Elite Minorities/Unity

You read these words and you are probably conscious of the "meaning" of them and not the shapes of the letters. If you decide to study the letters, you probably see just that: letters. You see all the lines that make up each individual letter as a unity. You also know that the dot above the "i" is part of the "i."

In the same way, when we walk down the street, we see the meanings in our visual field, and neglect the raw visual data. Now this "raw visual data" is itself an abstraction. It is difficult if not impossible to see without recognizing objects. Still, we sometimes will pause to study the shape and/or color of an object. Sometimes, this object is a group of clouds. Or perhaps an ad at the bus stop.

I think it would be silly of me to condemn in any way our capacity to see the meaning rather than the "raw visual data." We evolved this ability because it helps us survive. It's essential also for social reasons. A wedding ring means something. The look on a stranger's face means something. But it also just is.

Certain thinkers have written/spoken of being a sort of indifferent mirror to reality. Perhaps the idea is that fear, envy, hatred, lust, etc., distort our perception of the sensual richness at all times available to a healthy human being. And then we have the emotional richness available to those not harried and tormented by abstractions. Hegel associated time with concept. Well, desire and fear are emotions in relation to an imagined/conceived future. And this future is conceived in the terms of the past. Our passed experience teaches us what to expect from our current experience, and also what to look for in it, how to shape it.

"La la la live for today" is not my message here. To make time and the concept taboo is absurd, in my view. All I'm trying to do is put some weight on the other side of the scale.

My wife hates math, and doesn't like the more abstract aspects of philosophy. I used to sometimes be frustrated by this. I would even nag her to read certain books. I now can kick myself, because it's more than a little possible that she was moving through her life with a richer sense of the sensual and emotional. Who was I to impose my favored abstractions on another being? Sensual and emotional richness is not easily spoken or written of. I suspect that many great souls are overlooked because they have chosen to live more in this realm, and not in the abstract realm.

I see girls on the street with brand name t-shirts like "be be" for instance. This amuses me. The store offers you a lower price product that at least features the name of the store, even if this name is imprinted on a shape as basic as a t-shirt. The store is offering its customers pure symbol. The buyer summons the "magic" of that stores advertisement by simply wearing the name. And it is often just a name, no picture.

This is why I think the focus on hypocritical religion is too narrow. We are idolatrous in many many ways, not just in the matter of religion. We don't just drive a car, but also a brand. Our hair is not just a shape, but also an association with celebrities and stereotypes with the same hair. We are hyper-symbolic these days. Everything is hyper-text. Yes, that's an exaggeration.

So we have our favored abstractions, and our favored brands. From there we can pretend that other human beings live in an inferior way. This is especially easy when we see the obese, the addicted, the dirty, the homeless, etc. There is of course some truth that we make our fates. But who is this "we"? Did we create our own characters? And if it's true that we did, did we create the "we" that created our character?

How often do we turn what should be gratitude into an excuse for contempt? And pretty soon, the world is a mess because they won't live like we do. If only the world were like you and me, we might say to a friend. We could all be happy. You and I wouldn't start wars. You and I wouldn't steal. And perhaps that's true.

The problem with this, in my opinion, is that everything is connected to everything. The good food and education you may have received was quite possibility paid for by a rough life somewhere else. Is there money anywhere that doesn't have blood on it? Is there land that hasn't been fought for? And what about all the generations before us, the source of our genetic code? What violence, theft, and exploitation were committed to ensure the survival of these genes in us?

The point isn't guilt. Screw guilt. The point is awareness of connectedness. I am aiming my rhetorical cannons at the island myth. Our bodies replace their cells constantly. An interruption of the exchange of water or air is quickly lethal. Food and excretion are also necessary constants. So the body exists only as part of a system that includes food, water, air. And this body only comes from other human bodies. We think by means a learned language. We are deeply immersed in the world. It's only the well-fed low-manual labor lifestyle that can allow much forgetfulness of this. And yet modern man is fortunate (?) enough to often indulge this island fantasy.

The stoic and the skeptic use abstractions to forget or ameliorate their slavery. The crude theist invents a master above his earthly master. This is in Hegel, by the way. Abstractions and spirituality go way back.

Perhaps the most common modern religion is the self-fetish. We build a system of concepts that shares our name, and slave away for the greater glory of this name. We live our lives from the outside. We peep in, trying to see our glorious personality as we hope others will see it. This is a harsh exaggeration, of course. But are we not taught to seek this career, buy this product, visit this museum, give to that charity, largely for the glory of the persona rather than for genuine pleasure?

How many humans have worked night and day, away from wife and children, to buy status symbols they have no time to enjoy? And what kind of enjoyment do we get from status symbols? Obviously, some kind. I associate status symbols with religion. I think that brand names like Nike and Calvin Klein and Coke, etc., etc., have all wised up to what a brand name is. It's a fetish.

I think what's bad about all fetishes, be they philosophical, scientific, theological, brand-name based, the cult of celebrity based....is that they reduce the wonder in everyday life. We box up the Good into something small, something expensive, something one works for, something one can hold over the head of another human being. We have a strong tendency to form elite minorities. If I were to simply curse elite minorities, I would be creating a new one. It's all of piece, in my book. The world must at least on an ideal level be accepted as a piece. On a practical level, we will of course work to improve our lives. We must pass laws against murder, etc. But perhaps there is a part of "emotional hygiene" that sometimes involves accepting the world as a whole, "as is," including the cancer that kills children, the starvation, the vanity and contempt man has, etc. etc. To see it all as one and accept it as a package deal. To exclude, in these ideal moments, no one from our sympathy. To "forgive" even Hitler, or a raging homeless man, or an abuser of children, or the executives whose money promotes war, etc. etc. To see all humans as one human in 6 billion different flavors, manifestations. We can imagine the human as a particle that manifests different properties according to its relationship to other particles. If we are "happy and wise" at moments, this is a gift, even if it also cost us hard work.

There was/is a lot of wisdom in the saying of grace before meals. I mostly experienced this on TV, and not in "real life" (as if TV weren't quite visceral really.) One thing that most of us are probably "guilty" of all too often is ingratitude. I sound like an old man, right? If I blog this, it's to share a reminder for myself with others. I have often resented certain chances that were not presented to me, that were indeed presented to others. It takes only a little reflection for me to remember the not insignificant fact that I have been a healthy little bastard for 33 years. What greater wealth is there than health? You can say "food" but that is part of health. A starving man is not a healthy man. A healthy person, if unhappy, is "wasting" their health. And I have wasted many years, especially in those difficult 20s. I suppose our angst is unavoidable. But what if much of our angst is an unnecessary self-obsession? I find that my "greatest" thoughts are hundreds if not thousands of years old. And these are the best I can offer. What has this "self" to add, really? I've added the most to this world by interacting with other humans. Of course this interaction has been enriched by my thinking and studying. And I have often played the role of the likable nerd. The point is that my personal relationships are where I have really made a difference on the Earth. No doubt, a lonely genius will now and then give humanity something beautiful or useful. I'm not trying to condemn or attack anything. That's an essential point. I guess I'm really trying to praise a measured humility and awareness of the richness of something as easy and obvious as the color, sound, texture, scent, and taste or everything around us. And more important than these, the experience of love. Don't expect me to stop reading books. There is love in concepts too. Math is beautiful. Or some of it is. But I hope to love math-haters as much as I love my fellow math-lovers, as long as they are kind. I think it's fair to love the kind more than the unkind. And I am not, make no mistake, presenting love or anything else as a duty. I think the presentation of duty is a killer of the spirit. Prohibitions are confusing. It's better to praise what these prohibitions implicitly praise. The "sin" of adultery is the implicit praise of sexuality associated with love and commitment. The "sin" of jealousy is just implicit praise of a life free of that nasty creature. The mortal sins are generally just inferior modes of being. Perhaps when dealing with children, the simple prohibition is all they can understand. But I don't like spiritual traditions for adults to dwell on duties or prohibitions. I would like them to point the essence, to the positive that is waiting.