In today's society parkour has recently gained some unusual popularity. Parkour is a form of training in which the practitioner gets from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. The most common misconception with parkour is that it involves flips and stunts. Parkour is the same as freerunning but freerunning involves the flips and stunts, parkour does not require flips and stunts. Freerunning is the art of parkour. The question is, why is it getting so popular.
The first and most obvious thing is new marketing. In recent video games parkour has been portrayed as a skill that the protagonist possesses and uses to save the world. The first game and the most prominent one is Mirror's Edge. This game puts the protagonist in the role of a parkour master who is fighting against the government. The next game also puts the protagonist in the role of a parkour master. In the Assassins's Creed series, the main protagonist always knows parkour and uses that to stealthy assassinate all the villains. Even in newer games are being marketed toward parkour practitioners. One of the games that are coming out soon, Watch Dogs, is even has been tagged as parkour. In today's day and age parkour is deemed as the skill of the protagonist. It is quite obvious why people want to follow the role of the protagonist.
Parkour is about efficiency and control. Performing parkour involves efficiency of getting from point A to point B. To perform these feats of agility one must be strong, fit, and able to accurately control their body. Parkour is all about control of the body. Once you master full control of your body, you will be able to perform any trick or stunt you want. You need to have control over both your mental and physical body. Without the physical part you can't perform the stunts. Without the mental part you won't be able to overcome your fears.
Why do people practice parkour if it's so dangerous? The point of parkour is control and the people who practice parkour want that control. Maybe not in the actual sense of physical control. It might be a physiological effect. The people who want to master parkour want to gain control of their own life. Parkour is the sense of rebellion and control. In Mirror's edge the protagonist is rebelling against the government and wrestling for control over the corrupt government.
People want control, is this what our society is coming to? When someone wants more control, they are lacking it or need more. Our society used to be institutionalized and now our society is slowly obtaining more freedom. Getting that small taste of freedom has led to people wanting more freedom. This is why parkour has become so popular.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Taxonomy of Hate
Why do people hate? Everyone has heard of "Hate is a strong word." It is truly a strong word and we need to stop using. The question I'm solving today is why people hate other people. While this can be applied to objects, this post will be directed at interactions between people.
Have you ever hated someone? Are you currently someone? It's something everyone should think about once in a while. When you hate someone why do you hate them? Even if this is just a minor set of dislike, all of these can still apply. So what specific reason do you dislike this person? There is a variety of different reasons that people dislike others while most of them have no stable basis in a solid argument.
The first category of hatred is physical difference. We hate them because they look different. In today's day and age most people are moving away from this set of ideas that physical difference doesn't define a person. That is what people should learn, physical appearance doesn't define a person, it only gives us a physical memory of what to associate a person with. If you look at your friend you will know exactly what he/she is like in the inside, while if your friend had their brain/soul transplanted to another person, you would still associate the physical appearance of your original friend with the way they are. You will find it extremely difficult to adjust to your "new" friend. Physical appearance is only a way to easily distinguish people.
The second classification of hatred is psychological differences/preferences. This involves the way people think, this is what people take as a rationale for hating someone. This is what everyone thinks is the right way to hate someone. However this is no real way to hate someone. In America we believe that people have the freedom to express what we believe without persecution. This principle is almost impossible to reinforce. People who want to commit to a revolutionary idea tend to find themselves alone and ostracized. In this way they pull back and stop their provocation. People hate them because they have different ideas.
The third category is their decisions and actions. This category covers physical acts and choices. This may seem like it's under the category of differences but it's not. When someone is posed the option to help someone, some people will say no. Many will say that they hate this person and their decision. You must note that I gave no context to the situation of helping someone. When context is put in, people will often reconsider. Everyone's decisions and actions are made out of their personality. Everyone has noticed this in which you can predict the answers to questions by various people based on your knowledge of them. They will have their own rationale and reasons for making the decision, what right does another person have to judge the other. While judgement is a trait that stems from human nature, in modern society people need to move away from cursory judgement. How many people do you know that you have judged unfairly. Give them another chance, they might surprise you.
The last grouping is envy. This is simple. You hate someone because they have something that you don't. Either it's something that you can't get or they can't share. Both way's it's hatred. When you encounter this kind of hatred often the solution is that you are overlooking the fact that people are unique in one way but are often not unique in other ways. You may think that someone has something that you want, but you fail to consider what you would lose to get that.
Think of someone you hate. Try to find out why you hate them, if you have trouble, put it in a category first then solve it from there. Once you figure out why you hate them, try to solve the problem. If you end up figuring out that it's impossible to solve, might as well tell them up front that you hate them, with the reason. Maybe it's something that only they can solve. It's often worth it to give it a try.
Have you ever hated someone? Are you currently someone? It's something everyone should think about once in a while. When you hate someone why do you hate them? Even if this is just a minor set of dislike, all of these can still apply. So what specific reason do you dislike this person? There is a variety of different reasons that people dislike others while most of them have no stable basis in a solid argument.
The first category of hatred is physical difference. We hate them because they look different. In today's day and age most people are moving away from this set of ideas that physical difference doesn't define a person. That is what people should learn, physical appearance doesn't define a person, it only gives us a physical memory of what to associate a person with. If you look at your friend you will know exactly what he/she is like in the inside, while if your friend had their brain/soul transplanted to another person, you would still associate the physical appearance of your original friend with the way they are. You will find it extremely difficult to adjust to your "new" friend. Physical appearance is only a way to easily distinguish people.
The second classification of hatred is psychological differences/preferences. This involves the way people think, this is what people take as a rationale for hating someone. This is what everyone thinks is the right way to hate someone. However this is no real way to hate someone. In America we believe that people have the freedom to express what we believe without persecution. This principle is almost impossible to reinforce. People who want to commit to a revolutionary idea tend to find themselves alone and ostracized. In this way they pull back and stop their provocation. People hate them because they have different ideas.
The third category is their decisions and actions. This category covers physical acts and choices. This may seem like it's under the category of differences but it's not. When someone is posed the option to help someone, some people will say no. Many will say that they hate this person and their decision. You must note that I gave no context to the situation of helping someone. When context is put in, people will often reconsider. Everyone's decisions and actions are made out of their personality. Everyone has noticed this in which you can predict the answers to questions by various people based on your knowledge of them. They will have their own rationale and reasons for making the decision, what right does another person have to judge the other. While judgement is a trait that stems from human nature, in modern society people need to move away from cursory judgement. How many people do you know that you have judged unfairly. Give them another chance, they might surprise you.
The last grouping is envy. This is simple. You hate someone because they have something that you don't. Either it's something that you can't get or they can't share. Both way's it's hatred. When you encounter this kind of hatred often the solution is that you are overlooking the fact that people are unique in one way but are often not unique in other ways. You may think that someone has something that you want, but you fail to consider what you would lose to get that.
Think of someone you hate. Try to find out why you hate them, if you have trouble, put it in a category first then solve it from there. Once you figure out why you hate them, try to solve the problem. If you end up figuring out that it's impossible to solve, might as well tell them up front that you hate them, with the reason. Maybe it's something that only they can solve. It's often worth it to give it a try.
Monday, December 2, 2013
The World Sucks, Doesn't It? (2)
This is not a continuation of my previous post, it's simply a shortening of it, think of it as a summary written in a more declarative tone.
Most people agree that the world sucks in one way or another, although the extent to which it sucks may vary from person to person. Everyone thinks this way. While everyone thinks this way, everyone should think in the opposite way. The majority of people consider life to be boring and they would rather live in that fantasy world of their dreams where they play the protagonist and always wins. Living in this fantasy world is the wrong approach to life.
In the fantasy world you always win, that's what's wrong about it. If you always win, you will not know defeat. That might sound like a good thing, however failure is better than winning. When you win you learn nothing, when you fail you have the opportunity to learn everything. One needs to seize this opportunity and learn from their mistakes. In this fantasy world of constant victory, when something upsets you it will simply cease to exist or it will have never existed at all. If this was the case with the real world, the world would have ended long ago. If we look to our mistakes as our achievements in life instead of our failures, the world would look very different.
Look at your life, what do you see? I worthless human striving for something so high yet they can't reach it? A being setting their goals to where no improvement is gained? Or you see someone that is setting their goals in the right spot? You need to set your goals just out of your reach, then all you have to do is push yourself to stretch a bit to reach it. Changing is quite hard, but one should not give up. When you make a piece of art, it's always good to take a step back from your work while you're working on it and re-adjust it. If it looks a bit bad do you scrap the whole thing? No, you simply try to fix your mistakes. What if it is bad?
In art, one can say this is too bad and irreparable, I'll just have to scrap this. This is where art and real life differ, you should never give up. In art you can start new, but in real life, you only have one canvas. You were only given one canvas to work with. This is not the time to mess up, this is your chance to shine, if it means changing everything, maybe it's for the better. If you were given a dilapidated canvas it doesn't matter. As long as you have one you can make something, maybe you can even utilize the materiality of the deformed canvas to your advantage. Create something different then others.
Some say the world is fair. That's not true. People get different opportunities and some live better lives than others. Yet we only have one life and we need to live it to the extent that we can, when our lives end, you should not be sad that you ran out of time. Your life ends for a reason, it means you are done. While the piece may look incomplete to you, it's done, and it's over. It's time to put down the brush. Even if your piece is unfinished, maybe the people next to you glanced over and have been inspired. This inspiration is a spark of hope. You've given something to the world that can't be taken away.
What if you've already done enough. It's never okay to use that as a reason to end your life. Putting down your brush intentionally doesn't mean you're done, it means you've given up. You need to wait patiently for the teacher. Only he can tell you when you are done, no one else, and if you sit there waiting for the teacher to say you are done, he will not come, you are not done. You are sitting on your life doing nothing. Death by old age is everyone's goal. Wisdom comes with old age. Once enough wisdom is accumulated, your death becomes inevitable. Maybe death shouldn't be such a bad word. Why not lighten up the mood? You have that chance in your life, drive your life forward and upward.
Most people agree that the world sucks in one way or another, although the extent to which it sucks may vary from person to person. Everyone thinks this way. While everyone thinks this way, everyone should think in the opposite way. The majority of people consider life to be boring and they would rather live in that fantasy world of their dreams where they play the protagonist and always wins. Living in this fantasy world is the wrong approach to life.
In the fantasy world you always win, that's what's wrong about it. If you always win, you will not know defeat. That might sound like a good thing, however failure is better than winning. When you win you learn nothing, when you fail you have the opportunity to learn everything. One needs to seize this opportunity and learn from their mistakes. In this fantasy world of constant victory, when something upsets you it will simply cease to exist or it will have never existed at all. If this was the case with the real world, the world would have ended long ago. If we look to our mistakes as our achievements in life instead of our failures, the world would look very different.
Look at your life, what do you see? I worthless human striving for something so high yet they can't reach it? A being setting their goals to where no improvement is gained? Or you see someone that is setting their goals in the right spot? You need to set your goals just out of your reach, then all you have to do is push yourself to stretch a bit to reach it. Changing is quite hard, but one should not give up. When you make a piece of art, it's always good to take a step back from your work while you're working on it and re-adjust it. If it looks a bit bad do you scrap the whole thing? No, you simply try to fix your mistakes. What if it is bad?
In art, one can say this is too bad and irreparable, I'll just have to scrap this. This is where art and real life differ, you should never give up. In art you can start new, but in real life, you only have one canvas. You were only given one canvas to work with. This is not the time to mess up, this is your chance to shine, if it means changing everything, maybe it's for the better. If you were given a dilapidated canvas it doesn't matter. As long as you have one you can make something, maybe you can even utilize the materiality of the deformed canvas to your advantage. Create something different then others.
Some say the world is fair. That's not true. People get different opportunities and some live better lives than others. Yet we only have one life and we need to live it to the extent that we can, when our lives end, you should not be sad that you ran out of time. Your life ends for a reason, it means you are done. While the piece may look incomplete to you, it's done, and it's over. It's time to put down the brush. Even if your piece is unfinished, maybe the people next to you glanced over and have been inspired. This inspiration is a spark of hope. You've given something to the world that can't be taken away.
What if you've already done enough. It's never okay to use that as a reason to end your life. Putting down your brush intentionally doesn't mean you're done, it means you've given up. You need to wait patiently for the teacher. Only he can tell you when you are done, no one else, and if you sit there waiting for the teacher to say you are done, he will not come, you are not done. You are sitting on your life doing nothing. Death by old age is everyone's goal. Wisdom comes with old age. Once enough wisdom is accumulated, your death becomes inevitable. Maybe death shouldn't be such a bad word. Why not lighten up the mood? You have that chance in your life, drive your life forward and upward.
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