A long awaited FFVII sequel

Bought a certain portable device with the help of my fellow blogger recently and have been spending quite some time these past weeks just trying to find media to fill up the devices 30Gb of space...sigh, only managed 3Gb so far..a long way to go. Of most recent was the animation Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Its amazing how Square-Enix can produce such a masterpiece ...at least for me. It was available here a couple of months back but I can't help but to watch it again and again... yes I am a freak...a Final Fantasy Freak.
Tetsuya Nomura and Takashi Nozue really did a superb job as directors and the Final Fantasy series music composer, Nobuo Uematsu, has never failed to produce excellent scores to accompany the movies theme. In my opinion, though the previous movie from Square, FF The Spirits Within was superb graphically, it was a tad weak on storyline as it was too dragging. But this current offering surpassed not only The Spirits Within in every aspect but it also outdoes what I thought Advent Children would turn out to be and I'm sure die-hard fans couldn't agree more. Though the movie is excellent, I would not recommend it for those who have not played the original game Final Fantasy VII as they could not appreciate the movie as much as one who has played through the original game. Seen above is Tifa Lockheart, the female lead and a fav of mine, and below her kicking some ass..literally.
P/S: Images like these make me sometimes think of trying out CG programming....sigh..too late..
Need to know more?? Visit the official site.

Semantics of Hypocrisy

I am tired of people accusing others of hypocrisy. I see it everywhere I go and it makes me wonder to people actually semantically digest and comprehend its meaning before simply using it as a form of accusation?? I wonder indeed..Below is a direct quote from Websters dictionary for the term ‘hypocrite’

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WEBSTER'S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY
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hypocrite:

1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

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There is a lot of articles out there in the web, and from what is understood and what I would like to think, a hypocrite is someone who publicly applies (or tries to) a certain standard he has set upon himself but fails to meet this standard AND DENIES or HIDES the fact that he has. Many people sadly throw accusations based solely on a person’s FAILURE to apply that certain standard to which he has set for himself, however my feeling is that all the above constituents need to come into play before the accusation is made. However, the semantics of hypocrisy can be argued days on end as what has been defined above is termed as an honest hypocrite in other views. But let us ponder on the following:

'L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend a la vertu..'(Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue)
~François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678

I mean even in debates, if one side lays this accusation the other really becomes defensive about it. People get hurt by such accusations. Its because we all have our egos that we treat it is as a major malevolance.

'Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.'
~Rebecca West, The Strange Necessity, 1928

In any case, peace out people. I leave you with a quote from an article titled 'The Self and Lazy Charge of Hypocrisy' by Thomas M. Siphos:

“Hypocrasy is not nice. But it is not genocide, murder, or rape. Nor even turnstile jumping. On a scale of evils, it's a petty offense. Most everyone commits hypocrisy at one time or another, just as most everyone speeds on a highway. Speeding endangers more lives, yet hypocrisy upsets more people. Go figure”

Cognitive Dissonance

[Adaptation of my other blog..heh..]

We humans are a complex lot. And the majority of us are only using slightly less than 10% of our brain, and these are the smartest amongst us. Which makes me wonder at the human capacity to rationalize things, form opinions and make decisions. These factors influence our daily lives. As perfect as we want to be, we are still human and hence are not immune to flaws. This leads me to a state where some of us seem to fall into: cognitive dissonance.

In reference to the wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), cognitive dissonance is a condition first proposed by the psychologist Leon Festinger in 1956, relating to his hypothesis of cognitive consistency.It is basically a state of opposition between cognitions. For the purpose of cognitive consistency theory, cognitions are defined as being an attitude, emotion, belief or value, or even a mixture of these. In brief, the theory of cognitive dissonance holds that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the human mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to minimize the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions.

The main criticism of the cognitive consistency hypothesis is that it is impossible to verify or falsify by experiment. Even so, experiments have been attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive. Opponents of this hypothesis contend that relations between cognitions can be irrelevant or not present, and cite the apparent ability of many human beings to reconcile mutually exclusive or contradictory beliefs with no apparent stress.

Conflicting cognitions: cognitive dissonance
Once two cognitions are held and there is a conflict between them, one falls into a state of cognitive dissonance, an imbalance between cognitions and a psychological state which needs to seek consonance between the two cognitions.

Festinger further proposes that cognitive dissonance is a "negative drive state", a similar psychological tension to hunger and thirst and that people will seek to resolve this tension.
Reduction of cognitive dissonance, Festinger believed, is good because one feels better, and because one can come closer to consonance by eliminating contradictions. On the other hand some of the ways of reduction of cognitive dissonance involve a distortion of the truth, which may cause wrong decisions. The harder way of changing favourable cognitions may in the longer run be better.
When confronted with two belief cognitions that contradict each other, Festinger suggests the dissonance can be resolved by finding and adding a third piece of information relevant to the two beliefs.
[Adapted from en.wikipedia.org]

Why am I explaining all this I wonder? Just hoping that people in general would stop making pre-judgements about other people based solely on their own personal experience. It leads us to make procrustean judgements about other people.In case you are wondering, being procrustean involves imposing stern and inflexible conformity to a preconceived theory or system, in this case based on one's own personal experience.This term originated from the mythical legend of Procrustes who was reputed to tie his victims to an iron bed and then stretch them or cut off their legs to make them fit the bed.

In anycase, I just wish people would try to get to know and understand each other before making false accusations and judgements about each other. We each deserve a clean slate. Sometimes whatever we do that is in the best of intentions are always interpreted as our worst because of peoples procrustean tendencies.

I shall not bore whoever that reads this far into this blog any longer. We shall await my other views on hypocrisy in the next post. Till then wait it anticipation....muahaha...NOT!!