Rant 004 /

If you cry when you masturbate, you grip too hard.

Ok, I don't know where that came from but it sounded interesting.

I was watching an episode of "Perfect Disaster" on Discovery Channel about a "megaflood" in London when one guy mentioned that if he were to suggest an evacuation for London, and no floods came, he would be blamed. Is there not something wrong with this? I do not expect many to understand this but why is it wrong to be cautious, especially when its about 7 million lives? His predictions may be wrong but, hey, no one's prefect. If he's smart enough to be right all the time he wouldn't be slogging in that job, would he? And if he's just trying to save your life in case of a strong possibility of a disaster, what's wrong? Sure, the city may lose much in terms of profit but what's that compared to lives? A living man without money can still possibly be happy, but a dead rich man surely can't. Just look at the Beatles. Or Picasso. Being buried 6-feet under is no fun, money or no.
But of course, there are many who love money more than their lives. These are the sad souls who have lost sight of their original goals. What original goal? All people strive for happiness. How they achieve it is incredibly varied. But one common way to acquire it is through money. Money is a simple and effective solution to any lack of happiness, simply because it is very much like electricity. Electricity is the form of energy that Man has found to convert to any other forms most easily. Money, likewise, can be converted to almost anything easily: just buy it.
It is believed that money cannot buy some things, like love and immortality. This is not true. Money can buy love. This is the point when all of you will then rephrase it to "true love". This is also wrong. When something can be felt, tasted, smelled, seen and heard, is it not real? Just like in sci-fi, when a man-made humanoid can do everything a real born-from-the-womb person can, is that humanoid just a "humanoid"? Or is it a he/she then? And that's just like "true love" bought with money. If it feels like true love, the girl insists she really loves you, and there is no way you can prove that she does not, save by faking a bankruptcy, then is it not true love? And what about losing her love when you're broke? We're talking about true love that's bought here. And then this must be the point where you point out that true love cannot die, especially not from that. And then this is the point I say," Bullshit!" True love dies everyday. In every single beautiful wedding ceremony in churches, couples swear on their lives "till death do us part". And bitter divorces still occur. Ask any divorcee if they did not truly love their spouse on their wedding day, and tell me again if true love truly does not die. Therefore, what's the difference whether it's bought or not. Hell, when you're rich, you can even control how long that love affair lasts by dumping her when she gets on your nerves. Just give her some money and tell her to leave quietly. Unlike divorcing a wife who would likely try to get as much money from you as possible.
And then comes immortality. This is rather debatable. What kind of immortality would it take to satisfy you?
If it's the kind that makes you live forever in people's memories, then it's quite easy with money. A simple example is Mansa Musa, a 14th century king of the Mali Empire( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansa_Musa ). On a hajj to Mecca, he gave away so much gold in Cairo that he caused a massive inflation that took the region's economy over a decade to recover. From Wikipedia, "According to Professor Ross E. Dunn, 'In the history of medieval West Africa no single incident has been more celebrated.'". The actual source of this can be found at the bottom of this article in the website. In fact he's remembered especially because of this hajj.
Cloning is another option. "You" will be able to live as long as you can afford cloning yourself, but with the present technologies, your memory will not live as long as "you" do. On the other hand, every single "you" will be identical genetically so it will always be "you" living. Though cloning humans is illegal, it is surprising what money can do to the right people at the right places.
So what can money not buy? Many things. The relatives you lost. The pet that died. Many things. But nothing can bring you any of them. Money is a man-made idea. Anything man-made can only be as good as Man himself, if not inferior. Therefore money can only get you things that Man himself can get.
So does that mean that the richest people in the world are also the happiest? Surprisingly, no.
To gain an obscene amount of money, you have to sacrifice or use an equal amount of something else. This is explained in a previous entry.
I talk trash. But what is trash? Are you sure this is truly trash? Are you sure this is not trash?