The Human Want Principle

The Human Want Principle

What are human wants? Let’s look at human wants as they relate to fixed properties. Human wants or desires are inherent to all human beings and relate to what we want or desire. Our desires can be exponentially greater than our needs. Why is this so? To understand the significance of human wants, we must closely examine the nature of the question. A human want can be as simple as wanting a nice car to as complex as wanting to go to the moon. Essentially, human wants are things that we all crave but have no set boundaries. For example, wants are different from needs. Wanting a nice car is different from buying a car or driving a car for the purpose of not walking. If we want a Porsche, a car that is well-known and prestigious, we desire to have a car for the reason that it is a luxury car and not just meant for driving. Essentially, our want is greater than our need since wanting a Porsche is a desire that exists irrespective of the fact that we own a Porsche or not.

I can desire many women or one woman but if I desire all women and marry just one woman, perhaps, my need is only as great as wanting one woman but not all women. Hence, the want principle is greater than its need. I can marry one woman but marrying all women may be impossible simply because it is not physically possible. That means if I like women, I can only marry one but wanting all women is still a paradigm of the want principle as it applies to all men. To resist wanting all women is to accept that I can only marry one woman and be faithful to just that person. If I am hungry, I may be hungry all the time and not so only when I have eaten. To be hungry or to crave food, is a natural human obsession that is linked to the want principle. While a meal satisfies us, it may not satiate our infinite desire for food that is not temporal. But a humble meal may be just as satisfactory as all meals combined since our appreciation for that one meal is subjunctive to our widespread desire for food. Thus, the want principle seems to fall in line with the fixed properties.

Let’s look at it another way. I might desire to be a lawyer but if I became a lawyer the universal desire to be a lawyer is not negated by the fact that I have become a lawyer. My want is greater than my need. My desire to be a lawyer exists irrespective of the fact that I am a lawyer but practicing the law in an honest and virtuous way does justify the want to be a lawyer universally. Thus, when are talking about the want principle, we must recognize it in correlation to fixed properties of time. When fixed properties of time are considered, we realize that fixed portions of time allotted things are necessary to balance out our lives. The doughnut hole is filled by the batter. When we appreciate the direct correlation such as having a nice car makes me feel good, having some money and not being the most richest man is sufficient, or marrying a decent woman, are all factors of humility and judgment within ourselves. We must always pay homage or as they say not take life for granted.

The want principle exists it seems only to make us respect the limitations of our human capacity to achieve those wants as they are universally but to have appreciation for those wants individually as a matter of transcendental love. When we have transcendental love, we can accept our limited wants as commensurate to our unlimited desires that bisect each other. Simply, because God gives us free will he also removes the possibility of wanting everything if only to make us fitted for the immortality of the soul. To live as an individual is essentially different from supernatural wants, thus interwoven in the grand scheme of things that enable the immortality of the soul. To desire or want something more greatly than what we can ever have, is an anomaly that can only be explained by our willingness to accept our gains as much as our losses and be satisfied somewhere in between. Thus, the human want principle is inextricably linked to the fixed properties.    

Law of Contradictions and Fixed Opportunities of Time

Today, let’s study the law of contradictions and the fixed opportunities. What is a contradiction? A contradiction is something that can be defined as contrary to something else. For example, black is contrary to white or blue is contrary to red. But a contradiction is not entirely the opposite of something. A contradiction can occur when someone wants to go out to eat and they can’t agree on where to go. It can also occur in our religious beliefs, way of dress, mode of living and habits. You might be Jewish and I might be Muslim and our way of life might not conform but we are still practicing a form of religion. A contradiction can also be a feeling.  I might not like that joke but you thought it was funny. America in all its diversity is full of contradictions where as other countries that have a uniform way of life may not seem all that contradictory. In a country like Iran for example, where all women where a veil and it is required, the sameness makes it less contradictory. But in a country like the US where there is freedom of all religion and not all things are alike, there may be more contradictions. Thus, contradictions that occur in our daily life are perceived notions of how we should look, feel, behave and act.

Physical contradictions are less distinctive than emotional ones. For example, there are all kinds of sickness in the world. But we can’t die of all the same thing but that is not considered a contradiction. However, our way of dress, style of clothing, way of life and preference for one thing or another is contradictory.  It is not a contradiction that someone should be in a wheelchair and the other person can walk. The physical aspects of our lives such as sight, smell, touch and taste are more uniform than the emotive side. We sympathize with our physical state but are discriminating in our tastes and lifestyle choices. Why is this so?

For example, someone might like to eat pancakes for breakfast and the other person might like eggs. They are both hungry and the act of eating is the same to satiate the hunger instinct, but the preference of one over the other is the contradiction. So when we are sitting at a restaurant and watching other people eating, we know it is based on choice. If someone eats something due to a restricted diet or weight consciousness that may not be a contradiction in itself but the preference to eat anything else would be contradictory. When we visit other countries, we might notice people drinking tea after every meal where other places may not have the same custom. The preference for tea whether it is abundant in that country or not, does not negate the desire that the act of drinking tea in a customary way and habitual way is in fact contradictory to everything else and to all places since drinking tea is a conscious choice. Hence, a contradiction occurs at a universal level when we engage in acts that are distinct. Tea drinking in Afghanistan may be customary and widespread due to people’s tastes and regional considerations but the overall act is contradictory if universal choice is considered. So bowing to your parents in India or China may be a religious modicum but it might not occur everywhere else. Hence, a contradictory behavior occurs when the universal choice is present.

That brings us to fixed opportunities. To look at it another way, consider a friend who likes cars. Your friend might like to drive a sports car rather than anything else but you might prefer to take the bus. A contradiction may occur when you see your friend driving the sports car when you are not too fond of it. But where sports cars are a trend or geographically sound, you might see everyone driving a sports car and the contradiction may seem less stark, but would still exist in your mind. Driving a sports car no matter if it is sufficient or a choice, does not negate contradictory behavior by itself. The choice to drive a sports car rather than anything else is still a contradiction in the perceived sense. Potatoes might grow in one place and may be consumed at a higher rate than carrots that grow somewhere else and define cultural food habits, but are contradictory in and of themselves. When we engage in contradictory behavior, we must realize that contradictions are important in our analysis of fixed opportunities.

The matter of choice exists precisely because we are given an opportunity to achieve uniformity in our actions. Communism, for example, is a form of government that promotes sameness or equality in all of our actions. Democracy, on the hand, enables choice. Both leave the law of contradiction open. When we strive to achieve uniformity in our actions that we all should dress the same way, or talk the same way, or greet each other the same way, we are working towards uniformity and hence the equality of contradictions. However, when our actions are contradictory to our overall good such as eating chocolate when it might be bad for our teeth, we are straying from the path of good and teetering on contradictory, negative behavior. Contradictory behavior is only accepted when it is working for our overall good. So when someone prays or goes to church and we are agreed that such actions are for our best interests it is no longer contradictory but universal truth. The more we can subdue our innate desires to achieve uniformity in our thinking and actions, the more we become less contradictory and more accepting in the eyes of others. So if the choice is present and we are charged with such a task, we must always think what is best and not what is most expedient.

Fixed Opportunities and the Time Parallel

 

Fixed Opportunities and the Time Parallel

Today let’s analyze the problem of fixed opportunities and the time parallel. What is a time parallel? A time parallel occurs when two entities are defined by the same fixed opportunities at an intersecting time. That means that time is distinct for each entity due to its needs. Let’s look at it another way. Usually, at any given time two entities can be doing different things. For example, during the afternoon, I might have plans to go for a walk and you might be going out with a friend. Hence, while both these opportunities are fixed they are working at intersecting points.

Let’s look at it another way. Typically, this can be a direct parallel or an indirect parallel. That means, if you are late for a meeting, the individuals at that meeting are expecting you at a certain time, but when you show up late there is a conflict. This is indirect. A direct parallel would be that while the meeting is taking place, a delivery truck parks outside the building. These opportunities are varying at the same time. This usually occurs when we are frustrated because “we have to wait on others”. Why does this occur and what are parameters? Let’s look at this closely.

Intersecting time is all around us and is in every part of our lives. It is a factor of age since all around us there are old people, young people, children and small babies. All these entities are comingled but distinct. How do these entities interact? For an example, when an older person may be going to the doctor, a young child might be going to school. Thus there is a direct time parallel. Why is it that time intersects and that at any given time many things can occur separately or at once. The answer lies in the fixed opportunities. So when an older person may be going to the doctor at a fixed time and a young person is off to school at the same time and both opportunities are fixed but distinct, what makes them unified is that they are fixed in nature. Time elapses in the same way when a kid is going to school as in an adult who is visiting the doctor. Why is this so? Because time is measured in the same way but both events are taking place at a different place and in unique situations. So they are intersecting. The kid going to school has nothing to do with the person going to the doctor albeit the kid may grow up to be a doctor, but it still would not solve the time parallel at that given moment. The child may have a good day or a bad day at school and the adult may have been tired or weary at the doctor’s. It is all very unique. So while time is intersecting it is still functioning in a concentric way. All things seem to be orbiting in the same time parallel.  

When we are asking a friend to meet us in the city at 2 pm we are both on a trajectory. Our friend has to be there at 2 pm so do we. Even though our paths may vary, each person has to be there at 2 pm. So this is fixed. We can’t be somewhere else at 2 pm since we promised our friend that we’d be there at 2 pm. If we were somewhere else, then our plans would intersect and no longer would this opportunity be fixed but intersecting. However, at 2 pm, while we could be anywhere else, it still would not belie the fact that it is 2 pm no matter where or what we should be doing. Only that if we miss our date, the other person may be angry with us or hurt. So while we must honor our word, we realize that time may in fact intersect in case we got sick or had to tell our friend that we are late. The time would not change only the expression in which it is told. The fact is that at 2 pm you are still the same person that you are at any other time, so while it might intersect for you and someone else, you and that other person are still the same person at that given moment. Your individuality does not change only the conformity of your expression. When we attend a meeting for example, it may be to promote our work, and if we miss the meeting, our work suffers. So direct time for the sake of human advancement feels necessary during fixed opportunities and irrational when it is adjourned.

If fixed opportunities never change, then why does the time parallel exist? Why is that sometimes, some things are important to do and not others? What is the relevance? Someone could be doing something mundane at 5 o’clock in the afternoon while someone else might have an important rendezvous.   We are always capitalizing on time. Socialism for example may require all people to do the same thing at the same time. But when we capitalize on time, something may seem minor and something else more relevant and the offset may seem impartial or unfair. Why is this so?

Because time opportunities are always related to the work of God or good or a higher power. Something important like prayer may be considered more relevant than taking a dog for a walk since one may be viewed as a higher good. To establish the sense of perfect time, we might have to pray to make the best use of our time and neglect something else like watching our favorite TV show. We might have to take the kids to school, or go to the doctor, but the relevance over the one or other is the competitive nature of time that lies in the question of what is the best use of our time at any given moment.

For any fixed opportunity to be true it must be directed towards a higher good or qualitative time so to speak. If we are whittling our time away, doing nothing, it may be the devil’s workshop. But if we are striving towards perfect time, we are always striving to make our situation better and achieve uniformity and conformity with perfect time. The time parallel exists in the same way as our free will. When we opt to do something at any given time over something else we are making a conscious decision to allocate our time in a specific way when something else may be more necessary. When two things intersect, they are better ordered courteously than rudely, as helping an old person or stepping out of the way for someone else, or holding the door. These are all ways where the universal nature of fixed time equilibrium is played out on a social and human level to tell us what is good and rightly and our best use of time for the good of all.

The Knowing Cafe

 

Saladin- Desert Prince

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Aging and the Nature of Time

 

AGING AND THE NATURE OF TIME

What is aging with respect to the nature of time? Something we all have in common is that we all age and grow older. So how does that relate to the nature of time? Why is it that we age at all? Why can’t we stay young forever? Perhaps, a question that has plagued philosophers for centuries and why Ponce de Leon set off to find the fountain of youth, the question of aging has been with us for a long time. So why do we have to age if time stands still in the universe and is perennial? Let us examine the question categorically.

Aging is basically the process of growing older and in some cases more frail and the advancement of age. It is defined in the dictionary as “the process of becoming old or older.” Essentially, that’s what aging is. It is a process of becoming old since it wears us down and wears out our youth. The process of aging requires the passage of time or the winding down of time. If it said that time is endless and we are immortal beings, why should we age? Why can’t we simply go to heaven as young hearty men? For one, we become progressively older- we start as babies, go on to our teens, become adults and finally older people. This process also requires time and could not be stopped at any one interval. For example, it would not make sense if we stayed babies forever. Or were perpetual teenagers or defiant elderly. It seems that aging is inherent to the nature of time. It is required by time to keep us moving in the direction of immortality.

Why is that we feel a certain way when we’re young and a certain way when we’re older. If time is always the same why should our feelings change? We are more aggressive when we’re younger and when we get older, we retire. This is likely due to the progressive nature of aging with respect to time. If time requires us to age, then it will also change our feelings over time to lead us in that direction. Hence, aging is the process of immortalization among human beings. But if immortality is a fixed property of time, then why should we age in the first place? It would almost behoove us to ask, why be born at all? The answer may lie in the exact concept of the fixed nature of time.

And what of vanity. When we are younger we feel beautiful but when we grow older, even a gray hair or slight balding may peeve us. If time stands still, why is it that vanity fades away. Perhaps, because of the nature of the soul. To quote the famous poet, “Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.” Thus, it seems that vanity is also a contradiction to aging. When we look in the mirror, we are only seeing our physical appearance but the true mirror to the soul is not reflected back to us. Thus, age is not relative to the soul since the soul is eternal and as the body withers like the ‘mortal coil’ our soul persists beyond the grave. We must look deeper.

So if we age, and aging is progressive, why is that it does not progress beyond our death which is inevitable. Does our life cease to exist with the culmination of the aging process? Since aging is a fixed property of time, it would not matter if we age at all and it is only a conditional property. So even if we age during our earthly years, it would not matter beyond our death, in that we would stay young forever or at least in a suspended state of aging. It seems that aging is a relative property and is immaterial to the nature of time. We age but our soul is the definitive course. Our soul bears the burden of our aging and hence, we are extended beyond our years to reach the point of death if only to sanctify our soul for the sake of aging. In other words, we age to live a thousand times.

It seems that aging is an indirect value of time. We age and grow old in years if only to pass through a physical transformation and not a spiritual one. Thus, the two are distinct. Our physical transformation does not degrade our spiritual one and due to the uniform nature of time, so does aging not undermine our immortality but extends it. It is one of those mysteries of God that moves us that while aging is a inevitable process it does not take away our individuality in any way and only preserves our immortality. So while Ponce de Leon may have been seeking a real fountain of youth, he would have been pleased to know that time does justify the existence of such a place where all things stay young and people never grow older.

 

New poem

 Talash

Kash tum sath hotai

Ahsaas

Hai mujeh tumseh

Kash kaabi tum door nahi hotai

Talash

Kartah hu tumkoh in vaadiyoh

Mein 

Koh gayah hu men tujeh talash 

Karteh karteh 

Seeking,

Longing for you to be with me,

Sympathy/Understanding

I have for you

Wish you never had to go away

Seeking,

Have I been in these hills/valleys for you,

Lost I have been in my search for you. 

Dukh (Sadness) A poem

 Dukh 

Koi shakh nahi

yeh dil hai nazuk

samaleh samelkeh

yeh dil sei nah sakai

dukh

Koi shakh nahi

Mukreh nahah

Yeh dil hai

teri pyar meh dukreh jayah

Trans.

Sadness

There is no doubt

with care, have care

this heart cannot take

Sadness

There is no doubt

Never say no

This is the heart

In your love keeps weeping. 

Version 2 

Dukh

yeh dil nazuk hai

dereh dereh

kaabi mukehr nahi

yeh dil sah nah sakai

Trans. Sad

Sad

This heart is weak

There is no doubt

slowly, slowly

never say no

this heart cannot take it

Woh Baath nahi Rahee

 Woh baath nahee rahee,

Joh Thi,

Woh baath nahee rahee

Joh thi,

Joh tumnah sochah woh nah thah

Wo baath nahee rahee

Joh thi,

Kuch ko gayah hu meh

Kuch bulah gayah hu meh

Ku nah tu milee

Kuch bhool gayah hu meh

Kuch fanah huwah hu mah

Ek pooljadee

Wo baath nahee rahee 

Joh thi

Wo baath nahee rahee

Joh thi

Joh palee thi aur aaj nahi rahee

Wo baath nahee rahee

Joh thi

Kyah huwah kyah nahi,

Kuch pathaa nahee ho

Kal kayah tha aur aaj kyah hai

Jaab hum nahi huweh dildaar.

Trans. 

It's not like it once was

It's not like it once was

What you thought was not true

It's not like it once was

I am a little lost

Some things I have forgotten

Why did we not meet,

I do no remember

I have lost myself

Like a rose that fades

It's not like it once was

What once was and today is not

It's not like it once was

What happened, what was

Nothing we can know

What was yesterday and what was today,

When we were not lovers. 

Dil

More urdu poetry from our Poetry corner 

Dil

Dil ku nah hotah hai manzoor

Nah koi ghalti aur kasoor

pir bhi ho naraaz

Dil ku nah hotah hai manzoor

Pass bhi rah pir bhi door

Jasseh chiragh meh ho ek noor

Dil ku nah hotah hai manzoor

Dil ku nah hotah hai manzoor

Kuch nah boleh kuch bath nah mantha

Sothah jaggtah, kamptah

kaabi nah sach boltah

Dil ku nah hotah hai manzoor. 

Trans. The Heart

Heart, why are you not true

When I have done no harm or guilt,

but you are always upset with me.

Heart, why are you not true

When you are close it still feels far

Like a light in a lamp

Heart why are you not true

Heart, why are you not true

You don't speak and nor accept me 

Sleeping waking shaking

Never speak the truth

Heart why are you not true

Pyar khi Yaad

 Pyar ki Yaad

Pyar khi Yaad

Ku nah rathi mereh paas,

Aur hum pyar keh jadoo meh ho gumrah, 

Pyar khi yaadh

Ku nah rathah mereh paas

Aur ku nah ho tu mereh saath

Nah koi ho or koi baath

Pyar khi yaadh

jaseh ho ek baraat

Aur pyar kareh to mereh saath,

Yeh hah meri pyar khi yaadh.

Trans. 

Love's memory

Why are you not close?

Why are we not lost in love?

loves' memory.

Why are you not close to me?

And why are you not at my side.

There is no one.

Love's memory,

Like a wedding party

Who love's only me,

This is my love's memory. 

Hate among the Coronavirus

 

Hate among the Coronavirus

 

We should not resent the old, elderly or infirm due to the coronavirus. I felt ashamed today, when I looked out an older couple and felt inveigled. As someone who recently had Covid 19, I felt some hostility towards anyone who might look sick or old since they could make me more sick. This is the wrong way of thinking. We really should be more open-minded. In short, we are all in it together and we should all look at each other like brothers since it is the only to overcome the crisis.

We should not rebuke anyone who may be sick or elderly since it affects everyone. We should be more caring and concerned for the poor and elderly, the homeless, and transient who may be prone to the coronavirus and show them remorse and pity. We should not let our fears cloud our better judgment and know that all people deserve the same care and empathy during this time.

It would be like condemning all Jews who may have survived the Holocaust as people who are disposed to such a tragedy and that all people who are slightly compromised to be viewed as lesser beings or less human. This is a travesty. We need to change our thinking and be bigger people who can think beyond the current crisis to have better values and be more humane and not let the epidemic define us but rise above and have better values and

We need to look at all people equally and not let ourselves be pulled into irrational thinking by a prolonged epidemic that can weight heavy on our minds. As we are reading more and more, how violence is affecting our lives and affecting people who are being chastised or condemned due to this epidemic, we should correct ourselves and be more accepting. It is a moment in history that is defining us and who we are and we can lot let it get the better of us. We need to face down this period and come out better by showing more humanity and civility.

It’s something that we have to face together and it is a test of the heart and mind that cannot beat us. We must overcome our fears and inhibitions and let not let ourselves be pulled into the mire of hate and contempt because it is suitable or convenient to chastise the sick or elderly for the sake of a moment’s reprieve. We need to stick it out and stick together to overcome this epidemic together that will define us for years to come and show the kind of people that we really can be when facing the most trying times.

AJ Naseem is a blogger and activist. He writes on topics related to health, politics and government.

Life after the Pandemic

 

I think we can all agree that the pandemic has taught us how to live better and that’s something that we should carry on in our lives. As a whole, we have learned to live better lives, sanitize daily, wear masks to protect ourselves and take care of our bodies. We are more wary of our personal hygiene and compelled to wash hands and keep our bodies and homes clean and be tested. We have also learned to treat others with respect and kindness. We have given each other space and social distancing has taught us how to respect one another and keep our distance that enables safety and healthier living. We are considerably better for it and we should carry on such good habits even when the pandemic is over.

Personally, I am grateful and happier interacting with people on Zoom when I need to that I never experienced before and the simplicity of turning on a zoom call has opened new doors and I am able to communicate better with my peers and it has offered much more freedom. It is also easier to telecommute during the pandemic that has changed my view and made me appreciate remote learning and social distancing as a great social virtue. We really should preserve such noble social norms into the future. If we go back to the old ways, let us not forget the simplicity, ease and humanness that have come with such a social transformation.

We all should appreciate the newfound grace and knowledge that we have gained due to the pandemic on how to live better lives and keep ourselves more spiritually intact as a result. For a lot of people, these new rules have been a saving grace and it is clear that they have found a safe haven due to the pandemic to carry on with their lives and be more active and productive citizens.  I am amazed by the kindness and congeniality that people have showed me during the pandemic and the care and concern that we all have for one another during this time is venerable.

From businesses to interactions on the subways, trains and buses, to neighbors and family friends and acquaintances, we are better for it and the pandemic has brought out all of our humanity. When crowded subways and buses, crammed spaces and workspaces, and crowded streets and supermarkets were frustrating and unbearable, we have seen a dramatic change in the way we live and how things could be a lot better with a simple caution and consideration. Can’t we make this last?

We can all learn from the behavior that has emerged out of the pandemic that shows us that we need to be better citizens for the sake and preservation of our society. We should carry on that legacy no matter when the pandemic ends but to continue to be watchful and mindful citizens who care for one another and all members of our society. We should embody those same qualities and show the same caring and concern that we are showing now even when the pandemic is over to truly have a model society and be model citizens. We owe it to ourselves and perhaps, it is part of some divine plan, that we should have become more humane due to a terrible tragedy and loss.

AJ Naseem is a writer and blogger. He is also an online tutor that has found solace and newfound wisdom is his work due to the pandemic.