I examine the idea of society. Society seems to be the idea that groups of people who have the same values clump together. Right now, most humans have a few values in common. Things like staying alive and being healthy. As you look at smaller and smaller groups, the values they share get more and more specific. Much conflict is caused by people trying to get everyone else to share their values. Individual rights vs. central governing, religious teachings of various sorts vs. none, technological progress vs. keeping things the same, and many more!

None of these things has any universal right to exist. An idea can't be worth more (or less) than another idea. Nobody's values are the 'right' ones. The most sensible thing to do would seem to be adopting the values which most of the people believe in. This would make you an accepted member of society, which is a great thing to be. Society keeps you alive and provides you with companionship and protection. You want to be in society, but have a value that other people don't share? Do the conflict thing and try to make other people adopt your value!

I really thought, not too long ago, that I was 'right'. That I had the set of ideals which would help me be the most human, or rational, or sentient, or WHATEVER I used to think it was good to be. I see people with completely opposing sets of values. These people are doing fine. They function, have interactions, do their own things and have ideas. What is wrong with them? Nothing is. What is wrong with me? Nothing is. If our values are opposing, and yet both of us are completely fine, then values seem arbitrary.

• Independance, the ability to function on ones own.
• Focus, intensity of concentration and direction.
• Function, suitability for a certain purpose.
• Fault Tolerance, the ability to function in spite of damage, misuse, or environmental extremes.
• Creativity, the ability to express things in many different ways

I was thinking that the most noble thing a person can do is to put their life on the line for something they believe in. It would show that the person values the thing more than they value life. Built into the human brain is a healthy value for ones own life. Then again, you can come to not value your own life much. Oh well.

When I was a few years younger, I came up with my own religious spiritual ideas. I decided that a soul (spirit, higher consciousness thingie, gros bon ange, etc) wouldn't be constrained to experiencing time in a linear fashion, like we're used to. The soul could move around through time like a person flipping back and forth in a choose-your-own-adventure book. As a result, a soul could live person A's life, and upon person A's death, jump back through time and be person B's soul from birth to death. This would work even if person A and person B were both alive at the same time. Then I decided that not only do more than one person have the same soul, but that EVERYONE THAT EVER LIVED had the same soul. Yup, only one soul, flipping around through time playing each of the actors, living through everyone's life once. So if you did something bad to someone, you would experience the event from their perspective eventually, since there's only one soul. It's hard to explain, I guess. As I write this, the soul inhabits my body. When you read this, it is inhabiting yours. I'm not sure which is first, in the non-linear perceptions the soul would have outside our timeline. In fact, relativistic concepts such as 'first' don't exist outside linear time. The words do not exist with which to write about things like that in a meaningful way. One day I told my ideas to a friend of mine who works in a mental hospital as a therapist. He thought they didn't have the ring of truth, and asked if I really believed them, or I was just making hypothetical suggestions. Well, I said it was hypothetical. I believed it for a little while, though. Religion is so seductive. I really WANT to believe that there is something more to this life. The very fact I WANT to believe it makes me think that it isn't true.

Okay, okay, enough meta-reality. Drink Coke. Wear Airwalks. Get a job. Date someone. Infiltrate society. Freedom is slavery. Life doesn't exist. (ENOUGH!) I wish someone I knew were online so I could talk to them. Where the hell are you, Michelle?