Category: Pondering Infinity

A Taste of my mind. Anything from Sociopolitics to Religion to Philosophy in general goes.

Monkeysphere

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Recently I read a short article on the concept of the Monkeysphere. You can read it yourself if you wish. Anyway, despite the deceptive title and humorous attitude, the article does indeed make sense.

All of us have our own monkey sphere, it is built into our brains and there isn’t much we can do about it. It explains why and how people can withstand the sheer amount of suffering around them. We just don’t care. They are outside our monkeysphere. It is a defense mechanism to prevent us from becoming depressively catatonic and it is also the reason why worldwide suffering persists.

The factory manager does not care for the people his heavy pollution affects. They are outside his monkeysphere. The oil-grabbing capitalist does not care for the millions of people his schemes have uprooted and made miserable. The religious fanatic does not see the heathen he is killing as a human being but rather as an object.

Let me make an example. Most people have some minority or archetype that they tend to dislike. Be that another country, nationality, skin color, religion or whatever. Think about what yours is; Even if you think you are open minded enough, chances are that due to various factors (personal or external) you have some faction you wouldn’t miss as much. Maybe black persons have robbed your apartment three times and now you secretly think that they are all thieving bastard or maybe you were raised with the belief that all Jews are worldwide evil scheming conspirators.
Whatever it may be, think that you meet such a person and get to know him, his interests, his hopes and dreams, do you think you could feel that same way about him? Maybe you continue to feel the same way as the rest of his “kind” but not for him. You mistakenly think that he is different, some kind of exception. But he is not. He has just entered your monkeysphere.

So what can we do about it? This is not something that can be changed, except maybe by science fiction-like genetic engineering. It is hardwired into our brains.
What I want to know however is if there is a way to curb it, keep the good parts (denial, blissful ignorance) and soften the bad ones.

First order of business is to spread the knowledge of the monkeysphere and then find ways to lessen its impact.

Jesus Loves You

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Man, these religious fanatics are so amusing at times.

Yesterday I was at the docks practicing my fire staff skills and I decided to move away from the Alexander the Great’s statue and to a more dark area. The lights around there glare at my eyes and I cannot catch the staff correctly.
Anyway, right next to the statue some people were gathering and were making sound checks, I decided to move further down so as to not be near the noise.

Then the fun started.

It seems those people were religious zealots and they believed in “Our Saviour Christ” with an astounding fervor.

They started with a silly little song about how much “Jesus loves us” and I could hear people clapping (not many though) and then they started shouting.
It reminded me of times of past when people would stand in the town square and advertise the religion of their choice to anyone who cared to stand and listen (think The Life of Brian)

‘Jesus Loves Youuu’
‘He gave his life for Youuu’
‘Don’t look awaaay’
‘Jesus is your saviooor’

etc. which went on for quite while.
I mean, not even one convincing argument? Just that Jesus loves us and that’s that? Shouldn’t they be trying to convince us heathens with their facts and depth of knowledge?

They were also giving away pamphlets and new testaments for free. I guess reading the new testament once more after school (as if they didn’t perform a big enough proselytism there) is supposed to be all the proof we need.

At one point I was passing next to them and a fat man wearing a purple shirt came and gave me the pamphlet and the book. I was too tired to argue with him so I just took them among blessings and shit and then threw them in the garbage.

Since that whole charade was supposed to be for the teenagers and young adults, they brought forward some converted young men to talk about their experiences.
They were talking about how they were saved and it seems they only thing they were saved from were generic “sins” and booze and drugs. Well I’m not into drugs or excess booze so I can safely say that I was “saved” as well. Although in my case I’m pretty certain “God” had nothing to do with it.

Anyway I was minding my own business and hoping that they would go away soon and then along comes an old lady along with yet another fat man (I wonder how those pious men seem to be fed so well) and wanted to give me the pamphlet and the book. Only I didn’t want them this time.
As soon as they heard that, they were on me like vultures.

‘Just take the pamphlet and all will be explained’
‘I’d rather not’
‘Look, here’s the new testament, it’s free’
‘I don’t want it’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t have anywhere to put it’
‘Aren’t you a Christian’
‘No’
‘What are you then’
‘I have no religion’
‘Then take the book, you need it’
‘No I don’t’
‘Look, there’s more important things than playing with that stick of yours’
‘Don’t tell him that, he’s a good kid’
‘But I like my stick’
‘Yes and it must be good excercise, but aren’t you afraid for your immortal soul?’
‘I don’t know if I do have one’
‘Sure you do’
‘How do you know?’
‘God tells us’
‘He didn’t tell it to me’
‘What are those numbers on your shirt’(reading them aloud in case they magically turn into 666)‘9-8-6’
‘Look, I don’t need the book or the pamphlet, I’ve made my choices’
‘But what about your spirit…?’

This conversation continued for a while until another lady (ugly as hell) came and took them because they were “late” (for what?)

Then after a while two little girls came, with pamphlets again.
After staring at me for a while they made their move

‘Hey mister, take a pamphlet’
‘No let me, it my turn’ the other girl would say
‘I don’t wanna’
‘You don’t? But it’s free’
‘Yes I know, but I don’t need it’

I don’t remember that conversation very well, but I do know that those girls didn’t try to convince me and I regretted not telling them to think about things a bit more.

Damn Proselytizers.

Anyway after two hours or so of yelling and preaching and whatnot, they finally left. Unfortunately at that point I was too tired as well, and had to go to the Navarinou street to mingle with the rest of the heathens 🙂
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Offers you shouldn't refuse.

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Remember about that KNE guy that I had met while in Posidi? Well, he finally showed up. He phoned me while I was at Alexander the Great’s statue practicing my fire staff (post about this coming soon). We scheduled to meet up at 11pm but by 10am he was already there. In any case, we met at a bar near the white tower where he was sitting with two of his friends, one male and one female.

We chatted for a bit and then went to sit on the park by the pier, next to the bar-ships. On the way he told me the story about how he passed on a sex offer…a fuckin sex offer, and he didn’t do it on purpose either.
It seems that after I left Posidi, a group of girls arrived, one of which he was trying to make out with. It didn’t turn out well however and the company left, bar one.
At some point then, that girl, who I was led to believe was pretty good looking as well, offered him to go for a trip with her own car on another leg of Chalkidiki. Alone.
He refused. (!) I mean, how can you refuse something like that when you’re available and like the company? His excuse was that he didn’t understand at that point what she wanted. So he just said no, ditching a chance for a free sex trip (literally). But wait, there’s more.
After he refused, he reply was a joking “are you denying me?” (free translation, she actually said “Μου ρίχνεις χυλόπιτα;” which means “don’t you want to have a relationship/make out with me?”) and after such a reply I would have guessed anyone would have caught the meaning. Apparently he didn’t.
After some more discussion, the girl made this “innocent” comment: “You know, now that the other girls left I’m feeling very bad sleeping alone in my tent” (Emphasis mine). I mean, FFS, the answer here was friggin obvious! But he still didn’t get it. He didn’t even imagine where she going with this.

Needless to say, he got the hint later on, but by that time it was too late. That train had left the station.

I gave him a good lecture on behalf of all men about this little adventure. I mean, if we can’t use free sex offers like these, women may stop offering them. That girl was probably so let down by all of this that she may not even try something like that again for a long time, and who knows, I may meet her soon 🙁
On the other hand, I understand him in a way. That girl was so direct that her offer probably flew under his radar completely.
Since most women don’t act like this, it is normal for us not to expect something like that. We are trained to pick the standard minuscule signs of attraction that women usually throw our way and ignore what we think may be just a show of friendship. After the first few misunderstandings of their behavior we tend to become very cautious on when they express themselves freely.
I, for example, have many times misunderstood the show of comfortability as a sign of attraction, and of course this led to the cooling down of relations. Now I’m just very cautious. As most men I know are.

In reality I don’t know what I’d do in his position. Maybe I’d lose the hint as well.

Oh well, now we’re probably going to meet next Wednesday to go to the X Club for the Disco night. Should be fun.
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Interesting connections

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Well, the last few days have been interesting. First of all I met a very nice girl and we went together to the theater (That’s a first time for me). It was actually a pretty good show. We has a very good time altogether this Saturday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My interest is once again waning on [tag]WoW[/tag], I don’t want to abandon my guild but if my excitement doesn’t pick up soon…
Now for the interesting stuff. As I was searching for the Greek Scandals of the Church that happened lately, I stumbled onto a site of a [tag]book[/tag] on the bible, The Great Lie. The examples where quite an interesting read and I mailed the writer to congratulate him on his work. After some mail exchange I decided to call him at home (he lives in Thessaloniki as well) and after some talk we decided to meet in person today. Some friends might be coming with me and I’m pretty excited about this.
Also I stumbled into a great site on [tag]atheism[/tag] that makes for a great read while at work.
Work has also been full these days which is good since I don’t like to sit around doing nothing all day.

It’s goot to feel good. I think I’m going to watch some Babylon 5 while I wait for the time to come.

PS: Oh, I also discovered Sonata Arctica yesterday. These guys are pretty good.