Kollywood Time

05/25/2025

To all the men

05/23/2025

True

05/23/2025

05/18/2025

Picture of the day

04/20/2025

No matter how far you go in life always remember to stay humble.

11/02/2024

In November,
I hope you find time to be happy, not just strong.

11/02/2024

Robert Louis Stevenson was high on co***ne when he wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. His wife F***y Stevenson claimed that one night, she was awakened by her husband’s cries. She woke him from his nightmare, only to be scolded: "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogeytale." She had interrupted him as his mind wove the first transformation scene of Dr. Jekyll into his dark alter-ego Hyde.

F***y Stevenson had not been the kind of woman Robert’s parents had imagined for him. While she was beautiful and witty, F***y was 10 years his senior, divorced, American, and something of a tomboy. She rolled her own ci******es and knew how to shoot a pistol. But Robert was absolutely besotted by her, even following her back to America. When his family refused to pay for his passage, he toiled and saved for 3 years, just to be reunited with her. All turned out well in the end, for had Robert fallen in love with someone else, perhaps the story Dr. Jekylll and Mr Hyde might have turned out very differently.

F***y read Robert’s first draft, advising him to re-write it as an allegory. So Robert started from scratch, burning his first draft for fear that he would try to salvage it. He re-wrote the whole story in 6 days, and this version went on to become one of the most famous horror novellas of all time, reflecting a deep inner struggle of good and evil, found at the core of every man.

11/01/2024

Albert Camus, the French-Algerian philosopher, novelist, and playwright, lived a life filled with both triumph and struggle, experiences that deeply shaped his works and worldview. Camus is often associated with existentialism, although he himself distanced from that label, preferring to explore "the absurd," a concept describing the inherent meaninglessness of life in the face of human desires for order and understanding. His struggles were as much philosophical as they were personal.

Born in 1913 in Algeria, then a French colony, Camus faced poverty and hardship from a young age. His father died in World War I when Camus was still an infant, leaving his mother, who was partially deaf and illiterate, to raise him and his brother. This early experience of loss profoundly influenced his perspective on human suffering and resilience. Camus’ childhood was spent in poverty, and despite his brilliance, his opportunities were limited. However, he managed to study philosophy at the University of Algiers, where he developed his ideas on the absurd.

Another major struggle in Camus' life was his lifelong battle with tuberculosis, which he contracted in his early twenties. The illness forced him to abandon sports and frequently interrupted his career, adding a sense of urgency and fragility to his work. This personal struggle with illness informed his philosophy, making his writing intensely concerned with the human condition and the limits of human endurance.

Camus’ philosophy of the absurd—a central theme in works like The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus—was not just an intellectual exercise but a reflection of his inner turmoil. He saw life as fundamentally devoid of meaning, yet he argued that individuals must rebel against this void by creating meaning through their own actions, a paradox that often left him in a state of existential tension.

Politically, Camus was active in the French Resistance during World War II, editing the underground newspaper Combat. However, his post-war years were marred by a painful rift with his former friend and existentialist counterpart, Jean-Paul Sartre, over political and philosophical differences, particularly regarding communism and the role of violence in social change. Camus’ anti-totalitarian stance and criticism of ideologies that justified violence isolated him from both the political left and right, leaving him without a clear intellectual home.

Camus’ life ended abruptly in a car accident in 1960, a tragic and ironic fate for a man who had spent much of his life exploring the absurdity of human existence.

10/26/2024

Hannah Arendt's quote, "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil," reveals a profound insight into the nature of human behavior and moral responsibility. Arendt is best known for her exploration of the concept of the "banality of evil," a term she coined during her observations of Adolf Eichmann's trial in 1961. Eichmann, a N**i officer responsible for organizing mass deportations during the Holocaust, did not appear as a monstrous villain but as a bureaucrat who claimed he was "just following orders."

Arendt realized that Eichmann’s evil did not stem from personal malice or cruelty but from a thoughtless obedience to authority, a failure to question the morality of his actions. He, like many others, did not actively choose to commit evil; instead, he refused to reflect on his choices and blindly complied with a system that dehumanized others.

The quote speaks to a broader truth about human behavior: much of the harm in the world is not committed by individuals who are innately evil but by people who, through indifference, apathy, or conformity, fail to engage with moral dilemmas. These individuals drift along with societal currents, never questioning the impact of their actions or the consequences of their inaction.

Arendt's reflection is a call for individuals to think critically and make conscious moral decisions. When people fail to take a stand, either for good or evil, they allow destructive systems to persist. It's not only the active perpetrators of evil that are dangerous, but also those who refuse to reflect on or challenge the structures of injustice. The result is that thoughtlessness becomes fertile ground for great harm to be done.

In a world where conformity, passivity, and obedience are often rewarded, Arendt's insight encourages us to be more aware of the moral dimensions of our everyday decisions. The challenge she presents is to engage in conscious thought, take responsibility for our actions, and not merely go along with what is expected, whether good or evil.