For the brave indeed

I don't know why it makes me so nervous to not understand something. Maybe it's because it's such a rare thing for the universe to suddenly organize its atoms in a way that makes it capable of actually looking at itself. I'm capable of looking, so I'd like to see.

A picture of Mark Twain

I read an article about the theory of relativity. It claimed that, according to Einstein, the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. So Einstein himself is unborn, alive, and dead at the same time? This obviously made no sense to me, and the article didn't even try to explain what it meant. After that I've been trying to understand this. I'm starting to see that
1) it's impossible for our species to understand the theory of relativity; maybe, if you become educated enough, you can see that the calculations make sense, but the ideas will never really make sense to you (because you're a savanna ape and your illusion of reality has been good enough to keep you alive),
2) Einstein apparently never really claimed that the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. The person who wrote the confusing article misunderstood something.

Of course, I must become more tolerant and loving towards everybody's ignorance, including my own. Otherwise it will become impossible for me to exist in this world. Nobody knows almost anything.

This blog is horrible

Yesterday I sat down and self-destructively watched 10 minutes of a TV show called "Puoli seitsemän" (Half past six). I guess it's some sort of entertaining afternoon talk show. I noticed that they'd decided to make the show "more social".

What this means is that nowadays there's a flashy, completely unnecessary stream of Twitter chatter at the bottom of the screen. What makes people do these crazy things? If "Puoli seitsemän" is supposed to be a talk show, then why on Earth would they make it so difficult for the viewer to focus on what the guests are saying? And if "Puoli seitsemän" is not a talk show, then what is it? Why does it exist? I'm not sure why "Puoli seitsemän" exists. Why does anything exist?

Nowadays almost everything makes me ask: why does this have to exist? And then I hear Hunter S. Thompson's voice in my head: "for no good reason."

The guest had written a little book called "Ystäväni hevonen" (My friend the horse). It was quite sympathetic. The hosts asked her about her vegetarianism, and she quickly felt the need to make clear that even though she boycotts factory farming, she's completely okay with hunting because it's not as unethical as factory farming.

I liked her, but I didn't believe her when she talked about hunting. Her voice didn't agree with the words it was speaking. Why do people always say stuff like this? Stuff that they don't sincerely mean?

I used to do this myself. It's exhausting to have an opinion that isn't popular (yet). So in order to seem more normal and relatable, Part of the Gang Despite Everything, you start saying things like "I'm completely okay with hunting" and "I mean, it's not as unethical as factory farming". Why is it relevant that hunting is less unethical than factory farming? Lots of things are less unethical than factory farming. Factory farming is very, very unethical. It's not an accomplishment to be less unethical than it is.

Another question. I'm seeing ads like this everywhere:



They're advertising some cellphone called Honor 7, and as you can see, for some reason this particular product is "for the brave". Those three words are just randomly hanging there below the name of the cellphone, next to the faces of psychopathic-looking young hipsters. Apparently the phone's "for the brave" because it just is. No need to make sense.

The question is: do people actually buy a smartphone/a chocolate bar/a shirt because an ad says that it will mysteriously change your personality and make you brave/sexy/dynamic/adorable/happy?

The answer must be yes. If this garbage didn't work really well, they'd stop coming up with it. No need to make sense, because people don't make sense.