Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Ironies of Life

I have always been fascinated by the contradictions, the syllogisms or the ironies of life. But I haven't come across any attempt to collect and collate them for ease of reference or even to recognize the fallacy and facetiousness of human endeavor, or to just have a laugh at our own vanity. I thought I might enter a few here and build on it, hoping that others intersted might care to contribute.

One that I like most is: Man works hard to make money just to spend it. A naughty one is: Ladies wear a lot of expensive dresses just to attract men's attention and (sorry to be indecent)...to be undressed. Wealthy and powerful nations spend a lot of money to develop and manufacture murderous weapons and war machines in order to maintain peace. You've to buy more foodstuff with various types of nutrients and vitamins in order to diet. Modern ladies diet to death in order to be lithe and lively (sorry again) in bed. Modern men love party girls and socialites but want their wives to be demure and homely. Braggarts are usually dastards and the meek men can roar like a tiger with a tastety morsel in his arms.

People are always trying to make things perfect in an imperfect world. Some tried to create a heaven on earth and ended up turning their life on earth into a hell. The rich can buy everything they want but true love. However even true love can be corroded and corrupted by money.( New addition 12.4.10) The less money you have the more its power it has on you: you'd do anything just to get a few dollars. That's why its easier to corrupt poor people; keep them them poor and there'll anything you say for money.

This one I can't render in my own words."Don't forget: Marriage douses love's flame, leaving nothing but a barren and melancholy blackness. Of course, after marriage, love itself will vanish ..but happiness fills the void. Still, there are those hasty fools who fall in love before marrying and, burning with emotion, exhaust all their feeling, believing love to be the highest goal in life'" (Orhan Pamuk; Persan Novelist in award winning novel: My Name is Red). (An addition contributed by Akmal) Everone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die.

I picked these at random from books and render them freely. Hope to collect more since I forgot more than I can remember.
A final entry for now is something about creativity and innovation which the PM demands of public officials and civil servants
together with fast decision-making."..psychologists now believed acertain amoungt of random behavior was necessary for innovation. You couldn't be creative without striking out in new direstions, and those directions were likely to be random.."
So, would the PM tolerate a certain amount of random behavior among civil servants to usher in creativity and innovations?
Right now the GOs and Circulars tie them up like iron bands.

Well...the ironies of life make life more interesting and unpredictable....

8 comments:

pin-spins said...

haha. oh so true dad. :)

rambomadonna said...

"Ladies wear a lot of expensive dresses just to attract men's attention and (sorry to be indecent)...to be undressed."

-Hmmm this one need that "random behaviour" , mana tau akhirnya menjadi. Right now, baju semua kain ela beli kat Jalan TAR that even Abang Tingkat 14 tak sanggup nak "undress" even with his eyes .... hahahahaahaahahaha

This Orhan Pamuk's - My Name is Red caught my interest lah. This is the second words you quoted from this book that really hits HOME.

norzah said...

Look for & learn from the ironies of life,dik. and u won't break ur teeth biting on the iron.

Read ur AT14 again, J, and I noticed ada juga AT7 and maybe AT11.(neighbor). One who keeps shifting his/her focus can miss the target.Random behavior's ok within certain perimeters. Step beyond and randomness achieves a pattern of its own which may be negatively interpreted. So, J, you might want to try 'purposeful behavior' instead of random.

rambomadonna said...

Alamak kantoi hehehehe ... itu tak termasuk yang latest ... abang parking lot sebelah hehehe

always get out of focus lately lah

norzah said...

Tgkt 5 takde ke? I tau org yg slalu bikin hebuh slalu yg pertama menyuruk atau menghilangkan diri. Tapi mcm tu hilanglah focus:hilang di mata hilang di hati.
Nantilah berlaku: hilang dimata tergalang dihati, luput di pandangan hidup di kenangan, Bila itu berlaku gerenti u tak boleh lari dan dia pun tak mau lari, hehehe.

akmalhizam said...

to add to the collection:
Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.

norzah said...

Tq, Izam 4 u r contribution. How true.

norzah said...

Izam, I've already added your conributin to the blog. Thanks again.