The Moral Precept of Our Age

By Tommy Leung on 11/16/2010 in Life

Excerpted from Atlas Shrugged:

Francisco shook his head regretfully. “I don’t know why you should call my behavior rotten. I thought you would recognize it as an honest effort to practice what the whole world is preaching. Doesn’t everyone believe that it is evil to be selfish? I was totally selfless in regard to the San Sebastian project. Isn’t it evil to pursue a personal interest? I had no personal interest in it whatever. Isn’t it evil to work for profit? I did not work for profit–I took a loss. Doesn’t everyone agree that the purpose and justification of an industrial enterprise are not production, but the livelihood of its employees? The San Sebastian Mines were the most eminently successful venture in industrial history: they produced no copper, but they provided a livelihood for thousands of men who would not have achieved, in a lifetime, the equivalent of what they got for one day’s work, which they could not do. Isn’t it generally agreed that an owner is a parasite and an exploiter, that it is the employees who do all the work and make the product possible? I did not exploit anyone. I did not burden the San Sebastian Mines with my useless presence; I left them in the hands of the men who count. I did not pass judgement on the value of that property. I turned it over to a mining specialist. He was not a very good specialist, but he needed the job very badly. Isn’t it generally conceded that when you hire a man for a job, it is his need that counts, not his ability? Doesn’t everyone believe that in order to get the goods, all you have to do is need them? I have carried out every moral precept of our age. I expected gratitude and a citation of honor. I do not understand why I am being damned.

It is a great misfortune that I have not read this book sooner–I’m actually still reading it. Twenty-seven percent done according to my Kindle. I have known of Ayn Rand and have a collection of her papers on capitalism. I have never finished that collection because it was so incredibly dry.

At roughly a quarter into the book, I cannot say enough good things. This is a classic that everyone should read–especially every American. It is quite sad that Silent Spring was mandatory reading in my public education but, Atlas Shrugged was never mentioned. The appropriate modern reaction would be: WTF?

If I didn’t control myself, I would highlighting a ton of quotes from the book. There is so much that I find myself laughing aloud to like a crazy person on the subway, grinning, shaking my head at in disgust, and just being thoroughly engrossed. I don’t read fiction much for many reasons. The last book that engaged me this much was Lucky and there was nothing fictional about that story.

There’s so many quotes from this book that would be a great blog post all by themselves.

Blessed

By Tommy Leung on 11/12/2010 in Life

Thanksgiving is around the corner and truth be told, Thanksgiving has never been a big deal in my family. This year, my Dad has decided to go to Foxwoods. I like casinos as much as the next guy and where ever my family wants to spend Thanksgiving: I’m there. The thrill of the games. The risk of losing and the potential for winning. I’m sure the draw of casinos taps into the more primal days of hunting and being hunted.

With this holiday of thanks fast approaching and my rogue-self taking the reigns, I went back into the every expanding inventory of blog-posts-that-never-were to pull out a fitting one that I have completely rewritten–it’s better this way.

If there’s a time to be thankful for all that I have, now would be the season. And as much of a country-pop cliche as it sounds, blessed is the only word I think of it to describe my life. I’m about as religious as a cactus in the desert: I don’t know where or when the rain is coming but, I am incredibly thankful that someone or something is delivering the water be it God or FedEx.

This is not to say I’m perfectly content with things as they are. I may be content but, never perfectly content. There’s always room for better and I never forget that. But, the world is going to hell in a handbasket and there’s a lot of people less fortunate than me.

Not being a statistic of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a blessing. Being employed for a passion is a blessing. Having traded, swapped, lost, remet, and fired a lifetime of friends has resulted in a remaining pool of people that I am honored to know is a blessing. Looking the best I have ever physically looked is a blessing. Being in amazing health is a blessing. Having that bit of extra money to donate to friend’s charitable causes is a blessing.  Being alive in this present where technology makes life ever easier and enables more good-doing than ever before is a blessing.

I complain and criticize things left and right several times a week–this might a conservative estimate. It’s often the government or someone vocalizing ideas I don’t agree with or find ridiculous. Sometimes it’s the news media making a mockery of journalism and reporting the news as half-assed as can be and sometimes it is people spreading–in my opinion–boneheaded ideas that I can’t help but toss my $.02 at.

To that I am blessed that I still live in an America that has a respect for free speech–it’s not perfect but, it’s no better elsewhere.

I am a man with strong convictions and a confidence in opinions. And while I know I can come on or off too strong and possibly cocksure, I am blessed that my friends and family don’t hold it against me. That when I stand on my soapbox, you don’t just ignore me like a crazy person on the subway. You accept me for the crazy I am.

When it comes down to it, what other word is there to use but Blessed?

Humbling

By Tommy Leung on 11/11/2010 in Life

It is incredibly humbling year after year to see how spectacularly stupid I really was the past year. Every year feels like being at the apex of knowing. As if during that year I’ve discovered the meaning to life and there’s nothing left to ponder.

And then the Earth does it’s year long dance around the Sun and I realize I am wrong again.

This isn’t very meaningful in the beginning. In the beginning, we know we know nothing. Like freshmen we accept that we’re new and know nothing. It’s when we’re sophomores and juniors that we naively think we know everything. I guess the meaning of the word sophomoric came about with good reason.

Some of us live in the sophomoric period of life longer than others. No value judgement there. But, the sooner we realize how much we don’t know, the better.

I cannot recall when or where I read a very apt quote that has stuck with me as if I’ve known it all my life. As with all quotes that have such a place in my psyche, I can never recall the exact words but, I can feel the ideas. It goes something like:

“A man who wakes up in a year with the same beliefs he had a year ago is a man who has not grown.”

I wish I could Google definite phrases and find the original quote but, I cannot. My version of this wise saying captures the gist of the meaning but, none of the elegance.

This idea and phenomenon that I’ve witnessed ever since those words went from page to eyeball to brain has acted as a sonar system to the larger body of knowledge and thought around me. With each passing year, I am floored by how many new things I learn ranging from sheer information to new skills to new perspectives. Most of which I had little idea even existed.

The most humbling part is that each passing year I accrue more knowledge and thought, the sonar continues to show an ever expanding body of knowledge and thought. The cave gets bigger and bigger as the tiny island I stand on representing what I know gets proportionally smaller.

Humbling.

Uncomfort Zone

By Tommy Leung on 11/10/2010 in Life

The last five posts on this blog have all been somewhat similar. All in, around, or above the 1000 word count. Lots of anecdotes, opinions, and personal points. This isn’t a particular focused blog. It’s the stewings in my mind that I’ve exported into a more easily shared format.

Go back to the last ten or fifteen and the trend is even more glaring. This is a comfort zone.

Some comfort zones are good. It gives you a safe foundation to grow on and experiment from.

Some comfort zones are bad. They suck you in like being under thick blankets on a warm bed while the chilly air outside frosts the windows.

I can’t tell you if this is a good or bad comfort zone but, like the mischievous little boy who can’t resist an opportunity to do something unexpected, this post is well below 200 words. No stories, no opinions, no points, no pictures.

Uncomfort.

Restore Sanity

By Tommy Leung on 11/01/2010 in Life

I hate political rallies. I don’t even like politics. I merely accept that it exists like poisonous plants and homeless people in New York subways. However, for transparency’s sake, I do lean Libertarian–the Ron Paul variety. I have never been to a political rally and I never intend to–not even Ron Paul’s massive Rally for the Republic.

Political rallies are not my thing and I am confident it is not a past time for most people. We have better, more important things to do.

While the Left, Right, and their media lackeys are completely dumb founded by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, the rest of us are not. We know that the Rally to Restore Sanity was not a political rally. That’s why more than 200,000 of us showed up. And if you were there, you could have sworn there were a million people. The crowd was massive and covered the National Mall as far as the eye could see.

I went to the rally because of it’s non-political nature and I wanted the two foursquare badges. The fact that foursquare announced two new swarm badges a few days before was just gravy. I am now 4 badges richer than I was before the rally. Score! AT&T had an impossible time trying to service all the cellphone activity at the National Mall. My phone simply did not work until I walked further into downtown DC.

Non-Politics

My favorite part about the Rally to Restore Sanity was how non-political it was. There were plenty of people who had a political agenda and thought they were there supporting the cause of the rally or fighting against it. These people were misguided. This wasn’t a Liberal rally no matter how much those on the Left and Right want to portray it as such.

There was a time when the TEA Party wasn’t about Left or Right. However, the Left and Right managed to change that by actively wooing it from one side and attacking it from the other. A two pronged strategy that inevitably forces everything to settle into the Left/Right paradigm.

This is where the Rally to Restore Sanity gives me hope. I’ve been actively holding myself back from ridiculing the TEA Party because I was there when the TEA Party was originally conceived during Ron Paul’s 2008 Presidential Campaign. It’s like being a parent and you don’t want to believe that your offspring has turned into a monster.

The TEA Party has strayed so far from it’s original intent that I can barely recognize it anymore. The TEA Party used to protest the Left and the Right. Now, it has become part of the Right and they only protest the Left. I’m ready to disown the TEA Party.

God Hates Bats

It may be a coincidence that the Rally to Restore Sanity took place so close to Halloween but, it created an environment that was much less political. There were those were fairly lost like a lady with a sign about socialism and another lady with a sign that read, “vote sanity, vote democrat”. These people clearly had no idea what the rally was about. Just to be fair, there were a few Libertarians holding Don’t Tread On Me flags and the like but, they were far out numbered by the Liberals and their Left-wing agenda attacking the TEA Party.

The anti-TEA Party signs annoyed me the most. They were purposefully trying  to polarize America. The one crazy socialist didn’t bother me as much because she was just out of her mind.

The Halloween costumes really added to this rally. There were people walking around as Captain America, Spider-Man, Supergirl, Superman, Ninja Turtles, aliens, zombies, bears, bicyclists–wait no, those were just silly folks taking the slowest, most resistance filled way through the National Mall, the Joker and Harley Quinn, and more. There were also all kinds of politically meaningless signs that truly added to the atmosphere of non-politics. The Joker and Harley Quinn couple holding a sign that read “God Hates Bats” personified how much this rally was not about politics.

The Show to Restore Sanity

If you really wanted to experience the performance on stage by Stewart and Colbert then you were better off staying at home. I didn’t actually hear or see any part of the on stage performance. I watched that part when I got home. The show part of the rally was quite entertaining and the musical surprises were awesome.

In perfect coherence with the objective of the rally, the show was not political. Instead, it was exactly as what fans of the The Daily Show or the Colbert Report would have come to expect: entertaining, funny, and an all around good time.

The only serious moment was at the end when Jon Stewart gave his closing remarks and it was an incredibly well orated and reasonable speech.

A lot of what Stewart said is highly quotable and I believe it is the sentiment of the majority of America. We are not either playing on the Red Team or the Blue Team. We are–for the lack of a better term–Team America. And we’re nothing like how we are portrayed.

“Strangely, calmly good, because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a funhouse mirror, and not the good kind that makes you slim and taller — but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass like a pumpkin and one eyeball.” – Jon Stewart