Persiflage & Paroxysm

  I suppose everyone gets to a point in their life when they start to question the progression of their career and life path. Since ‘who one is’ is nearly always defined by ‘what one does’, career path cannot be ignored. But nor is money, the pursuit of it, and the means to earn it alone what define and encapsulate a man’s (or woman's) achievements. If that were so then very few artists, philosophers, humanitarians, and thinkers would ever bother to get out of bed in the morning.   Our lives are almost completely consumed by our work, by our pursuit of sustenance; it gets to a point that one begins to wonder why one keeps going at all. Does one work to live or does one live just to work. Increasingly that decision is more and more being taken out of the individual’s hands. Our capitalist system requires slave labor to keep going and in return the system provides its workers with the bare minimum to survive: Health insurance, so you can afford to seek medical care, e...

I was astounded by the cavalier way in which one business report on a local channel dealt with tourism figures. They tried to take a decidedly dismal snap shot of one sector of the economy, polish and buff it a little to make it look better than it actually is. The economic situation is decidedly bad and getting worse. We are now more reliant on remittances from Lebanese working abroad than at any other time in our history except for the darkest days of civil war. There is rarely a household in Lebanon that survives the month without some assistance from family members in the Diaspora. The business report said that despite some Arab countries warning their citizens not to travel to Lebanon , the number of Arab tourists remained quiet significant. What they did not elaborate on was which Arabs were still traveling to Lebanon . In Blominvest’s ‘The Lebanon Brief’ of December 10 to 15, 2012, the number of tourists visiting the country fell by 16 percent up to October (I’m assuming ...

I think most people through out their lives constantly struggle with issues of faith and with doubts, most do so secretly for obvious reasons. Saying one either has faith or does not have faith is unrealistically simplistic. Imagine that by putting your left foot forward you have faith, then by putting your right foot forward you don't have faith, to move forward in life you have to alternate between the two constantly. This struggle is what defines us, our fragility and our humanity. There are some who interpret Atheism as anti-god; others see it as a convenient soap box from where to launch tirades against mainstream revealed religion. But being an Atheist is just that, being a-religious, i.e. noncommittal concerning religious matters, unconvinced by revelation, and lacking an internal faith compass for want of a better word. But it also means that the person choosing this path desires that the world be equally indifferent to religion and as such sideline faith in matters...

  In science when an alternate theory is presented that makes an older but more widely accepted theory invalid, men in white coats do not fight wars with other men in white coats to determine whose theory is the one true thesis. It is, as they say, self evident, so much so that even the author of the older theory is compelled by the rigorous discipline of science to accept the new theory as the new if transient truth. But science is not a compendium of absolute truths by any stretch of the imagination, any theory, even theories by the most illustrious and celebrated scientists, can crumble if and when it is faced with an alternative vision of truth that scientifically disproves it.   Sadly, the same cannot be said of religious belief. Such beliefs are so deeply internalized and interwoven into our culture that any attempt at introducing an alternative vision of truth is violently rebuffed. The dissenter who dares to suggest an alternative thesis is branded a traitor ...

When it comes to faith, patriotism, and sports teams, most human beings tend to be emotional, irrational, and unwavering in their defense and hooligan-like in their retaliation for any perceived offense. But it is the first one on the list that has caused the greatest destruction to otherwise prosperous human societies and has taken the greatest toll in human lives through out history. Whatever and whichever flavor, color, philosophy or degree of adherence one subscribes to, religion continues to govern our lives and certain things are simply not open for discussion. If one is born into a faith one judges others according to its dictates and is judged likewise.   Although in some places murder in the name of a deity has been steadily on the decline over the past couple of centuries, religion has continued to wreak havoc in other places. Old scores, some hundreds of years old if not a thousand, are still being settled in the name of a one true faith. If someone killed someo...