Peter Graham's Discussion Corner

Sometimes I tend to get a little bit philosophical. I wonder about great concepts like: truth, luck, leadership, faith, courage, etc.

In Star Trek great subjects get discussed too. Take Seven of Nine's famous words: I'm having problems with the concept of individuality.

In this thread we can discuss various topics. Most important is that we respect each other's opinion and beliefs in this as some people might feel very strongly about them. The second rule is: it has to be argumentative. e.g. Not just: "I disagree", but: "why I disagree". If you stick to those two principles I'm sure it will be fine.
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Lt. Commander Peter Graham
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Oriskany

The topic today is luck.

I wonder sometimes why some people win the lottery and some die in Afghanistan?

These are two extremes, and can maybe be classed as fate. But finding a quarter on the pavement or losing one is another example and could be considdered luck and bad luck without it having something to do with destiny (if you believe in fate and destiny that is).

Could God (or whatever you believe in) play a part in wether you are lucky or unlucky? Because that one quarter could still be part of fate?

Is luck changeable? Or merely chance? (the calculation of the variables)

Does the saying: Bad luck in games, lucky in love. hold any truth?
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Lt. Commander Peter Graham
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Oriskany

I feel that luck exists, and that it's cast down upon us by the deity above us all. It has favorites and dislikes just like any being. The people you see with charmed lives are those that it favors. Then there's the people who can't get a break no matter what they do or try, they fail, and fail miserably. Those are the ones that are disliked. They live their lives day by day, trying to excel in life, only to come out on the losing end of everything they set out for. In time they lose hope and just accept their existance is an example to those who have the charmed lives to use as a basis of comparison. For if they had nobody to compare themselves to, how would they know how special they are?
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Admiral Aeryck M. Arayuss
Commanding Officer, USS Sutherland
Commander in Chief, Gamma Fleet
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets

Wow, that's a perspective I hadn't thought about before. But I can see how that can be the order of things. I guess I am glad to be one of the lucky ones then since my life isn't that bad. Now I kinda feel guilty...
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Lieutenant Jansen R. Panettiere
Yeoman, USS Infiniti

I'm not sure I believe in either luck, fate or destiny... I tend to believe man makes his own by the choices he makes. For instance; standing at a crossroads, you could turn left, right or straight on.

If you turn left, who's to say there's not a cliff face? Turn right, you could be met by a murderer and go straight on you could be run over by the next bus.

In essence, whatever choice we make is our own fate. Our destiny is what we do with that choice and our own luck, be it good or bad, whatever happens at the end of that road.

We've already made the choices, we only have to understand why... Is it our fate that we are to live till we're ripe and old, or die at a young age. Those are the choices we must understand.
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Mr. McCloud

Here's another option for you Mr. Little: At a crossroad you could turn back instead of either of these options. Which brings me to: What if there are opions that you have not yet thought about?

I believe Luck, like most things in life are subject to change. What I mean is that all the things we hold for true are not necessarily true, because we do not know all the variables. Take gravity for example. We think we know what it is by calculating variables and think it is caused by mass, and the greater the mass, the greater the gravity. But what if it is caused by something we have not yet thought about and taken into account?

Luck, strangely enough, is attracted to optimism (at least I tend to be more lucky with an optimistic attitude), or maybe I am just more satisfied with what I have/get. But if I take my 'everything is subject to change' rule into account then I can be optimistic and believe that luck is indeed what you make of it due to your attitude and that chances are that I will be lucky from now on (now that would be lucky!).
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Lt. Commander Peter Graham
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Oriskany

Possible, Mr. Graham. Here's the alternate. These so called choices we have not yet made, this is only because we would not yet understand the reasons behind them, because we have indeed already made them.

Understanding the choices we make in our life is the key to seeing them unfold before our very eyes. If we do not understand, we would live a very dull life indeed.

For example, you choose to gamble away your college fund at fabulous Las Vegas. But before you do, you unwittingly and drunkenly marry the first person you see...

Pulling that lever on the one-armed-bandit, you begin to walk away, until you hear the alarms ring. You just won $3,000,000. But, the quarter you used belonged to your now wife.

You have to understand the choices you next make. You already decided to get a divorce. But you haven't been married long enough. You can't get an annulment because you were married in Vegas.

After talking to the Judge, he sentances you to 6 months HARD MARRIAGE.

My point, Mr. Graham is this; understand all the choices you have made to this point. Why did you go to Vegas in the first place? Did you even like this girl? Are you happy without her more so than with her? Would you rather own $1,500,000 or $3,000,000?

So many choices, but only one reason to each. Seems difficult, yes?

What if I told you many people the world over have already been through this and each of their choices were influenced by one of two things?

1) They were just fired
Or
2) They just got dumped.

Seems simple when you look at it from this angle, right. Wrong.

Why did they just get fired? Why were they dumped?

Did they steal office supplies or were they cheating?

Each choice we make derives from a choice we made weeks or months ago, and so on with that choice and the choice before that and the choice before that. Right back to the first one we ever made.

To crawl or to walk.

I'll let you think on this, Mr. Graham. Get some perspective on things.
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Mr. McCloud

Damn, I knew I should have stuck to crawling! ;)

Point taken LtCmdr Little, I don't really know a suitable response to your message, and it has been a while so let's leave it here and move on to the next topic.

The next topic is truth. What is truth? Why do we lie? How can we prove what's true? Is faith the truth?
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Lt. Commander Peter Graham
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Oriskany

So, yeah. Was mulling over this topic but then decided not to post. If I did, your brain would explode, Graham. You know what I'm like.

Now that's the truth and don't ya just know it!
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Mr. McCloud

Alright, change of mind.

---
Truth is truth and that's the truth. We lie because we do stupid things like boost cars, drugs and the general day-to-day things. While illegal, most of it is incontroversaly explained away by little things such as a headache.

(I'll let you decide if that's the truth or a lie.)

One way to differentiate between it is this; facial expressions.

Some people look up when they're lying and down when they aren't telling the truth. Eyes sometimes water, lips quiver and noses falter. Take a look next time you're in the mall. When you're at the checkout making a purchase that you know is 50% off and the cashier says to pay the whole thing.

Watch their face! I'm sure we've all been there, something marked down and the casier wants full price for it. Watch how they say it, not what they say. Little things like the top lip quivering, you know what they're saying is not the truth, but normally you'd do what they say, they work they're, right?

Wrong! If you think someone is lying, more often than not, they are. And your 'gut' emotions are always telling the truth. If you think they're telling the truth, more often than not, they're not.

Studies show that over 90% of Human beings lie at least 10 times a day. How do we know this? Easy, because the tests say 10% lie, and tests are always wrong.

For example: the Big 'C'. Cancer.

Doctor's believe we are all born with the gene and that somehow it must be activated. How? Smoking, coffee, soda. They also tell us there is no cure.

Lies! All lies. They know they can make more money on the treatment of cancer patients than to simply cure them. Read between the lines the next time a study is shown on the TV, most of them look above the camera. Why?

Because they're lying to our faces!


I'd go on, but I don't wanna warp your fragile little minds!

EDIT: I do, but you'd know I was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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Mr. McCloud