Sometime last week I was reading a blog somewhere and saw a reference to Tupac's Changes and the America of today (I don't want to claim the idea of the link).

He'd started with "I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living should I blast myself? I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black." All through the song, both it's lyrics and beatings with his voice would stress the burden of being black in his America. He continues with "Cops give a damn about a negro, pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero..." His dream as he continues, ("We gotta start makin' changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers and that's how it's supposed to be") is an America -and the world at large- where colour does not entail demacations. the discomfort was so heavy on his heart he felt a chang would be hard: "That's just the way it is. Things'll never be the same. That's just the way it is."

All his later life, it seems his vision is capped up when he recites in the song:

"We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive."

Just like he noted; we all get what we bargain for no matter how long we think we got away: "And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped, & I never get to lay back, 'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs. Some punk that I roughed up way back, comin' back after all these years."

Barack Obama's message was that of 'Change.' Has Tupac's "Changes' suddenly become irrelevant, and is America going to get back all the roughing up meted out on blacks and other minorities way back? Surely we are up for Change with Obama.

This reminds me of a mail that made its round not long ago with a big picture of President -elect Obama nicely framed up and gracefully placed on a wall reading:

"Mr. President, Now Available in Black!"

I can't help but feel happy at the change. Even if Obama does nothing to impact on the race issue (and I don't frankly think there is somethign so great he can do about it like declaring a compensation for each balck family), it is a consolation that at least, Mr. President of America is now Availbale in Black!

You Know what is wrong with all the sit-tight-here-cos-the-world-is-hot? They all have refused to make it go round. Yeah, it actually tries to go round but when it comes to them, they'd like it to sit and serve them instead of giving a hand and making it get round.

Well, all ya who are out there sitting on the fence, it ain't gon work for us no more. Let us get up and do something. We gotta help it go round.

Asking what is it? Well. Let's Share it: Love I mean.

All through my earlier growing years since the first time I had the power of imagination and the reality of self, I had always wanted to be like this particular man. I am so sure that I wanted to be like him physically. He was tall, huge and for all I know elegant.

Mey father was all these. But we never know the things we know until we begin to realise them. I grew up and we fell apart for some issues and it still hurts me till today that before his scary death, I was not in speaking terms with him. He was, shortly before his death (which doctors told us is due to cardiac failure) a shadow of himself. He was the picture of a man who had given up hope in the face of the monstrous challenges that faced him. What unsettles me is that I had aways known him as a hard man; bow then did things get to him? There was only one answer: he pilled everything up and they weighed him down. We tried, at least, I tried to get him out of the shell he was getting himself into towards his last days. I though I was succeedign at a stage bu then it all went back to how it was. We had a plan for us; business had gone bad a very long time ago. We suggested, asked, pleaded and towards the end tried a little lobbying before we tried to coerce him. then we decided to give him space and allow him actually work something out like he had said two years back. All didn't work, yeah, none did. At last he went, still stubborn and hard. I know he thought he was doing the right thing; how, I couldn't tell. He just continued saying we should wait and hope, but all was faling apart. For two years we hoped and watched but nothing was coming yet he was sitting on the very key that would have opened up for us the door of hope and so turn around his life since it seemed he was so tired and scared of everything.

My Dad's gone at 61 and it still hurts that we couldn't do anything to help for when we got to him he was already long gone. I checked him into the morgue myself with my younger brother and the help of two other neighbours.

Now I really know who I'm working with because a lot of things have come to happen. People have been good and sympathetic. A lot more have been heartless and wicked.

This morning I woke up to some grief
I heard a death shrill over the air
So suddenly did it pierced the skies
That the calm air was thrown into turmoil
The skies shuddered and birds scared
Hairs stood up all over my terrified body

God gives and he takes
He creates and calls the stakes
We come on loan
And sometimes no matter how much we moan
We still at his bidding live
No matter how much we try not to leave

Three months before the end of the year
Sometimes on the second day after the fifth
It was hardly a couple and an hour before midnight
Before I could finally shut the doors of my eye
Came such scary shrill in a baritone
The next second I was crashing the stairs half naked

The sad part was that we could do nothing
Then anything we did was too late
We had to carry my own father, dead
There was not time to try to save him
There was no attempt because there was no chance
Finally we carried him out and buried him

So, whenever you see me musing all by myself
Or gathering words in a deep recollection
I am declaring that I have been there
When He took one and rather very forcefully
I could only ask one question: ‘Why’
‘Why now’ ‘Why here’ ‘Why like this’

Sometimes I wonder why we ever have to fall in love. Yeah. It is so weird that we love and then our love breaks our heart. Is it possible to make a legislation that penalizes heartbreaks?

Sometimes I do not think it is beneficial to fall in love. Well, you may not feel so because probably your love life is in shape. the thing is, can we ever find love? Tell me. Where does love well?

I do not think it would take an Einstein to see some relationship between masturbation and selfishness (which here i decide to call self-centredness). There must not be scientific proof to make everything true. If it were so, scientists could have given us an answer concerning the hard problem of consciousness. How is it that the physical phenomenon of the aroma from a cake is able to create some effect on the consciousness of the perciever of cake and not another thing? That it is yet to be explained is does not mean that there is no connection becasue each person is aware of the aroma. I do not want to go into the problem attempted an answer by Chalmers et al. Still there is a relationship between masturbation and self-centredness. (I have decided not to look into whether it is appropriate to be selfcentred and why so ornot).

Human sexuality from all intent was geared towards a union between two subjects. Going by the most basic evidence which is the conjugal organs, one is meant to enter the other. Sexual drive in organisms (man inclusive) apart from bringing about some ectstasy or at least some satisfaction, moves towards perpetuity of the species involved. The satisfaction would seem to be eventual to the main design for sex. Today, the opposite is the case.

It is not difficult to see that when the sexual act is not directed towards another, it is going pervert, to say the least, becomes self...

Over the phone just the other night, I told my baby my fright, that it has become a nightmare, the thought of me losing her. She said she was feeling the same way; but that she was always going to be mine, she was always going to be there for me. Then I asked my baby 'do you love me' 'yes, i do and always' came the angelic voice. Then I told her about all the hesitations that have come to play in mind, how I was bound under chain and lock in the name of being a candidate for Aaron. She told me it was going to be alright, but she did not understand me; then again i told her I wanted to get away, I wanted to be free and know that we can be together forever, and over the phone, I heard her smile, yeah, I saw her through the air, over the MTN network. It was during the free night calls and we were free as the call.

I never for once doubted the feeling behind Busta's spine when he sang "yep yep, I love ma chick."

I think I am probably nursing the same feeling right now. Wwell, what is this supposed to be: a diary or a journal? Private or public? Either way, I know this is on the net and the net cannot be private for any reason; so I am telling the world that the day past I kissed my baby for the first time and not just that, she did it with me; I dunnot how to put it. I feel like I am the best user of the TIG network because unlike any other place, I am abe to tell the world my mind as it is.

This is rather a summary of the stages of the beginning of hat I will here call 'mdness' but which actually is more correctly termed wishful thinking or illusion. These cases appear when we know the truth or the given reality but we are not so comfortable with. We would have , especially thought-out actions by human beings. The progression goes first from WISH, to HOPE, then it graduates to the reality.

We would always hope that we had something, or that somethignhad happened; then we would next hope that it is the case. It is only after we had gathered enough information about the subject (or been bold enough to face the reality; either conciously or unciously) that we are able to actually make our conclusion.

On Happiness
What is happiness; or better still, what does it mean to be happy? In our every day life we always refer to happiness so often but alas without giving it any series thought. What happens and there is happiness and what conditions are necessary for happiness if it should be a state. If not a state then is it a process that inhales in itself or as a consequence of some other thing. Can we in trying to talk about happiness make an allusion to the relationship between justice and peace? It is accepted that when one seeks peace then there should be justice. Peace is not thing per se in the sense of saying that there is peace over there or that peace is obtainable here or there as we can say that there is a river between Anambra and Enugu at the boundary between both states. Peace is rather the result of the presence of justice. We will not go into the intricacies of defining happiness, but suffice it to say that peace is the result of equity and justice as contrasted with mere victory over the other after and argument or a court session.

Happiness for the younger ones seems to be synonymous with a high spirit, one that is attendant with the atmosphere around social gatherings. This view of happiness makes it an activity or rather a process that happens just as we say that it is raining. There is a mechanical implication to this. It is not something that develops but something that happens. There may seem to be little difference between something that develops and one that just happens. When something happens it is precipitated by some mechanical occurrences that are so to say prototyped. When I set out for a party for example, I know that I am going to enjoy myself and have fun with friends, probably with some wining and dining. I have started out working towards this event and when I am there and actually engage in the activity, then and only then, in the process of the party that I can say that I am happy. How realistic is this happiness? This reduces happiness to an activity or at least as something synonymous with one activity or the other. Perhaps this si why the younger ones seem to always be on the go , always looking out for some excitement spot or the other in pursuit of happiness. This is not what I think happiness would mean. This activity-happiness or happening-happiness is so in vogue that at length younger people are after activity/happening places. For some reason or the other, the younger generation would not to some extent experience authentic happiness.

Another way happiness is seen is from the point of view of a filling up of some vacuum. This seems to be gain ground as we get older. There seems to always be some space ever yearning to be filled up and the yardstick for evaluation is always in the guise of what and how much. There is a quest for more money to fill up so much as to be full. But what is this particular that is being filled? This cannot be easily answered. We look at around and see people eating and drinking to their fill. It is always a question of the more you are able to acquire the better. The more you eat, the more you are happy, the much you are able to drink is the extent of happy you can be. This disposition is only an attempt at fleeing from the reality of the time and the responsibilities of the present and the future. We seem to be trying to evade some force that is coming up against us. The drinker forgets that after drinking s/he would live to desire to drink again. The businessman is oblivious of the fact that s/he is going to want to acquire more tomorrow. As the earlier description is activity/happening-happiness here it is more of a filling-happiness. The problem here is that the vessel so filled is never able to be full and somehow gets to let out what is in it requiring to take more. The happy person is the one who has gotten the most s/he can. But who has ever got the much s/he can ever be able to. The richest person in Nigeria for example can still do with an extra naira.

Something is common to the two descriptions of happiness already outlines. There is a common denominator of a situation where the subject is not conscious of the state. This is not a state that they are in because happiness in neither of the two descriptions is a state, both are an activity. This activity is pursued but the resultant ‘happiness’ is unconscious. It is an evasion of reality. There is something the subject seems to be trying to overcome and actually hides away from it. Imagine a person who has just had a row with the parents or any other person and drives off to go and party in order to get over the situation at hand. What if the same person decided to go and do some work or better yet to and drink? This is in such a way as to evade the reality of the moment or still to evade the present state that seems to threaten their peace. There is however a way that these activities would finally result in a state which would be happiness but not in the aforementioned guises.

Happiness is the end of all of us and until we finally get it we can never rest. Now, what is it that is happiness? ‘Feeling or showing pleasure,’ is what Encarta states as the first meaning of ‘happy.’ (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary adds ‘or causing’ –pleasure) This shows an activity. Note that it does not say ‘the feeling’ (this would be a noun, more of a state./condition), but ‘feeling,’ a doing. Now looking at the other component of the meaning we see the idea of pleasure. There seems to be a relationship between happiness and pleasure. It would mean that pleasure is all about happiness and when one has found pleasure one has also found happiness. The former is a litmus indicator of the latter. The first part of the definition (‘feeling’ and ‘showing’) has to do with the filling-happiness already outlined an the latter (pleasure) in tune with the happening-happiness which surfaces after some activity and actually inhales in an activity. What then can we point out as happiness? In the first place, happiness must be removed from any activity and any point of acquisition. We can only express happiness in proper light when we talk of happiness as a state.

Imagine a situation where you wake up and for the moment you are aware that there is nothing pressing on you because you have taken care of everything that needed attention. Think of the student who has just got some money into his or her account from their parent or guardian after they had taken care of all their bills. There is a sense of security; a state of awareness of being secure and totally lacking (at least for the moment) nothing. It is not important that s/he has all the money available at their disposal and can a such dispose of them as they like. The emphasis is on having got every bill settled and still getting some money after everything had been settled. This state of spirit when all these basic needs of the moment have bee taken care of is what I refer to as happiness. If there is anything that we hope to get in the life after which we are to term happiness, then it must be a state like this: where everything ahs been taken care of. This reminds me of the recent account I heard of some archaeological discovery made of recent in Palestine, in an ancient cave. Therein was found several scrolls and on one of them was the Hebrew for ‘it is finished.’ When the scroll was opened it was discovered it contained the names of all those who had paid their taxes. This is an instance of what I term here as happiness, a state where every basic need of the moment have been actively taken care. It is a conscious effort that results in some state of the mind of security and assuredness that there is nothing to worry about. It is never a situation of trying to evade the worries of the moment, rather, the conscious tackling of the troubles of the moment and the resultant security that accrues for such responsible living. Another intuition pump will help convey the message very well. In the movie, ‘City of Angel,’ when the lady doctor had gotten the angel to take humanity and having been assured that he was hers, she went out to pick some groceries and took the time out to buy a variety of fruits to show the angel turned human. She was so full of her new feat that she was coming back on her bicycle with her arms outstretched and eyes closed. She was secure, she had taken care of all she thought she should and consequently has a settled mind unafraid of anything; she didn’t dare to fly in the midst of the main road that when she opened her eyes moments later it was that she was running into an oncoming trailer that would kill her.

The former models of happiness would contrast in more than one way with the present paradigm. The former two seek happiness in the activity and not in the resultant state. In short, the state after the endeavour undertaken actually leaves the subject empty and sometimes feeling guilty. Again, none of the two are done consciously. By this I do not mean that the subject is unconscious during the process but is unaware of the fact that they are trying to evade some reality or the other. This is why I said that young people sometimes seem to be unable to attain this happiness and do so when applicable seldom. It is a state that has to do with conscious responsible living. This is brought about by living in the now and making meaningful decisions aware of the consequences. It is a decision to act responsible and not purely from the whims and caprices of our untamed emotions. It is the resultant state of a life well planned and worked out.

Happiness is not to be sought in anything but from the subject who consciously makes meaningful decisions towards a better and well planned life. It is not activity but a state after some activity.

The Origin of (My) Rebellion
What do you think about a piece of cake that laid on a swing at the nursery? What do you think would happen to the cake when the swing begins to rock this way and that? Well, there is one only thing that is bound to be the case: the cake being situated on the platform of the swing though may be virtually at rest not being involved in any direct motion of itself, yet, it is indubitably being moved by the motion of the rocking swing. Many things happen many times and we tend to call them insignificant or treat them so because they seemed to be so small to be taken note of; it is these that at the end of the day make a difference. There is scarce a big revolution that was sparked by gigantic happenings. It is very important to note that these events or the deeds, perhaps, utterances, are probably tagged ‘small’ or ‘insignificant’ sometimes ‘a little’ and at other times ‘not worth it,’ albeit wrongly so. The heart of the matter is not that they are so but that they are seen as so. Have you ever imagined that it is the little spark that gave rise to the conflagration that licked properties and destroyed lives?>

One of the basic things that define a human being is his ego which I will here identify closely with the total make-up and appreciation of one’s self-identity. It has been variously opinionated that the strongest driving force in humans is the sexual drive. This is not obvious as it seems to be. It is so to the extent it accounts for a drive towards the preservation of the species. I will thus restructure this assertion to read that the strongest driving force in humans would prove to be the preservation of life. This is a basic trend which we share with other lower beings. It is hardly difficult to see why this is so.

Life as an entity, if it could be referred to as an entity, is the one single thing that remains the most unique in all of existence. It seems that the very mentioning of existence cannot but be referred to life. In a way, anything that exists can be said to be alive and anything that is not alive cannot have ‘existence’ attributed to it. These two are so synonymous that many times, creatures that exhibit no signs of life are hardly thought to exist. I may make some example with a plant that was before growing and bossing but all of a sudden weathers away for some reason. Though people may not be quick to refer to this plant as having no existence, it is common for most people to have a morbid disposition to such things. This goes to buttress the inseparable relationship between life and existence. It has been assumed, nay erroneously, as already pointed out, that things devoid of the kind of life we have as human beings, which is more of an active life, are not existent. A critical look at eh fact of the matter would reveal that since these things occupy some space, not to talk of having a body, especially for more physical or solid things, they are actually part of existence. The question now would be the relevance or the implications of existence.

Existence on the realm of inanimate things is not the preoccupation of this write up. However, it may just suffice to say that existence and life in inanimate objects are not direct manifestations. I will rather refer to them as having indirect attributes of life and existence. This is because the more actively alive things, which here I categorize the living things into; make use of them in one way or the other to actualize their existence, their life. So, in participating in this exercise of life and existence at the hands of the more active things, they are referred to as having an indirect life and existence. On the other hand I assert that as individual and independent (at least to the extent that they are able to have a being of their own) entities, they can be said to be existing and so having a life. But why is animate life so striking? This may seem an easy question to tackle especially when one has yet to start tackling it.

Animal life is special in many ways. First, it is important to note that it is not easily teased out of existence. It is striking how animal life is very similar to that of humans and how we share a lot of existential qualities with them. Life and existence in the lower animals is almost identical with life on the human level. There is autonomy and sustenance lining both. Both man and animals are vehement when issues of life are at stake. There is the choicest value placed on life and its preservation. However, there is a prized quality of human life that is missing in animal life; consciousness. Apart from this still, we both share the distinctive quality of the same eagerness towards the preservation of life and of course too, to its procreation and the tendency towards a perpetuation of life. Most animals are fiercest under attack especially when they are predators; or rather, put more holistically and clearly, most animals are driven to the edge when they sense are threat to their life. It does not take being an antelope to realize the grave danger and the fierce techniques it employs on sighting a predator like a lion or a jaguar. When the hen goes mad at the approaching kite, it is obvious that it is defending its own and there is no other time that we see the little flight bird as alert and concerned as that. An antelope when it runs into a dead end would run itself into the edge out of fright of danger to its life up to the point of death. The litany is unending when we consider the prize of life to animals.

Man’s life is no ordinary existence as can be seen in the other lower animals but intelligent existence, says why his preservation of life has to do with the preservation of ego. Only an account of the value of life will tell us both why lives should be saved and whether and to what extent it is legitimate to do so. John Harris rightly notes that it is not only the evil of death that presupposes that life has value and directs us to account for this value, but also everyday discriminations between lives of different sorts. He further notes that the chief recent attempts to provide a theory of the value of life have sought to identify those features of the most valuable creatures (humans) which might explain their peculiar value. Most theories combine autonomy, self-consciousness and intelligence as the relevant features. Creatures with such capacities have often been termed ‘persons’. Radically different accounts of how to apply such criteria of personhood have emerged. Philosophers of broadly consequentialist orientation have claimed that only creatures who actually possess the relevant characteristics count as persons. Hiding surreptitiously behind the latter definition is the devaluation of some ‘strands’ of life which when an attempt at discussing their autonomy and, self-consciousness and intelligence are made, there seems to be something wanting. These would include unborn babies and some challenged peoples. I will quickly add that the answer to this is not the preoccupation of this work. Nevertheless it is insightful to debunk the claim by pointing out that these ‘strands’ of life have these capacities either in potency, as in the case of unborn babies, or still have it but are not able to utilize it as would be the case in the challenged peoples. So, there is no gainsaying the relevance of life and the priority it has in every affair of humanity and other lower beings.

The greatest danger that can be posed to any living being is a danger to its life; a danger to its existence. Under attack, custodians of life are ready to do anything to survive. Since we are looking at a unique type of life, the manifestations are even more unique. Human aggression towards any perceived danger to its life and existence is usually characterized by aggression, aggression towards the intruder. This aggression would be characterized in two ways, solid and fluid aggression.

Aggression is solid when it is physical. This is usually direct aggression; direct in the same that it is immediately manifested when it occurs. Beings are immanently active and man is even more active. Physical threats posed to human life are usually presented directly or indirectly. Because of the status of life and existence in living things and man in particular, there is an immediate tendency to be aggressive to any external force that poses a threat to this life. The same disposition goes even to this force is simply felt or miscalculated, even grossly. I was driving home once and there was a policeman waving down a user of the road which from all indication was not me. I drove on past the policeman without any eyebrow raised still the man was signaling someone to stop. Coming behind my car was a cyclist, the notorious ‘okada,’ there was also a commuter bus coming almost parallel with the cyclist. The cyclist on sighting the policeman signaling for a halt, as I could see from my rearview mirror, quickly applied his break and swerved so dangerously about turn that the rider nearly toppled over the motorcycle. Yet there was no change in the physical display of the policeman; he was obviously waving down the commuter bus and not the cyclist. There is only one reason why the cyclist had gone this risk; to avert being harassed by the policeman who here only seemed to be coming against him but who actually was on some other. This is a reaction to a miscalculated external force coming against life and existence. Another incidence goes that a driver was faced with obvious accident having lost control of the vehicle; what he did was to doge inside the car instead of trying to swerve to safety. The description of the reaction of any person against an object coming to do some harm is not anything like learning advanced mathematics and if it should be, then we would all be professors of the discipline. These are various ways we show aggression to external physical forces that are perceived as threats to life and existence. Anything less than this is certainly learned and comes at a great cost; this is when we talk of literal Stoics!

Fluid aggression is more interesting and usually comes about as a result of external forces that are not physical, perceived to be coming against life and existence. This is more dramatic and holds more importance than the product of solid aggression. The result of this aggression is not as immediately obvious as the other. It contrasts with the solid aggression in the following ways: fluid aggression is not immediately manifested and often lurks stealthily. It usually takes a longer time to build. More so, it is more dangerous and has a serious long effect. Strikingly and the reason why it is more worrisome is that it usually has a serious psychological attachment. To crown it up, it usually crystallizes into solid aggression when it is old enough to get to that extent. Because of the nature of fluid aggression towards the building up of external forces against life and existence and given the place of the preservation of life in the scheme of humans and living things in generally, this becomes the origin of rebellion in peoples. We are going to see how fluid aggression is ignited, how it builds up and eventually crystallizes sometimes into solid aggression.

Already, it has been pointed out that fluid aggression is such that it is usually bottled up and then cause a lot o harm when it is (and it usually is) unchallenged. Having seen the power of life and existence and the extent to which individuals beings are ready to go just to keep it intact, it is will not be any surprise the much we can do to ensure our sustenance. It has been noted that human persons are unique for some qualities of theirs: self-consciousness, autonomy and intelligence. These are the qualities that go with life and existence, the very fulcrum on which they gravitate. Very importantly, there is another factor that comes in to determine how much these life attributes are able to influence the life we live and the extent to which we are able to pose aggression. I am talking about freedom; freedom to choose which itself is dependent on the three qualities already pointed out. We are going to briefly look at these life attributes and how they operate and the extent to which they can be influenced.

First on the list is self-consciousness. This is the basic quality that distinguishes the human person from every other being. It is self-consciousness that determines the extent to which a person is aware of both himself and the surrounding environment. Armed with this, the human person is able to tackle other life phenomena. Animals are quite alive but lacking auto-consciousness, are unable to go to the next level of development. They are only able to adapt to certain circumstances only instinctively. There is no spontaneity, there is only instinct. In Being and Nothingness; Sartre distinguished between consciousness and all other beings: consciousness is always at least tacitly conscious of itself; hence it is essentially for itself (pour-soi) - free, mobile and spontaneous. Everything else, lacking this self-consciousness, is just what it is in-itself (en-soi); it is solid and lacks freedom. Consciousness is always engaged in the world of which it is conscious, and in relationships with other consciousnesses. These relationships are conflictual: they involve a battle to maintain the position of subject and to make the other into an object. This battle is inescapable. So, when the human person loses this quality of self-consciousness, there is a problem; aggression steps in. this is unlike Sartre’s anxiety at life which pervades life, aggression here would be understood as the cumulative effect of the denial of the human person auto-consciousness either really or virtually; whether it is actual or only felt. One is healthy, the other is unhealthy, yet they are both factual.

Autonomy of the human person springs from the consciousness of the subject. Once there is a sense of consciousness, the next thing that naturally and ordinarily follows is a sense of and a drive towards autonomy. The core idea of autonomy is, like Andrew Reath quite rightly pointed out, that of sovereignty over oneself, self-governance or self- determination: an agent or political entity (for instance) is autonomous if it is self-governing or self-determining. Kant was the philosopher of human autonomy; the view that by the use of our own reason in its broadest sense, human beings can discover and live up to the basic principles of knowledge and action without outside assistance. He would go further to include even the exclusion of divine intervention; but this would not be our concern here. Kant writes: ‘Autonomy of the will is the property that the will has of being a law to itself (independently of any property of the objects of volition)’ ([1785] 1903: 440). One implication of this claim is ‘that man [humanity] is subject only to his own, yet universal, legislation and that he is bound only to act in accordance with his own will’ ([1785] 1903: 432). Autonomy has both a negative and a positive aspect.

To Be Contined ...

I didn't think I will ever put this on my Tigblog but to show loyalty and respect, and the deep feelings that I have for somebody I will shortly introduce briefly. She is somebody I met some six years ago or so, in circumstances that I call natural. She was young and beautiful, plus she was almost naive and then very shy. These came together as the qualities I wanted to associate myself with. She is one of the best things that exist in this world. Well, let me kind of stop at that. She is simply an angel. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and the first thought that comes to my mind is her. Truly, it is because of the relaitonship between myself and her that I was prompted to develop my theory of love and relationship (you can write me and I send you copy of it) which in summary says that in an affectatious (as I termed it) relationship, one party should own the other entirely and vice versa, just like one owns (not one's external property that can be disposed of but...) one's arm! I love you with all my heart Ifebuche. And you know what; just look at my screen name, it is 'Ifebuche' and that'sher name. That is just how much she is into me: entirely!

Things can really get fucked up a times. Well, but the thought of a loved one makes it all good again.

It is really ridiculous and ironical that on my 25th birthday there no single minute for me to celebrate. I was so occupied that when I got some time off I was tired to the extent that I went to sleep; actually I started sleeping in the bus while rode home! Happy birthday!

Why do we sometimes need something so much that we get so much parnoid about it. Well, that's by the way

I was thinking, if you have not had an experience of something and you are told to give some talk on it, just shut up or say that you have other topics you can do better. Make sure you are in touch with the reality you are told to analyze before then. Imagine having to talk to a compulsory eater and you just tell him or her 'it is simply inconsiderate to eat a lot.' Imagine having been brought up in a family of farmers who go to the farm always as their job and do a lot of work; and by necessity have to eat a lot to cover the evergy. Of course they have enough to eat without starving others. This person sees him or herself in a boarding school and continues with his eating; can you say that it is being inconsiderate to eat so much? Think about that.