if you believe in capitalism as a ism and ideology…
and capitalism is driven by and has as it basic
requirement… greed… then by default,
you accept the idea that “MAN” is driven by greed…
a false idea but one generated by the requirements
of the ideology of capitalism…your belief creates
the “reality” of the world… and you react to this belief…
in other words, by believing people are driven by greed,
you assume everyone is driven by greed…
if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail…
the tools one uses determines the work one is able to do…
if I have as my tool, logic, then everything looks like a logical problem…
if I have as my tool, emotion, then everything looks like an
emotional problem…
but the real problem arises when we when used to make an emotional
judgement and we think that it is an rational response to something…
sometimes we mistake emotional tools as logical tools…
and sometimes we mistake logical tools as emotional tools…
how am I suppose to “feel” about something?
how am I suppose to “think” about something?
we use “feel” and “think” interchangeable, but is it?
try to understand how you come up with a decision…
was it logic or was it emotions?
I am willing to bet, we decide most things emotionally
and not intellectually…
and we can’t even tell the difference… because we are so used
to using them interchangeably…
so think of your process into making decisions…
what is your process?
and I am willing to bet it is emotionally, not rationally…
and so we have people one ILP who make arguments for
liberals being shot and/or being deported or making jews
scapegoats for what ails society or what ever prejudices
they have… and that is the point…
they mistake their prejudices and myths and habits
and superstitions as being a thought process when in fact,
it is simply their childhood indoctrinations that they are
repeating… but they can’t see their childhood indoctrinations…
they think that they are being rational or logical or some other
process but in the end, it is a prejudice turned into opinion…
and nothing more…
they haven’t overcome their limitations of the childhood
indoctrinations…
to those who assume that their prejudices and childhood myths and
superstitions, are the reality of the world… you haven’t escape
your childhood, you are simply repeating it without any thought…
and that is what happens if you don’t overcome your childhood
myths, biases, prejudices, superstitions and habits……
you use those to understand or interpret the world…
and because those biases and myths and prejudices are
simply in your head and not in reality, you have a
false and skewered vision of reality…………
you are seeing the world through childhoods eyes
and childhood reality because you are using your childhood’s
biases and myths and prejudices to interpret and understand the world,
and not adult eyes and adult realities………
you haven’t overcome……
am I understood?
I doubt it because who here as the courage for an attack upon their convictions?
most people here congratulate themselves for the courage of their convictions…
it has been said that one who philosophizes is also confessing…
but what am I confessing?
the myths and biases and superstitions and prejudices
I have today… then I must overcome these…
and then confess to the new myths and biases and superstitions
and prejudices of the week…
I must always be in the process of overcoming…
overcoming my limitations…
that is what I continually confess…
the latest myths and biases and prejudices I have……
the problem of existence…isn’t really a problem to most people…
existence just is… and there isn’t anything else to it… we just are…
and for most people, that is enough… existence just is and the modes
of comprehension we have for understanding existence, the biases and myths
and prejudices and superstitions are enough for most people…
the real story about people is that they take the path of least resistance…
it is easier to follow the lower, instinctual path of human existence…
to follow the higher path of love and peace and charity, that takes work
and sometimes a lot of work…
it is far less work to simply hate and
be angry and hold to childhood biases and myths…it is the path of least
resistance………to simply follow the time worn path of following the
expectations of the family or society and not question or doubt…
and that is what most people do… they follow the myths and habits
and prejudices…………the indoctrinations of childhood…
we are creatures of habit………. even to the point of living out our lives
to already set habits… habits set by generations past…
so the problem of existence doesn’t exist for most people…
because they have their myths and habits and prejudices,
and that allows people the ability to avoid the problem of existence…
for most people the question becomes, how do I best fit into this system?
but for a few, a lucky few, the question of existence, the problem of existence
is such, that we not only question how we fit into the system, but if
the system is the right system? we question the very system itself…
and such is the problem of existence… we question the system itself…
it is not enough to engage with the system but one must begin with
doubt about the system and the system’s usefulness…….
for most people, it is enough to engage with problems like who
will pick up bobby after work and what is for dinner and where will
we go for our next vacation…that is as far as people go in questioning
the status quo…it become questions about how to work within the system,
and what is necessary to move up within the system and how to
“improve” one’s live via the reigning ideology/religion which is
materialism… buying goods………
most people live shallow, superficial lives engaged with shallow,
superficial matters……. the lower level of human existence…
and why? because it is the path of least resistance……
it takes less work to take the path of least resistance…
and it doesn’t demand much to take such a path…
you simply go on autopilot and live out your life…
the system, the myths and habits and prejudices of childhood
will simply carry one from birth to death without any doubts
or confusion or questions about the problem of existence…
one simply lives from birth to death with the waters being calm
and the mountains steady and firm and the river flowing in its banks…
and what of the rest of us? we live in the moment of Zen……
where the sea is wild and in a frenzy and the mountains
dance like waves and the river overflows its banks……
most people never reach this moment of Zen……
where our very existence is in doubt…….
this is the moment where we truly wonder about the problem
of existence………… we doubt and we question and we find
the very earth we stand on, to be of quicksand…
the problem of existence shakes us to our very core…
and most people blithely go on with their shallow and superficial
lives… never knowing or understanding what we face, as we stand
in front of Nietzsche’s abyss…
the problem of existence isn’t a light or superficial affair…
one taken lightly like a glass of wine at night……
when face with the problem of existence… one takes a bottle
of Jack and fortifies with all the courage one can muster…
for the problem of existence challenges one to very bottom of
your existence…… for the problem of existence is an all or nothing
matter…………either you commit all the way or you don’t and if you don’t,
go back to your easy path of myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
your childhood indoctrinations… they are the easy path…
you must challenge the problem of existence…
or as the ancient Hebrews thought of it, they wrestled with god…
have you overcome the easy path of myths and habits and prejudices
and superstitions?
is the problem of existence, even a problem for you?
we have myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
from our childhood indoctrinations………
but what are they?
god, country, nationalism, white superiority, the negation of
minorities and of women and religions…
are all myths and biases and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
so what of those who have taken the easy path of nationalism and
of white power and haters of women and minorities and Jews?
they are defenders of the faith… defenders of their childhood indoctrinations…
and the greater they defend their indoctrinations, the weaker they really are…
for they lack the courage to overcome… they lack the courage to see beyond
their myths and prejudices and superstitions…… they are weak and they know it…
it is only by hiding behind their childhood indoctrinations, do they feel strong
and powerful………and the harder they fight for their biases and prejudices, the
weaker they really are……… the man who fights for the right to be prejudice
and superstitious is the true “sheeple”……………he can’t even stand up for himself
and overcome his childhood biases and prejudices…
did your parents teach you American exceptionalism?
do you still hold these beliefs?
if so, then you haven’t grown or change or become something new…
since childhood… sad actually… that you haven’t changed since childhood
you have no courage of challenging your beliefs and no
strength of character…….
relying on old, tired, worn out clichés of how great America is
and how white is right and of American exceptionalism……
you small person who bleats of hate and anger and biases of childhood…
USA, USA, USA, USA, USA………… and the Jews control everything
and hate everything different than you… because you are weak and a coward…
afraid to challenge your childhood biases and myths and prejudices………
proud of the courage of your convictions…
but lacking the courage for an attack upon your convictions……
take away your hatred and your childhood biases and prejudices and what
do you leave behind? nothing… nothing at all…and that is your fear…
you hope no one ever figures out that outside of your childhood indoctrinations,
you have nothing… nothing at all…not courage, not bravery, nothing…
just weakness and cowardliness…
so we return to existentialism… and its understanding of
the “authentic” life…….
and this revolves around the question of our childhood indoctrinations…
if we accept and act upon those childhood indoctrinations of
myths, biases, habits, prejudices and superstitions…
then we operate under the tenants of the past…
the truths of our grandfathers and great grand fathers
exists within those childhood indoctrinations…
but can you call living with the myths and biases and prejudices
of the past, being authentic? I don’t see how…if we believe
in the myths of nationalism and the myth of American exceptionalism,
then what exactly is “Authentic” about you? you don’t have thoughts or
understandings of the world based on your experiences and your interpretations of
the world… someone else has given to you, your understanding of the world…
how is that “being Authentic”?
the false, phony distorted understanding of the world you have is from
your society and your state and your church and your parents, but
what is yours? and without bringing something of you into this mix of
childhood indoctrinations, what exactly is your contribution?
your very beliefs you act upon and willingness to die for, isn’t your beliefs
or myths or prejudices or biases or superstitions… those beliefs and myths
and prejudices were given to you by someone else as your means of
orientation into the world…what your place in the world was given to
you by others…….your parents, your state, your church, your culture…
and because you lack the courage of overcoming your limitations,
you live and die by, the childhood indoctrinations you were given…
and living and dying by childhood indoctrinations isn’t what I would
call, “Authentic”…… to be “Authentic”… one must bring to the table
the understanding of the world brought by your overcoming your childhood
indoctrinations……….
only in overcoming can you really and truly be “Authentic” because
now the beliefs and thoughts and prejudices and myths are yours
and yours alone…… derived from the blood, sweat and tears of
the overcoming of your childhood……….
there is no way to overcome without being in the Zen moment…
where everything is tossed up and down and all around…
you can only reach being truly “Authentic” by the path of most
resistance…wrestling with god… as the ancient Hebrews said…….
it is a tough road to follow, to overcome and find out who
you truly are…to become who you are isn’t easy and it isn’t
very pretty and it is full of dark days of doubt and fear……
but to become “Authentic” one must pass through the darkness into
the light of becoming who you are……….
to find your possibilities, not other people or myths or prejudices possibilities…
but your possibilities…that is what it means to be “Authentic” to discover who you
are……and that is only possible taking the high road into the mountains of self learning…
the path of least resistance is the path to being “Inauthentic”………
you want to be “Authentic”, take the least traveled road… and be ready to
suffer… for the only path to be “Authentic” is the hard painful road of
overcoming……
K: this “original, undivided, silent wordless mind”
think about it… you are born…for that second and it is only a second…
you are that “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind”…
from that second to the second you die, you have incoming
sensations, events, experiences that your senses record and
and transmit to your brain…… a newborn doesn’t have the tools
to interpret these experiences as recorded by the senses…
the ear hears and the newborn doesn’t have the experience or
knowledge to understand that noise… it is just noise and nothing
more to the newborn… the newborn has nothing to judge or
understand that noise…we who are older and have experience,
might know that noise as talking…but it takes a while to make
sense (from a newborn perspective) what talking is and what’s its
purpose…so that is why dad’s and mom’s will talk to the newborn
and say, “da-da” and point to themselves… its an attempt to
have the newborn understand that the noise, “da-da” means
something…and the newborn won’t understand what “da-da”
means because understanding requires connections from the
experience or event or person to another experience or event or
person……
I say “da-da” to a newborn and point to myself…now am I pointing out that I am a man,
or a father, or someone without hair, or have facial hair or wear Hawaiian
shirts? what exactly does “da-da” mean? to understand what a “da-da”
is, what a father is, actually quite a sophisticated piece of thinking…
now think back to our original thought…
that we must return to our “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind”
how does that “original, undivided, silent wordless mind” understand
such concepts as “da-da” or father or what talking is?
how does an “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind”
understand the world? how does comprehension work
in a “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind”?
this concept of the “original, undivided, silent wordless mind”
really strikes me more of the metaphysical, mysticism that
people like to engage with…instead of just sticking with the
facts as we know them…………
there is no evidence of any type for a “original, undivided, silent, wordless, mind”
it is more of the wishful thinking school of thought…it reduces the
problem of existence down to “just simply become what one once was”…
simple become, “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind” just become that
once again……. but we were never that in the first place……
there is no evidence that we were once, “original, undivided, silent, wordless mind”
so there is nothing to go back to…the point is, the journey of life, is forward…
always forward… that is the problem of existence… the path is forward, never
back…you can’t solve anything by looking back or returning to something that
never was………….the problem of existence is always ahead of us, never behind us…
what am I to do? what is the moral life? what are my possibilities?
who am I? what is my place in the universe?
all questions of the forward kind… now the past may provide clues to
your understanding of, who you are………and the past may provide clues
to, what are my possibilities? and what is the moral life? is certainly
something the past may help us answer, but the question itself faces
forward, not back…the past experiences may aid us in understanding
but is not a guarantee of future performance or understanding……
we strive forward, but understand looking past……
it is rather hard to explain, I will grant you…but it is important to
try to understand………
there is one direction and one direction only for human beings…
and that is forward, into the future… and that is where our
mind and thinking and understanding must lie…to return
to some mystical “original, undivided, silent, wordless, mind”
is to reject one of the basic problems of existence…
everything flows forward, never backward…………
and our understanding of who we are and what are
our possibilities must also flow forward, not backwards…
who am I? what is possible for me? what is my journey?
answers that require, demand us to look forward, not backwards…
Deus ex Machina……a plot devise whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem
in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and seemingly
unlikely occurrence……
so we have an seemingly unsolvable problem in a story that is suddenly and
abruptly resolved by an unexpected and seemingly unlikely occurrence…
so we have the problem of existence…… and how do we like to solve this
problem? a Deus ex Machina is the answer… we have metaphysical
and mystical answers to the problem of existence……….
god or perhaps this return to the “original, undivided, silent, wordless, mind”
or perhaps we return to some original state of mind……
whatever your answer is to the problem is, it must, must come
from the original experiences…….in other words, we must fashion
an answer to the question of the problem of existence to something
within existence…within our experiences…we cannot resort
as Greeks plays do, to some Deus ex Machina which is an outside plot
device… like god or being saved or confessing one’s sins or throwing yourself
on the mercy of god or some other plot devise to solve this problem
of existence……….the answer to the problem of existence lies within
existence, within experience… within our reach… and not in some
outside plot device…
to say, we must reach some metaphysical and/or mystical state or becoming
is to say, our only answer to the question of existence is the Deus ex Machina………
I emphatically reject this notion… the answer and the only answer that
matters lies in this life, in our experiences, in our existence……
therein lies the answer to the problem of existence…
But Peter, does the thought ever occur to you if you’re aware, that maybe the machine that may work, is one where. at death, the thought of what’s at the other side, there may be something or some One ?
K: and that is the classic idea of Deus ex Machina…
on the other side “may be” something or someone…
so your thought is to that something or someone instead
of, on the here and now… you neglect the present time
and place for a “may be”…… in hopes of being saved or seating
at the right hand of god… which by the way, sounds really, really,
really boring………
not me…I stand with the here and now, instead of some
“may be”…
I meant it literally, thoughts. in the here and now about what your thougjtsay be , when faced with imminent death, - whether Then, may you be thinking about the other side.
Your tho long now about it does not exclude your thinking about THEN, even if you believe that living in the now does exclude the Then.
think about how much happened by the already set programming
you have as a human being…and think about how much happened
without any input from you…you have very few choices in life…
you are born… not much of a choice there… you grow from
a newborn to a toddler…no choice there…you learn langague,
and you learn to crawl and you learn to walk and you learn to say no…
all of this follows the programming set in the DNA…
it is instinctual… and you grow all the while…
nothing to think about there… it just happens…
and as you grow, you more able to do more things…
again, as set by your programming…math, langagues,
science, the humanities… all things you learn as you grow up
you don’t teach a 4 year old science because they won’t be able to
understand it just yet, they aren’t developed enough…but you can teach them
stuff they can handle at 4 years of age…again, per programming…
and you grow into an adult… you have a certain height and weight
and hair color and skin color… and none of which you have any control over…
as you age, you change… your body changes…at one point in time,
I could run 15 miles a day and do a 5 minute mile… at one point in time…
today, I can’t… simple as that… I have aged to the point where I can’t do these
things anymore…and none of it is within my control…
and I face other things out of my control… I am slowly balding… I still have
hair… but nowhere as much as I used to…I have become an old man…
and I cannot control that… and I shall get grow older…
the simple tasks I can do today, will become harder and harder to do…
and then one fine day, I shall be on death’s door… another thing I had
no control over and another thing that is a part of this thing called life…
death is just another step along the line of life… like gaining hair and then
many years later losing hair… like being 5 foot 8 inches tall… I have no control
over that and I have no control over that next step of death…
I can wail and moan and cry over my fate… but it is a fate every single
human being has faced and will face… it is just another step…
one I cannot forestall or change……….it will happen…….
I will just be another name in the obituary column…
I will cease to exist and a few years later, be completely and totally
forgotten……. it is as if I never existed…
and there ain’t a dam thing I can do about it…
it is just another step in being a living creature…
being at death’s door……… I will knock and boldly open that door…
what else can I do?
why would I be afraid of something that is as natural as losing my hair or
being 200 pounds or being 5ft 8……… it is just another process that I will
go through as I have gone through many, many other processes in my life…
to be afraid of death is to be afraid of growing my hair or having my nails grow…
and it is as natural as growing my hair or having my nails grow………
just another step…maybe the last, maybe the first… who knows…
and frankly who cares… because you have no control over that either…
being at death’s door doesn’t frighten me…
and it shouldn’t frighten you because it is just another natural step
we take as human beings and a step we have no control over anyway…
so at death’s door, knock… and boldly enter………
it is just another door and you have passed through thousands
of doors in your life… death’s door is just another one…
True, but its also instinctual to fear, and even animals fear each other, but underneath that fear is the sub instinct for continued existence and although animals don’t know what that is, it is the fear of losing it which is bothering them.
and can we have any control over something that is unknown?
and as far as fear goes, we can control our fear… and we can even
rise above fear… we needn’t allow fear to control us…
as I have grown older, I have feared less…
when I was younger, I had fears, oh my, did I fear…
I was afraid of death and afraid of life and afraid of heights
and afraid of young republicans… I had all sorts of fears…
now that I am old… I see no reason for those fears…
ok, be afraid of young republicans… they are fucking evil…
but the rest…ahhh, whatever…
my problem is no longer fear but pure lazyness…
little seems to be worth the effort it takes…
as I have been sick for a couple of weeks, I had to call in sick
the last couple of days and most likely will call in sick tomorrow…
I have been laying low and resting… doing some reading…
and I have noticed something… I jumped ahead a bit… instead of
David Hume, I have been reading 19 and 20 century writers…
and after so much reading Hume and about Hume, I have noticed that
the writers of the 19the and 20th century are so much more complex
then Hume… compared to later writers, Hume is complicated but not
complex… in other words, Hume is pretty simple compared
to later writers… compare ummm, Heidegger to Hume…or Hume to Kierkegaard…
Kierkegaard was writing less then a 100 after Hume’s death and yet it seems to
be a million years after his death… Hume’s concerns are rather simple
and straightforward compared to Kierkegaard or to Heidegger………
the problem of existence for Hume is nowhere as complicated as the
problem of existence is for anyone in the 19th or 20th century including
Kierkegaard or Heidegger…and why is that? I have suggested that
it is in large part to the changing modes of production as Marx would call them…
in other words, the Industrial revolution…
the world is simpler for Hume and it shows in his writings……
by the time of Kierkegaard, the world had dramatically change
and become far more complicated………
and today? we have so many things going on that we can’t even focus
on one or two… how we can philosophize when we can’t even keep up
with the many events and experiences going on around us…
for that is, in part, the point of philosophy, to understand experiences
and events…but as I have suggested before… I believe philosophy is
about understanding experiences in terms of values…
science can tell us about a certain experiences…for example thunder…
and what created thunder… and religion can say, thunder
is a result of god’s displeasure with us……. but thunder is not
a philosophical matter because it doesn’t involve values…
science can tell us that love is a chemical combination
in the brain and religion can tell us that love is a gift
from god… but philosophy can tell us the value of love…
and philosophy can tell us that love has a greater value then
hate or anger and philosophy can tell us why love has
a greater value…………
so we have two points, one is the world is a far more complicated place
today, then in the time of David Hume and we must face this complicated
place in our philosophy and second, philosophy deals with values…
so, the values that Hume dwelt with are simpler then the values
we deal with today because the world is a far more complicated place today…
and we must change and adapt to the far greater complicate world of today…
but this is why we haven’t had a “great” philosopher of late because the
the task at hand is a massive undertaking…what values are the values
of today and why should we pick certain values over other values…
given the complicity of today, our understanding of values is
far too limited…and that is too bad… we must expand our
thinking and wondering to the very edge of what is philosophy in
order to encompass all the values that are possible today…
I admire You, but a very basic dear is related to the question. ’ to be or not to be’
That is before the door is crossed. It is an unknown, and could not be answered then, nor could it now. It’s alike asking a fetus in the time of conception, whether it wants to keep on developing. Even now, with the unresolved issue of early assisted termination of life, the question remains.
The answer I feel will never be solved . as it hasn’t with abortion .