Journal Entry: 1-18-2012
One thinks about the 19th century science of eugenics dedicated to the goal of using human genetics and selective breeding techniques to create a master race of humans. My initial response is that were youth taught the science of self-realizing, the angelic part of their natures would win out and the master race would appear as if like magic. They would have the great advantage of carrying with them the weaker part of their natures which potentially--when utilized-- could give them wondrous variety of ideational origin and a widely different perspective on life and how to live.
Of course Nazis and racists are what someone would be imputed to be today to even bring up the subject. If one openly, ethically and carefully experiments with genetic selection and some cautious tinkering with the human genetic code, it may be acceptable to society.
Would extrasensory skills induced by mind-influencing drugs and electronic implants be far behind after being embedded in people for the sake of claimed gains in human superiority? Perhaps. We must move slowly with great humility, much review, consultation and with controls in place.
No one carte blanche should shut down such research and innovative science. If much debate and consideration were negotiated in advance of experimentation, many potential bad experiments would never get underway.
The prospects are terrific without altering our genetics much or at all. We use but a small percentage of our brains and talents as it were, so as individuators, our capacity of developing into superior persons will be a standard reality. Superior persons of all races, genders and sizes will realize their possibilities in this coming generation, requiring no selective breeding to get the job done.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Living The Dream
To live the dream is to take our complex, conflicted nature, that half beast and half minor divinity, and really struggle to make something of our lives and ourselves.
Living the dream is actualizing our potential.
Living the dream is bettering the self forever and ever as long as there is a spark of life in one's body and still the remnant of a gleam in our eyes.
Living the dream is to transcend through learning and readjusting to experienced suffering, loss, setbacks, illness, derailments and obstacles.
Living the dreaming is growing and learning without imposing a nightmare existence upon others or oneself.
Life is like riding a bike. We go ahead and pedal clumsily until we are able to achieve balance, stay upright and ride forward seamlessly. Before this mastery comes stumbling, falling, bruises and scratches. We will get right back up, pick up the bike, get back on and start pedaling. Living the dream is riding the bike to a desired destination.
Living the dream is actualizing our potential.
Living the dream is bettering the self forever and ever as long as there is a spark of life in one's body and still the remnant of a gleam in our eyes.
Living the dream is to transcend through learning and readjusting to experienced suffering, loss, setbacks, illness, derailments and obstacles.
Living the dreaming is growing and learning without imposing a nightmare existence upon others or oneself.
Life is like riding a bike. We go ahead and pedal clumsily until we are able to achieve balance, stay upright and ride forward seamlessly. Before this mastery comes stumbling, falling, bruises and scratches. We will get right back up, pick up the bike, get back on and start pedaling. Living the dream is riding the bike to a desired destination.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
One With Nature
Journal Entry: 1-18-2012
Too often to attempt to be one with nature is a dehumanizing venture. God created the world but transcends and exists apart from the world. We are made in God's image and should follow De's lead in De's relationship to nature. So we are mini-creators who create, recreate and alter the natural world as we see fit. We are to utilize nature's resources for our well-being and benefit. This is no license to plunder, extirpate creatures and plants, spoil nature, waste what she offers or poison her with industrial byproducts.
To lose one's personality utterly is to immerse one's consciousness, like a mystic does, within the spirit of nature. It can be done, and may be the way to go for some, but for most people most of the time it is an ill-advised undertaking.
When we immerse ourselves in nature we are not heeding God's call to self-realize. Wickedness naturally resides in nature rather than in human circles, so immersing the self in this way bring one too close to the center of wickedness. It may be impossible to avoid being corrupted by this immersion. Too often oneness with nature is surrendering the self and the self's obligation to rule nature. One then follows the will of nature and does her bidding.
It may seem inconsistent to claim that I still love nature, never tiring of being in the country, the woods, the plains, the fields and in the garden. My Irish peasant heart loves the land.
We love and admire nature but we must not idealize her. She can be violent, powerful, merciless, savage and bloody. She is never boring. She can be terrible, wonderful, exciting and moving. She nurtures and slays. She metes out life and death. She creates. She destroys.
We are to respect her, love her and tend her but we must make a living here on earth too. The more realistic view of nature is more humane for all in the long run.
Too often to attempt to be one with nature is a dehumanizing venture. God created the world but transcends and exists apart from the world. We are made in God's image and should follow De's lead in De's relationship to nature. So we are mini-creators who create, recreate and alter the natural world as we see fit. We are to utilize nature's resources for our well-being and benefit. This is no license to plunder, extirpate creatures and plants, spoil nature, waste what she offers or poison her with industrial byproducts.
To lose one's personality utterly is to immerse one's consciousness, like a mystic does, within the spirit of nature. It can be done, and may be the way to go for some, but for most people most of the time it is an ill-advised undertaking.
When we immerse ourselves in nature we are not heeding God's call to self-realize. Wickedness naturally resides in nature rather than in human circles, so immersing the self in this way bring one too close to the center of wickedness. It may be impossible to avoid being corrupted by this immersion. Too often oneness with nature is surrendering the self and the self's obligation to rule nature. One then follows the will of nature and does her bidding.
It may seem inconsistent to claim that I still love nature, never tiring of being in the country, the woods, the plains, the fields and in the garden. My Irish peasant heart loves the land.
We love and admire nature but we must not idealize her. She can be violent, powerful, merciless, savage and bloody. She is never boring. She can be terrible, wonderful, exciting and moving. She nurtures and slays. She metes out life and death. She creates. She destroys.
We are to respect her, love her and tend her but we must make a living here on earth too. The more realistic view of nature is more humane for all in the long run.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The Right Values And The Proper Attitude Are What Count
Journal Entry: 1-18-2012
We can die on the vine anywhere from the boondocks to a luxury apartment in mid-Manhattan.
We can flourish anywhere from Sarles, North Dakota to the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.
We can be lonely and emotionally distraught alienated from our milieu, from those closest to us and from ourselves.
More significant is our attitude and living by the right values. So armed and poised, we can make it anywhere. Bereft of them, we can lose it anywhere. Let us resolve to make it.
We can die on the vine anywhere from the boondocks to a luxury apartment in mid-Manhattan.
We can flourish anywhere from Sarles, North Dakota to the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.
We can be lonely and emotionally distraught alienated from our milieu, from those closest to us and from ourselves.
More significant is our attitude and living by the right values. So armed and poised, we can make it anywhere. Bereft of them, we can lose it anywhere. Let us resolve to make it.
Trivial Motives
Journal Entry: 1-17-2012
Since people are wicked from birth, one could conclude that the dark and primal instincts, that drive us, well up from our unconsciousness (as Freud taught), coloring and dominating our thinking and behavior, make up a large part of our primitive, powerful and innate ideas. These drives must be dealt with and handled by our good wills, our reasoning, our sharp and functioning superego es or consciences and by our moderate self-control.
Eric Hoffer never cared for the thinking of Sigmund Freud, dismissing as impractical the deep curing of misbehavior. Hoffer is correct, and the need is to emphasize quick, practical, lasting limits on these dangerous, innate ideas or drives strongly impacting our behavior.
Hoffer, ever wise and pragmatic, would advise that we treat the symptoms not the causes of such deep-rooted drives. It will not do to over-analyze or seek to transform them, but we instead must recanalize them to useful or wholesome end. So concentrating our energies is cheaper, faster, morally more productive and effective.
Typically, intellectuals want a grand scheme and want people to do what is right but only if they so do from the right or purest motive. If the motive is not as formal as Kant intends, the provisional motive of the doer and their good deeds are suspect, even rejected.
Hoffer disavows such fanatics. He is a consequentialist. Less important is the pure motive than a trivial motive that produces, quick, wide-spread ethical improvement. I admire a pure Kantian motive for motivating good behavior, but we must settle for what we can achieve, even if the harmless, trivial motive triggers good behavior and elicits ethical gain.
Fanatical tyrants out to reform humanity spread great evil and do much damage.
There are no shortcuts. We sinners must improve voluntarily, slowly, the hard way. People must do good because they want to, for their own reasons. We must win them over of their own free will, one person at a time. Command and control moral legislating by the feds makes things mucked up, far worse and sets all back.
By changing the culture gently, slowly, persuasively, rationally, peacefully, voluntarily, we will raise up a generation of maverick individuators who will introduce to society personal and mass behavioral betterment. Through education and making people skilled morally, this unnatural, artificial training and recanalizing of basic drives will elicit a social setting where the inner beast is calmed, and guided to serve the higher purpose.
Since people are wicked from birth, one could conclude that the dark and primal instincts, that drive us, well up from our unconsciousness (as Freud taught), coloring and dominating our thinking and behavior, make up a large part of our primitive, powerful and innate ideas. These drives must be dealt with and handled by our good wills, our reasoning, our sharp and functioning superego es or consciences and by our moderate self-control.
Eric Hoffer never cared for the thinking of Sigmund Freud, dismissing as impractical the deep curing of misbehavior. Hoffer is correct, and the need is to emphasize quick, practical, lasting limits on these dangerous, innate ideas or drives strongly impacting our behavior.
Hoffer, ever wise and pragmatic, would advise that we treat the symptoms not the causes of such deep-rooted drives. It will not do to over-analyze or seek to transform them, but we instead must recanalize them to useful or wholesome end. So concentrating our energies is cheaper, faster, morally more productive and effective.
Typically, intellectuals want a grand scheme and want people to do what is right but only if they so do from the right or purest motive. If the motive is not as formal as Kant intends, the provisional motive of the doer and their good deeds are suspect, even rejected.
Hoffer disavows such fanatics. He is a consequentialist. Less important is the pure motive than a trivial motive that produces, quick, wide-spread ethical improvement. I admire a pure Kantian motive for motivating good behavior, but we must settle for what we can achieve, even if the harmless, trivial motive triggers good behavior and elicits ethical gain.
Fanatical tyrants out to reform humanity spread great evil and do much damage.
There are no shortcuts. We sinners must improve voluntarily, slowly, the hard way. People must do good because they want to, for their own reasons. We must win them over of their own free will, one person at a time. Command and control moral legislating by the feds makes things mucked up, far worse and sets all back.
By changing the culture gently, slowly, persuasively, rationally, peacefully, voluntarily, we will raise up a generation of maverick individuators who will introduce to society personal and mass behavioral betterment. Through education and making people skilled morally, this unnatural, artificial training and recanalizing of basic drives will elicit a social setting where the inner beast is calmed, and guided to serve the higher purpose.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Tough Way To go But Necessary And Worth It
Journal Entry: 1-15-2012
The life of self-actualization is a grueling one, but it pays off in the long run. Once the individual has discovered who she is and what she wants to do with her life, much is sacrificed by her to get her priorities straight.
This self-actualizer is a creature of solitude. She must spend much of her time alone and apart in order that she may come to know, shape and develop the self during the arduous process of "doing her art", be it one of the fine arts or some other pursuit.
She can and still should love, get married, play, work a job and raise a family. She can have friends and partake of society. She should engage in some or all of these second tier considerations as is her wont--to the extent that she is comfortable with.
Her life of positive self-absorption and solitude deeply influence and establish how she will live.
The life of self-actualization is a grueling one, but it pays off in the long run. Once the individual has discovered who she is and what she wants to do with her life, much is sacrificed by her to get her priorities straight.
This self-actualizer is a creature of solitude. She must spend much of her time alone and apart in order that she may come to know, shape and develop the self during the arduous process of "doing her art", be it one of the fine arts or some other pursuit.
She can and still should love, get married, play, work a job and raise a family. She can have friends and partake of society. She should engage in some or all of these second tier considerations as is her wont--to the extent that she is comfortable with.
Her life of positive self-absorption and solitude deeply influence and establish how she will live.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Climb
Journal Entry: 1-15-2012:
We humans, for three million years, have slowly evolved upwards to what we are today. Our values, our way of life and our institutions have grown apace.
From the individualist point of view, I would suggest that human moral values that we live by up to now are mob ethics, and they are still very popular; they are still the order of the day. This system of ethics promotes selfishness, low self-esteem, group-orientedness and altruism.
Where free will, chance or genetic tendency brings a person to adulthood as a genuine individualist--devoid of group affiliations, he surely will be buffeted by peer group wrath and rejection. He will be discredited, identified and labeled as a social outcast and loser. He will be shunned or persecuted as different or other. This pattern has repeated itself millions of times over the course of human history. If the individual is sane, sensible, self-loving, hardy and resilient, buoyed by a rewarding career, a loving partner, some friends and some solid support, he may weather the withering social dismissal fairly well.
If he is less talented, less bright, less fortunate, less sane, upbeat or kind, he may elect to become an outcast, a terrorist or outlaw that seeks revenge on people or society. He may become evil or mentally ill, or some mixture thereof. He may wield free will and be responsible for his actions, or primarily is a victim of societal, ingrained, instinctive herd cruelty towards all and any individualists, rebellious or not, wicked or noble.
Like my fellow individualists, for decades I have suffered as an individualist rejected by society as an inferior loser. My sympathy rests with the violent, destructive rebels picked on by society and subsequently getting back at the members of indifferent (passive hostility) or aggressive (active hostility) society. I condone not the wrongs that these rebels commit, but push forth the concept that they are more sinned against than sinning. Members of human society have never known, till the rise of still unaccepted Mavellonialist principles, what to do with individualists or how to treat individualists.
What is the solution? Members of society need to evolve further socially and ethically to make room for individualists. As the society advances from traditional ethics of altruism/groupism/mobism and grows towards a modern humane ethical standard of egoism, individualism/anarchism, the civilization of cultured, cultivated individualists will arrive, to be gain of all. As young people are taught that, who is in or who is out, or who is a joiner or who is a loner, or who is coming into the fold or who is leaving the fold, who is an individuator or a non-individuator, who is popular or who is unpopular, who is well-positioned or of lowly ranking, who is rich or who is poor, each person is to be judged as an individudal, the lesson will have been learned that all people are to be associated (unless they are evil or dangerous) without misgivings. Those that are decent but diverse can be warmly welcomed and associated with. As noted, only an evildoer of significant evil would be rejected until he repented and atoned.
When individualists are socially popular, accepted and left alone whether they join or not, or conform or not to the local mores, few of them will hate society, turn against it or plot and work to harm it.
Individualists need to work a little harder to be upbeat and friendly and to fit in (or at least not magnify the problems by being obnoxiously an outsider) where they can without compromising their core values or losing their freedom in exchange for being welcomed in and fitting in.
Joiners need to be more tolerant, welcoming and accepting of differing others, but they really will not make much headway at this until each of them joins a bit less to set aside time for individuating.
We humans, for three million years, have slowly evolved upwards to what we are today. Our values, our way of life and our institutions have grown apace.
From the individualist point of view, I would suggest that human moral values that we live by up to now are mob ethics, and they are still very popular; they are still the order of the day. This system of ethics promotes selfishness, low self-esteem, group-orientedness and altruism.
Where free will, chance or genetic tendency brings a person to adulthood as a genuine individualist--devoid of group affiliations, he surely will be buffeted by peer group wrath and rejection. He will be discredited, identified and labeled as a social outcast and loser. He will be shunned or persecuted as different or other. This pattern has repeated itself millions of times over the course of human history. If the individual is sane, sensible, self-loving, hardy and resilient, buoyed by a rewarding career, a loving partner, some friends and some solid support, he may weather the withering social dismissal fairly well.
If he is less talented, less bright, less fortunate, less sane, upbeat or kind, he may elect to become an outcast, a terrorist or outlaw that seeks revenge on people or society. He may become evil or mentally ill, or some mixture thereof. He may wield free will and be responsible for his actions, or primarily is a victim of societal, ingrained, instinctive herd cruelty towards all and any individualists, rebellious or not, wicked or noble.
Like my fellow individualists, for decades I have suffered as an individualist rejected by society as an inferior loser. My sympathy rests with the violent, destructive rebels picked on by society and subsequently getting back at the members of indifferent (passive hostility) or aggressive (active hostility) society. I condone not the wrongs that these rebels commit, but push forth the concept that they are more sinned against than sinning. Members of human society have never known, till the rise of still unaccepted Mavellonialist principles, what to do with individualists or how to treat individualists.
What is the solution? Members of society need to evolve further socially and ethically to make room for individualists. As the society advances from traditional ethics of altruism/groupism/mobism and grows towards a modern humane ethical standard of egoism, individualism/anarchism, the civilization of cultured, cultivated individualists will arrive, to be gain of all. As young people are taught that, who is in or who is out, or who is a joiner or who is a loner, or who is coming into the fold or who is leaving the fold, who is an individuator or a non-individuator, who is popular or who is unpopular, who is well-positioned or of lowly ranking, who is rich or who is poor, each person is to be judged as an individudal, the lesson will have been learned that all people are to be associated (unless they are evil or dangerous) without misgivings. Those that are decent but diverse can be warmly welcomed and associated with. As noted, only an evildoer of significant evil would be rejected until he repented and atoned.
When individualists are socially popular, accepted and left alone whether they join or not, or conform or not to the local mores, few of them will hate society, turn against it or plot and work to harm it.
Individualists need to work a little harder to be upbeat and friendly and to fit in (or at least not magnify the problems by being obnoxiously an outsider) where they can without compromising their core values or losing their freedom in exchange for being welcomed in and fitting in.
Joiners need to be more tolerant, welcoming and accepting of differing others, but they really will not make much headway at this until each of them joins a bit less to set aside time for individuating.
The Rush To Judgement
Journal Entry: 1-14-2012:
If it is not an emergency, if you are not under some critical deadline, do not rush to judgment. Snap judgments often backfire.
Often fault resides on both sides of a fracas. Often the actual facts of the situation are mixed and complicated.
Arriving at the facts of the given situation can be laborious and tricky. Once the vital information is gathered, the truth of the situation can be grasped and capsulized in a single sentence.
You know who is right and who is wrong. You know who is innocent and who is to blame, and to what degree. You may judge on the side of one or the other. Even if your conclusion is a mixed judgement, it reflects you impartial approach and fair-mindedness.
If it is not an emergency, if you are not under some critical deadline, do not rush to judgment. Snap judgments often backfire.
Often fault resides on both sides of a fracas. Often the actual facts of the situation are mixed and complicated.
Arriving at the facts of the given situation can be laborious and tricky. Once the vital information is gathered, the truth of the situation can be grasped and capsulized in a single sentence.
You know who is right and who is wrong. You know who is innocent and who is to blame, and to what degree. You may judge on the side of one or the other. Even if your conclusion is a mixed judgement, it reflects you impartial approach and fair-mindedness.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Ideal
The ideal for an individuator is to be able-bodied and without pain so that her physical, emotional and psychic powers and energies can be channeled to living her life to the fullest.
As she loves herself and takes care of herself, her body is regarded by her and other as God's temple. She is not to abuse it or wear it out needlessly. With prudent self-care and exercise, she should remain fairly healthy. May the advances of modern science and medicine enable her to stay in blooming health as and so she can live life to the fullest.
There will always be ailments, pain and afflictions of the body and the mind, but if these can be mitigated or made manageable, the skilled and healthy maverizer will be empowered and freed up to live life to the fullest. The future is brighter in many ways and advancing medical miracles will light the way.
Get healthy. Stay healthy. Do something extraordinary with your life.
As she loves herself and takes care of herself, her body is regarded by her and other as God's temple. She is not to abuse it or wear it out needlessly. With prudent self-care and exercise, she should remain fairly healthy. May the advances of modern science and medicine enable her to stay in blooming health as and so she can live life to the fullest.
There will always be ailments, pain and afflictions of the body and the mind, but if these can be mitigated or made manageable, the skilled and healthy maverizer will be empowered and freed up to live life to the fullest. The future is brighter in many ways and advancing medical miracles will light the way.
Get healthy. Stay healthy. Do something extraordinary with your life.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
What The Master Requires
Journal Entry: 11-26-2011:
Dictators want the masses compliant, brainwashed, and contented with their lot (happy slaves). They are to access no competing media source of information.
A free society demands critics of all bents. No stream of information, old or new, is to be damned up.
People require lots of sources of news. The liberal, biased press in America seeks to make the news more than impartially reporting the news. They seek less to inform public opinion than to tell people what to think and how to act. Due to the mob credulity and passivity of the majority of citizens, these brain washers are very successful.
The masses must become very political astute, skeptical and demanding. They are being steered, driven and manipulated. They must their their act together, take over the system and run it forever. They must get their news from several sources and then make up their own minds. By trial and error they will conclude who is to be trusted or not.
Most traditional media reporters are highly placed in the ranks of the ruling class. They see it as their right to tell voters hat to think and who to vote for. The people must push back, refusing to be told what to think and do any longer.
Then And Now
Journal Entry: 11-25-2011: Modern Day Greeks
The ancient Greeks, according to Eric Hoffer, were, in the B.C. millennium, a people forming society out of a conglomeration of remnant tribes, peoples and diverse cultures smashed together on their shores. Where collective units break down, accidentally and unintentionally Fate may trigger an outburst of development and creativity from the alarmed individuals seeking to survive the horrifying, bewildering process. The remarkable intellectual prowess out output from these ancient Greeks is almost without precedent.
With Hoffer, one must read between the lines to decipher what is implicit in his seminal thinking. The incredible, short-lived outbursts of intellectual and cultural flowering evinced by many peoples and civilizations over the centuries likely came about when traditional social structures were shattered. The warm cocoon of tribal, corporate connectedness was for some years broken asunder. People only allow the absence of social structure and the loss of warm, communal comfort for awhile before they construct or adopt from others a replacement way of life and culture that ensconces the individual within it. This way he is not alone in the indifferent, hostile universe to face God, himself, his duty and destiny without emotional moorings in group propinquity.
What happened to the ancient Greeks, for some reason, was that they got a taste for being individualists and it led to their constructing a way of life that rewarded free and original thinking and independent living by individuals in a populated society or domain.
The Greeks were the exception to the rule that where traditional institutional structures are broken or obsolete, the collectivists that have lost their traditional way of life mope around for awhile before cobbling together a new way of life that lets them spend their lives asleep and without wonder. Most of the time these collectivist under went change but not awakening. There was not even a temporary, local Age of Enlightenment that was short-lived. It never happened at all.
The classical Greeks were a melting pot of many peoples. It took maybe 600 or 700 years for them to unite these disparate peoples into one regional people with a common ethos, common language, and common social and political structures that stifled their development, and ended their freewheeling, wondrous, productive brand of individualism.
For us to construct something like a Utopian society, it must be founded on five principles. God is who we believe in and serve. Spiritual and moral goodness are our dearest desires to work toward. Moderation is the way and means to happiness, health and plenty. It is the key to heaven. We must be social and political creatures whose primary human right is to live and grow as an individual and maverizer.
For us to replicate the Greek experience, we need to accept each of the seven billion inhabitants here lives by a personalized code of ethics. Each is to be provided some solid, basic training in philosophy to provide her with a metaphysical underpinning for her own articulated ethical code. She is to be well-trained to individuate with the will, skill, confidence and ambition to do so and do so well.
What would grow out of this would be a miraculous, unprecedented explosion of new thinking, exploring and inventing. By remaking familial and social institutions to supplant conformity, groupism, emotionalism and the unquestioning approach to the world, and a substandard yet common level of achievement with independent thinking, the vigorous exercise of personal imagining, the original processing of ideas, individual existing and rational wonder about everything and anything. Society will be culturally transformed beyond recognition.
Social institutions will not go to anarchy and chaos, poverty and lawlessness. Instead, they would be strengthened as real communities of freely associating and freely disassociating individualists do their own thing while keeping society operating smoothly as an entity. They soon would rival or surpass the ancient Greeks.
The ancient Greeks, according to Eric Hoffer, were, in the B.C. millennium, a people forming society out of a conglomeration of remnant tribes, peoples and diverse cultures smashed together on their shores. Where collective units break down, accidentally and unintentionally Fate may trigger an outburst of development and creativity from the alarmed individuals seeking to survive the horrifying, bewildering process. The remarkable intellectual prowess out output from these ancient Greeks is almost without precedent.
With Hoffer, one must read between the lines to decipher what is implicit in his seminal thinking. The incredible, short-lived outbursts of intellectual and cultural flowering evinced by many peoples and civilizations over the centuries likely came about when traditional social structures were shattered. The warm cocoon of tribal, corporate connectedness was for some years broken asunder. People only allow the absence of social structure and the loss of warm, communal comfort for awhile before they construct or adopt from others a replacement way of life and culture that ensconces the individual within it. This way he is not alone in the indifferent, hostile universe to face God, himself, his duty and destiny without emotional moorings in group propinquity.
What happened to the ancient Greeks, for some reason, was that they got a taste for being individualists and it led to their constructing a way of life that rewarded free and original thinking and independent living by individuals in a populated society or domain.
The Greeks were the exception to the rule that where traditional institutional structures are broken or obsolete, the collectivists that have lost their traditional way of life mope around for awhile before cobbling together a new way of life that lets them spend their lives asleep and without wonder. Most of the time these collectivist under went change but not awakening. There was not even a temporary, local Age of Enlightenment that was short-lived. It never happened at all.
The classical Greeks were a melting pot of many peoples. It took maybe 600 or 700 years for them to unite these disparate peoples into one regional people with a common ethos, common language, and common social and political structures that stifled their development, and ended their freewheeling, wondrous, productive brand of individualism.
For us to construct something like a Utopian society, it must be founded on five principles. God is who we believe in and serve. Spiritual and moral goodness are our dearest desires to work toward. Moderation is the way and means to happiness, health and plenty. It is the key to heaven. We must be social and political creatures whose primary human right is to live and grow as an individual and maverizer.
For us to replicate the Greek experience, we need to accept each of the seven billion inhabitants here lives by a personalized code of ethics. Each is to be provided some solid, basic training in philosophy to provide her with a metaphysical underpinning for her own articulated ethical code. She is to be well-trained to individuate with the will, skill, confidence and ambition to do so and do so well.
What would grow out of this would be a miraculous, unprecedented explosion of new thinking, exploring and inventing. By remaking familial and social institutions to supplant conformity, groupism, emotionalism and the unquestioning approach to the world, and a substandard yet common level of achievement with independent thinking, the vigorous exercise of personal imagining, the original processing of ideas, individual existing and rational wonder about everything and anything. Society will be culturally transformed beyond recognition.
Social institutions will not go to anarchy and chaos, poverty and lawlessness. Instead, they would be strengthened as real communities of freely associating and freely disassociating individualists do their own thing while keeping society operating smoothly as an entity. They soon would rival or surpass the ancient Greeks.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tough To Sidestep
Journal Entry: 1-13-2012:
You cannot escape your destiny: to be called on by God to do a job for De. Be afraid. Run away. Say no. Pretend that you do not recognize the message or commander issuing it. Be hesitant. Vacillate.
Now say yes. Now show will, courage and face God, listening to De. Accept your duty to develop your talents and share this bounty with God and the world, Now your existence has importance and significance. Now you are somebody. Enjoy your lifelong adventure.
You cannot escape your destiny: to be called on by God to do a job for De. Be afraid. Run away. Say no. Pretend that you do not recognize the message or commander issuing it. Be hesitant. Vacillate.
Now say yes. Now show will, courage and face God, listening to De. Accept your duty to develop your talents and share this bounty with God and the world, Now your existence has importance and significance. Now you are somebody. Enjoy your lifelong adventure.
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Contrast
Journal Entry: 1-13-2012
There will always be the contrast between living in fast-paced, cultured, sophisticated, urbane places like New York or Paris versus residing on a farm near Pine River, Minnesota, or raising a family in Sauk Centre, or residing and making a living in Burnsville.
Each location is beautiful, fulfilling and exciting in one way, and ugly, boring and insipid in another way. The self-realizer, the maverizer, separating himself from the group, makes his artistic and intellectual mark where ever he lives or works. The setting is almost irrelevant. If there are contiguous others like him working hard and imaginatively to improve themselves, high civilization and deep thinking and noble living will unfold anywhere. Why cannot the tavern in Pine River serve as a redneck salon?
Developed, seminal people make the place what it is more than vice versa. A place of high culture will be made better by the presence of active maverizers. A place of rather uncultured farmers and laborers can begin to catch up or even roar past the salons of Paris.
There will always be the contrast between living in fast-paced, cultured, sophisticated, urbane places like New York or Paris versus residing on a farm near Pine River, Minnesota, or raising a family in Sauk Centre, or residing and making a living in Burnsville.
Each location is beautiful, fulfilling and exciting in one way, and ugly, boring and insipid in another way. The self-realizer, the maverizer, separating himself from the group, makes his artistic and intellectual mark where ever he lives or works. The setting is almost irrelevant. If there are contiguous others like him working hard and imaginatively to improve themselves, high civilization and deep thinking and noble living will unfold anywhere. Why cannot the tavern in Pine River serve as a redneck salon?
Developed, seminal people make the place what it is more than vice versa. A place of high culture will be made better by the presence of active maverizers. A place of rather uncultured farmers and laborers can begin to catch up or even roar past the salons of Paris.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Gratuitous Snottiness
In today's Star & Tribune, a Grand Forks North Dakota columnist, 85year Marilyn Hagerty, wrote glowingly about the great food and service at the new Olive Garden that just opened in Grand Forks. For some reason her column caught on, went viral, and the snooty East Coast elitist panned her appreciation of such a plebian restaurant as Olive Garden fit only for the unwashed masses not knowing any better than to eat there and then rave about it.
People, including elitists, run in packs. As such, group ranking is imposed and where one is ranked is very important to these joiners. This jockeying for position makes the natural inclination to find someone or something to look down on impossible to resist. These cultured elitists, mocking homespun Hagerty and her middlebrow restaurant tastes, are guilty of thinking that they are superior to North Dakotans, though in fact they are not. Dining at a clean, attractive restaurant serving tasty, well-prepared, well-served common food available to customers at an affordable price seems like a slam-dunk to me. To look down their nose at average people for their tastes and choices does nothing to elevate cultured snobs.
The accomplished individual is proud and self-confident, but does not feel compelled by some terrible need to feel good about himself by means of putting down someone nearby for the way they dress or live. Cultured joiners in elite clique cannot feel secure temporarily unless they are constantly putting someone, somewhere down, as voiced in their displays of oral and written contempt. They are mean, unpleasant people with no manners or class. If they knew better, the way they behave should embarrass them into silence. The way they act is impolite and inferior to basic good manners expected and met in most middle class North Dakota homes.
People, including elitists, run in packs. As such, group ranking is imposed and where one is ranked is very important to these joiners. This jockeying for position makes the natural inclination to find someone or something to look down on impossible to resist. These cultured elitists, mocking homespun Hagerty and her middlebrow restaurant tastes, are guilty of thinking that they are superior to North Dakotans, though in fact they are not. Dining at a clean, attractive restaurant serving tasty, well-prepared, well-served common food available to customers at an affordable price seems like a slam-dunk to me. To look down their nose at average people for their tastes and choices does nothing to elevate cultured snobs.
The accomplished individual is proud and self-confident, but does not feel compelled by some terrible need to feel good about himself by means of putting down someone nearby for the way they dress or live. Cultured joiners in elite clique cannot feel secure temporarily unless they are constantly putting someone, somewhere down, as voiced in their displays of oral and written contempt. They are mean, unpleasant people with no manners or class. If they knew better, the way they behave should embarrass them into silence. The way they act is impolite and inferior to basic good manners expected and met in most middle class North Dakota homes.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Based On Your Convictions
Journal Entry: 1-13-2012:
It is admirable to act based upon your convictions. You are fired up by what you hate, dislike, fervently oppose and work hard to forestall. Much good and likely more damage has accrued because people like you were only, negatively motivated to prevent something they detested from being achieved.
Being motivated to get involved is an excellent first step. But it is not going far enough in the right direction. You are still playing defense. As Rush notes frequently, to win you must play offense.
You must be upbeat, intent, fired-up and energetic in fighting for something positive. If you champion a constructive cause that would make things cheaper, more humane, safer, more efficient, more inclusive, more modern or more luxurious, and you enthusiastically and publicly tout it over an extended period of time, it should start to catch on.
People should start to take notice and support your program. Then the initial steps on the way to universal acceptance are well along the path to gaining wide appeal and widespread support. Long-term support requires a positive message promoting the benefits of your introduced program.
It is admirable to act based upon your convictions. You are fired up by what you hate, dislike, fervently oppose and work hard to forestall. Much good and likely more damage has accrued because people like you were only, negatively motivated to prevent something they detested from being achieved.
Being motivated to get involved is an excellent first step. But it is not going far enough in the right direction. You are still playing defense. As Rush notes frequently, to win you must play offense.
You must be upbeat, intent, fired-up and energetic in fighting for something positive. If you champion a constructive cause that would make things cheaper, more humane, safer, more efficient, more inclusive, more modern or more luxurious, and you enthusiastically and publicly tout it over an extended period of time, it should start to catch on.
People should start to take notice and support your program. Then the initial steps on the way to universal acceptance are well along the path to gaining wide appeal and widespread support. Long-term support requires a positive message promoting the benefits of your introduced program.
Who Has Left Us
Journal Entry: 1-13-2012:
There are people whose passing is a real loss to the world, for they had been loved by their families, by the community and in some cases by all of humanity.
Their kindness, their wisdom, their leadership, their talent, their good cheer, their inventiveness and their love of life and love of others are some of the reasons why they made the world a better place.
The aim of Mavellonialism is to greatly increase the number of community members who, when their lives are over, would be greatly missed. They, when or before expiring, would know they made a huge difference locally at least, and perhaps on the wider stage of humanity too. A bright light would have gone out with their passing. Each of these heroes would have made a significant impact on the lives of those around them.
The more such departed person so heralded would be one of the indirect measurements of the growing influence of the Mavellonialist movement.
There are people whose passing is a real loss to the world, for they had been loved by their families, by the community and in some cases by all of humanity.
Their kindness, their wisdom, their leadership, their talent, their good cheer, their inventiveness and their love of life and love of others are some of the reasons why they made the world a better place.
The aim of Mavellonialism is to greatly increase the number of community members who, when their lives are over, would be greatly missed. They, when or before expiring, would know they made a huge difference locally at least, and perhaps on the wider stage of humanity too. A bright light would have gone out with their passing. Each of these heroes would have made a significant impact on the lives of those around them.
The more such departed person so heralded would be one of the indirect measurements of the growing influence of the Mavellonialist movement.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Leibniz
It may have been Leibniz that proclaimed that no two things are identical in all respects, and that no two things are unalike in all respects. This seems right, and could serve as foundational suppositions upon which to build a theory of moderate ontology.
Purity in reality does not exist or rarely does. Things are mostly dissimilar or mostly are similar. Some things are totally alike and some things are totally different from each other. But most objects and ideas fall somewhere in between these extremes.
Purity in reality does not exist or rarely does. Things are mostly dissimilar or mostly are similar. Some things are totally alike and some things are totally different from each other. But most objects and ideas fall somewhere in between these extremes.
The Essence
Plato taught that Forms were the essence of each thing and person. The Form or Soul was thought to be what is permanent, singular and unchanging, while the physical or biological body is constantly changing. Still, the essence of the self or thing in question is still what it is over time and despite repeated transformation. Platonic interpretation of reality is that immaterialism and matter participate in each other somehow (he is correct), and this accounts for the unchanging, constant identity of the self or thing over time while ever changing and always being altered.
Does this participation in each other of the same and unchanging versus the differing and changing indicate that change is illusory, while the Forms are derived from the eternal Brahmin that alone is the One, eternal and unaltering? No. Fate is more changing than unchanging but Fe is both at the same time. God is eternal, and more artificial, spiritual than physical, but is changing more than unchanging. The Devil is eternal, but more natural, physical than spiritual, but is unchanging more than changing.
Gong back to Plato, the spiritual spark, the soul, is dynamic and the body, the material, is rather inert, and inactive until worked upon, entered and organized by the Creator, instilling in the matter the elan vital.
How is it that the divinities are changing and unchanging while being eternal? I know that is how they are but cannot prove it. This is one of those mysteries to accept on faith. One day our advancing science and technology my provide a rational answer to this mystery.
Does this participation in each other of the same and unchanging versus the differing and changing indicate that change is illusory, while the Forms are derived from the eternal Brahmin that alone is the One, eternal and unaltering? No. Fate is more changing than unchanging but Fe is both at the same time. God is eternal, and more artificial, spiritual than physical, but is changing more than unchanging. The Devil is eternal, but more natural, physical than spiritual, but is unchanging more than changing.
Gong back to Plato, the spiritual spark, the soul, is dynamic and the body, the material, is rather inert, and inactive until worked upon, entered and organized by the Creator, instilling in the matter the elan vital.
How is it that the divinities are changing and unchanging while being eternal? I know that is how they are but cannot prove it. This is one of those mysteries to accept on faith. One day our advancing science and technology my provide a rational answer to this mystery.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Feeling & Being Weak
Journal Entry: 1-12-2012: Often the cruelest people are not those that are strong or brave. Most are weak cowards, and their meanness is their pathetic attempt to convince themselves and their victims that they are strong and masterful. The projected illusion actually takes hold until someone pulls back the curtain to reveal the weak, cowards masterminding it all.
Many bullies loathe themselves. They are failures, weak-willed, also-rans and are craven. They derive some sick sense of temporary self-esteem by dumping on the helpless.
People that are classy and courteous may not be the richest people on earth. They may not be the most connected. They may be socially or politically incorrect. They may not be beautiful people.
But they are beautiful inside and in the way they treat others and themselves. Their cheer, their decency, their integrity, their kindness, their approachability and their warm manners shine through. They are strong and brave, so they can afford to so conduct themselves. Their behavior is the standard for showing what middle class etiquette should be. This is how they treat themselves, their family, their neighbors--regardless of who is prosperous or broke, powerful or disenfranchised.
Many bullies loathe themselves. They are failures, weak-willed, also-rans and are craven. They derive some sick sense of temporary self-esteem by dumping on the helpless.
People that are classy and courteous may not be the richest people on earth. They may not be the most connected. They may be socially or politically incorrect. They may not be beautiful people.
But they are beautiful inside and in the way they treat others and themselves. Their cheer, their decency, their integrity, their kindness, their approachability and their warm manners shine through. They are strong and brave, so they can afford to so conduct themselves. Their behavior is the standard for showing what middle class etiquette should be. This is how they treat themselves, their family, their neighbors--regardless of who is prosperous or broke, powerful or disenfranchised.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Speaking The Truth
Journal Entry: 1-12-2012:
Your assignment is clearly to speak the truth and live in the truth as best you grasp its essence and are able to carry it out.
If this lifestyle makes you unpopular, so be it. If this lifestyle costs you friends and social standing, so be it. If your take on reality is unorthodox, and thereby is rejected by the majority, so be it. If leaders in the community are affronted by your observations, so be it.
Time will vindicate you. What is objectively true will come to light once the dark and haze are gone. Your job is to speak clearly the truth and live in the truth.
Your assignment is clearly to speak the truth and live in the truth as best you grasp its essence and are able to carry it out.
If this lifestyle makes you unpopular, so be it. If this lifestyle costs you friends and social standing, so be it. If your take on reality is unorthodox, and thereby is rejected by the majority, so be it. If leaders in the community are affronted by your observations, so be it.
Time will vindicate you. What is objectively true will come to light once the dark and haze are gone. Your job is to speak clearly the truth and live in the truth.
Fight To Defend Your Castle
Journal Entry: 1-12-2012:
We need to believe that we have the right to secure, maintain and defend our house, family, neighborhood, state and nation against ill-wishers and interlopers of any kind. We belong here and that sense of ownership demands that things are kept safe, welcoming, quiet, secure, attractive, clean and orderly--in apple pie working order where one would not fear to raise a family or walk the streets.
We are to be individualistic and maverize but it is also our responsibility to keep the community and bigger political entities funtioning well. These dual requirements need not conflict as we juxtapose them both.
We need to believe that we have the right to secure, maintain and defend our house, family, neighborhood, state and nation against ill-wishers and interlopers of any kind. We belong here and that sense of ownership demands that things are kept safe, welcoming, quiet, secure, attractive, clean and orderly--in apple pie working order where one would not fear to raise a family or walk the streets.
We are to be individualistic and maverize but it is also our responsibility to keep the community and bigger political entities funtioning well. These dual requirements need not conflict as we juxtapose them both.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Rather Insulated From Objectivity
Journal Entry: 1-12-2012: We really are subjective creatures, deeply and immediately overwhelmed and impressed upon by what is happening to us and around us right now. Right here at this moment is the center of the universe. That is how we naturally react to and perceive things.
With this in mind, we must learn to think logically and dispassionately about what is happening to us. We must build objectivity into our conclusions. As part of our thinking and consciousness, a little objectivity separates us from how we feel in reaction to something occurring under our noses. Our conclusions will be a bit less short-sighted, knee-jerk reacting, parochial or jingoistic.
Those among us that become self-realizers, individualist, moderate and rational are repeatedly seeing the world through detached, impartial eyes. It is much more difficult to steer them to gullibility, credulity, hopelessness or acting panicky.
Where people are subjective, emotional, groupist, passive, or unexposed to competing ideas and outlooks, it is easier by far to steer and direct them. They will not wonder why, question, interrupt, investigate or compare the con man's spiel to the points of view from vying others.
With this in mind, we must learn to think logically and dispassionately about what is happening to us. We must build objectivity into our conclusions. As part of our thinking and consciousness, a little objectivity separates us from how we feel in reaction to something occurring under our noses. Our conclusions will be a bit less short-sighted, knee-jerk reacting, parochial or jingoistic.
Those among us that become self-realizers, individualist, moderate and rational are repeatedly seeing the world through detached, impartial eyes. It is much more difficult to steer them to gullibility, credulity, hopelessness or acting panicky.
Where people are subjective, emotional, groupist, passive, or unexposed to competing ideas and outlooks, it is easier by far to steer and direct them. They will not wonder why, question, interrupt, investigate or compare the con man's spiel to the points of view from vying others.
Shared Briliance
Journal Entry: 1-11-2012: As we individuate, becoming much wiser, more knowledgeable, very skilled and talented, and if we are good enough, the fruits of our labor and development may display flashes of brilliance, virtuoso and insight--at least these heights are what we aspire too, and some of us will make it too. As we evolve to higher levels of accomplishment, we have become very self-empowered, powerful and influential. We have joined the ranks of God's angels walking about on earth.
We humans, as capable individuators, are God's representatives on earth. How we comport ourselves reflects directly on De. Being great or even celebrated does not relieve us of that obligation incumbent upon all individuators to lead humble, mundane lives while doing impressive things. Doing marvellous things and leading an exceptional life require that we avoid being distracted, waylaid, corrupted or destroyed by something akin to the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle.
Working a regular job, being married with children, mowing the yard and volunteering for the neighborhood block watch club are all ways to keep us decentralized from vitiating start-worship. To be great and yet middle class and ordinary is a way to stay realistic, rooted, sensible, practical, not taking the self too seriously. One may have one's head in the clouds when one's feet are firmly attached to terra firma.
We aspire to be powerful, but not power-hungry. We want to be proud and confident of what we have done without descending into a pose of arrogance and smugness. Addiction to fame and star-status changes how one views the masses. One begins to hate them, to look down upon them, to believe that one is better than they are.
Where 92% of our middle class neighbors are as talented and respected as we have become, becoming powerful and very skilled likely will not lead to craving amassed power. We want our power without resenting our muscular neighbors for going after, acquiring and enjoying their power. Such thousands of dispersed centers of powerful persons wielding real powers keeps the power so decentralized so that the powerful masses cancel each other out. That is a good, workable distribution of political, social and economic power.
We humans, as capable individuators, are God's representatives on earth. How we comport ourselves reflects directly on De. Being great or even celebrated does not relieve us of that obligation incumbent upon all individuators to lead humble, mundane lives while doing impressive things. Doing marvellous things and leading an exceptional life require that we avoid being distracted, waylaid, corrupted or destroyed by something akin to the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle.
Working a regular job, being married with children, mowing the yard and volunteering for the neighborhood block watch club are all ways to keep us decentralized from vitiating start-worship. To be great and yet middle class and ordinary is a way to stay realistic, rooted, sensible, practical, not taking the self too seriously. One may have one's head in the clouds when one's feet are firmly attached to terra firma.
We aspire to be powerful, but not power-hungry. We want to be proud and confident of what we have done without descending into a pose of arrogance and smugness. Addiction to fame and star-status changes how one views the masses. One begins to hate them, to look down upon them, to believe that one is better than they are.
Where 92% of our middle class neighbors are as talented and respected as we have become, becoming powerful and very skilled likely will not lead to craving amassed power. We want our power without resenting our muscular neighbors for going after, acquiring and enjoying their power. Such thousands of dispersed centers of powerful persons wielding real powers keeps the power so decentralized so that the powerful masses cancel each other out. That is a good, workable distribution of political, social and economic power.
Proportional Improvement
Journal Entry: 1-11-2012: As she individuates, her ethical stance, her manners and her manners should proportionately improve. Her entire demeanor and skill set grow as one.
The Highest Sense
Journal Entry From 1-11-2012: An individuator will do his duty first and foremost, and so doing completes the highest sense of self-interest.
Less urgent, less Kantian moral motives and choices require that his enlightened self-interest is met first. Secondarily, the self-interest of others is to be met.
Less urgent, less Kantian moral motives and choices require that his enlightened self-interest is met first. Secondarily, the self-interest of others is to be met.
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