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Tag: community

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    rhetoric of heroism

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    1–2 minutes

    “Wouldn’t you rather die on your feet, than serve on your knees?” This statement employs a type of vain morality that drives people into courageous self-sacrifice: killing themself for how others will see them. This is devoid of survival strategy and therefore (individually) quite stupid.

    And yet the idea (or image) of who we are is how we want to be seen, and it so profoundly affects our species that we can override survival.

    On one hand, we have the natural impulse to save our child, or any child, as the propagation of the species.
    On the other, you have a system that promotes brutal heroism and prods the shivering, shamed lonely into community sacrifice. This is not the loving mother, but a hijacked urge for approval from a missing father.

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    Sin as sublime

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    1–2 minutes

    Every deadly sin can become mystical at excessive levels.

    Transgressions at the extreme explode the individual: which is why they are a problem for community and society.

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    dissolving control

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    1–2 minutes

    Your desire for freedom, to be unconstrained, becomes a rebellion against the softest controls: the informal control of a society or culture, of parents and churches, of schools and cliques.

    The problem is, upon dissolving the informal controls, a void is left, into which slips something much more sinister: bureaucracy and commodification.

    The managerial state denies you the human aspect through rigid, formal policy, while the corporate machine harnesses your desires, which you worked so hard to free.

    Ultimately, you are now captured in strict obedience, except for your desire to want, which further fuels your capitulation.

    Neither of these systems has the forgiving softness or freedom of the community constraints you worked to escape.

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    utility as a means to social realignment

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    1–2 minutes

    When you are snubbed socially, the impulse is to regain your position in another way: if you are laughed at, you prove social worth by over-indexing on utility value (you increase your productivity) to compensate. 

    This operational and social alignment means if someone wants you to work harder, they leverage social exclusion: the more they snub you, the harder you work.

    The clever manager or bully only pushes so far, then allows a taste of the good life before resubmerging you.

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    Two reactions to Precarity: optimization and vitalism

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    1–2 minutes

    One reaction to the precarity is to return to the body, eschew ecstasy and escapism, get more sleep, optimize your schedule, and stabilize your relationships. This bodily discipline manifests targeted outcomes, and with goal attainment, it swells self-assurance which imbues a sense of control: mastery over your life.

    The problem is, it takes cybernetic and Taylorism principles (that is machine orientation) and applies them to the human, creating a series of autistic self-soothing mechanisms that produce a reduced harder, hollower self.

    Another reaction is the vitalist, who returns to nature by reanimating their animal spirit. It’s esoteric emotive entrancement provides an independent, esoteric mastery, highly romantic and ephemeral, but leaves little room for readmission to civilization.

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    Return to Nature: a reaction to precarity that is precarious

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    1–2 minutes

    The first reaction to precarity from complexity is returning to a natural state (rejecting society). Which is noble and -definitionally- insane.

    The attempt is for humans to return to themselves and reinhabit the flesh in a state of nature as they exit the digital, mechanical, cybernetic systems that distort you.

    The anxiety producing the rejection is real: We are in a fragmenting machine chewing apart the world’s stability. T

    The problem is you enter another level of precarity by excusing yourself from society: you have no sway or power and are entirely reliant on compassion when they decide to displace you.

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    rejected masculinity

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    1–2 minutes

    Many boys were taught masculinity by standing up for themselves and confronting the world’s difficulties: don’t complain, do.

    Today, as a man, you still don’t complain. But you are told to back down, apologize, and shut up: step aside.

    Many women see this as an apropos reversal: men being treated as women were treated.

    The reaction from men will be the same as that from women, except perhaps less social and more violent. Feeling alienated and incapable of providing value or worth, men form sub-societies and lean into the traits society was meant to civilize.

    How does “don’t complain, do” manifest for a man stripped of socialized, compassionate consideration?

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    Light prevails: success, meditation, and the light triad

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    1–2 minutes

    The Light Triad practices compassion, empathy, and altruism (cooperation), as opposed to the Dark Triad, which is driven by competition, aggression, and dominance (winning).

    While both groups tend to make slightly higher than average earnings, those with Light Triad behaviors tend to do better long-term because, as Robert Greene says, they realize there is more than one side to the game.

    Simplistically, Light Triad practices self-awareness, resulting in compassion, while the Dark Triad wins by condemning others.

    Interestingly, meditation enhances self-awareness and dissolves egoism (self-centeredness) through self-monitoring.

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    The blame game

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    1–2 minutes

    When we excessively shift fault to the negligence of others (by insisting they should’ve thought more of us or prevented hardship from happening to us), we create a space that disincentivizes responsibility and creativity.

    For example, automakers who fail to recall vehicles often intentionally mask profiteering as accidental negligence expecting only a harsh rebuke. Yet, the victim deserves total remuneration, and the false practice must be deterred.

    However, if we redefine “victimization” to a scale beyond any reasonable foresight and then punish makers for lacking Nostradamus-like predictive capacity, any intelligent creator will realize success makes you a target.

    If you are inventive, perhaps create, then take the money and run. There will no longer be responsible oversight or incremental advancement, but instead hit-and-run creativity to avoid a victimization mob.

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    How do you find worth?

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    1–2 minutes

    By being beneficial to one’s community.

    You must be of use, not because somebody else feels better or praises you, but because it is beneficial to others. (Being of use is not simply one’s actions or utility but derives from your worth.)

    Of course, one must first take responsibility for separating your tasks, and not seeking affirmation or praise from others. Aid must be given voluntarily, otherwise it is self-serving.

    From Alfred Adler