Ever since I was a teenager I knew that something weird was going on in the world. People said they lived in a democracy, yet they were constantly moaning about how things were run - And this state of affairs has continued for a long time. Perhaps it will continue indefinitely?.. No.
I predict a future event - I do not know its exact nature - Let's call it Event X. It'll be a 'blue pill'; a doorway to the metaphorical rabbit-hole. It'll be a blessed day, though not without reckoning - Suffering appears to be the only thing which brings people back to themselves. They want to lose themselves in pleasure - Well, let them suffer awhile! They will become all the more stronger for it.
Most people have no clue about what's going on. Give them a Blackberry, an iPad and they'll be content to while away their lives on a piece of stupid technology... 'But technology is good, right?'
That's a thorny question. Given the uses to which it has so far been put, technology represents a tool of oppression. Indeed, as an object of fascination, it leads people outside of themselves. Materialism - as a system of values - attempts to externalise what is truly valuable to man. People neglect their true inner wealth and occupy themselves with chaff.
The fascination with technology is idolatry of a sort. I'm no Christian, but it's pretty sensible to say: 'Don't make for yourself any idol which neither lives nor breathes.' Conversely, the Judaeo-Christian God [beardy-guy in the sky] is saying 'Honour and respect those things which live', albeit in a rather cryptic fashion.
Our true wealth lies inside - An ego is simply the vehicle through which we realise one-ness with the world. But it is in no way innate to man. Else the first thing babies learn to say would be 'Me'. But this is not the case! Self-reference occurs later in development, a long time after toddlers have begun to express love and compassion for things. I've even read some 'concerned mothers' writing about how their children don't repeat their own names - Aaargh! It's not a fault, it's a good thing. The ego develops only later in a child's life - It is no way inborn or innate.
What is truly valuable? I will offer some thoughts.
1. No object exists of itself; no object exists which is not dependent on observation. Without our observation of a table, the table is naught. The existence of external objects is dependent on internal processes.
2. The capacity to experience joy, happiness, pleasure and contentment all derive from internal phenomena. The iPhone doesn't make you happy, it has no value in itself.
3. Your body is the most amazing thing. It can adapt to any situation, stimulus, environment - It's incredible. Why feed it meds and crap food which fucks it up? [Slight confession: Just ate a chocolate bar with a 'honey centre' which had a honey content of 0%.]
4. Laplanders can sleep in snow at sub-zero temperatures. Primal humans have senses which rival those of wild beasts. Humans have innate ESP.
5. Reality is nothing without expectation/observation. Reality is formed and actualised through expectation, observation and pure potentiality. No expectation/observation without an 'expector'/observer. And potential is nothing without subsequent actualisation.
6. Through introspection we arrive at the Source. We cannot discover it through anything external to ourselves.
Great post.
ReplyDeleteBut I think a child does say "Me" at first. Apparently, when a child is born it knows no difference between the objective and the subjective: it thinks that everything he thinks happens - solipsism.
The babies hungry, it cries, and it receives food. The baby thinks that his crying made the food come, as an internal cause and effect (rather than an external cause and effect - that the mother heard the crying and so gave the baby some food)
From what I've found, babies aren't egoistic. Or rather they are egoistic, but only insofar as the satisfaction of their physical and emotional needs are concerned. Past that they're la-la-la :D
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