Style

n.  a distinctive way of expressing, doing, performing something

 

Let me tell you about my life philosophy / religion / style. My life philosophy consists of mainly Epicureanism (a branch of Hedonism, without the sexual connotation) and Capitalism, plus 10% of Zen Buddism, 10% of Taoism, 5% of Confucianism, added with a very slight tint of Cyrenaicism (another branch of Hedonism) and Caffaine Addiction. Note: my philosophy most probably contains some trace of Christianity, depending on the probability of God existing (which is currently about 0.01% at the moment, I think).

 

Surprisingly, there IS a name for my kind of rojak and confusing and conflicting philosophy. It is, in all its different configurations, called "Free Thinkism". Its practitioner is commonly called the "Free Thinker".

 

I'll explain (very) briefly the different components of my version of Free Thinkism.

 

Capitalism - The belief that capital (money) is most important.

 

Zen Buddism - The belief that being Peaceful is most important. All the rest is not important, and certainly not capital. ("六根清净")

 

Taoism - Important? Not important? It is all part of the Tao, just like everything else. Erm... So what is the Tao? Sorry, I can't explain. ("道可道，非常道。") Liddat ah, how? Do nothing lor. ("无为")

 

Confucianism - The belief that being a gentleman/woman is most important. ("君子 blah blah blah...") And that women give men, gentle or otherwise, the most headaches. ("女子与小人难养也。")

 

Christianity - The belief that 1. God is most important and that 2. the belief in belief no.1 will ensure that you won't go to Hell after you die.

 

And lastly, the main bulk of my beliefs:

 

Hedonism - The belief that happiness/pleasure (and the pursue of it) is the most important. Everything you do is to get pleasure out of it.

 

Since Hedonism is the main bulk of my philosophy, I'll talk a little more about it. Actually there is a little problem associated with Hedonism: short-term pleasure always translate to long-term displeasure. (Try play World of Warcraft twenty-four hours everyday for one sem.) So the question is, what do you do about this? This divides hedonism into two branches.

 

Cyrenaicism - The belief that life should be dedicated to the pursuit of intense pleasures despite the intense pains that follows, so that life won't be boring.

 

Epicureanism (my main belief) - The belief that life should be dedicated to the maximising of pleasures and the minimising of pains. Generally, pleasure comes from the satisfaction of desires and pain comes from not satisfying desires. So to maximise pleasures and minimise pains, you have to take care of what your desires are and restrict them to those which are easy to satisfy. What desires are easy to satisfy? Those you are in control and independent on other pple, eg. eat, sleep, read, and play computer games. These can be easily satisfied, as compared to those that you have no control and dependent on other pple, eg. hoping to get leave from your supervisor, getting a girlfriend, waiting for pple who don't reply SMSes to reply your SMS (arghhhh!!!) etc. All these desires have to be curbed if you want to minimise pains.

 

 

... So, to summarise my confusing life philosophy - Free Thinkism V6.0 (my own unique version) into one sentence, it is to

 

Be a peaceful gentleman who is very very happy and can get tons and tons of money... while doing nothing (heehee)... and go heaven after that. =P

 

Personally, I think the last part is God-damned hard (sorry for the pun), I think I'll think abt it when the time comes...

 

Hmmm, so what is your life philosophy?

 

Is it Existentialism (life is nothing except choices, in fact, the only thing you can't choose is not to choose), Stoicism (you've to put up with what you've got cos there isn't a thing you can do about it), Satanism (do whatever you want and screw other pple, worshipping devil at the same time), Darwinism (survival of the fittest) etc etc, or a combination of some, or all?

 

P.S. My explanations of the different thinkings are very very very very shallow. Please read up on them if you are interested. Recommended readings: Everything I Know I Learned From TV and Philosopher at the End of the Universe by Mark Rowlands, Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion from the Matrix by Glenn Yeffeth, the various comics on chinese philosophies by 蔡志中.