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Tag: learning

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    The Precarious Illusion of Progress

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    1–2 minutes

    We become so accustomed to infrastructure that we become blind to its benefits until it erodes. From physical systems (such as highways, roads, or sewers) to ideological frameworks (such as scientific processes or Judeo-Christian values), we become complacently reliant on this contemporary tower’s upkeep as we attempt to launch further into excessive freedoms.
    Historically, the ideas of individuality, freedom, and equality have been illogical anachronisms from which we must inevitably tumble. Yet, in our belief in immanent progress and the righteousness of our causes, we think we are on a launch pad when we are delicately perched atop a tremulous tower, a juttering scaffold of political insanity.

    Keep the faith and never look down, lest reality cause you to fall.

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    Money as Stress

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    1–2 minutes

    Think about money as stress, both an accumulation and an expenditure.
    To become proficient in something, one must undergo stressful learning, after which it seems easier, and people pay you so that they do not have to stress (experience difficulty) outside of their subject of expertise.

    Equally, as you gain responsibility, more stress and risk are placed on you, and you are paid more. To offload home stresses, you can then afford better entertainment, services, and safer communities.

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    Tracing Triggers

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    1–2 minutes

    We must trace the outburst when we act out, lash out, or are triggered.

    You can ask: "When was the last time I felt this?" or "When did this happen to me as a child?" Yet, the knowledge alone will not heal you. Intellectual answers only prepare you to come to terms with the emotional pain. Inside this pain, the emotion you have traced, you can finally allow yourself to forgive yourself for the hurt others caused.

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    progress undermining Stability

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    1–2 minutes

    Progress is laudable and, by its nature, unstable. However, focusing on some social advancements undermines the founding cause of why progress is possible: that progress must be sustainable, or it is merely an immature, immanent disaster.

    For instance, once a path to financial security, college education has become fiscally irresponsible and ideologically constraining. Its promised utility misaligns with post-graduation reality. Many graduates are left to return to academia or enter parasitic economic prognostics (enter the realm of speculative finance) rather than contributing productively.

    Consider the broader repercussions: Education’s increasingly self-referential logic continually draws on external resources to expand its crusades. The contradiction of taking tax money to condemn the government and citizenry while simultaneously raging against colonialism and capitalism risks the stability of its foundation. When progress overextends its base, instability follows: a correction or a crash ensues.

    This is reminiscent of a plant or tree whose attention is on gaining light until it topples, ripping its roots out of the ground.

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    Hoarding Protective Strategies

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    1–2 minutes

    The tools we use to get us through period in our life can lose their purpose once we have moved on or overcome.
    Yet we tend to hang on to our protective practices, to reenact them in more and more inappropriate ways. If they provided safety and security once they might do it forever. In such ways our baggage swells, as we hoard our coping mechanisms.

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    Herd Mentality vs. Individual Freedom

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    1–2 minutes

    There’s an evolutionary tension between the desire to separate from the herd and the need to claim communal solidarity—we strive to be both individually free and communally secure. This conflict is mirrored in corporations and nation-states, which encourage extreme specialization while maintaining cohesion through structure, salary, and perceived stability.

    By nature, the "tribe" or "bureaucratic structure" often opposes our individuating desires while fulfilling cohesive others. At times, we find comfort in rules over relationships (Jack can’t get away with that) yet feel alienated when our personal wants are denied (I deserve this, this makes sense for me).

    Further, when mistreatment and unfairness occurs, we see the cult-like contradiction of charismatic leadership within the community and realize that it’s neither rules-based nor stable. Instead, it functions as a herd—providing protection and power to a few, while suppressing and exploiting the instincts of the many.

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    Bitterness

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    1–2 minutes

    When the recipe of life goes awry, it is normal.

    Sure, give yourself a year to mope because it hurts to lose and have to start from scratch, but to continue to soak yourself in sorriness is to overcook, to become bitter and rancid.

    Rather, start something new that can rekindle sweetness.

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    Learning: Dragons or Rockets

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    1–2 minutes

    Is philosophical learning an antiquated folly? Imagine Walter Benjamin or Einstein as Don Quixote, insanely living a noble lie in a brutal world.

    Consider the outcomes: Benjamin, a notoriously eclectic reader and philosopher, committed suicide fleeing the Third Reich. Einstein’s learning aided him in escaping by making him valuable to the Allies.

    The key difference (for this supposition) is the practical use of Einstein’s mind rather than his philosophical considerations. Practical conversion (utility) may save you in the short-term to continue your musing, while primarily convoluted aesthetic or theological discourse tends to create a tragically celebrated martyr.

    However, practical considerations make for a blunt human, and all grand creative endeavors and ideals stem from the philosophical “what if” instead of the sensible “what now.” The folly is to cling to the grand imagining (dream) rather than supplement reality with it. Yet, the fantastic becomes its own inverted form of survival, and it is infinitely more appealing to fight dragons than to design rockets.

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    Decoding Flows: Form Without Function

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    1–2 minutes

    Deleuze & Guatarri speak of "decoding flows" of information.
    Once information does not flow along channels and then breaks into subsidiary functions, it is rendered useless. This "code," if not "decoded," becomes ineffectual.

    D&G discusses "the body without organs," which can seem horrific if taken literally. When organs cease to decode information flows, they lose their former purpose, leaving a "body" (a form) but without functional components (intent/utility). As a human, not decoding flows renders your form and intent purposeless, a vague blob of decohered information.

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    The seed of doubt: proselytizing

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    1–2 minutes

    True faith often dissuades proselytizing because it holds that truth is self-evident and requires no external validation.

    For instance, the Amish exemplify this belief by focusing on living their faith rather than converting others. If wrong, they harm no one else; if right, they attain their spiritual goals without coercion.

    Conversely, within some faiths a kernel of doubt at the root can drive aggressive proselytizing, which manifests as social reinforcement.

    This overcompensation arises from a need to suppress personal uncertainties by garnering collective validation. Hence, doubt fuels a collective delusion, creating a proportional façade of correctness through communal affirmation.

    True faith, in contrast, remains steadfast and non-intrusive.