Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Just a really random thought on the way home.

"Crazy murderers are not as scary as the sound minded ones."

It's a phrase I heard some time back, and it made a lot of sense to me. However, instead of indulging in a morbid topic like murder, let's go with stealing instead.

If you're crazy, the reason for stealing a pen is that you do not know that it's wrong to do that. However, if you're sane and stole a pen, the reason is because you believe that it is the right thing to do. Which is why a sane minded murderer is far scarier, they believe that their actions to be righteous. (which obviously isn't)

To put it in a way that is easier to understand,
Give an insane person a gun and order him to shoot a person.
Give a soldier a gun and order him to shoot a person.

The crazy guy would kill the target, but doesn't really care. The soldier would care, but kill anyway because he thinks it's the right thing to do. Whose action is more severe? Based on the action alone, both share the same guilt, but act upon different reasons.

This is when I realize (once again), that your reason for doing anything outweighs the thing you're doing.*
*of course, I still don't fully believe on either side. Reason over Action, or vice versa

I'll leave you with one final piece of thought, which is worse?

Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons
or
Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons

Labels: actions, crazy, FFT, reason to do something, thinking

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Thursday, November 01, 2012

Happened to think of this while I was washing up. Really have no idea why such an idea popped into my head.

I realized that we usually try to justify our actions with only one big reason. And when we try to justify an action with more than one reason, it just appears to be excuses instead. Let me show you an example of something simple.

Man A: Hey, why are you looking at pretty girls on Facebook?
Man B: I'm just bored.
or 
Man B: Because she's pretty, duh?

Those would've been perfectly acceptable answers. However, if he answered like this,

Man B: I'm bored, and she's really pretty, happens to be my friend's friend too!

The first reaction that Man A will have will most probably be, "Dude you're just a pervert aren't you?" Of course, I'm using a male's train of thought for this scenario, but I'm pretty sure it applies to females too, in other situations. Like dieting or other things that don't interest me.

What I find is that usually, there are more than one reason for my actions. For example, if someone asks me out and I choose not to, the big reason is because I don't feel like going. Why do I not feel like going? Because it's too far, it's out of the way, there's nothing much to do there, and I'm tired. But saying all of that makes you sound like an obnoxious prick, so it becomes, "I don't feel like going."

Just seems like over time, we become familiar with using one big reason to justify our actions.

I'm sorry if this is all a little vague, but it's a little hard for me to put it into words precisely. The best example I can come up with at the moment is this.

Let's say someone asked me, "What prompted you to write this post?"
"Well, cause I had this cool idea and just wanted to share with others."
That would be my main reason, but my other reasons for doing this is because I am bored, I don't feel like sleeping yet, and I haven't written anything so it's a great opportunity for me to write something. And also because I'm whimsical. (but I wouldn't think of these unless I tried to)

The thing I want you to take away from this, is that you don't have to force yourself to have a grand reason for doing anything.(or you could have no reason at all) If you did something bad, there could be many reasons why you did it, not because you're evil or anything. Also, I want to try to remove stereotyping of people who give many reasons are the type of people who are making excuses or trying to covering up for something. (though it's true more often than not.)

I hope you understood what I'm trying to convey. As common sense as this might be, it's easy to forget.


I found a random post online that sums up my post pretty well. Though it's a little different.

"Sometimes, we just do things. Then, we make up the reasons afterwards. Or rather, there are lots and lots of reasons we do things, but we like to pick the “real” one when we retrospect. Then, when we retrospect later, our memories change, and we may assign different reasons."

Labels: FFT, food for thought, random, reason to do something, thinking

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