"Hello. I'd Like to Have an Argument."

It's been another one of those crazy weeks. People disappearing, people popping up out of nowhere, health problems with people around me, and the usual insanity I call my life. And then, I made the mistake last weekend of answering a question on an online forum: do you believe in ghosts? I said more than just 'yes'.

In hindsight, it was a bad idea. Many people respond in grunts, syllables, or not at all to statements that they know will lead to arguments or complaints. One-word responses leave little to fight over. But some people just like arguing.

What followed was a prolonged attack since, apparently, stating that I'm a "paranormal investigator" automatically means I speak on behalf of every parapsychologist, researcher, professor, scientist, writer, ghost hunter, and anyone else (alive or dead) in any way connected to the field. The same old arguments rehashed a billion times flung at me, demanding ultimate "proof". But, of course, it wasn't in a polite discourse; it's the typical heckling of someone who, no matter what is presented to them, remains convinced that you're an idiot.

I see we haven't changed much since the Puritans. Witch hunts are still happening. Different is bad. In only a few sentences stating my opinions, I instantly turned into Frankenstein's monster. What do you do? If you walk away, you're supposedly admitting "that they are right", but if you stand and defend yourself, you're "absurd". It's a lose-lose situation. But it comes from speaking your mind and being a part of this field. Opening your mouth makes you a target of torch-bearing townsfolk rallying to "burn the witch".

I hate arguing. Especially when it's pointless or when someone belittles your words because "they know everything". Real stupidity comes from believing that you're omniscient and omnipotent. Only wise people know that they don't know everything. but I let it go on for a while before stopping and thinking, "what the hell am I doing?" Discussing something with someone who can't see beyond their own window to the world is the most wasteful thing anyone can do.

I like letting people make their own informed opinions, as everyone should. Don't just spit out what someone else told you; review everything and form your own opinion. And if it's different from someone else's, big friggin' deal! Guess what? Everyone has an opinion, a belief, a perspective. Being loud doesn't mean you know more than someone else; it just means your mouth opens wider.

Humankind has the capacity to become rabid dogs. People like to gang up with viciousness to feel inflated about their own superiority. But, when the attack is on them, everything is very different. That's just mean! Well, that's just human nature. Evil doesn't come from supernatural demons, it comes from the depths of humankind. Humanity has a tendency to be inhumane. And it circles itself; call it karma if you wish, but the stream of putrid words we sometimes spill out come back at us in a different form. And when they do, we have no right to complain. We did it once ourselves.

Agreeing to disagree or seeing another viewpoint is a challenge for many people. But we all see the world differently. Every man or woman is the product of his or her collective beliefs, experience, and thoughts. More time is wasted on pointless back-and-forth banter than actual reasoning. In a way, it's comical. If people could see the humor in it, of course.

I guess what bothers me most is, being an open-minded person, I expect to be treated as I treat others. I could be cruel and nasty many times, but I choose to let most things slide. I try to make people think and reason, prepare for what is coming, yet it is labeled "non-conformity". So what? I'm not a conformist. I'm an individual. If I'm the only one not running with the herd, it makes me an independent thinker not an anarchist. Different is good; different brings about revolutionary thought and ideas. If it weren't for outcasts, nothing would ever change. Ideas are what separate us from our inner animal. If being a non-ape makes me a bad person to somepeople, I'll settle for that.

Someone Else Said It Best...

Most modern thoughts are not entirely unique. We borrow from our contemporaries and, occasionally, think up ideas which have already been hatched. Yet some words are timeless. Long after the speaker or writer is dead, we remember them.

As a slight departure from my usual ramblings, here are just a few of my many favorite quotes spoken by great minds. No truer words were ever spoken.

"Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human understanding." — Ambrose Bierce

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." — Lewis Carroll

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." — Marlene Dietrich

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas A. Edison

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." — Albert Einstein

"The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits." — Albert Einstein

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." — Benjamin Franklin

"I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think." — Sigmund Freud

"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools." — Ernest Hemingway

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." — Carl Gustav Jung

"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely." — Carl Gustav Jung

"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible." — Carl Gustav Jung

"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!" — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." — Edgar Allan Poe

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." — Socrates

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." — Mark Twain

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." — Mark Twain

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." — Mark Twain

"It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you." — Mark Twain

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." — Mark Twain

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." — Mark Twain

"There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics." — Mark Twain

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." — Mark Twain

"...gratitude is a debt which usually goes on accumulating like blackmail; the more you pay, the more is exacted. In time, you are made to realize that the kindness done you is become a curse and you wish it had not happened." — Mark Twain

"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination." — Mark Twain

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." — Oscar Wilde

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." — Oscar Wilde

"A true friend stabs you in the front." — Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." — Oscar Wilde