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As we know: rhymes aren’t right. (neither is alliteration)
“Might make right” is an intentional slur against bullies, but proves poignantly enough the fragility of righteousness in the face of reality.
To make right our reality, do we destroy might?
If so, have we become mighty bullies swinging our glorious righteousness?
Have we inverted it: Does weakness make warriors?
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The more we narrate our life, the less we are enacting t: we turn to language to fantasize and reposition ourselves, and as life grows more complex and callously brutal, words become easier than life.
"Life will not be blathered into submission." ~ Ian McGuire
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The drive to find purpose, to fulfill ambition, is a misdirection forcing you to disconnect from reality.
Sam Harris says ambition and purpose are imaginary friends; there is no reason that reality is insufficient.
This is true, but also privileged nonsense. Having the ambition to achieve lands you in a place soft enough to consider purpose, where before it was clear: survival. Many people are hip-deep in reality (aka survival), from which our ambition can drag us free.
The irony Harris brings to light is that achieving the comfort that allows us to consider "purpose" is to overcome survival, that is, to escape the nagging confrontations of reality. Once free (free of reality, free to consider purpose), we should turn off our ambition to return to reality.
Yet overcoming requires such persistent effort that humans are conditioned and are dreadfully afraid to return to the state of survival. It is not that Harris is wrong -we should reconnect with reality and drop illusions- but it requires a mad overcoming or padded life before such returns to reality are wise.
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The cybernetic system approach (machine-like control) to shaping your world is predicated upon the appeal of certainty. In cybernetics, influences are cataloged and countered, inefficiencies blocked and reduced. This allows for toggling of controls to better predict and influence the future.
Raised in controlled systems, we seek more certainty, which does the disservice of softening us to the intrusion of reality: the unexpected conundrum is devastating, and we have no resilience upon which to parry it.
The ripples of this systematized way of thinking, arguably rejects reality and thus our resilience to unexpected conundrums, converting them to catastrophe.
The opposite, perhaps the antidote, is a surreal fuel logic; for instance, the Hopi would not plaster a certain spot on the wall, so that the unseen, spiritual Otherworld, the shadow world could also have an unfinished piece of plaster on their house, which they could then plaster over, of course, this plaster would remain unseen, but allow the spirit world to complete the house.
This ritual introduces a complex nonsense that cannot be controlled and instead is folding the bizarre, the insane, into the every day. In such a manner, it is an inoculation against the odd shock.
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The true struggle is to do nothing, to remain open without your internal narratives.
Procrastination (doing nothing) is active self-harm, replete with self-centered worrying. To truly do nothing is to lose self-concern. It is closer to a negation of noise or depletion of ego: it is the space in which you can open up before your instinctual response closes you back down.
To subvert our striving or anxiety in order to clearly hear another requires a stance of ready reception: a negative effort, as Simone Weil calls it.
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Beginning from perfection guarantees reality will come up short.
However, if we start from a position of blankness (non-anticipation), every benefit or character trait is a novel addition instead of a subtraction from the ideal.
Starting from the ideal promises unconentment and loss.
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the symbolic slips into artifice, illusion or camouflage.
These have the power to alter reality, but they cannot generate the reality they are drawn from: they are secondary manifestations.
Not being worn of reality they can never be it. They cannot be primary or foundational, but only ride upon and take advantage of the real.
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The desire to be liked by others (likability), whether it’s your boss or strangers, can stem from a need for safety or a desire to be seen as a good person.
However, seeking approval requires constant effort and doesn’t guarantee stability or assurance. Trying to please everyone is an impossible task, as people’s desires often conflict.
Instead, being genuinely responsible and consistent in yourself can attract genuine “liking” from others. True liking, or respect, is gained from the recognition that you are working on yourself first, not working to please others.
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When confronted with daily pressure, some retreat into and gain assurance from the ideological or transcendent, but we must face up to the certainties. Which includes our own absurdity and contrivance to escape reality.
“Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me?” Albert Camus
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The real me is superior to this situation.
If only the actual, authentic self were revealed or unleashed, success would be at hand. However, we are often inferior; if we cannot admit this, we will continue to be lacking.
Our dreams of being secretly superior are, at first, escapist fantasies. Yes, we should dream, but lest we indulge in our unmaking, we must utilize them to inspire action.
