Jennie M. Xue

The perils of irrationality and diplomacy

by Jennie S. Bev

The world is both rational and irrational. Specifically, the world of politics is full of irrationality throughout the history of mankind. Thus, it might attest that men are intrinsically irrational, or at least those with power are.

In Laws, Plato said, “Peace is only a name; in reality, every city is in a natural state of war with every other.” Peace is the rational choice, yet those in politics have been deliberately choosing violence in the name of security and maintaining power status quo.

To balance this out, idealists have been using diplomacy as its antidote. But why doesn’t diplomacy always work? Is diplomacy over-rated? Some diplomatic missions are even abandoned due to no result. What are alternatives to diplomacy in building and maintaining peace?

In search of a voice and chivalry in fighting corruption

 by Jennie S. Bev

News on corrupt officials, intellectuals who work for oppressive conglomerates, and businesses causing extreme pollution and catastrophe have been selling newspapers and magazines.

Indonesia is in crisis and we aren’t talking about finances or its poor international image. We are talking about of the lack, or even a non-existence, of knights (the closest Western analogy to ksatria) in modern Indonesia.

It is as if not being corrupt is stupid, because corruption has reached a cultural, not merely structural, level. Stealing has become a “last resort” that can be justified. How anarchic such a mind-set is.

Mystery of life, awe, and ecstasy

by Jennie S. Bev

I live with a strong sense of awe and wonder. I love and adore mysteries. They are all around and inside me. Things unknown, things in the future, things far away, and things I keep close dearly to heart.

Mysteries keep me alive and craving for more.

In the end, they give me ecstasy.

We might have been looking for answers throughout our lifetime, yet answers are actually not what we are looking for.

The constrained and unconstrained views

by Jennie S. Bev 

Raphael’s painting The School of Athens depicted Plato pointing to the sky and Aristotle pointing to the ground. It encapsulates the two approaches in how we perceive the world: perfection and grounded reality.

These perspectives divide the world into unconstrained and constrained views, using terms used by Harvard professor of behavioral studies Tal Ben-Shahar.

In psychology, they become perfectionism and optimalism; in politics, they become communism and capitalism; in everyday arguments, they become can-do and cannot-do.

Plato’s unconstrained view distinguishes the world into the perfect model and the one we’re experiencing as mortals. He believed that an archetype always precedes the perceived world.