Evolutions in Thought
Considering, (not surprising, given my reading), the evolution mankind has undergone in terms of his thinking. (I use the terms "his", "him", "man" etc. in a gender-indifferent fashion, please don't waste my time with any politically correct gender-fascism.)
First - there is language. "In the beginning was the word...". Nothing we have done before or since has come close. Language both defines ourselves, our world and our place within it. This beginning with the word, common not just to Christianity and Judaism but a thousand different creation myths across as many cultures - this is not an accident.
Think - there are tribes (some still in existence) - that cannot distinguish between green and blue, and have to be taught the difference gradually with colored cards, have to be taught that there is a difference and then to discriminate between them.
There are arguments that even as recently as a few thousand years ago humans didn't "see blue", or not certainly as we see it today. And think of how language has evolved - across different cultures, to reflect our current epoch. The evolution of language since the invention of the World Wide Web, even, a relatively short span, how many new phrases have come into vogue? First - uncommonly to describe things that were imagined, yet not in existence, and then again commonly to describe them when they had been brought into existence.
And there are other languages, of which most of us know nothing - the language of musicians, notes, keys, clefs, of painters, whose language must naturally encompass a richer vocabulary for hue and texture, whose eye must discriminate, the jargon of a thousand unrelated professions from Priest through doctor, computer programmer, lawyer, each with a common tongue, but each as well with his own unintelligible vocabulary that allows him communion with his peers.
Language - note - not written language - but oral traditions, folklore, is what defines us, changes us, Christianity an excellent example of a myth destroyed by writing it down, in it's innumerable translations having lost almost all of it's symbolism and meanings, lost - through history, distance, through a general inability of the written word to convey over time the breadth, magnitude and symbolism of living experience.
Math, which I had considered separately but reconsidered - it's own language - but language as well, Math, the invention of (was math discovered? Or invented?) which facilitated architecture - the building of the pyramids, of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, of spaceflight and - if we should as a species live to see it - interstellar travel. And each addition to Math's language - for example the 0, Pi, then negative numbers, prime numbers, and a thousand other concepts beyond the scope of this post - each led on to countless new discoveries and achievements. And - marvel then, that each discovery or invention follows almost as a matter of necessity from the one before it.
"In the beginning was the word...", and if you are to believe it, this makes us Gods.
How, then, can we make it better? What changes in language will improve our lot?
Now, this is a good jumping off place, considering the different cultures across the world, and how their language shapes them, defines experiences that you can't have or recognize unless you speak their language, think of what is lost when a language goes extinct, and think of what we can add to ours to make the future a more interesting place...
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Neurosis
Reading, at the moment, Sigmund Freud's "A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis", and enjoying it very much. Clearly he knows his material - he having discovered/framed/invented modern psychology, and it pairs well with the Dictionary of Symbols I'm reading. I know, I've been at that one for a while but there's some 1000+ pages of thin paper with fine print. It's a big book to be enjoyed not all at once.
Back to Freud, reading it I came up with a short inventory of my own Neuroses - in no particular order. First of all it's interesting how many things I actually don't like to do, yet do on a regular basis:
1) Smoking - I mean, there's no excuse. I seldom enjoy it, rarely crave it, and yet even as I'm reflecting on this I'm lighting up a cigarette. ??? WTF. And it's not like I ever particularly enjoyed it, so at what point did it become a habit or necessity? At what point did I "buy in" as they say, and at what level?
2) Drinking - This is a habit I acquired recently and I know exactly how this got started, and I suspect it's true for a lot of alcoholics. Drinking makes everyone else a lot more bearable. I said it, it's true, and when I discovered the truth of that I went a little overboard. The problem - of course there's always a few, including the single liver, slow mornings and general accompanying self-loathing, is that while everyone else becomes more bearable, I become unbearable. So it's a little like a teeter-totter. Up-Down, and rarely are you on a level with anyone else. And, like smoking, I don't particularly enjoy it, like anything with regularity it loses much of it's luster and sobriety is my preferred altered state.
3) Sex. If memory serves I generally used to enjoy it, but for quite a while now I've avoided any sort of entanglement. I mean, there's a lot of excuses for sure, like if you've seen what passes for most people's sex lives you'd give it all a miss as well, but - even offered reasonable circumstances and partners I find myself going out of my way not to get into trouble.
4) Travel. Love to travel. Rarely do I get to. There's something there.
5) Painting. I like to paint, despite being generally dismayed at the results. So, why don't I paint more? Hmmm.
6) Writing. Now this is the one that is pissing me off, this goes beyond writer's block, it's become a major fucking issue. I can sit for hours staring at a blank page and while the pages on either side will crawl with notes and inspiration, the one in front of me remains blank. And, having walked 90% of the way, only to encounter this invisible wall, this force field that I can't articulate my way over or around, this blind spot right in front of my eyes, well, single-handedly it's generating it's own subset of neuroses.
The rest. Reading. Love to read, Love to watch a good movie, listen to music, love to go to the art gallery or the Theatre, thrift shopping, antiques, yet - all of these things I procrastinate and deny myself. I like Mushrooms & Acid, yet - always - procrastinate, make excuses, "too much of a time commitment", when in fact I'm seldom if ever doing anything better with my time. And reading - I read, still, but could read more, and too much of my reading is done online, threads on reddit, news stories, inane, irrelevant - the fact that the Shermans' had to hire their own private investigators before the police would investigate as murders the deaths of their parents - these things serve to increase your neuroses, the indifference of the police added to their bungling incompetence, if you weren't crazy before an hour or two online catching up on the news of the day and politics would certainly make you so.
And, things like Cleaning. If I could create a Tulpa for that I would. I love a clean space, but could never be bothered to get off my ass and do it myself. And procrastinating. Something wrong there for sure.
Now, a short list but already there's a pattern of doing things I don't enjoy and postponing/neglecting and denying myself those things that I do. Now in large part we can put this down to "Civilized behavior", that is, I've been well indoctrinated into western culture, but I'm thinking, I'm thinking, maybe it's time to bail...
This should be my inspiration for the New Year, do nothing that I don't enjoy, and somehow find a way to do everything that I do.
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Tulpa
I came across this a long time ago when reading up on Tibetan Mysticism, and had need of the word a few weeks ago but couldn't remember or find it. But - no sooner do you put the question out there than the internet reflects the answer back to you...
Tulpas:
Any doubts I had were allayed by the fact they have their own website. And the "For Science" slogan in the upper left. Uh-huh. In any event you can't broach a topic like this without incurring a fair bit of "woo-woo", so you have to sift the "evidence" and "testimonials" with more than a grain of salt.
But seriously, this has some curious ideas embedded within it - as in, this voluntary creation of another personality in a way resembles multiple-personality disorder, only the one is the willful creation of someone the creator wishes (and presumably can get along with), the other is the involuntary creation of a personality that often isn't liked by the principal conscious inhabitant. And the idea of projecting it into the wider world around us, that it can assume it's own corporeal shape and grow independent of the creator, well, there's some serious food for thought.
Note: We do this otherwise, with people, children, technology, etc - but there is always the intermediary step of physical creation, with Tulpas there is not.
Related: Golem, Frankenstein's Monster, Shamanism, Spirit Guides, Psychopomps, Alexandra David-Neel oh, once you begin this one you can be led down a great many rabbit holes...
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Online Extortion
Screenshot kind of says it all...
Remember when the Mafia used to run the neighborhood and would collect "Protection Money" and you'd wonder "Who do I need protection from?", and, of course, the answer was always them. The internet is the only place I know where this is still a passable business model...
The scary thing is the solution they're selling is often far worse than the problem...
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- Category: Rants