Well, because I'm scattered:
- What is all this business with these Hegelian concepts of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis? It seems as though the thesis is what organically forms - arguably forming from a past synthesis. But as it forms, and as it seeks to expand, it produces an antagonism to its surrounding environment, an antagonism in which the antithesis forms.
- A proportion of life identifies with and hardens around the thesis, while another proportion identifies with and hardens around the antithesis, an antagonism that lays the grounds for mutual destruction.
- To escape destruction, a synthesis must occur in which the thesis and antithesis are combined to form something new. A new thesis emerges, which begins the process anew. So it is in this way that history progresses.
- So in this way, some form is birthed through converging forces and takes its shape from those conditions, with a state or shell or supportive skeletal structure spidering throughout which seeks to hold this form into place as it disintegrates. This is an old conception that needs updating, so more investigation is needed.
- On pathology: there will always be different types of people. The impulsives drift past the regulatory patterns set by the ocds and etc.
- Inner pressures take their power from greater outer pressure. So, talking about social dynamics, social pressures exist because of how we generate meaning. Much of the intersocial pressures are generated through the apprehension of a system of mores and mythology, through which the self eventually emerges in a struggle for individual glory.
- Each individual seeks a self placed over the selves in the image of the respective archetypal mold, which generates pressure. To escape inner pressure, the subject must affix his or her attention to a greater constellation of meaning beyond the mythical self and its relation to others, which has to happen naturally.
- Elitism and puritanism seek to freeze their own definitions, denying the autonomy and power of other agents
- So let's not argue for an elitist conception of words and their corruption. Granted, words that become too corrupt become meaningless, but words whose meaning is frozen contribute to a curtailing of creativity. This leads to a naturalistic conception of words, whose meaning can drift and change due to the endless plurality of their use, while still allowing for some calcification for purposes of clarity and accuracy.
- It is true that we are traveling in the wrong direction, but to deny the humanity of the agents caught up in that wrong direction is to sow the seeds for a future wrong, going only in a different direction, for direction is the momentum of egos striving. Better to have patience and allow for a plurality of interests and worldviews, while holding the dignity and inherent worth of person, and other life forms for that matter, to be inalienable.
- This is not to say that one should necessarily tolerate sociopathic and criminal behavior without defending oneself. But to turn away in sadness is a far more effective reaction; to meet force with force is to inflame both sides.
- Neoliberal propaganda seeks to decouple the individual from interconnected reality, to isolate the individual and to extinguish the propensity for collective action, and ultimately render the individual - and by extension the group - socially and politically impotent.
- An extra burden of unnecessary complexity arises from attempting to balance or mitigate the effects of inequality. Inequality can only grow if not addressed, and its effects percolate into every sector of society. Overcomplexity grows worse and energy is lost as effective action grows diffuse. Simply: inequality must be dissolved.
- The instinctual basis of fascism is: let me do it, with the subsequent fetishization and worship of the archetype of the mythological father, or the original actor behind the image of the society the fascist is seeking to restore - however illusory that image may be.
- For a game to be successful and fun for all players, each player should be equally able to grow in power and expect to win, at least until the very end. Otherwise if one is doomed from the start - or conversely, sure to win - why even play?
- Wittgenstein was absolutely right about language. One of the chief problems with philosophy is the language barrier implied with the deeper exercise of any given school of thought over time. But he was pointing to an aspect - in this case, language - of a greater force, of which language is a part of. The language arises out of not just a given subject's fixations and areas of study, but the very state the subject is in. For example the language of a cerebral, rational person differs, sometimes radically, from the language of an expressive, emotional person, or even a spiritual person.
- However the Buddhists - and also the Hindus - were right that this is something that happens all the time. It is happening now.
- To elaborate, when you are interested in something and it excites you, you are more motivated to pursue it. You absorb the language and logic of the discipline. As your comprehension progresses, you absorb more, and learn more in turn. You can create your own working model to situate words and meaning. The deeper the thought goes, the more transformed the very structure for communicating that thought becomes. This is how language separates us.
- The truly talented manage a plain yet profound language, to communicate to as many as possible, and over long periods of time so that the language itself manages to escape expiration.
- What you may see as a cyclical pattern could be universal, or it could simply exist within a larger historical formation, and these patterns could change over time. One has to be very careful.
- So, the danger of cyclical thinking is that a given cycle could be occurring in a truly linear system. For example, the revolving seasons may appear to be eternal but are slowly changing insofar as they occur on a changing planet. Conversely, the danger of linear thinking is mistaking a linear process for something that is in fact cyclical, so that upon thinking that "this time is different," one is actually witnessing a pattern that will repeat.
