I'm always fascinated when people use cold hard reason to arrive at a conclusion. Or how a world could be organized using pure logic. How Robinson Crusoe built his hut and kept track of time and cultivated his fields and how he somehow managed to think of everything. How Descartes came up with "I think, therefore I am" (doesn't seem like much, but it really is something to be able to prove man's existence through his mental capabilities). Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, bref all the ancient Greek philosophers who screwed up horribly when it comes to the laws of physics, but they set the foundations of democracy, of logic, of mathematics (what high school student hasn't heard of and learned to hate Pythagoras?). And they only used their minds. No repeated experiments and pocking around with trial and error.
Nowadays, when you look at people around you, when I look at myself, all of us, we just make a summary and a medley of what has already been said with a small twist of our own. Nobody comes up with an original idea anymore (unless you're in marketing... when it comes to making money, people can be really creative). Even the books that come out. Either they're the same old, same old detective novels with just a different flavor added to it, either it's one of those smutty romance novels, either it's a remake of an old classic. The truth is, once the wheel has been invented, what do the rest of us have left to contribute? Once 1984 and Catch-22 and Alice in Wonderland have been written, what more can you add (shut up, Alice in Wonderland is an amazing book)? And actually that is only the excuse that we give ourselves. That there's nothing more to add except commas and footnotes. If you want to innovate something, go into computer science and create the next generation of blue-rays or the successor of C++ (I actually have no clue about computer languages... I did some Pascal in 6th grade and never got a iota of what I was writing in my exams... also tried VBA recently and gave up after a couple of hours...). But this can't be it. After the wheel, you still have to build the car on top of it. And I refuse to believe that we are at the top of the evolutionary curve when it comes to social organization and political systems. Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to fix the world. I don't think I care enough for that. But I'd love to know if in theory it would be possible. A sort of communism without the weak link of the proletarian dictatorship.
Anyway, I know I'm not making much sense, but what I'm trying to say is that I admire people who can just shut out the outside world and immerse themselves in their minds and then come out of there with ANSWERS! Nowadays, things go so fast that it's nearly impossible to think. Everything is so loud, there's so much movement, there are so many things to do, that it is almost dizzying. And when you have a moment to yourself, you just feel so drained and exhausted that you don't want to think anymore. You just want to sleep and forget. Forget how the entire world is going to hell, forget how repetitive world events and people and life in general can be. Forget the routine. Just forget you exist (if "I think" equates with "I am", then a lack of thought would equate with an escape from existence or some sort of lack of existence for the moment being). But yesterday, a miracle happened. I decided to go to the library to read. I sat down in my usual sofa next to the windows. And it stopped. It all stopped. The noise, the movement, the dizzying crowds. It was just me, the sun and good old Faust. I could hear myself think. I was in peace. It was amazing. It felt as though time was standing still (guess that must be what it's like to have a conversation with Now). But anyway, to cut my babbling short, I think I need a break. Maybe move to the library for a while. Maybe take a trip somewhere just by myself. I need to spend some quality time with me, myself and I. I need to start existing. I need to think.
