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How Do You Define “Success” anyway?

December 6, 2017

Society

comparing, numbers, success

The big question: How do you define success? But of course, by measuring it, right?

You might think that the need to quantify everything is innate in humans. After all, when our ancestors lived in caves and had to hunt every day for their survival, 4 wild boars versus 3 could make the difference between life and death.

Fast-forward to the present day (Space Odyssey style) and the obsession with counting is more intense than ever. We live in the digital revolution era (with all its problems). Is your camera 12 or 24 megapixels? How many GB of RAM is your computer, your phone, your tablet? How tall are you? What’s your shoe size? Will it be a small, medium, or large coke?

You could argue – and you wouldn’t be wrong – that there is nothing sinister with measuring in that way. We need to be able to organize our life, after all.

The problems begin when you begin to overexpand measuring in adjacent areas. How many megapixels soon becomes “my camera is better than yours”, and, worse still, “I can take better photos than you”. The size of your clothes becomes a synonym of your value as a person. The size of your breasts a way to define you as a sexual being.

Sooner or later, we reach to the most absurd measurement of them all: the size of your bank account as a sign of your success.

define success
It will take far more than looking at your bank account to define success. Good morning lemmings
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On Privilege and Reality

November 29, 2017

Society

ignorance, injustice, poverty, suffering

Privilege and reality alludes to a conflicting coexistence between what the world really is and what you think it is.

Whether you are an empiricist (“there is an ‘out-there’ reality”) or an idealist (“the only reality is within my mind”), there is a common element: your mind. Even if we accept the empiricist thesis, this “out-there” reality cannot be accessed but through our senses. And hence, this leaves us vulnerable to delusion.

Let’s now ponder on this in terms of society, privilege, and class.

privilege and reality
Privilege and reality will always be in conflict

It is often said, correctly, that the very rich and powerful are entirely disconnected from the masses. The 1% don’t know how the 99% live, how they feel and think, how they cope. The problem is (and yes, it is a problem), you don’t know either.

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