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I directed someone to this recently, and she replied with the following, saying it was her valedictory adress.
Seeing is believing, but should it be?
Isn't it true that all animals resort to deception in order to survive?
Isn't it true that man acts in the same manner?
Does anyone exist who has enough freedom to react precisely the way he really feels all the time?
Don't we all attempt to form a specific view of ourselves in the minds of others?
Isn't the reason behind this behavior merely that we are concealing the true feelings present in our minds?
Why can't the individual realize that his own feelings are not so unique that the majority of mankind has also felt them?
Why doesn't he see that he is not as alone as his mind would have him believe?
Is the concealment of our feelings, even though it insulates us against hurt, satisfying to us and satisfactory to those around us?
How can it be when through this deception, we do not allow our emotions and thoughts to show and therefore continually suppress our true selves?
Isn't fulfillment only having done what you felt you must do?
How can we be fulfilled when we are so suppressed that we virtually do not know what we must do?
Are we so lost in playing our fictitious roles for others that we confuse acting with reality?
Is it so easy for us and important to us to deny our feelings to become one of the faceless, unfeeling crowd?
Must the seemingly opposing drives for acceptance and for individuality result in the annihilation of one or the other?
Doesn't the ability to understand involve a certain amount of acceptance?
Herein I voice the plea of every member of civilized humanity.
Learn about me, understand me, accept me.
Overjoyed to have found someone that had obviously thought about things a fair amount, I began to write... and this is what resulted.
I don't pretend to have any sort of formal training is philosophy, but somehow have managed to develop an inquisitive mind and, luckily, the ability to form thoughts into coherent strings of sentences (at least most of time). Therefore, I feel it neccessary to put this disclaimer before what I am about to write in order to save myself from too harsh a judgement if it seems unintelligent or badly thought through. Since I wrote that piece, I have several discussions along the lines of it, and have been able to further understand my ideas. It is essential to me to discuss ideas with others in order to develop them better. Every piece I write is mainly just a splurge of thoughts chasing themselves around in my head that I write down so as not to forget and to allow others their input.
Firstly, I find myself manipulating people to meet my own ends subconciously because it is, as you said, ingrained into my phsyce (as a believer in evolution and survival of the fittest, I must state that I have this trait because it is an evolutionary advantage). However, I don't manipulate everyone nor everything. There are individuals whom I trust very deeply and are very close to me, with whom I share a mutual bond of non-judgemental, no-holds-barred love. These precious few love me unconditionally, and my mind suddenly drops the manipulation. It is difficult to explain, but I no longer find myself hiding anything, being entirely and fully open with them.
Are animals capable of this? Can they trust and love? And if they cannot, and we can, that means we have evolved. What advantage, I ask myself, does this give us? I have not yet come across a viable answer.
Further, I have found that the quickest way to the resolution of any situation is to confront it head on, let your true feelings be heard and let what may happen do so. It then occoured to me that the reason we do not do this is because it is not societally accepptable. While I could rant for hours about the inefficciencies (spelled that one wrong) of society, I will spare you for the moment. Suffice to say that society is built off a strict, unwritten code of what you can and cannot do, and one of those things is confront things with your true feelings, at least not publicly.
As to each member of our race thinking he is alone and that others have not shared his feelings, I agree with your rhetorical question to a point. Yes, they "average Joe" is not so different from the other "average Joe," but at the same time, each is an individual with his own personality, biases and opinions. No two people think or function excactly alike.
Further, I have come across depressingly few people capable of carrying on a conversation such as we are having now... their brains are simply not capable of thinking in this capacity. They are, I am sure, much better at some other things, but in this field I excel over them. In fact, though it makes me sound like a bit of a pretentious ********, I walk around looking at people and thinking "I am better than they are." This is incredible for my self-esteem. Hopefully, you won't think less of me for this. Regardless, let me tie this all together by saying that yes, man can become depressed because he thinks he is alone, but it can also hearten him knowing he is "better" than others. (I realize this passage may come across as general assholery... it is difficult to explain, and I have not yet quite figured it out. I apologize for my lack of eloquence.)
One of the themes of your questions was if our "fictitious lives" would become so consuming that we would lose sight of "reality", which I took to mean who we "really are." Ah, personality, individuality... they all come down to the meaning of "true self." Who is our true self? We would all like to think that the "real us" is who we are when doing something we are good at, when we are "in our element." However, we really have no defenitive way of seeing who we "really our." This doesn't seem to be because we are so caught up in our "fictional lives", but because our fictional lives aren't really fictional if we are living them, they are just other extensions of our personality, yes? Another "us", if you will. There are many, many, "us"es, and all of them combined, perhaps, is our true self.
At this point I decided I had rambled on quite enough, and finished.
Comment. smile
 Duck_man · Mon Jun 26, 2006 @ 07:47am · 2 Comments |
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