Pleasure's Illusion

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

— Soren Kierkegaard

Life is an illusion. It may sound ironic, but that is the phrase I live with. It can have many interpretations and many applications. The quotation of Soren Kierkegaard sparked my mind to remember an application of the phrase I live with, which explains some of my actions.

Pleasure is something that is sought out by most men alive, if not all. But in their way of chasing that dream, they forget what is it and miss overtake pleasure, leaving it behind. Life placed a blindfold on their eyes, making them blind.

We are living in a fast paced world. People tend to see money as the source of true pleasure, just like what the popular media is insinuating. They work their life away to reach that pleasure they are dreaming of, but when they have that money, they still want more. They waste away their life chasing after the wind.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Movie Summary
I suddenly remembered the movie I just watched a few days back. It was entitled "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". Sidney Young, the protagonist of the movie, is introduced as a young boy watching a black and white film while dreaming to be with those stars in what he call his Shangrilla.

When he grew up, he turned to a journalist working for an alternative magazine, Post Modern Review, which makes fun at celebrities and rich people. In one of his early exploits, he tried to enter a post-"British Academy of Film and Television Arts" party. In order to get past security, he tried bringing in a pig, which he claims to be the star of "Babe in the City 3".

After he gets in, he get to mingle and interview some stars. But the pig he used to get in caused a ruckus, exposing him as the culprit. His escape run was captured on cam, which caught the interest of Clayton, editor of another magazine, Sharp which is based in New York. Sharp is essentially the exact opposite of the magazine Sidney Young was working on.

He is now in a totally different working environment and working ethics, where everyone else seems to accept how they are being used by stars as publicity medium. The Sharp magazine publishes only good stories about stars, which Sidney just can't accept.

At first, he tried to assert his own way of writing, where he writes only the truth while making fun of stars. But all of his work was never printed. But after several failures in his personal love life, he decides to go with the flow and aim for success.

Then, everything started to become better. He worked his way to the top and he got so close to the stars. But on the way, he lost his only friend that really cared about him. The success he believed in took him far away from the true pleasure of life.

Realizing his failure amidst the dazzling and dizzying success, he escaped his Shangrila to go back to his only friend and love.

This is in response to the quotation prompt from Catchwords.

Philippine EDSA 2 - Looking back into history

I've never been in a protest before. Nor have I ever thought of joining one in the near future. Up to this point, you may not understand why then I am writing a post about EDSA2. But let me explain the reason on my post.

I was reading a post in Weekend Wordsmith and their prompt is Protests. Ideas struck my head. I have had been long wondering a lot of things about protests. There had been many stereotypes I am hearing about protests. To explain a bit further, let me explain my background.

Image via Wikipedia

I live in the Philippines. Though it pains to admit it, people are holding protest rallies every now and then. Two of the biggest protest rallies of our country was nicknamed EDSA and EDSA II after the place the protest was held on.

Both EDSA1 and EDSA2 is a major turning points in our history. After all, both these two EDSA Protests forced two presidents to step down from their positions, hence also gaining the names People Power 1 and 2.

And now, people are again voicing their protests against the current president, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroya, the very same president they have put into position when they ousted ex-President Erap Estrada on People Power 2. So the question is, did they suceed or did they fail in EDSA2?

Sometimes, people are mislead by certain ideals that cause them to rise up and voice their thoughts in protests, often leading to rash actions. They have removed a supposedly corrupt president and put on a new president, which now they believe to be more corrupt.

Are the protests, the blood they shed, the tears they cried and the sweat they poured worth the results they got? Hardly. Sometimes, the masses choose poorly. But we cannot blame them for expressing their ideals, after all we all have the freedom of speach.

Ponder over history, and you will see what is worth what and which can be called a success and a failure.

This is in response to the prompt of weekend wordsmith on june 14.