Follow the Sight 7/23/2006 08:10:00 PM

Earthquake hit my country again today. That’s the third time in a week. It also marked a series of earthquake which started in 2004; two of them were also followed by tsunami. There’s a concern amongst the people that it might not be the last one: a bigger and more disastrous earthquake are possibly on its’ way. What do people do to confirm (or refute, although people seem to be more thrilled if it’s proven right rather than wrong) their concern then? Surprise, surprise, they consult the psychic.

Despite being in a modern era, professional psychics always manage to attract costumers. In fact, a lot of their costumers are well-educated; the type of people that you would least expected to believe in anything remotely “paranormal”. Trust the psychic to give you all sorts of advice: health, romance, financial, career, you name it!

But what it is that makes all the hocus-pocus so appealing? Why do people turn to them in times of needs?

Thinking logically makes it easier for us to understand how nature works. Through this understanding, we’ll be able to “exploit” nature to make our daily activities easier and more comfortable. However, being logical and believing scientific truth all the time is hardly a choice for most people. Logic and science are alien compared to the traditional practices that had run for generations. These practices might not be logical (or “socially acceptable”, for that matter), but they’re more “down to earth” and less “cocky”.

As much as I hate to point fingers, it’s quite obvious that the intellectuals are the ones who are mostly responsible for this sentiment. There’s a pretty good example of that statement. Instead of trying to make his/her patient understand about their illness, a doctor is keener on spitting out all medical terms he can muster. Of course, the best response one could expect from the patient is confusion. The point is, not many intellectual bother to transfer their knowledge with a “language” which would be comprehensible for the public. As a result, science and stuff become more alien and slightly scary for most people.

Considering that humans have the tendency to ignore things alien and scary, no wonder people ignore the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency’s statement that earthquake is unpredictable. On the contrary, they choose to trust the psychic’s premonition of incoming earthquake and even spread text messages to let people know about it. Ah, well!

Glory Seekers 7/15/2006 10:01:00 AM

During the World Cup (which has just ended six days ago), I noticed the existence of seasonal football supporters. These people weren’t even remotely interested in football, but out of nowhere they suddenly showed their huge interest towards the sport. Huge is the imperative here.

They declared their undying admiration towards a certain team, usually the high-profiled team with famous names in it, while in reality they didn’t actually affiliate themselves with any of them. By the time that team lost, they picked another team to support. In the end, it’s the winner that they had supported all along.

There are a lot of names attributed to this kind of people. Glory seekers, glory hunters, plastics; you name it! None of them are flattering, though.

On a more general notion, glory seekers are the people who constantly feel the need to be hip and cool. The always keep their eyes on what’s “in” and what’s not. They consider not following the latest on-goings as a sin.

I know I shouldn’t waste my precious time despising them. Besides, if they want to be a bunch of glory seekers, it’s their right to do so. But I just can’t.

I suspect that these people do what they do out of their insecurity. They think that they have to be like anybody else to get accepted. Or probably they do it because their life is so boring they have to seek excitement somewhere out of their life.

I guess there are a lot of other reasons why these glory seekers do what they do. Nevertheless, I’m sure any of them would be as equally as pitiful. Seeing their miserable existence, can I bring myself to sympathize with them? Well, not really. They still bug me to no end. Ha!

Adrenaline Rush 7/03/2006 07:07:00 AM

I couldn’t sleep at all after watching the England-Portugal match (which ended at one in the morning in my country). One hell of a game, I must say. Rooney’s sent-off (another stupid mistake made by an England player at the World Cup), England played extremely well with only ten men (France 1998 second round revisited), the penalty miss (pointing out the fact that the English were incapable to shoot a penalty even if their life depended on it; the only England player that succeeded on it was the Canadian born Hargreaves); it was very intense. And I didn’t even support England (I supported Gary Neville, the Manchester United skipper; mind you, there’s a substantial difference here). It’s difficult to relax when your body was still pumping adrenaline; the inevitable side-effect of watching the football game.

But now, let’s begin with physiological overview (I know, it’s boring; but this is my blog, right?!).

When confronted with stress condition due to either physical or emotional activities, the body needs to be alert. Sometimes, it even needs to perform feats of unusual strength. As a consequence of this stimulus (stress condition), the body produces and releases more chemicals called adrenaline to the system. Adrenaline stimulates various physiological responses inside the body: increased heart-rate, faster and deeper breathing, increased blood sugar level, etc. Of course, watching a football match can be considered to be a “stressful condition” for some people (^_~). Given the physiological changes, no wonder I couldn’t sleep.

There’s nothing wrong with it, though. Being on adrenaline rush was actually quite good. I became more aware of the surroundings, not to mention more concentration. It’s like being on higher state of consciousness (or whatever you’d like to call it). You probably think that I’m over-exaggerating here, but that’s exactly how it felt. To think that I was only a mere football spectator, watching at home. Could you imagine how it must’ve felt for the footballers themselves? And for the people who performed death-defying acts like Evil Knievel and such?

Honestly, I’d never really been impressed by death-defying stunts. I used to think that they only did it for the sake of their ego, to get more attention. In short, total stupidity; considering what at stake here, one’s life, was way too priceless. But now I (sort of) understand why they did such things. The adrenaline rush; it was probably too good to miss.

Hmm, I should probably try the approach whenever I’m not in the mood to do anything. Watching football to get myself all excited. Nifty!

Author’s Note: As you know, this piece is begun with reference to football. Again. Please bear with me.... By the way, this piece contains some material taken from “Principles of Anatomy and Physiology” by Tortora and Anagnostakos. No copyright infringement intended.

When Heroes Become Villains and Villains Become Heroes 7/01/2006 09:23:00 AM

Ever care to check out the History books and wonder why it’s awfully similar to children’s bedtime stories? In children stories, good guys always win and bad guys always lose; such as the case in past events depicted in a scientific discipline called History. Not that I question the validity of methods used to gather historical information; there’s nothing wrong with them. The problem is, history is written by winner(s). Obviously, it gives them the prerogative to write anything they want. Or at least rephrase the account to fit their agenda.

So, don’t be surprised if yesterday’s hero suddenly turns into today’s villain and vice versa. That sort of thing did happen, when a regime fell and their successor felt the need to make certain “adjustment” to point out their better qualities compared to the old regime. Most of the time, the authority didn’t even have to make any justification about his rightness, because the people had already changed their view concerning the matter. Just look at Hitler. One day he was the national hero and the next day he was damned by the whole nation. Hitler was a villain for killing (or ordering to kill) a lot of innocent people and causing havoc all over Europe. But considering what he did for his people, gave them the sense of confidence and pride after suffering the agonizing defeat of WW I---no wonder the Germans saw him as hero.

Don’t be surprised either to see someone that you perceive as villain is considered hero by others. I read some time ago that the Koreans were extremely mad at Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for visiting Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine was built to honor the memory of the Japanese soldiers died during the Second World War. The soldiers who didn’t deserve any respect whatsoever considering what they did during the war, according to the Koreans (and people from other Asian countries who were under Japan’s aggression during WW II). Actually, the sentiments of both parties are understandable. Japan military administration in Asia did many upsetting deeds during WW II, from compelling the locals to hard labor to forcing women to satisfy their lust. On the other hand, the Japanese must’ve been very proud of their army for protecting the country and sharing their ideals all across East Asia.

No matter how much it seems to be oversimplified at times, History is in fact very complex. Because humans are such complicated beings, it’s expectable to have everything about their life equally as complicated. And in real life, nobody is truly evil or truly good. Good guys and bad guys couldn’t easily be defined just like in the children stories. All heroes have their flaws, just like all villains have the good in them.

Even though History is prone to manipulation and multi-interpretation, it doesn’t mean that History is not important. We could learn a lot by ruminating over the past. By learning from the past, hopefully we would be able to follow the ideal of our predecessor and at the same time, prevent us from doing the same mistake as they did. What must be underlined here is that History set examples, not moral values. History gives means of evaluation, not judgment.

The truth is, there’s no such thing as “Hero” and “Villain”. Only real people, living their life, merely doing their job. Point blank.