Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Stray Conversations with a Gregarious Misanthrope

There's Always a side you'll never know
It was yesterday when I was feeling on a high (sweet dreams, world going to the dogs) when I perchance found my dear friend online on GMail's chat services. It is very rare that one finds a person effortlessly reflecting and complementing one's thoughts as well as my friend does. Here is a snippet of the conversation because it contains in it a gem of a thought! :-D

Homo Hopelus is me and Homo Incredulus is not me. I hope that helps the Homo Sapiens. If the formatting is terrible find someone suitable to blame it on.

 Homo Hopelus: Dumb spiral spearmints?

 Homo Incredulus: :)

 Homo Hopelus: hello

 Homo Incredulus: you know, I like your translations compared to the actual one :)

                               hello

 Homo Hopelus: but of course

                           I take the obvious out of the not-so-obvious

                           :-D

                           all that remains is not-so

   how have you been?

 Homo Incredulus: it was a hectic week

 Homo Hopelus: good

                            must be feeling happy

 Homo Incredulus: too many meetings...

                               not really

                               i was torn between being homicidal and suicidal

 Homo Hopelus: oh ok

                           neat

   you must have looked like most human beings I get to meet nowadays

                           or most human beings

                           :-)

 Homo Incredulus: you are absolutely right!

       let me call my mothership and give them this good news...

 Homo Hopelus: what is good news?

                           I thought human beings still existing was bad news

                           no?

 Homo Incredulus: oh no no

                               we need human beings for our own survival

 Homo Hopelus: really?

 Homo Incredulus: who will do all the dirty work of human beings are not there?

 Homo Hopelus: this is news!

                           There would be no dirty work, m'mselle

                           you miss the point

                           eliminate human beings and there is nothing dirty left on earth

                           hence, no work is dirty

 Homo Incredulus: hmmm you have a point

 Homo Hopelus: all will be beautiful!

                           merci

 Homo Incredulus: but you see, we dont want to miss the pattern this nature is having...

 Homo Hopelus: Nature has gone tipsy

                           bribed by the champagne that man fed Her

 Homo Incredulus: oh well, i always thought nature was a little drunk when she

                               gave an intution to man to use his thumb

 Homo Hopelus: :-)

                          you don't like people operating the lift?

 Homo Incredulus: nor their cell phones

 Homo Hopelus: ooooooh! YES!

                           That is one helluva no-no

                           off with their thumbs

 Homo Incredulus: exactly

       you know over the course of evolution, there is always a species        higher than the rest...

       be it in power or in (mis)using the environment

                               humans have to wait for the next big thing thats all...

 Homo Hopelus: Britney Spears!!

                            :-D

 Homo Incredulus: :D


Don't you think the bit about the mobiles was simply a gem!? And this led me to dig out an earlier conversation which I like as I got a chance to explain what I perhaps didn't do well on the blog.


Homo Incredulus: your blog

      honesty stuff

      tell me one thing...

 Homo Hopelus: I wrote nothing today...

 Homo Incredulus: 26th baba

 Homo Hopelus: Oh that!

  shoot

 Homo Incredulus: a terrorist held a british man at gun point and asked him if he was a

       brit if you were in that situation, what would you have done?

       tell the terrorist that you are really a brit or not?

 Homo Hopelus: I would have asked him why he needs a gun to elicit that info from me?

 Homo Incredulus: come on man

       boolean answer

 Homo Hopelus: I would have given him 2 pieces of cord and asked him to tie my hands

   and legs to assure himself that I am not running away

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...

      if you were alive that is

      in that situation, perhaps I would honestly lie

 Homo Hopelus: maybe I would

   but I am not sure

   in the state I am in

   where I care a damn about living

   I might just ask him which nationality will surely get me killed

  and tell him that I come from there

  :-D

  but jokes apart

  I think I would say I am brit

  though, 99.99% I would not give a boolean answer

 Homo Incredulus: i am sure of that!

 Homo Hopelus: :-D

 Homo Incredulus: i am sure your answer will not be less than 20 words either

       if not a lecture

 Homo Hopelus: I would ensure that he drops the gun and doesn't go about this

   madness

   but that is life

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...maybe

 Homo Hopelus: I think honesty is not about mechanical truth

 Homo Incredulus: :-)

       in your post, you have equated honesty to truth

 Homo Hopelus: I think it is fun when people lie to tease to surprise or out of simple fear

 Homo Incredulus: which, i dont believe in

 Homo Hopelus: like your parents asking you whether you ate your greens

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...

 Homo Hopelus: I don't think so

                           I think I said that honesty is vital because it is rightness and the Truth

                           not sure though

  I have to go back to my post for that...

  :-D

 Homo Incredulus: he he he

 Homo Hopelus: but that is what I feel

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...

 Homo Hopelus: honesty is an enabler for a right environment

 Homo Incredulus: "There is only one reason to be honest, because that is the Truth, that is rightness."

 Homo Hopelus: exactly

                           which is not the same as saying honesty equated to truth

 Homo Incredulus: right

 Homo Hopelus: truth is the state of being true to one's soul

                            it is also the legal act of stating facts

   which is important though not without a pinch of salt

 Homo Incredulus: but isnt truth based on a standard set of assumptions and also on a set

       of logical facts?

      sun rises in the east --> this is true; always

 Homo Hopelus: not sure I understand your earlier query

    see

    truth is, to me, being true

    true to one's soul

    one's conscience

    one's vital nature

    and one's environment

    if I lie in order to bring harm directly or indirectly then it is not acceptable

    if I lie to insidiously misrepresent reality, then it is not acceptable

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...

 Homo Hopelus: but the slight meanderings of truth in order to encompass the lightness of being and

    enjoying life is fine, IMHO.

    and that is Honest and not Humble

    :-D

 Homo Incredulus: :) i see

 Homo Hopelus: so you see where I make the distinction?

 Homo Incredulus: yeah

 Homo Hopelus: If I am called upon to speak the truth as a representation of facts in order to

     save someone or incriminate someone then I will

     but that is something that can be performed by a video camera or any

     recording device

     and that is not of the soul

     when I am called to be honest as a gesture of respect to my environment

      and fellow human beings

 Homo Incredulus: is you value truth more than humanity itself? doesnt a man deserve to atone?

 Homo Hopelus: then that is something that concerns me

   I am not sure I understand

   atone?

                           atone for what?

 Homo Incredulus: hang on a sec

 Homo Hopelus: and what does that have to do with my being honest

   okee

 Homo Incredulus: i broke my glasses and i have trouble reading today

 Homo Hopelus: :-o

   what happened to the lenses?

 Homo Incredulus: ditched them!

 Homo Hopelus: :-)

 Homo Incredulus: you mentioned that if you are called upon to speak the truth to incriminate

       someone then you will

 Homo Hopelus: or incriminate myself, then yes

 Homo Incredulus: isnt is possible that if you lie about it, that "someone" may atone for his mistakes

       or whatever he has done and in the end might actually have a shot at being a

       better human being?

Homo Hopelus: valid question

Homo Incredulus: there could be circumstances surrounding the mistake done by that man and

      maybe our society would have driven that man to do that mistake in the first place

 Homo Hopelus: but do I have the wisdom to realise that he will atone

    or that it is for him to atone

    ?

 Homo Incredulus: maybe not

 Homo Hopelus: exactly

 Homo Incredulus: but maybe you do

 Homo Hopelus: in the absence of concrete information, honesty is surest vine to cling to

 Homo Incredulus: hmm...

 Homo Hopelus: but as always, there will be times when the mind/soul would guide one's tongue

   differently nothing is written on stone as to how a man should live...

   :-)

 Homo Incredulus: nope


You needn't bother much in figuring out who the gregarious misanthrope is!!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:53 AM

    Delightful!

    ...As to honesty, there is no point in speaking about what is not known visavis being honest.

    Always someone or the other is honest or not, against the framework of what he knows and not against what he doesn't. And so is my judgement or conclusion regarding a second person's honesty or lack thereof - I judge given my ignorance, my prejudices, my bigotry or my light or kindness etc etc.

    After all, human beings are what they are - always incomplete and hence always capable of givin ample room for error.

    But honesty can be measured with respect to oneself, as to whether one is and speaks what one knows as truth, and again fearlessly speak the opposite in case one realises that one's prior honesty and knowledge on which the honesty were flawed.

    Always open, always fearless, always honest, always right - but obviously within the limitations or boundlessness of my own personality and being.

    What more can one do or be?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear P,
    I agree that absolute honesty is difficult to measure as the instrument for measuring itself may be inaccurate but there is an honesty which (even if borne on ignorance) presents itself in all its substance without an intention of mis-representing events or in twisting interpretations and I think that is all that we can use to measure honesty.

    ReplyDelete