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Tag: perspective

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    The paradox of Equality and Difference

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    1–2 minutes

    The Woke and DEI movements theoretically advocate for ‘equality through promoting difference.’ This seems paradoxical: in a system where each element is unique, these differences produce equivalence (if every part is unique/different, they are all equally valuable).

    However, this equivalence collapses under a uniform metric or standard, like productive efficiency or race.

    The consideration between equality and difference is a ‘coincidence of opposites,’ a paradox that indicates interdependence and mutual reliability. This means there is no inherent polarity or antagonism, so endorsing one over the other or both simultaneously produces contradictory relevance or dissonance.

    Intriguingly, as a system strives toward its ideal, it inadvertently intensifies its opposite: simultaneously attempting equality and diversity guarantees the opposite of difference and uniformity.

    This ongoing struggle fuels polarization but to no apparent end: the dichotomies are inherent. Thus, their total absence cannot be manifested, and by claiming alternate poles simultaneously, we merely flip contradictions as the goal is approached.

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    Egalitarian leveling

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    1–2 minutes

    The central tenant of egalitarianism is leveling. Specific traits are compensated for, artificially creating a more flattened state, whether positive, negative, or unique. In the process of creating egalitarian equality, naturally occurring differences are neutralized or homogenized.

    The neurotic soul, the mad genius, is normalized (neutered): the excessive traits that torment and produce are considered abnormal and must be subject to enhanced conformity.

    However, there is a more philosophical consideration that extreme difference produces equality without forced normalization: if each component/individual is utterly unique, there can be no hierarchy because there is no means for comparison. Ultimate difference produces ultimate equality, with no extraneous pressure needed for artificial leveling.

    However, the underlying problem is that leveling can only happen according to specific standards (an optimal goal), ensuring unfairness in attempting ultimate fairness.

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    of idiots and believers

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    At a recent gathering, one individual remarked to me, ‘Texans, always brandishing their firearms, oblivious to the potential government response: a drone strike, and they’d vanish in an instant.”

    What’s intriguing is not just the vitriol, but how it is delivered: a common enough observation wrapped in an insult denigrating intelligence, appealing to factional loyalists. “If anyone believes this they are an idiot. I’m on the smart side.”

    However the inverse is more accurate.

    To believe someone is an idiot, and voice that in public when the premise of your logic doesn’t address the primary aspects of their motivations, makes you the idiot believer.

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    Mental health perspective

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    1–2 minutes

    When you are happy mental health advice and practice seem unnecessary as you vigorously participate in the world.

    When you are struggling it becomes a profound life line.

    The advice is to continue the practice. Don’t believe that happiness signals a cure, it merely sits atop a foundation of firm habits.

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    Mistakenly becoming a stone (subject / object)

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    1–2 minutes

    Today, the subject mistakenly considers itself an object.

    We consider a subject to be sovereign, to have individual character and desires, which block us from fully understanding or controlling them. Their subjective individuality (perhaps irrationality) hinders the smooth functioning of the world.

    Yet, if we consider the verb tense “to subject” it means to voluntarily submit, amor fati. While “to object” is to block or oppose, odium fati.

    Our common misconception is that the active subject (agent) works on the passive object (a desire or material), which becomes a ludicrous reversal of terms. Instead, the subject is passive (submissive) to the object’s active disruption (thwarting and tickling).

    This leads us to reconsider our emulation of being objective: to be strong individuals we enact blocking or thwarting, to prove our subjectivity we act like an object.

    The sands become a stone, and cease to move. Yet submitting to the winds carries us around the world.

    in part from Slavoj Žižek

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    The Confusion of non-interference

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    1–2 minutes

    In electrical systems or motors, peak performance is achieved by reducing interference. That is, to reduce friction.

    In electricity, voltage and current align by peaks and valleys syncing together. Interference is a misalignment where they end up fighting each other.

    However, we do not always want peak power immediately, so by intentional misalignment, you can create a “soft start” before ramping up to peak power. We intentionally introduce friction at the beginning.

    Psychologically, we often say we want smooth-functioning non-interference and contentment as fulfillment or happiness. But this pushes us to desire non-interference (no friction) rather than peak performance (productive goals.) It fails to overcome the early “interference” for more significant later benefits.

    This derives from a slippery reversal: reducing all friction is very efficient -perfectly aligned- but is entropic. This path lowers peaks and valleys to a flatline existence: no goal means no failure, but also there is no longer voltage or current.

    A misunderstanding is at play: Our rational brains substitute more frictionless concepts during the initial misalignment, allowing us to reframe our goal as a symptom. Achieving the symptom is easier than curing the problem or achieving the goal.

    “Contentment” and “efficiency” may come from optimizing performance, but first you must struggle (encounter friction on your path) toward a greater purpose.

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    thinking is undermining

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    Albert Camus says beginning to think is beginning to be undermined.

    This is specifically in reference to tragedy’s ability to provoke suicide. However – and this is arguable – once you consider any position long enough you will see an alternate version of it, which will undermine your primary position.

    To think is to decrease your blind faith by abolishing an innocent or naïve acceptance.

    One must consider as well the zealot and mad-man, who think excessively and have an irrational faith beyond reason and must wonder if this is actually "thinking" or if true thinking is multiple perspectives dismantling monistic thought.

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    The news has become the looney bin

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    At one point the news was a sober lens from which we saw insanity in the outside world.

    Today the news produces itself, commenting on “minor nothings” with outrage while “major somethings” go unreported.

    The news does not report on crazy; they are crazy. For any reasonable person, this makes the news un-newsworthy.

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    reframing or revealing?

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    Cognitive behavioral therapy invokes tools that allow you to pause and reframe situations into a less traumatic context or gain a broader perspective that will alleviate anxious ruminations.

    This is a fantastic tool for mental health, but what does it say about reality?

    1. Are we in a subjectively determined reality (that is, we make our reality) yet must constantly reframe it because our self-narration is so traumatic?
    2. Or does our stable reality generate antagonistic situations from which we must attempt induced blindness through escapist fantasy?
    3. Or is the world both cruel and kind, confusing and awesome, and we have been prodded into only specific ways of accessing it, and reframing is not re-framing but revealing?
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    framing yourself

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    There are moments in which you are introducing somebody to your world. In these moments we often introduce a chronology, beginning early and moving forward to catch them up to the present. If that goes well, we project into the future.

    These moments of reminiscence can be fond and annoying, a series of emotional justifications and prevarications from which our current place/moment becomes framed. If this framing is inaccurate, we are tainted; if the framing is excessive or exuberant, we become grandiose.

    I shade towards subdued and humble, but just as often find those that shade grandiose attain the status they envision of themselves, which is to become the optimistic lie.

    The cautionary note is to be neither humble nor a liar, and stretch for better without depreciation or inflation: you do not need to say it to become it.