Man's worst enemy Man?

A few days ago I had a quick chat with one my Pakistani friends based in UK. With so many scary reports coming out of there about how the state is on the verge of collapse, I thought I would get an update from an insider. She told me that things are not so bad in the south of the country as in the north. She also says that the people of Pakistan are moderates and do not support the harsh laws that the Taliban threaten to rule the country by. After all being a woman who wants to be treated worse than cattle - confined in homes without education or employment - deprived of one's own identity as a human being.

Of course its not the first time that a group threatens to derail humanity with its extreme views. Strife in the name of religion, caste, creed, race and colour has been embedded in our history since time immemorial. This made me wonder whether man is the only species to kill its own. A little googling showed that other species like chimps indulge in gang wars. There is even a movie from 1998 shot in Tanzania.

Some species of birds like cuckoos, wydahs too invade other species of birds by laying their own eggs in their nests. Some of the chicks even throw out the host eggs or kill host chicks. (Source)

Many species like black widow spiders, wolves etc are known to kill their own cubs or mates. Some even turn into cannibals when food is short.

In short, its not just humans who fight amongst themselves, most species do. But with the complex emotions that apparently distinguish homo sapiens from other species, one would expect them to reason that war threatens their very existence. However, this is not the case at all in the case of a few insistent on using violent means for their own benefit. This may also stem from one of the complex emotions man is capable of -- self actualization. They seek to reach their full potential and higher self by 'fighting' for the rights of their people. One wonders how they justify violence to achieve that! Perhaps we are not as evolved in terms of emotions as we might think we are.

Ultimately, mankind's worst enemy could be mankind itself.

Can Freud help?

Ever since I was little, I have had strange dreams. But the one I had a few weeks ago was so weird that I was not able to find any online resources to help me interpret this one.

I dreamt that I was in a Danny Boyle movie being visited by aliens who looked like babies (not strange considering I was remembering my 1 year old nephew that evening). They could not talk and were trying to tell us something which we could not understand. We just thought they were cute! Some events followed which I don't remember. Next thing I remember, we were on their planet which seemed to be in some kind of a warp. We entered some caves where there were tons of people (including children) as still as statues. The children were not veteran actors and some were blinking or twitching. (Never mind its just a movie and they are kids!) The baby aliens were with us too. We played around with some levers that sent a gigantic Y (that looked mysteriously cut out from a cake) towards some kind of a board and fitted there like a puzzle. Simultaneously, a brain of monstrous proportions encased in a glass case crashed. The whole planet came to a standstill including the babyish aliens accompanying us. That's when we realized that the babies were asking for our help!

So, how do I go about interpreting this dream? Wish fulfillment and an instigation of events of the day as Freud says? Certainly bizarre wishes to fulfill and no I wasn't visited by aliens or cakes or brains! Perhaps Jung's theory of dream interpretation seems more spot on when he says that dreams are reflective of a more complex and richer personal and collective conciousness. He believed that dreams may contain illuisons, unavoidable truths, fantasies, plans or even telepathic visions! Does that mean I fantasize and make plans about the unavoidable truth that I will visit an alien planet in the future?! Gosh that is some illusion!

Whether Freud was right or Jung, we might never know. Dreams have always been a subject of fascination for humans and various theories have surrounded them. For instance, dreams in the morning come true or that they are a doorway to another world.

I do not know what part of my conciousness threw up this strange chain of events. What is more likely that I have an overactive imagination that is hyperactive when I am asleep. Needless to say my dream concluded with the movie winning an oscar.

Free will or not?

The last few months have made me realize how little control we have over our lives than we think.

We can all rave about living in a democracy, exercising our right of speech and expression and the ability to lead life as we want to. But did the following have the free will to prevent or control what happened to them? Victims of the Mumbai terror attack , serial blasts in Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad or Guwahati, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings or passengers of the hijacked planes that crashed into WTC towers on 9/11 and even the girls who were beaten up at the Mangalore pub. And why restrict to man made terror. How about those who have fallen prey to natural disasters -- the 2004 tsunami, earthquakes or even Titanic, the ship that could never sink.

The future seems to be equally bleak for 'free will'. There are fears of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, global warming has only just begun, super volcanoes threaten to plunge the world into an ice age, an asteroid might collide with earth. Apart from these there are the usual chances of accidents, plane crashes and natural phenomenon like floods and earthquakes.

So, is there no such thing as free will? Yes, there IS. Although we cannot control the above events, we can mitigate the effects of their outcomes by the choices we make. Switching to green energy, judicious use of electricity and water and planting more trees can mitigate the effects of global warming. More than this, we have the choice to be good or bad. We can choose to spread love or destruct ourselves with hate. Live and let live can go a far way in reducing the futile conflicts that men get into for superficial matters like race, religion, gender, caste, nationality etc.

Ayn Rand sums it the best:

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be

To Tag or Not to Tag

The other day, I had a hard time tagging 25 people on Facebook for the '25 random things about me' post. Once tagged, the post requires you to write your own post and then tag 25 people in your friends' list including the person who tagged you. I must confess I had a hard time selecting the 24 people despite boasting of 160 friends.

School friends, childhood friends, college friends, friends from work, Toastmasters friends, family...they are all there. Yet, I had trouble tagging 15% of my friends list . While I personally know all 160, I did not want to share some random facts about myself with them. As I browsed through the list, I wondered how many of them can really be called friends. As per dictionary.com a friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard or a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter. Going by these definitions, there hasn't really been an exchange of affection or patronage with most of my 'friends'. I haven't interacted with most of them since we added each other.

So, should I call them friends, acquaintances or associate? Does seeing photos, reading/commenting on status messages, poking, wall posts make friends? Which are your most memorable times spent with friends? Hanging out with them, pulling each other's leg, laughing your head off over a cup of coffee or Facebooking/Orkutting them? Do you remember the birthday when your buddies showed up with warm smiles on their faces and wished you with a hug or the one line ' Happy Birthday! Have a Blast!' wall post?

Facebook is a great way to extend that face-to-face interaction and be more involved in another person's life. It has also connected me to some long lost friends. But unless I make the effort to interact with them personally, I will not be able to form that long lasting bond. Which is what happened to most of those 160 friends on my list. I do know them from work, school, college or other activities but I have had different levels of interaction with them none of which are affectionate or patronizing.

In conclusion, I would say that social networking is a good way to extend that personal connection but not sustainable in itself.