How do we know ourselves?
We compare and contrast ourselves to other people, things,
places and animals…………
Think of yourself… Think of you as a lone, solitary creature
all alone in the universe. There is nothing else. How would you know
yourself if you are the only thing in the universe? How would
you understand yourself without something to compare or contrast
yourself with? To understand yourself as an being who communicates,
how would you know this without anyone else to communicate with?
You cannot know if you are smart or funny or wise or even tall without
something to compare yourself with. It is by other things, be it people,
things like chairs or walls or idea’s like freedom that we understand
who we are. You are not an isolated being. You are connected within
a entire universe around you. We humans seem to be big until
we compare ourselves with elephants or the universe itself. It is
this comparison that allows us to begin the process of understanding
who and what and why we are…….Even something like death must
be compared to something for it to be understood…
So you want to understand yourself? What would you compare yourself
to? If I compare myself with an ant, I look pretty dam good and if I
compare myself with Gandhi, not so good. So it is in comparison
that we see what values are the values worth having and worth
living for and dying for? So who should I compare myself with?
Should I compare myself with someone like Newton or Einstein
or perhaps Spinoza or Socrates or Gandhi or Martin Luther King?
Yes, I should compare myself with the higher, more accomplished
members of the human race. To compare myself with higher, more
accomplished members of the human race means I am comparing myself
to someone who has accomplished something or has raised themselves
to a “higher” level then I have reached…… I must to reach their level of
achievement or accomplishment, raise my energy level. To reach
someone lower in the achievement or accomplishment level, I just
need to be lazy and unmotivated. It is about the energy expended
that allows me to reach higher or no energy expended to reach lower.
I can also use society, the polis to compare and contrast myself
with, I can use the society at large to compare myself with.
For example, IQ45 and his followers, those who believe in intolerance
and bigotry and hatred and violence and greed, I can compare and
contrast myself with them and find myself in opposition to them
and their beliefs. Why? Because of the values I hold are not
intolerant or bigoted or full of hatred or violence or of greed.
“I hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal”
The values I hold, that I can compare with others, are values which
are about toleration and non-violence and of love. for I can compare
those values against other people and see the value of those values…
Compare for example, Hitler’s value against the values of Jesus.
I find the values of Jesus to be of more societal value, whereas
the values of Hitler are destructive and lower the energy
put back into society. Look at Hitler Germany and look at the
result of Jesus. See the negative energy of Hitler and the
positive energy of Jesus. And I can compare and contrast those
values with values I have or want to hold or should hold.
It is this comparing and contrasting that allows us to
orientate ourselves in the world and the universe.
What does it mean to be human? I can simply compare
and contrast what it means to be a dog or a rock
or another person and I can begin to see what it means
to be human.
And the values we have, I can do the same thing with values.
Compare and contrast the values I have with the values of others
and see which values become important and which values become less
important. compare and contrast……. this is one way to become
who you are…
Kropotkin