A few thoughts.

First of all, RIP Michael Crichton.

I was a HUGE fan of his books. Actually, I still am. Just look at my writing style. ( well, i don't write much, but you should be able to see it in this blog.) It's heavily influenced by Crichton's. The short paragraphs and sentences, moving the 'plot' along at a quick pace.

The world has lost one of the greatest story tellers of all time.

Okay. I won't rave about him anymore.

On to my next point.




Note. This is going to be a long boring rant. Sort of like a lecture. Yeah. The sort 'philosophy' I always talk about. Like the lectures I always give zy when I send him home (lol. sorry dude).


So if you are really narrow-minded, or you are the type that just enjoys complaining everyday. Time to close this window.


Alright. Let's go. HUGE wall of text warning.


What separates us from the greats of the world?

Just a note, most of my knowledge of the following, comes from books by Conn Iggulden. He writes historical fiction. But he does include notes on where he changed fact to fiction, to accommodate the story telling.

But okay. So I'll be telling the story of the great Gaius Julius Caesar, and Genghis Khan. At least the points that amaze me.

Let's start with the most amazing feat (in my opinion) of Julius Caesar.

To put it briefly, he was in the military, far in foreign lands. Here, he and a few others were kidnapped by pirates. Now the pirates would send a ransom back to Rome. If the families paid, they would be released. Much like the kidnappers of now -.-
The pirated wanted to ransom Caesar for 20 talents of silver. But Caesar said no. He demanded that they ransomed him for 50 talents of silver, and assured them that he was rich enough and that his family would pay. I think he was trying to make a point to them. That they were messing with the wrong person.
He wasn't kidding. He promised them that if they let him go, he would hunt them down, take back his money, and crucify them.
Well they did release him. On foreign soil. He kept his promise. He raised a fleet, and... kept his promise.

Now think about that for a moment. He raised a fleet on foreign soil. How would you go about, in another country, getting men to risk their lives for you, and fight for you? And I'm sure he didn't have anything to pay them with.

Imagine I asked you to go to Orchard road, and ask say.. 3 people to risk their lives for you. How retarded is that? Yet this man managed to raise an entire fleet. In a foreign country.

I don't need to tell you how great the man was. His surname even became a title which essentially meant emperor.

Genghis Khan.

This story is much shorter. Don't worry. lol.

Temujin(Genghis Khan's birth name) was the son of a Khan(Chief of a tribe). To cut a long story short, his father was killed when he was 9 or 10?
Anyway, the tribe did not allow Temujin to lead, as he was too young. The new khan, fearing that he might one day rise up and take control again, cast him and his family out to die.
I won't talk about how harsh the environment was in Mongol.
To cut a long story short, how does a young boy, struggling to survive and support his family, when everyone else left him for dead, end up as the ruler of the Mongol empire?

Just take a look at these two people. They hit the lowest of lows, where the only thing they had was their lives, and even that was in danger of being lost to them.

Yet they ended up as the most powerful and influential men the world has ever seen.

It just puts everything into perspective for me. I keep hearing people complain about how crappy their food is, how poorly other people treat them(like how their sgts tekan them.lol) and well, some people can even make it sound like the end of the world for them.

Another inspiring person to me that I want to mention, is Ghandi.

He inspired and united a nation through the sheer strength of his character and his spirit. Instead of all the propaganda crap we see nowadays.

What separates us from these greats? Cut me, and I bleed. Cut them, and they bleed. Why aren't we doing anything great with our lives? If we tried, can we do something great?
I'm not saying that I want to be some great dictator and end up being stabbed to death. No no no.
I'm saying that we are a privileged lot. Shouldn't we have all the tools at our disposal to do something good?
No need to change to world. Just change our own world. And the worlds of the people important to us.
So stop whining, and do something about it. I'm sure if we all tried, we could do so, so much more. I'm sure we can all make a difference for ourselves and our loved ones.

Who knows? You might just change the world.