Every Livng Thing Is Selfish

I have come to see that everyone is selfish. Now this is using Ayn Rand's definition of selfish, as in looking out for one's best interest. Some may dispute this, but as I will show, it's true. This rule applies to every single person that has ever been born or ever will be born. Let's start with children. Why do children even bother paying attention to parents? Because it is in their own best interest. Because if they choose to not follow the rules, things will be bad. In this case, children will do whatever makes them happy. If playing in the mud makes them happy, they will. When parents introduce punishment to this behavior, the happiness is tempered by the negative actions taken. If there is enough deterrent, the activity is seen as negative, and it will no longer be done. Basically, if the kid wants to do something, and there is enough punishment behind it, they will not do it. If there isn't enough punishment, then they will. It all comes down to how highly the kid values the activity, and how well off it makes him or her despite the punishment. The same is true for teens. Teens are constantly railed against as bad, yet they're simply smarter and more complex. We teens know what we want, and that isn't always instant gratification. It could be helping a homeless man, or starting a savings account, or anything. Parents always talk of teens wanting sex, so they establish penalties and punishments if they're caught. In short, if the teen knows a way around them finding out, and values the activity, they will do it. (Religious views will be talked of later.) This is the age when we begin diversifying our best interest, into anything. Where children simply choose instant gratification, unless pressured and prodded and prompted otherwise, teens choose delayed gratification as well. Not so much as adults, but still some. Teens will establish jobs, go to school, make friends, etc. All of this drains their limited pool of time, so why spend the resource? Because what we choose to spend our time, money, and effort in, we perceive will benefit us somehow. Adults, now they're complex. They'll often claim they aren't selfish at all, but that's hardly the case. Adults so often  claim they're better than the companies that are out for money, or people who only care about money, or material wealth. They're exactly the same. When asked of how they're different, they may say they spend their money bettering their family, not seeking wealth. Well, sorry to say, but you better your family because of how that action makes you feel and the knowledge that you will be better off for it. Certainly, if a primary supporter of a household never put money in the family, they would get flak from the members and extended members. If he or she fails to pay property taxes, income taxes, utilities, that member will have their property revoked, be put in jail, or have their utilities shut off. They get paid because the person wants a place to live, wants to not be in jail, and wants modern conveniences. The person knows these benefits will make him or her more production and happy. Now these are common examples, the complex reality is that anything can be viewed as making them better off. It does not rely on one perspective. Someone may view buying a new video game as more important than showering. In this sense, if either the power bill or water bill had to be paid, it would be the power bill. People do what makes them, in their perception, better off. No matter how you personally define it. People simply value different things, and as a result, will align their actions to make them better off according to those values. Now, for religion. A touchy topic, I'm sure. Anyway, people of faith are often called selfless, not the case. They simply value things labeled selfless, and align their actions to those values. Take a preacher; he gets little pay, but he values his work greatly. So he will keep doing the work, even if as a result he has to be extremely poor. A christian will help someone off the street, because it makes them feel good, or because of the reward of heaven or threat of hell. It's the parent-child relationship all over again. The believer will adapt their behavior to the punishments and rewards presented, because they see the rewards as what makes them better off, and the punishments as what makes them worse off. In addition to this, those labeled naturally selfless simply feel good for performing acts labelled selfless. So you can see, everything is done for the self, either to make the self better off in the future, near or far, or to avoid negative consequences.

How Do You Know?

It is amazing how much information we simply accept to be true. One such example I thought humorous was history. None of us have any way to verify what occurred, nor can we verify what anyone else says. None still live who were around long ago. This lead me to wonder, how do we know what is true of history? In today's world, someone's word is not enough, there must be physical proof and evidence, in addition to a story. Even that is not certain. What I propose is, all of this information given to us from others now and all throughout time, how do we know it's true? Anything outside our own experience is unknown, cannot be verified. So why do people simply blindly trust the dead? Why is knowledge of others simply accepted to be true? This applies mostly to history, science, and personal information. Math can be proven true with little effort compared to the rest. In science, we take what people before us have done, and accept it as true, so that we may extend the limits of science. If every scientist were to redo every experiment and every calculation before him\her, science may grow, but at some point, we would reach a limit, and be able to progress no further. This is of necessity, for making science greater than in the past. History is of the same. We accept what the majority of people say happened, because it is easier. That, and it is literally impossible for us to verify it for ourselves. And personal information, well, that's just laziness, and impossibility. No one can truly know another person's innermost thoughts, feelings, state of mind, etc. They can be told, which may or may not be true, or observe actions and patterns of behavior, which may be manipulated as well. Put simply, as far as the verification of personal information, it is impossible to truly verify the truth of what a person says of emotions, thoughts, states of mind. So, in answer of my initial question, we accept this information, because of necessity and impossibility. (And some people are just lazy when verification can be achieved, but, I will give humanity the benefit of the doubt here)

Impossibility of True World Peace

True world peace is an impossible goal. We can get close, but never touch it. One may describe it as a perfect dream for an imperfect world. I have heard from others that it may be achieved through hard work, or that perhaps we might remove that which keeps us from this dream. Many problems arise from this. The things that prevent world peace are these: the finite amount of resources(a fundamental aspect of the universe) and the nature of humanity. Let's begin with the first. As we all know, there is only a certain amount of energy in the universe, and only a certain percentage of that energy is stored as matter, what we see every day. So there is a finite amount of resources for each person. Next, we briefly explore humanity. Everyone seeks to make themselves better off, and this is done in a variety of ways. One person may view better off as having only what they need, and donating the rest. Another may view this as gathering as much as possible. And another may be anywhere in between. Someone else may view better off as killing off a race, or as being poor, or as eating healthily, or by eating unhealthily. The point is, people always want to be better off, no matter what that is. Looking at humanity throughout time, we can see that the desire for more, for luxury, for power, is always present. Some people may not feel these, but many, many people do. People want more money, more security, more easy lives, more more more. While we do curtail these habits from getting out of control, they are still present and as such, have an influence. True world peace can never be achieved unless everyone wants the same things, values the same things, desires the same world. The nature of life excludes this from occurring. We are all different, with different capabilities, different mentalities and experiences. Essentially, the only way true world peace could possibly work, is with robots, hahahaha. All programmed the same, all wanting and desiring and valuing the same. So, for humanity, this dream is just that, a dream.

What is Time?

What is time? Every single day people say the word, yet, does anyone know what it is? We measure events with time, we organize things by time, but what is it? What is a day? A period of time where the sun rises and sets. A second is currently defined as 9,192,631,770 periods in the transition between two hyperfine levels of ground state in the cesium-133 atom. It is fairly obvious that a unit of time is simply an observed period of time in which change occurs. We then measure our own change in terms of known quantities, such as day, hour, second, minute, year, etc. Each is simply an observed period of change, and by applying the titles of second, minute, hour, etc, we improve efficiency and speed up whatever it is we're trying to figure out or explain. Imagine trying to explain to someone what a second is, without being able to use any titles of periods of change. Life would literally be slowed down to a crawl. It is a work of necessity, and one that serves humanity very well. So, what is time? Time is change. Time is an illusion, it doesn't exist. It is just a name we give to help us measure how fast something changes in relation to a universally known constant period of change.

Relative Reality

Reality is relative. I have come to this realization of late in part due to a Logic class, and also due to the happenings of life. Every other person I will ever meet will have a differing view of things (some very little, others a great deal). Even should two people agree on everything in life, their views are different. There is no way around this, it is a simple fact. I could see a tree, for example, and another can see a car, and another a skyscraper. Each view is equally valid, and equally true. Simply because my senses say it is true do not make that any more true, as our senses deceive us all the time. I cannot verify what I see, by any means. I cannot prove what I experience is real. Proving said experience with the proposition that I experience it is simply circular logic and faulty. If two people see two different things, one cannot say which is right, nor which is wrong, only that they are seen. For those of you who think more people who agree with you solves this, also false. More people seeing the same does not assure validity or even a chance of validity, as reality can neither be proven or disproved. So, reality is a relative term that has neither validity or falsity.