past one's head. You cannot go back in time so you might as well enjoy today and hope your tomorrow has a real overboard unlike today's crap.

We stray away from God everyday

Coldplay came to Mumbai on 19 November 2016 and a man filed a complaint against Chris Martin because he mistakenly put the flag in his back pocket while singing a song.

The world is a crazy place and people are crazy. People jump to weird conclusions after a single act which normally doesn't mean anything. Here, the man blamed Chris to insult India by putting the flag in his back pocket.

People believe anything and go ahead with it. Just recently, a huge commotion arose when a bunch of women stood up and started protesting that the Wonder Woman movie's screening should only be accessible to women because Wonder Woman is a female superhero. Where is the logic in that? Does that mean that only men can go for the screening of male superhero movies? Feminism has truly gone a stretch too far. Women rise up for anything and protest. Even on the stupidest thing as a superhero movie. 

A man sued red bull for not giving him wings when he drank a can. What could he possibly expect? and which women would actually like wings on a man? Axe deodorant was also sued because when a man wore it, angels did not fall. 

Another woman sued McDonalds because her cup lid broke while she was holding it in her lap and filling sugar. 

People try to make money off literally anything. Any weird case presents to them is an incentive to make money.

A woman sued a man who helped her from a fire but held her arm. She considered that as sexual harassment. 

A burglar broke into a home and got an electric shock from an appliance and sued the homeowners.

This is the kind of things that make you question humanity. You also begin to question the newspapers which publish such news. Just a few months ago, a newspaper company posted an article when a man was caught by the police from a chase because he stopped to pet a few cats. 

How will this affect you? And what was going on in the man's had when he stopped to pet cats?

Charles Bukowski said, "People run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water." 

This must be soooo profound. Isn't it the same profoundness that a person will eat when they are hungry but duck when you throw an apple at their face? 

This is the kind of things one should keep away from. Keep this kind of nonsense out of your life because there is no way this will affect your life. 

There are also people who say that if you support gay rights, you must be gay. A friend of mine once told me that. I replied," I support animal rights. DO I LOOK LIKE AN ALPACA TO YOU?"

Please stay away from such minded people. They are bound to lower your IQ.
--


previous blog-
http://bagriaanjaneya.blogspot.in/2017/07/the-times-of-nonsense.html

The Times Of Nonsense

Let me put it out there- I don't read or see any kind of news be it newspapers, journals, magazines, news channels or social media. Why should I? News today has almost no value. Coming on the news is fairly easy. All you need it a story- any story and on literally anything- and a wad of green paper. Pay a journalist and the next day or face could be next to Donald Trumps' Paris accord pull out. Newspapers don't have much value anymore. They post whatever pleases the readers and we cannot blame them either. They are a business and profit is the main motive of a business. So if Deepika Padukone's new gym attire interests people, you can expect shah rukh khan's and salman khan's outfit next. There is rampant competition amongst the newspaper giants and the quality of journalism is decreasing. Paparazzi is slowly taking over and real content is being obscured. Nobody cares about Tyga being spotted at an airport or Justin Bieber falling of a stage during a performance but journalists will speak of that more extensively than people dying in disaster struck areas.
Suppose your an Australian farmer. Will the floods in Bangladesh or the record sales of iPhones affect your life? No. But you will yet waste time to read it. There is a lot of useless information on the news everyday and 99.9% of it has no value to you. So why read it? You should rather spend time working or sleeping or even playing video games. A landslide in Lebanon won't affect a Chinese restaurant owner unless his party destination is Lebanon. People might say that you need to have a knowledge about the world but honestly it does not matter if there is turmoil in Tata Sons or the Campa Cola compound is getting destroyed. It may be a pressing concern but unless it affects my life in any ways, personally I don't go into depth of it. This may seems like a horrible habit but sadly, it's the truth. Do something worthwhile instead of wasting precious time reading nonsense especially entertainment news.
So go ahead. Delete flipboard, NDTV or BBC news network. It really does not have too much effect on your life.

A Modern Day Twain Story

Once upon a time, a beautiful angel visited a youth's room whilst he was asleep and woke him up. Groggily, the youth woke up. The angel introduced herself as a being who had appeared to grant him a wish for his life was abhorrent with poverty and no friends. The angel told the youth that she would offer him five choices and out of them the boy would choose one and that would come true. The angel offered the youth: love, wealth, fame, wisdom and death. Almost instinctively, the youth chose love. Soon, he met a girl and fell deeply in love with her and so did she. They were married within a year and lived a very happy but modest life. However, one unfortunate day, the lovely lady was caught in a car accident and died. The youth wept and wept. Finally he wept no more but inside, was very numb. The beautiful angel appeared before the youth and told him that love is just a feeling. She told him that love is not something which goes beyond the grave and that love is just temporary. She assured the youth that with time, his wounds would surely heal and decided to offer him another wish for the youth was in a depression as deep as tartarus. The boy chose fame. Soon, the boy began to be known by many in his neighbourhood and in a week, the whole city knew him. Within a year, he was the most famous person in his country with over 50 million followers on all social media. Wherever he went, he was engulfed with fans and admirers. Paparazzi flowed in and out of his house and his face appeared on every magazine's cover. He met with famous people almost everyday. But the youth still felt very empty for he had not accomplished anything in life and realised that his life's leading to a very sorry future. He could not bare the fame for it was too much pressure and longed to go back to being a normal person. In a few years, the angel appeared in front of him and he begged for a new wish and the angel smiled and offered him the other three. The boy chose wealth and almost instantly, his bank account was worth more than any other person in the whole world. The boy retired in comfort and took up have gambling, alcoholism and abused all the drugs known to man. Within 30 years, he was reduced to a middle class person and longed to have forgotten his rich past to which he couldn't ever return. What first world problems were these! He longed for the angel to return and when she did, he begged her for wisdom for he was a very foolish person. The senior was now engulfed in books and within a decade, he was the wisest person to ever exist. he knew the secrets of life and the reason for the very existence of man. he knew everything about the world. Years passed by and the man was now ensured that all of his wisdom was of very little use for him. He knew that he had made many mistakes in his life but the worst was to have met the angel. He regretted everything the angel had granted him. Suddenly, the angel appeared and told him that it took him 70 years to realise that the one thing in life that was inevitable was death. Dust we are and dust is what we return to. Love, wealth, fame and wisdom may seem like a rosy life but in the end we will all be washed away by the same hand that washes away beggars. We will be subject to the same judgement as political and war criminals. We will be judged the same as Adolf hitler and by the same person who judged him- God. Being rich or famous has no worth and wisdom just opens the curtains to truth. Love is a very pointless feeling for the person you love, in this generation, will most probably leave you for someone better or richer. Hearing this, the old man felt ill and dropped to his knees and begged the angel for the last and final wish: death.

teen culture

Teen culture has evolved massively over the past few decades. Teenagers no longer hang around rollerskating and eating popsicles like was the case in the 1970s. Today, teenagers spend their time listening to hip hop music and electronic dance music. Artists like Future, G-Eazy, Lil Uzi Vert, The Chainsmokers, Major Lazer, etc. are brand new teen role models in 2017. Gone are the days when teenagers picked up a book to read. Instead, nowadays we wile away time playing Call Of Duty, Battlefield, FIFA, Grand Theft Auto, amongst several others. Bethesda, Ubisoft, Activision, John Green and Veronica Roth have replaced John Grisham, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and others famed and classical authors. Today, teenage girls love reading about sad love stories with no cultural value and boys don't really read anything. 

Socialising has become the most important thing in a youth's life and everything is a fight for popularity. Being unpopular or unknown is not accepted. Everybody is expected to have the latest gadgets and fashion senses. Everybody's private information is publicly revealed on social media sites. Our minds are relentlessly controlled by corporate media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We are enslaved by society and peer pressure is our largest enemy. While everybody's mind only revolves around socialising with friends and attending parties, other important aspects of teenage life are being suppressed such as finding out who you are, reading, studying, planning your life and exploring the world around you. Society today is slowly building a generation of average working people who may never get out of the rat race. On a macro level, productivity will be low and debts high. Leniency in grading test scores has increased over the years making undeserving kids achieve new heights.

Teenagers have a mind of their own. Nobody can stop them and those who try to are insulted and condemned. Internet culture has also imposed several problems on teenagers. Brain melting jokes and memes are replacing science and math is being considered a subordinate to YouTube.

Art as taken a massive blow because it has been replaced by R&B. 

When individuals like Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Kylie Jenner, and Drake lead the world today, we face a cultural decline.  People who spit on fans, promise to stand for presidential elections when they are 33 million dollars in debt and make make up which ruins the skin are bound to lead the world to hell for they are being rewarded for their fame. Anybody who speaks out for the ruin of culture today is jeered and shunned and told that 'everything will be fine'. But how will everything be fine when the future president of the free world might be an insolvent rapper and the most famous teen in the world is known for lip syncing all his concerts and being a jerk to all his fans and friends.

My only prayer is that we spend some time everyday to do things that actually matter instead of wasting time to get a relationship or a couple hundred Instagram followers. We are the next leaders of the world and we surely can't blame selfies for our ruin.

Falsas Ilusiones Históricas

History essentially is the study of all events and occurrences in the passage of time. History is everlasting and can never end. It is the study of evolution, man and also sometimes even words. so it is a large mix of Etymology, Anthropology, science, even Ornithology and Orology in some areas.
Throughout the course of history there have been different beliefs in people. For example, today people believe in technology and that the government actually helps us daily.
381 years ago people believed that the way to enrichment was by the trade of tulips.
375 years ago people thought that the way enrichment was by putting all their trust on a gambler, influential, bankrupted man called John Law.
79 years ago people thought that the way to enrichment, power and fame is by depositing trust into a dictator who was a drug addict, a racist, a sadist, and surprisingly short.

We are full of delusions. We are still enslaved by political, social and cultural dogmas and traditions which we cannot change unless we try. Back in the olden times, a woman called Mother Shipton predicted the fire of London and London flooding. A couple of astrologers predicted the world to end on 21st December, 2012. People believed the best way to heal sword cuts was to take a magnet, place it in soil with seeds and the water used to clean the wounds must be used to water the seeds. Can you imagine that today?
But today we are in much more serious delusions than scimitar wounds. We trust technology a little to much. Take the coming of driverless cars controlled by programming. What is a driverless car? It is a car controlled by a computer. One can hack a computer no matter how strong the firewall is. All it takes is one ISIS tech genius to hack into the computers and soon several cars will drive off cliffs. Death Valley will seem like a Japanese cherry blossom festival form that point of view.
We believe whatever is ear candy for us. take India for example. For the last elections, so many promises were made but India has hardly shown any increase in two years. It is not easy to judge but a population of 1.3 billion only producing 50,000 crore Rupees per annum in taxes is very sad. But then again, a lot of the population does not pay tax due to minimum income requisites. But what is more annoying is that an insanely large part if the tax payers do not pay tax as well. Due to this, the Prime minister had to demonetise the currency and remove 500 and 1000 Rupee notes to irritate the black markets. But one way or the other, humans always, always, always take situations like these, make them incentives and take advantage and all measures to beat the incentive. This has worked very well and someone or the other always finds loopholes in plans. That is the reason Murphy's Law states,' In any field of endeavour, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' also,'Nature always sides with the hidden flaws.'

I hope we can overcome this blind faith in delusions and political bureaucrats because they will be the cause of our undoing. Before believing in people, assess the situation in your own way and in you own sense. Don't count on anybody to help you in life or make you money. The world is cruel and everything is fair. The word 'honour' is found amongst thieves and pirates only, even though it seems to be ironic. Even if fifty million people tell you something, it can yet be wrong and don't expect zebras when you hear galloping.

The Multiverse of Opinion

In just a hundred years, the wisdom of fourteen centuries collapsed and new knowledge flooded into society-Ideas and wisdoms of Biology, Astronomy and Freedom. The idea of freedom is changing constantly. In 1792, the idea of freedom was ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’. In India in the early 1900s, It was the freedom to profess and preach what you desire in public with no harm on your person. In some other parts, liberty or freedom was defined as the power to move and traverse the world and the seas and to have the free power to trade with countries, much like in Marco Polo’s time. In some patches of history, freedom was, like in 2001, much against the jingoish USA Patriots Act which allowed wiretapping homes and phones, checking business records and restricting investing in certain countries. 

‘Freedom’, therefore, is very erratic- it keeps changing in ideology so one cannot easily put a statement on freedom because it is not like the words in the Oxford Dictionary which will outlast time. Sooner or later, a new definition for freedom will arise, just like today, when the civilised world’s opinion of freedom conflicts with that of terrorist organisations’. 

As seen before, history is an exemplary evidence of the ‘undefinable erratic nature’ of freedom.Throughout history, man has been transforming his beliefs into more refined and advanced ones. Man always thought that the best mode of transport was on foot, until the making of the wheel came through which then progressed into the bicycle and then into the car and now is boats, trains and airplanes. Man always thought that the best surgical equipment were his hands. This was until Sushruta’s coming in 1215, who introduced needles and scalpels. Everybody long ago though that syphilis and hepatitis were the modern equivalent of A.I.D.S, until the coming of Alexander Fleming who gave humanity the boon of penicillin. Man always used stone to hunt until the arrival of the sword and then the gun. Man always thought that freedom was the power to be a male, and was a natural quality and not something that could be brought about to change. 

Till the time of the Mughals, males were the dominant and ‘free’ ones. This concept withered quickly into the bloom of women empowerment and just like the son takes after his father, women now are taking over the world and they feel that freedom means complete independence and the equality of both sexes. Different people have a different opinion of freedom even today. A dominated country may feel that to be free means to be independent. Feminists feels that women empowerment is freedom, a youth may feel that freedom is the power to stand up and support oneself in life and a child may feel that freedom is the power to choose which video game he can buy. Just like the Indian monsoons, the perception of freedom is very erratic- it keeps changing. 

Even in India, we can see that freedom has changed itself and like a chameleon, has adopted to its clime and situations. In the Vedic period, freedom was the power to buy and sell ‘Gau’ and the power or be a ‘Rajpat’ which turned to not being called a ‘Chandal’, changing to male dominance and then was recast into free trade. It finally transited into being independent as a country on a macro level and as an individual on a micro level. 

Understanding ‘freedom’ truly is an enigma which even Alan Turing cannot solve. Freedom has had its fare share of protest and has been encumbered by several leaders. Dictatorship is the rule over a kingdom by one man for a long time. A dictator can change or order and change the constitution of a country. So has been the case for Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. These charismatic men changed all the laws of their countries and even barred basic rights. General Dyer barred the right of Indians to move around freely and form associations and killed several who did. The native Americans of the present United States were driven away from their lands and rivers to the hot western and central deserts, expropriated from their freedom. Native Maoris of New Zealand were enslaved and completely barred from any freedom when Thomas Cook arrived, until the Maoris eventually committed mutiny and killed him.

We see that freedom has been often snatched from the hands of those who are unlucky and poor and so the phrase ‘the rich get away from crime’ comes into play here. Today we see that the concept of freedom in Syria is a right to life and safety, which even though being a human right, constantly gets violated.

Freedom constantly keeps amending itself. Lack of education or the belief in common maxims and dogmas makes the majority believe that freedom basically means the freedom of thought and speech and to do whatever one wants. This is correct in one aspect but if one was to looker deeper, one would see that freedom is like a tree with several branches voicing a different aspect, perception or meaning. Several times, old ideas of freedom become redundant and just like an old branch, wilt away and fall off. In its place, newer branches sprout up which represent modern interpretations of freedom. Today, for the unfortunate several, like refugees, gypsies and vagabonds, freedom means finding a shelter and a living. To young men, it means being solvent and for women, being equal to men. 

Freedom can be large or small. Freedom for a young child could mean to be free from studies. Freedom for a fat man could mean to eat whatever he wants without society judging him. Freedom could also be seen and interpreted as being a free nation or a free race among several other examples. 

Knowledge is power. Knowledge gives man the power to understand and judge the world around him and build a better place, as famously put by Francis Bacon. This is true because knowledge is the main constituent of freedom and, synonymously, power. Knowledge gives man the power to interpret freedom to his own understanding and how he can make his life free from whatever shackles him to slavery. This was witnessed in the South African freedom struggle where patriots and revolutionary thinkers- like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Walter Sisulu- fought for their freedom. In India also we saw similar ideas when nationalists like Tilak, Gandhi and Nehru educated themselves and through education fought the rule, and often without violence.

Today we are enslaved by technology- possibly the worst type of slavery when we are entrapped by things which do not have a heart and are controlled by other men. Machines are but metal and electricity. Computers can easily be hacked and can then expose people publicly on the internet, ruining peoples’ life and living. Self driven cars can be hacked and anarchists can easily drive them into walls or off cliffs from miles away through a computer. 

We must keep a safe distance from technology. They say that people lived the same when there were no blenders or washing machines. It is true that these inventions have done wonders but has made people lazy and complacent and accept mediocrity. Nobody strives to do anything now and those who do are often jeered by the complacent ones. 

We must break the chains of the Rule Of Machines because it will be the bane for us. But whenever we attempt to do things like this, we think about the pain and struggle we will have to deal with. It is not easy but it is a good way to start. A piece of paper is worthless for the marriage of two men who love each other but is a damn good beginning. There is no freedom till we are equal. God loves all his children which we have somehow forgotten, and now blindly believe and paraphrase a book written 3500 years ago. Our genre still ignores this. ‘Gay’ is synonymous to the lesser in India. It is this same hate that has caused wars for religion, gender, skin colour and the complexion of your pigment. There are human rights for everybody and there is no difference. If you preach hate at the service, those words aren't anointed and the holy water you drink and offer has been poisoned. When everyone is comfortable remaining voiceless rather than fighting for humans who have had their rights stolen, our world is on a fast lane to decay. No laws can change people so, instead of prohibiting gay people to do anything, we should ‘break the bat’ and support them. This is a forward-taking step towards freedom rather than setting our world back a few decades and persecuting and killing millions who cannot do anything because it is in their genes.

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