Seeking resemblance in an unfriendly reality
All of intelligent life is seeking that which it recognizes in itself, which is order, a conscience, and motive. Yet when we seek these things in reality we find the opposite. We find a universe slipping always into disorder, sheer depravity instead of conscience, and chaos where there should be a motive.
The apostle Paul admits that looking around, it sure seems like nothing that is observable resembles ourselves, so instead he tells us that in the face of this evidence we must still decide that something somewhere resembles ourselves. We call this concept "God". Thus we give ourselves what we really want, which is to look into the face of reality and see ourselves, or at least, a being that is similar to ourselves; a perfect, all-powerful version of ourselves.
Even when we accept this biblical faith, we can't divorce ourselves from the problem of our species, which remains strong and steadfast no matter what we do or what we say and no matter how much faith we put into any given thing. We recognize through the lessons we learn in life that things are fundamentally chaotic and without a motive. This is Kierkegaard's "dizziness of freedom".
We experience dread and anxiety because we are perfectly reasonable beings that can observe reality and report back how it is. Unfortunately for us, the more honest we are about our reporting, the more bleak and hostile the universe seems to our existence.
Either choose to devote yourself to aesthetic pleasure or devote yourself to a higher ideal, ultimately, one leads to the next in an ouroboros. The only true choice is to look into the face of reality, see nothing which resembles ourselves, and then decide that in spite of that, something, somewhere must resemble ourselves, or it is to recognize that all of reality is hostile to life and that we are a mistake in the eyes of reality that will one day be corrected.
The apostle Paul admits that looking around, it sure seems like nothing that is observable resembles ourselves, so instead he tells us that in the face of this evidence we must still decide that something somewhere resembles ourselves. We call this concept "God". Thus we give ourselves what we really want, which is to look into the face of reality and see ourselves, or at least, a being that is similar to ourselves; a perfect, all-powerful version of ourselves.
Even when we accept this biblical faith, we can't divorce ourselves from the problem of our species, which remains strong and steadfast no matter what we do or what we say and no matter how much faith we put into any given thing. We recognize through the lessons we learn in life that things are fundamentally chaotic and without a motive. This is Kierkegaard's "dizziness of freedom".
We experience dread and anxiety because we are perfectly reasonable beings that can observe reality and report back how it is. Unfortunately for us, the more honest we are about our reporting, the more bleak and hostile the universe seems to our existence.
Either choose to devote yourself to aesthetic pleasure or devote yourself to a higher ideal, ultimately, one leads to the next in an ouroboros. The only true choice is to look into the face of reality, see nothing which resembles ourselves, and then decide that in spite of that, something, somewhere must resemble ourselves, or it is to recognize that all of reality is hostile to life and that we are a mistake in the eyes of reality that will one day be corrected.
Comments (6)
Do you think that this is what, for example, Caesar was thinking when he crossed the Rubicon?
But then ... opposites attract!
Quoting 64bithuman
Love that phrase: Basically overchoice, a burden as great as choicelessness. Hence aurea mediocritas I guess.
Quoting 64bithuman
There are many ... many ... ways to die! Encircle, annihilate! Encircle, annihilate!
I am not sure 'reality' has been backed into a corner on this matter. The little we understand is not written against a promise that we should have received in some agreement. We have drafted those promises entirely on the basis that it would be great if they were in effect.
Quoting 64bithuman
So firstly - not all people experience anxiety and dread. I don't. I see no reason to fear or dread or fester over anything much. To steal from Hamlet - [i]...there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so.[/i] People become prisoners of their thinking.
I do not think that we can 'look into the face of reality' or 'know' reality. All humans can do is observe a world of appearances and generate useful or inadequate narratives that explain what they see. If you are generating a narrative wherein all of reality is hostile to life, it's likely you are generating a less useful narrative.
The same subatomic particles that make up the cosmos and the billions of years of earth evolution have come together to create the perfect conditions for this moment, andyou are part of that. You just happen to have a brain that is attempting to translate that reality through the filters of societal conditioning, genetics and your experiences.
What you may interpret as chaos, may be ordered beyond your comprehension.
Quoting 64bithuman
When you say that our only choices are to melt into hedonism and to live for personal pleasure and satisfaction or to align ourselves with a "higher" ideal, thus trying to abandon the physical realm that we undoubtedly exist in, you are speaking of two extremes that act conceptually as two sides of the same coin. Both paths seek to escape reality. The former desensitizes you to the clarity of the felt experience of everyday life by pushing your ordinary senses into overdrive and the latter winds you up so tightly in belief systems that you don't have enough room to receive a deep breath of oxygen and just take in the universe and your connection to all of existence.
What does it mean to just be, to relax into the middle and allow the pendulum to settle and relax into a state of natural stillness? Perhaps in this state of rest and release, we can truly feel the rhythm of our belonging.