scarletice's avatar

scarletice

Travis
29 Watchers47 Deviations
5.6K
Pageviews
EverfreeNW has me all pumped to do some more writing so hopefully I'll be putting up some new stuff soon!
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
The question seems quite arrogant to me, yet more and more I find myself wondering what the answer is.

I suppose I have my own personal philosophies that I believe in and try to live by. One main focus of my philosophical pondering would probably be understanding the motivations of others.

I do not believe in the concept of evil. I believe evil is nothing more than an illusion created by the combination of ignorance and conflict of interests. The most blatant example of this that I have witnessed in my lifetime would be in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. No one was interested in the "why". Instead, it seemed only the "who" mattered because the "why" was obvious. The "why" was that the "who" was evil and the only solution was to kill the evil "who" that was responsible. During this time it was extremely unpopular to explore the reason of "why" to any greater degree than "They're evil and they hate Americans". This never seemed right to me, but I didn't fully understand my feelings of general disagreement until years later.

Now, I'm not going to go into all the details surrounding the motivations of the 9/11 attacks, but suffice to say, those people believed that they were defending their families and friends. They believed that this was the only way to make life better for those that they cared about. That statement applies to both sides by the way.

Which brings me to my other serious philosophy. Pacifism. I consider my myself to be an aspiring pacifist. I say aspiring because I am not perfect and I never will be. Pacifism is that unobtainable state of being, both in my thoughts and my actions, that I will spend my entire life trying to achieve. Though I know I will never fully achieve it, I believe that aiming for it will help me to continue to improve myself as a person.

However, there is one hard truth that one must acknowledge about pacifism. That is, that it is a selfish way of life. A pacifist can never be responsible for the safety of others. Sure, you can always try to seek the diplomatic, peaceful resolution to things. But there will always be the chance that the only way to protect someone is through violence. Sure, you can choose to let harm come to yourself rather that fight back, but choosing to let harm come to another rather than fighting back is a fundamentally selfish choice.

This is the critical flaw of pacifism and the reason why it can never be truly practiced by a guardian. Whether that guardian is a parent protecting their children or a government protecting it's citizens. And thus, there is war. For it takes two sides for there to be war. One side must first attack and the other must defend. If either of these two things does not happen there is no war, though if the other side does not defend, there may be terrible consequences. And so, a government must defend it's people. It has an obligation to do so. The same way a father has a duty to protect his family. And so, any person or organization responsible for the safety of others can never truly practice pacifism.

One final bit of personal philosophy is the concept of Hell and eternal punishment. I consider myself to be a Christian and I believe in the idea of God and an afterlife. However, I do not believe in the existence of hell in the conventional sense for the simple reason that it is stupid. Making a punishment eternal defeats the purpose of a punishment. The purpose of a punishment is to deter or prevent someone from doing something. You scold a child so that they know they shouldn't talk disrespectfully. You issue a speeding ticket to deter a driver from driving too fast. You lock someone in jail to prevent them from harming others (in theory) and you execute someone for the same reason (though I disagree with capitol punishment).

Eternal torment however, is pointless. If the punishment never ends, it serves no purpose. It doesn't even serve as a proper deterrent by example because you have to take it on faith that it even exists. No, I believe that Hell, at least in the sense of it being eternal torment, is simply an idea that people came up with to help cope with things that they had no control over. A way to feel better knowing that that person would get what was coming to them in the end.

If hell does exist, I imagine it would most likely be a place of cleansing. Where a soul is purged of all the hatred, anger and other ill emotions that it harbored in life. Torment? Perhaps, but not eternal. Of course, this opens a whole other can of worms but I'm not going to get into the endless discussion of religion and the relationship between God and Satan.

At this point, it might be easy to say that I have answered my initial question. Obviously I'm a philosopher, Right? Just look at all that philosophy I just wrote. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure how much of that is of my own mind and how much is me simply agreeing with what other people have suggested. Can I call it my own philosophy even if it just a collection of various ideas that I agree with?

Though I suppose even that question is a philosophical one.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
It started as a simple concept poem, and turned into a story introduction... I think this one has potential too! Here's hoping I finish it.
Spoiler alert: It's about ponies.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
So recently I have been wanting to experiment with different forms of poetry and discovered Iambic Pentameter.
Then I discovered what sonnets are. (If you can define a Sonnet without googling it I'll bake you an internet cookie)
Then I realized Shakespeare INVENTED his own form of sonnet and wrote 154 of those things, not counting the ones he wrote for his plays.
Then I re-read some of his famous sonnets, only this time I understood what I was reading and that man was a ****ing genius!

I am very disappointed with my highschool English classes. I don't recall them ever talking about the format of Shakespeare's poetry. They never taught us about Iambic Feet or Quatrains or any of that stuff. How you can expect students to appreciate Shakespeare without teaching them the forms he used to write his poetry is beyond me.

So me being me, I decided I wanted to write a sonnet. So far, I haven't even been able to write one line. Wanna know why? Purposely writing in Iambic Pentameter is ****ing HARD!
Writing a sonnet is ****ing HARD!

But I will not give up. I'm sure I just need to get into the swing of it. Also, I need some inspiration for a subject matter...
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Nazegoreng has a cool contest going on over here nazegoreng.deviantart.com/art/…
She's giving away one of her custom pony figurines. I really want that Fluttershy! XD
You gotta watch her and make a journal entry about the contest to get entered into the drawing, which is what I am doing right now! (Genius self marketing if you ask me, great way to get your name spread around)
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

I'm feeling inspired by scarletice, journal

Am I a philosopher? by scarletice, journal

I think I accidentally started writing a fanfic by scarletice, journal

Shakespeare was a ****ing genius... by scarletice, journal

I need that Fluttershy.... by scarletice, journal