THE

PARADOXES
OF
PRAGMATIC
LIFE

SOREMEKUN
NURUDEEN
THE PARADOXES OF PRAGMATIC LIFE

INTRODUCTION

Living today is almost a quandary to many between being a losing loser or a winning loser.

Just as the case of the ones bewitched by the chanting of the empty barrel; those that failed to

meet it are losing losers while those that have it met are although envied by the losing losers

in the second cycle of their (losing losers) illusion; but in reality are to be pitied as winning

losers. In a bid to break the jinx, the following expositions were prescribed to transform the

case to a win-win case, where one loses to win or better still wins to win.

As pointed out by Nikola Tesla: What one man calls God, another calls the laws of

physics. Such unveils the fact that even if you care not who sets or enforces them; its a

matter of common sense to agree that the cognizance and observance of some laws are

inevitable in so vast a universe for it to be sustainably effective, when thats even the case for

our mundane scales that are infinitesimal in comparison to it.

THE PARADOX OF SELFLESSNESS

A situation thats wrongly conceptualized will always have all problems in it to be wrongly

defined, and all such wrongly defined problems are inherently insolvable, in fact, the wrong

component doesnt just render all efforts abortive but also adds insult to the injuries caused

by the real problems, i.e. complicate them. Thus is why the spectacle for discerning all things

from their very root is a prerequisite for our sojourn.

Think yourself to be created or evolved; what you cannot argue is that you cannot

consciously remember yourself to have strived before your existence; how come people have

been endowed with some widely varying basic resources, abilities, and so on? Also, if you

are the one of deep reflection, you get to know that although many people think that few

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people have got all theyve ever wanted of life, but the shrewd ones know that such

contention is far from the truth. So, the goal of living is the basic problem of economics.

There and then, let me let you into it point black: Selflessness is the best way of being

selfish. Ours model a case of someone thats given some fruits he couldnt have understood

how come he deserved it above others at the very beginning, and there are then those needing

of it from him, those who I now take to be like the fertile soil. Prudence tells the selfless man

that if only he should give (sow) some of his fruits (seeds), it would be appreciative of him by

that demeanours portraying him to have reasoned that after all, though my fruits are

insufficient, but yet, I know not how come Ive deserved it better than the ones who werent

given at all or as much as mine in the very first place.

When temptation accuses him of foolishness in giving out of what wasnt sufficient for

him; he should use the spectacle that shows that Selflessness is the best way of being selfish.

He would then fathom that were him to eat it all; he would end up being hungry for sure, and

empty at heart for worst and for sure. Whereas, doing the opposite would scale up the fraction

he gave (sowed) to augment for his deficit; being that such is the lot of the one that passed the

deliberate test of selflessness that God (nature) tested by this setup, and at least, doing the

opposite would give him the heart fulfilment that even soothes hunger, and that hitherto

wasnt fulfilled, and that can only be exclusively thus fulfilled.

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THE PARADOX OF SINCERITY

The third law of motion reads that: For every action, theres an equal but opposite reaction

or it reads What goes around comes around. The classical fools that are being deceived into

conspiring in the name of smartness should know that the forces of evil that are so calling

them are only playing on their myopic conceptualization of life and making them victims in

the quote that says: Divide and rule.

Putting this into perspective, falsehood isnt for anybodys advantage; its rather an

insidious plan thats schemed against the whole of humanity. Ours model a case of someone

that was sought to abet against a member of another tribe; his conceding is failing from the

very beginning.

When temptation seeks to tag such as foolish when he declines, he should use the

spectacle that discerns that falsehood is to everyones peril, to ascertain which would have

him ask that what would be the outcome were a case to involve himself and another family

member of the one calling him to aid injustice, he knows that the corollary would be that such

a one would use being a family member to short-change a fellow tribesman, since such a one

had before being the advocate of using the status of being a tribesman to short-change just

any other human being. This trend should in fact be vivid at this stage to his family members

as well that it would continue deteriorating till the unscrupulous man in question gets to

short-change all family members for his own personal interest as situation unfolds.

Now to the caller to injustice himself, should he be lucky enough to have in his

company those that have reasoned aright and deny him of their abetting him; then he should

know that he is in fact saved from inexorable avalanche of losses. The start of that inimical

end should he go in the intended line of injustice is expounded as follow: Sincerity supplants

the impairment from prejudicial inclinations with the acuity from objective inclinations; thus

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eliciting a limpid perspective of life thats the input in the fact that: a problem known is half

solved. Rather, he would be complicating his own plights by the wrong definition from his

impairment thats educed by injustice.

More so, as Earl Nightingale remarked: If honesty did not exist, it would have to be

invented, as it is the surest way of getting rich, your greatest personal asset is how you are

known to your customers (people). Corroborating him; John Maxwell remarked: Weve left

the information age for the relationship age, I believe this is so because information cannot

bring transformation without application; which requires sacrifice; which requires belief;

which requires earned trust; which is exclusively and continuously earnable by the

tenaciously honest one thats well entrenched on lifes cause and effect. So, should the

unscrupulous have his way the first time, then he wont have it again and hes therefore done

for, because nothing is much when its temporary, even as a lake is bound to be eventually

exhausted.

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THE PARADOX OF CIRCUMSTANCES

When you want to get something, never forget that any something is the product of a

particular process on some configurations. How those configurations are processed into such

products is seldom perceptible to the one of surface introspection and observation. Even the

one of in-depth introspection fathoms few of it. And thats the complex part of life, but for

the few that we have ever fathomed, were astonished by the precise nature of how

configurations are gravitated by deliberate or otherwise processes towards corresponding

ends. This trend is what were enthused about being that its simple enough and its the

aspect that concerns us.

The good news is that we need not worry ourselves about what configurations were

put in even as were sure that like the examination body that sets the curriculum and exam for

a student to get into an higher institution of learning for instance; the configuration that were

going to be given is exactly what is to incubate us for the stage that were going, even while

its proportioned to our expected consolidated capabilities. So, while whine when were given

other than what we intended when we do not whine when as an instance were put into some

foundational program while we want to get into some higher institution of learning.

So, life is a school that you are put into classes that are apportioned out to you by

some infallible mechanisms that knows better what lessons you need to learn to be an

effective student. Of course, you must rise up to take the bull by the horn, make the best use

of what you have as you have no way of negotiating with the other side than that by so doing,

and paradoxically, you would fathom at the end that when you make the best use of what you

have; it would refine the best for you out of life.

Meanwhile, when circumstances present themselves as temptations to desist from

some ideals by speciously tagging them as quixotic for our pragmatic world; one should be

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convinced that ones lofty resolves arent divestible by circumstances because ones life is a

company in which one is the greatest shareholder and even if other shareholders (factors or

circumstances) are against ones resolve, they cannot stop one.

Soon enough, such a one would find out instantaneously that success is the fulfilment

that comes from the happiness and tranquillity that one has done his best in what hes

sincerely convinced to be right while simultaneously discerning that such fulfilment is the

ultimate achievement in life thats lasting while all other achievements are fleeting.

Paradoxically again, such a one would found out that the resolution not to follow the wrong

path is the key for opening the door to the right path. What a win-win case!

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THE PARADOX OF DISCIPLINE

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment and its the barrier that prevents

one from being entrapped. The opposite of the former role defined for discipline is indolence

while the opposites for the latter role are indulgence and avarice. The one finding it difficult

to be disciplined and rather opts for a free (lawless) life should know that hes in conflict with

the ordered requirement for his effective and safe existence. Thus does Zig Ziglar submitted:

Everybody says they want to be free. Take the train off the tracks and its free but it cant

go anywhere. So, Discipline weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons. Whereas, in terms of

duration (another indispensable yardstick for the sagacious; having fathomed that nothing is

much when temporary, and nothing is small when permanent): the pleasures of indiscipline

are transitory while their pains are lasting and its vice versa in the case of discipline.

Tackling indolence, the Yoruba people of West Africa have an adage that reads that

the most arduous task is the eventual lot of the lazy man. This being because he failed to

leverage on the fact of making hay while the sun shines, and that a stitch in time saves nine;

and as the Economists have put it, it is paradoxical that the unskilled labourer (this he would

become since he cant wither the ephemerally inherent storms in any worthy endeavour) even

while doing the most in terms of physical exertion thats aggravated by wrong timing, will

yet be given the most meagre of wages.

Combating indulgence and avarice, in the words of Sir William Temple: The only way

for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor. Since

he would inadvertently be disengaged from his sensual cravings when he loses his health; it

only makes sense for him to tame those cravings himself now with the additional advantage

that he would still have his dignity and health to himself. Wow!, what a pitiable plight is that

of the avaricious; should he know that this is the eventually sustainable configuration that he

has to put all his wealth to, one wonders what end he intended by his desperation.

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 Meanwhile, this brings us back to selflessness; its high time when one should know

that he only strives to earn extra capacity simply for the welfare of others as one of the means

for him to have a fulfilled heart, and not just a filled pocket towards vain pride or oppression

by intimidation; all of which though are some of the desperate attempts of the egoists to

finally experience the tranquillity that themselves moved in its opposite direction. Needless to

say, they are headed for a depressed and empty heart.

In fact, such extravagant expenditure of resources by the ostentatiously grandiloquent

ones are the precursors of further avalanche of desperation among the blinkered members of

the society; this being the second phase of their illusion after chasing fulfilment from the

without and therefore are they angry with those whom they should have been pitying their

plight of having their innate nature of fulfilment reversed from being beneficial to others to

the despicable state of schadenfreude.

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THE PARADOX OF CREATIVITY

Were our ancestors to simply be conformists of or complacent with conventions, then

we all would still be in the Stone Age till date. What appreciation would we exert ourselves

to if we labour not in a way to ingeniously consolidate upon the processes that engendered

the products or services that weve taken for granted; as if they were that way from the very

beginning. Well, this brings me to another adage of the Yoruba people that were

aforementioned: One who cleans things would inadvertently have his own hands cleaned.

This again brings us back to selflessness; being a veritable spectacle that could have one

make sense of the following remarks by Theodore Roosevelt: You dont make decisions

because they are easy, you dont make decisions because they are cheap, and you dont make

decisions because they are popular. You make decisions because they are right.

Moreover, security construed as being complacent and not risking things is rather the

most vulnerable thing in an incontrovertibly ever dynamic world; as that hallucination would

relegate its victims into obsoleteness. In reality, one doesnt easily fathom nor have the

courage to do this, in fact: such perspicaciousness is an exclusive and bucolic life domain for

the selfless ones. This is so because as John Maxwell remarked: Success is moving from one

failure to the other without loss of enthusiasm, such insouciance that insured enthusiasm is

only reserved to those that havent even failed in the real sense of it, simply because their

whole living is centred on selflessness, and are thereby always fulfilled and even happier

having consolidated Theodore Roosevelts remark above with the Buddhist adage that reads:

If were facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

Most assuredly and paradoxical as usual, one who have thus resolved would soon

experience the marble remarks of the Chairman of Novell; Ray Norda who said: Cause

change and lead. Accept change and survive. Resist change and die. Its funny in life that it

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takes sacrifice to be a leader, and the selfless ones are the servants of life that offer such

sacrifice, thus are they the inadvertent crown princes of leadership.

Meanwhile, one shouldnt confuse being creative with being a reprobate; an instance of

the smattering and thereby impaired perspective of the many that have took animalization for

civilization, making them to become an incongruent whole; wherein their emotional life is

estranged to their logical life.

Rather, one should understand this criterion by quenching thirst at the fountain of

Thomas Jefferson who said: In matters of style; swim with the current. In matters of

principle; stand like a rock. Although, hes regarding more to the social aspect of man, yet,

like any other sustainably metamorphic aspect of mans life, a time comes that having swum

to the point attainable by human race; one should ingeniously consolidate ones experience

and expertise towards trailblazing for realizing some ideals and visions that hitherto were far

cries.

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THE PARADOX OF HUMILITY

It was Albert Einstein who remarked that: One thing I have learned in a long life: That all

our science measured against reality is primitive and childlike and yet is the most precious

thing we have, one who has followed this discourse up to this stage would know that such

gaps can only be bridged by divine aids exclusive to the insightful diligence of selfless

questers.

Hitherto, the impossibility of many an insincere, selfish, rigid and therefore blinkered

minds to even fully comprehend the reality above, accounts for their nauseating impertinence.

Their outdoing each other in this again as said by the Yoruba people of South Western

Nigeria models a case where the one-eyed is the king in the land of the blindfolded ones; or

as in the words of Kathleen Norris: Over and over again, mediocrity is promoted because

real worth isnt to be found.

In the history of the Arabs, their experience confirms this when their undergoing some

transformations at the hand of the one that engendered the avalanche that made him to be

discerned and ranked first by Michael Hart in his groundbreaking book: The 100 A

RANKING OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY; widened their

horizons till their yardsticks were reviewed to the extent that the hitherto celebrated Amr bin

Hisham who was nicknamed Abu Hakam (meaning father of wisdom); had his nickname

mirrored back to become the notorious Abu Jahl (father of ignorance).

Im convinced that a proactive step towards precluding such vicarious complacencies

that are deceptive and thus inherently fleeting is a major premise of what culminated into Lily

Tomlins submission that: Sometimes, I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.

I wonder how it will be possible for someone who has so reasoned to deteriorate to a

state of arrogance; which is thus a state of sheer ignorance. In fact, the humility of such a one

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would rather be amplified because he would crave to genuinely know more; and will thus

soon experience the following remarks of the man commonly revered as the inventor of the

20th century, Nikola Tesla: It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the

more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we

become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of

intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.

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CONCLUSION: THE PARADOX OF CALMNESS

Having come so far, if you are ready to live, and not just to exist, then you of course

wont want to be so ingenuous to the extent of fretting cold after youve deliberately jumped

into the river of life. Precluding such naivety is itself one thing that makes ones equanimity to

become assuredly imperturbable simply because unexpected implications easily upset ones

poise.

Being that the nature of all the above expositions is paradoxical, they are quite

obscure to many because they seldom reflect sincerely; selflessly; or clearly. Nikola Tesla

spotted a similar trait when he remarked that: The scientists of today think deeply instead of

clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Checkmating this trend engendered Mark Twains remark that: Whenever you find yourself

on the side of the majority; its time to pause and reflect. So, you are most likely heading for

a lonely journey if youre treading aright.

As if thats not enough, another stage assuredly must come; the stage of each partys

calling the other to its philosophies; see it like a campaign for philosophies in a bid to set

what are to become norms. In the words of Robert Ingersoll: In the republic of mediocrity;

genius is dangerous, this being the resonance of using base means to propagate base

philosophies; thus the borne of a series whose first term is castigation. Thus does Albert

Einstein submitted that: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from

mediocre minds.

Having been incubated through the process prescribed all the while, what do you than

to implement the counsel from the consultancy of Sidney Greenberg that reads: A successful

man is the one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him? You

then might begin to wonder that such scenery might not be discerned by the prejudicial as

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success; never mind, just shrug off having fathomed the remark of Arthur Conan Doyle that

reads: Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

The erstwhile voyager through this whole piece should now land onto the island of the

very apt concluding paragraph of the much celebrated work of James Allen, As a Man

Thinketh: Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may

live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of

your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark

of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him. Self-control is

strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be

still!"

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