Emma

I finally made time, this week, for a long overdue watch of "Emma", starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

    The movie was a pleasant change of course from the nonsensical crop of romantic comedies that English-language cinema abounds in, these days. Screenwriter Douglas McGrath's devoted adherence to the confines of the original novel by Jane Austen has paid off in retaining the essence of the story.

    Gwyneth Paltrow's performance embodied showmanship at it's effective best. The actress pushed up the bar for any American actress playing a British character. Her portrayal of Emma Wodehouse transcends the trans-atlantic divide and is highly convincing and well-played. 

   The movie starts off at a rather slow pace but soon enters a brisk and smooth course. The editing seems highly proficient as the movie lacks in drag-scenes. The comedy is  highly-subtle and intelligent. The realistic portrayal of the period (19th century England) is worthy of praise.

   The movie is definitely worth a watch and is one of the best lighthearted movies I have seen in recent times.

Success

Since time immemorial, i have contemplated the reality of an actual entity such as success. It seems obscure, vague and undefinable on the very surface. the limits and boundaries of "success" has been ineffable to countless great thinkers throughout the ages.
   One way of defining success could be that "success is a state of mind"; i.e. An individual brimming with a sense of achievement can be called successful. But, realistically and factually, contentment doesn't figure as a criterion in gauging one's success. the magnitude of achievements is always assessed from the third-person's point of view. Somehow, using statistics alone a base to adjudge one successful, seems pretty hollow to me.
  One can not ignore how closely fame and success are  intertwined. At this point, I can't help but to wonder, is fame a pre-requisite to be called successful or does success bring fame? At face value, each of us may point to one of the above options, but after due consideration, one has got to accept that it is puzzling. Branching of on a tangent here, i wonder if the whole notion of success rests on the labelling by media: i.e one is not successful or unsuccessful, but, one is merely, more/less known. Concluding here, I'm  gripped solely by the aforementioned thought of fame and success being intertwined. No answer yet!!!!

Reason

The best gift God gave man was the ability to reason. Reasoning is what sets mankind apart from all other creatures. reasoning is what sets apart the thinking man from the ordinary. It is the viewing-glass through which one's intellectual credibility is assessed.

   This although is a quality supposed to be possessed by all of mankind, the disparity among the levels at which various people use/show signs of this virtue, is rather disturbing to note. One often hears that one's life is a product of all the choices one has made. At every moment of our life, the decisions that we take, affect our lives in the most bizarre and unforeseen ways. Good decisions are not always the most well-informed ones, but, are the most well-thought-out ones. 

  The power to reason, at the pinnacle of it's usage, negates the requirement of any pre-written doctrine/set of rules for human conduct/behaviour. The extent to which a person can reason has an infinite bearing on the moral stands a person takes up. It is no doubt influenced by pre-taught values on nationalistic,religious or familial grounds. But to look beyond the fed notions and to break open the shackles of stereotypes and stigmas with mental clarity, is something that requires strength and intelligence, in their most potent forms. 

  Almost all of the discriminatory issues that human history has witnessed, can be attributed to lack of reason and a whimsical and meaningless devotion to a ready-fed notion that was baseless. It is appalling to see the huge masses these notions command. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that intelligence probably isn't a virtue possessed by the majority of the human race. In this context, i refer solely to the intelligence of weighing facts and reasoning situations.

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Is Selfishness a virtue?

 It might be appalling to millions that one can even consider selfishness a virtue. I was directed into this line of thought after reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". Ayn Rand, propounding her philosophy of objectivism, says that selfishness is indeed a virtue and that the utmost of all the duties of man is the duty toward himself.
     Throughout the ages, mankind has been lead to believe that a life for others, is the most virtuous. any act to one's own end, has been looked at as an abomination. For instance, eating chocolate, an act of self-indulgence, was labelled a sin in the middle ages. Similarly, any act of self-indulgence, although at no one else's cost, is looked at with contempt.
  One might argue for the contrary that as a society, we are all dependent on each other. Here, i would like to say nothing more than a simple analogy. A person goes to a doctor because, he/she is sick; not because, he/she wants to do the doctor a monetary favour. Building on this concept, Ayn Rand illustrates, in her book, a society, as imagined by her, wherein a man chooses a profession to spend his life doing what satisfies his passion and to earn a living as opposed to serving the society. Nevertheless, a one-dimensional view on this could be dangerous, as most people who belong to the society, inadvertently contribute to it's net dynamics.
   The philosophy of objectivism, like any other philosophical doctrine, is not flawless. Much as it may seem wondrous, a man rising to achieve great heights in one's life without any ill-will, help from others etc is a concept that is way too fantastic to be true.
  Secondly, the philosophy abhors charity as a whole. This is senseless, because, even if one considers charity to be, in no way enriching, I don't see how it is degrading to the greatness of human beings.
   Now, re-tracing my way to the stem of the topic, I think selfishness, i.e "To think about oneself before anyone else" is fine as long as one does not act at the cost of someone else. nevertheless, making an effort to be selfish, thereby, ignoring the ones you love, even as it pains you to do so, is, I feel, nothing but stupidity.
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