"No, I think there quite probably is one."

"Then why?..."

Mustapha Mond checked him. "But he manifests himself in different ways to different men. In premodern times he manifests himself as the being that's described in these books. Now..."

"How does he manifest himself now?" asked the Savage.

"Well, he manifests himself as an absence; as though he weren't there at all."

"That's your fault."

"Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut. People would be shocked if..."

The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"

"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believed things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe it God."

A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.

---

I would hate to have this particular scene taken out of context, given the settings of A Brave New World, so I strongly suggest readers to read the entire book. Although, admittedly, the conversation between Mustapha Mond and The Savage is the sole interesting point of the book so far, at least for me. Perhaps I prefer dystopic rather than utopic premises but there is something dull about Bernard Marx. I wish Aldous Huxley had paid more mind to Helmholz Watson instead.

SOOOOOO ANYWAY gaiz I le failed my competency test. Twice. What a failure. And yet, even when felled to our knees with our heads bowed ne'er let the heat of passion leave our body, but instead allow the embers to disperse deeper into our souls, and we shall burn, burn, burn and die from the flames of love's embrace. Ahahahhaha, what? What was that? I told you I'm crazy at the moment, hhahahaha. The cons department are kind enough to give us one last chance with an open book test, so I still have another shot at redeeming myself. Still trying to figure out where I went wrong with the viva questions, though (hahahha, denial much?). I don't even know why I want to do dentistry so much. It's probably because I can't imagine doing anything else for a career. Or rather, I don't think people (specifically relatives and close family members) can imagine seeing me do anything else. I'm a passive person by nature, I follow the path of least resistance, and doing whatever people expect of me seems to be the easiest way to get things my way. Paradoxical, perhaps, but it is in the inconsistency that I find comfort, the rush of blood to the head in knowing that things are not what they seem to be, and the knowledge of that puts me to rest.

Aaaaaand surprise, surprise, I've been a social butterfly these days. Thanks to a quartet mishmash of Polish and Egyptian girls, I've been forced to peek out from my solitary chrysalis to become a tour guide of sorts. I'm not a very responsible tour guide though because I just dumped the two Egyptian girls on a quest to find Times Square from KLCC. The usual route to TS would definitely be KL Sentral ---> walk a bit ---> transit to Jln Imbi ---> walk a bit more---> TS. Hahhahhahaha, God knows how they're getting there. And there is that acid splasher case still out in the open. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Hey people!!!! MY BRAIN JUST TOLD ME THAT THE EARTH IS NOT ROUND IT IS NOT OVAL IT IS SHAPED LIKE AN EGG. AN. EGG. WE ARE CHICKENS WITHOUT WINGS PEOPLE, WE ARE THE FALLEN ANGELS!

On other news, dad was watching Pearly Harbour earlier today and- screw you spell checker, I follow the Queen's bloody English, so harbour is spelled with a fucking U- and well, a thought just popped into my head about the US and revenge. Nagasaki and Hiroshima. War on terrorism. The US seems to like methods of revenge that causes their enemies to suffer in the long run, and on insanely huge scales of mass destruction. Apparently there are such things as 'ethical justification' on the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. If I were to talk about 'ethical justification' on the Nazi massacre of European Jews, I am pretty sure that would send some pretty heads roaring out loud, but that is precisely how ridiculous that line sounded to me. Ethical justification of blood and prejudice. And there are so-called scholars debating on this? Hah.

Honestly, at times, it seems that the academia world is lost for good. It could get so caught up in itself that it forgets about truth. I was going to add God, but then I remembered the atheist scientists.

I want to eat fish.