September 1, 2010
take your hat off, please
I used to think of ideas as clothing. We clothe ourselves constantly to protect ourselves, to integrate with current fashion, or to signal something we hope exists. What makes religion, philosophy, self-help so difficult to integrate is the reality that our conscious selves are only a fraction of who we are. To impose a particular and, almost by definition, fractious, thought, as if somehow it serves to suit the whole, is one of the fundamental and most repetitive human foibles. I think.
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indeed. which is why as you age you tend to wear less and less clothing. when you bother to dress at all.
our conscious selves are only a fraction of who we are
I’m not sure I agree with this (at least if the term “fraction” is defined to indicate a small part). I agree that we are not defined merely by our conscious selves, but I think that humans (some more than others) have the ability to be quite conscious of who we are, what we think, what we feel, what we want, and why.
The primary distinction I would draw is one of intelligence, not consciousness.
I agree we can begin to accumulate an awareness of who we are, from what I’ve been reading about studies on the conscious and subconscious mind, though, the conscious mind seems to float atop the other and has much less control of the whole than we like to think. I can give some examples, but my intention is the idea that any particular idea we hold in mind at a particular moment can become very difficult to integrate with the whole. I’m thinking of some people I know who have adopted external values — god, guns, country — and imposed those, at the risk of their sanity, upon themselves. just one example of the conscious mind imposing something on the other.
you know, off the top of my head (sorry…), i have a hard time visualizing “guns” as a value.
stop by next time on your way through Texas.
Okay, I see what you’re saying now.
conflating this post with the comedy video posted directly after, it does seem apparent that anything may be ascribed as a value these days, to include rampant idiocy. perhaps especially rampant idiocy.
also, why did I wake up singing evanescence this morning?
huh. got me. if it’s not on the satellite i ain’t know it.
call me when you’re sober
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