The Art Of Killing

What defines the art of murder?  If there were monsters in society, they were not born that way— they were made to be one. Molded as they grew up to fit the perfect profile of a killing machine. 

But what makes killers killers? 
If hatred and anger are symbolic catalysts to these acts, then we are all candidates to commit it. All of us are potential murderers. Yes, even the most rational, religious, and sane person alive is also one to look out for. 

There are several reasons that people do it, some for self-defense, some under the influence of alcohol or drugs, some are just madmen, and some did it in their right frame of minds and fully aware of the consequences. Lately the juvenile killings are on the rise and the very disturbing thought is that they did it only for plain curiosity. According to Ted Bundy "Murder is not about lust and it's not about violence. It's about possession. When you feel the last breath of life coming out of the woman, you look into her eyes. At the point, it's being God." That's his reason for killing, because it makes him feel like God. I wonder in the back of your minds, do you secretly ponder how it would feel if you actually did it? If you actually kill someone. And would it also make you feel like a god?

Laws, religion, and morality set aside, our reason is the greatest ticket we have for being out of jail as of the moment. Weighing our options before committing anything is one of the most valuable process we take every single day. If we just depend on our feelings and let our emotions take the wheel, surely there will be a bloodbath out there.

We don’t know what would it take to make you a murderer. No one in this world was born with the ability or desire to kill. No one comes to this world full of hatred and anger. It is something  we learn and develop in time. And only time will tell when, where, how, and who.

Freewill

Somehow even how carefree we think we are we still adapt to certain beliefs and philosophies. Every individual has their own sets of beliefs and ideals, it may be acquired by the nature of his growth or the nurture of his being. I simply wonder how can I acquire or be influenced?

The system, as a body of legislation have the power even in the minds of people. Politicians and legislators speak out their voices and appeal to appease every individual’s vote or approval by instilling their ways of teaching. With the use of  print, tv, radio, and internet, one can easily be the influencer or influencee. The school, the second home we always thought of as a platform for our young children to gain exposure to the world, to know what is in the world, and a tool to be educated about life by learning what is to be learned in every corner of the room. The peers, little they may be on numbers or not they have the ability to influence us with their own way and in time unnoticed we are unconsciously living up to their ways. And must one not forget the family, the basic unit of the community, the primary people we grow up with, the very initiators of our thinking, the primes that mold us, shape us and eye-openers of the sets of our  ideals and thinking. We have thousands of choices and sub-choices ahead of us. Seeing that you are still reading this is a choice that you chose instead of watching TV. It is what we choose that matters most. 

Freewill is dangerous to every extent, but using it is when we fully utilize the power of our humanity, of our life. We are not bound to fate and destinies. We are what we make of ourselves. It is our decisions that will make or break us. So now tell me which is which? Does it matter given the factors of how can we be molded affect our thinking if we in our own selves behave as individuals asserting our freewill in every decision and choice to make. Ceteris Paribus it is not society nor the system that has power over us but us, we are the captains of our ships, the molders of our lives and the threaders of our fate.

The Price Of Time

When the doctor informs you that you have a terminal illness and that your days are numbered, before asking how much any possible operation will cost, the first question that pops in our mind is “How much time do I have?”.

To economists and business people “time is money”. Life in general doesn’t go that way. Finding money nowadays could seem difficult but there are every ways that it can be done. Here are the facts: There are jobs all over the globe. Businesses are sprouting in every corner. There are foundations and charities pledged to help people and even beggars earn through out the day. Money can be obtained in various ways but the possibilities of making more time cannot be done. Oil is essential to our survival. Machines run on oil and in an industrial and technological day of age I doubt that its in-existence wouldn’t go unnoticed. Prices of items in the market and transportation depends majorly on the price of oil. But as important as it is, we may still run out of it. The same goes to money. You may run out of all the daily necessities in life but you still have time but if you run out of time you have nothing left. 

Time is ticking. As every day pass by, time keeps on running. As much as we want our very own backspace to rehash the past, pause button to take a break, ctrl-z to undo something, and reset to start afresh and anew, it is not possible. We cannot store it in a bottle to save for later, and slow it up during happy moments. We cannot buy a gallon of it in a grocery store or sell it to someone else who is in need. When we spent time it is forever lost and unrecoverable and all that’s left to say is “What’s done is done”. The funny thing is when you’re enjoying your life the most, it is when time seem to go on and pass by like a gush of wind. When we are in our downtrodden moments and it is when we really need time to speed up but it just wouldn’t. Life as uncertain as it is, should be cherished. Every moment of your life, may it be those simple lazy days or those momentous days of our lives, should be cherished.

Procrastination and idleness won’t do you any good, it will only diminish your productivity. Do not be slaves to time. Take the lead and beat the clock. Time is every man’s opportunity. Opportunity to help someone in need, to reach your dreams, to fall and to rise once again, the opportunity to love and to be loved, the opportunity of living, and be able to experience all the wonders that life offers. But these opportunities don’t last for long. In economics there is a law of supply and demand and it can be summed up as ‘The more scarce something is – the more valuable it is’. If oil supplies are vast as the ocean and can be found anywhere then it will be sold at a much lesser price. We will not value time if we will not die but unfortunately we do. One piece of advice: Carpe Diem. A moment never last a lifetime.

Back To The Start

"In the eyes of a child there is joy, there is laughter, there is hope, there is trust, a chance to shape the future for the lessons of life there is no better teacher than the look in the eyes of a child"

- Air Supply

Life was simple back then. No but’s, no if’s, no how’s, no why’s. Every emotion a child express depicts no tint of deception nor a hint of lie. A smile is joy. A tear is sadness. A scream is anger. Laughter is happiness. If adults gave us these expressions we will entirely doubt the genuinity of these emotions. Is it real or is it just a facade for further hidden agendas. There is pure innocence and complete sincerity in what a child does. Why is it when we grow up we lose that innocence?

Tabula Rasa, John Locke’s theory is that all of us were born with a clean slate. They say when we were born we are free from pain, hurt, and problems that this world contains. We have a fresh mind similar to that of an empty balloon waiting for air, waiting for reality to dwell. And as that balloon is filled up with air,  the child is taught how to live life, grow up, and slowly learn tha harsh realities of this world. They possess this undermined brilliance beyond their simplicity. These children are in nature driven by fantasy and dreams. They are full of aspirations that borders beyond reality. This is what we lost in adulthood, dreaming. We lost it in the sense that we are too swallowed in this game of survival called life that we forgot to dream. But in order to make things a reality, to succeed on something, we must dream about it first. 

Their vague knowledge of the world is their greatest possession. As people grow and live, as we learn and know things in life, we become overexposed and saturated. We are a generation of skeptics, cynics, and pessimists. Too much information kills. We impose rules to protect our children, such as don’t touch this and that, don’t talk to them, don’t do this and don’t do that. The more rules we impose, their world becomes smaller, their moves become more limited. Sometimes in my quaint bedroom moments I wonder is ignorance really bliss? I say maturity is overrated. It is okay to act childish once in a while. Live life and have fun while living that moment.

Update: Featured in Definitely Filipino

A Massive Dissection Of The Master Of The Wand

“I was fit only to possess the meanest of them, the least extraordinary. I was fitto own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it.”- Albus Dumbledore 

I really feel sad because Harry Potter has to end. I wept so hard in the theater especially when it was about the Prince’s Tale. At my back I can hear the bickering of two girls who probably didn’t read the book because they were sooo clueless! They kept asking about the Elder wand and who’s mastered who. I was controlling myself real hard to give them a lecture while the film was on going. JKR wasn’t definite in answering fan questions. So this is me at my most generous. This is really complex if you don’t read the books and relied only in the movies.

The Elder Wand is a part of the hallows they say was given by Death himself to the first Peverell brother, Antioch Peverell. After defeating a wizard that he once had a quarrel with, he bragged about his invincibility with the wand that “he snatched from death himself”. In his sleep another wizard crept inside his room, stole the wand from him, and slit his throat, making that wizard the new master of the wand. After several generations the wand was handed down to different masters and finally toGregorvitch, who boasted that he will duplicate the powers of the wand. He was stupid enough to boast that he had it in the first place. When Gellert Grindelwald knew about it, he stunned  Gregorvitch and stole the Elder wand from him, making him the new master. Grindelwald and Dumbledore had a battle, the latter won. Now here lies the dilemma, how could Grindelwald be defeated if he had the most powerful wand of all? It is a fact that the wand had been handed down by overpowering the incumbent master. How can one be overpowered is also a question. If stealing the wand from the master is counted as overpowering, then that would be the case of Grindelwald and the man who stole the wand from Antioch. They say the elder wand is undefeatable but in my opinion that if a wizard is stronger, skillfull, and more superior even with an inferior wand, that person could defeat the master of the wand. The wand is only and object, the one who helms it must also fill it in.

The Murder Of Gaea

The fast paced life in the city doesn’t notice the slow actual degradation of our environment. Technology has taken its toll on us. Of course we prefer comfort, who doesn’t? We shed trees for new houses that shelters families that builds their homes, no harm in that I say. But with more people coming to this world than people getting out, I say the trees are not enough to supplicate the needs. There are several solutions and innovations, all of them applicable and possible, the question is will we humans oblige? Will we stop our busy lifestyles and give back to mother nature? A few did (support groups, environmentalists…) but what they lack in numbers they make up in service and in deed. The plentiful few, I call them, those advocates who knock on your door, ask you to spare a minute just to listen to what you think is bullshit.

We are children of this world. We breathe the same air and lived the same earth. As our mother she fed us, watered, sheltered, and provided us with life while we the prodigal sons and daughters of this nurturing entity recuperate everything but  kindness. With her love we grew and with our new found life she dies. The vision of her coming to death pains me inside. If only flowers could weep and trees could bleed, it would at least reflect the madness that the prodigals imposed on them. Our crimes against nature will never go unnoticed. There will be  ramifications. There will be…There will be…We are all marked men of society. Nature has spoken and we are convicted. Let us reap the fruits of our actions. We are the proponents of our own destruction.

The Writer's Disease

Envy “the writer’s disease” (p. 5). She wrote, “It’s desire that causes envy. Isn’t desire the villain here? Yet how to be an artist without desire.” - Bonita Friedman 

Bookstores are my sanctuaries. The scenery of books in shelves calms my very being, and the more closer I get the more in awe I become. I don’t usually pass by the bibliography section but this one time while waiting for someone, I decided to check it out. To my amazement I have never thought I’d be this close face to face with these great writers. I read excerpts of their bibliography from Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Oscar Wilde, and William Blake. I couldn’t help to feel this unquenchable thirst, this strong desire of envy towards them. And as I read further more I find myself drowning in this sickness that I myself have concocted all along.

Envy is not different amongst us men. We are envious of what we see everyday. Envy of what we don’t have and what we are not. As an artist and a writer, as invidiousness seeps in my veins slowly in minimal doses, it distracts me from my work as it detaches me from my prime goal. The way it crawls and creeps in us is similar to greed which is the sickening feeling of consuming one self. The more envious you become the more it eats you alive. Sometimes it turns you against your works and sooner or later against yourself.

I admire the works of William Blake, John Milton, Milton Friedman, Stephen Fry, and Ayn Rand. I admire them so much that I wish I could write like them. My desire is what causes envy yet I know that desire is the fuel of every artists and writers to their craft. To prevent envy, I must stop desiring. How can I write without desire? Envy as seen in a different perspective could also benefit a writer or an artist, if used wisely it can motivate you to improve your craft. It’s one of the ironies of life, sometimes we could use a little bad to produce something good.

Update: Featured in Definitely Filipino