Between my day job and nightly pursuit of my passions, who am I? I asked this question to myself insincerely, with no real intention of chasing an answer. I am a guy who has more or less made peace with life. Life's definition for me is to be alive, to experience and etch moments in time. It could be as crazy as a trip or an experience, or as simple as catching the sunset, or having a laugh with someone you love. Life doesn't have to be difficult if you know what you need to keep you happy.
Ask any materialists, my answer will be beyond their comprehension. Who can blame them, or rather anyone. As the saying goes 'whatever floats your boat'. Pursue whatever you choose to, but do it with the right intent. You may ask me, what if you have a passion to do harm, or to exploit others, where do you draw the line. It's quite simple. Your pursuit should not come at the cost of causing harm to others, or impeding their rights. You may counter, "What if I am preparing for an entrance exam, I am bound to fight for my seat, taking over someone else's seat. Won't that mean I cause someone hurt, or harm?" My answer to that is that it won't. The system gave everyone a fair chance, a platform to prove yourself. You did what is right by you. So the harm isn't perpetuated by you towards any individual. It isn't intentional. It's rather the difference in your circumstances. To bring people from different circumstances to a level playing field, a system of reservation was created. It's the job of government, the system, to uphold the spirit of fairness, and for its people to hold it (government) accountable for its failure to do so. The judiciary exists to impose these checks and balances. Has the government or the judiciary done its job well? You should have an opinion, but more on this in the future.
Rights. Impeding the rights of others. What do we mean by rights?
You may go back to your Civics subject from your childhood curriculum. One of the most boring subjects. One which entailed questions like rights, constitution, definition of freedom etc. What seemed like the very definition of boredom, somehow, has the most important texts and passages of our life. It is by these words that we live our daily life. This system, laid down by the people, for the people, and to be upheld by the representatives of people, gives everyone the platform to thrive in life. The pursuit of happiness begins only on the firm foundations of our constitutional rights and freedom of life. If you don't have this fair system, the only rule of law would be of money, power, and survival.
Thrive vs Survive. Which one to choose?
Survival of the fittest is a rational given by materialists, who justify their endless pursuit of money, power, materials, as their one and true right. It made sense in a world where usable resources were scarce. Back in the day, when humans were hunters and gatherers, our instincts were the difference between survival and death. However, ten thousand years ago, we discovered agriculture. With agriculture, our temporal horizon increased from surviving the day, to surviving the year, to surviving the lifetime, and now to leave a legacy. This expansion of our time horizon led us to build all these systems. From tribes, to clans, to villages, to cities, to civilizations, the need for an order and merit-based system was always the ultimate goal. Sure, human beings fell along the way, made terrible mistakes, yet they still wanted to build a society that would move on from surviving to thriving.
What's the key difference between surviving and thriving, you may ask.
You survive when you live in a world of scarcity. You thrive when you are living in a world of abundance. The difference is knowing what you really want from your life. If you know you want to make music, you would derive all the joy from life making your kind of music. If you know you love designing games, you will want to spend all your time in creating something that you love truly. Nothing else will matter, or should matter. You can feed your passion with time and practice, everything else is background noise. With the improvement in medicine, with the development of technology, with the progress towards superintelligence, we hope to build a world of abundance.
So why are we failing spectacularly to recognize something so simple?
Because we don't spend the time needed to ask who we are. Which is what brings me to the first question I asked of myself. Who am I between my day job and nightly pursuit of my passions. Just a normal human being, I guess.
So why is Sonam Wangchuk fasting?
Because the system built to protect the people has failed. Because the representatives chosen to uphold the spirit of fairness have made the system unfair.
