Some more philosophical extractions for you... The desire to control desire is the death of desire because all desires have goals, even desires to un-do desire. Buddha is said to have claimed that desire is the source of all suffering. So someone's desires are thwarted, and if that person is in a position of power, a war is then often fought. Some have speculated that the Eastern philosophy of extinguishing desire really was Eastern elites' way of controlling their populations.
If you want something, and you haven't let the pain of failure and disappointment numb you with the clouds of forgetfulness, then you haven't fully desensitized yourself from the things you want. Therefore, you have goals, and strategies to reach those goals. Many people play the game of double bind with themselves. Or, they expect to be disappointed with something or another, and then distort their true desires.
The above is a philosophy of pessimism. Pessimists insulate themselves with a minefield of projected disappointments, so as to numb disappointment. For example, if a pessimist is watching their favorite football team on television play against a "better team," they will project "their" team's loss at the end of the fourth quarter. This helps mitigate the palliatives for the advocates of pessimism. Pessimists are therefore caught in a double-bind woven by themselves. It's like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" way of thinking. Winning and losing are then miserably and successfully pushed away.
True wants and desires become a very painful thing to be avoided for many in this world. This world is manufactured for unfulfillment. Another example I've noticed is that with people who want to make art, but claim they "can't draw," are actually avoiding disappointment. The hurt and the pain that they imagine that they will encounter from their own judgments and their friend's judgments make them avoid drawing. This is an example of a thwarted desire, not an example of someone who has no desire to make art. Absence of desire isn't a problem here.
I say that this world is "manufactured for disappointment" for obvious geo-political reasons, but also because of spiritual reasons. I believe that human beings are animated by an immaterial spirit which exists beyond the physical body. Our spirits, souls, ethereal bodies, or whatever you want to call them, are part of a larger family of spirits or souls. Because we chose to embark on this physical plane of forgetfulness, distortion, and illusion, we are separated from our greater selves. Yet we all still feel the pain of separateness in so many unconscious ways. Loneliness is a universal problem humanity has for example.
Many people are constantly trying to assuage this sense of loneliness and separation through a plethora of tawdry societal schemes. The architects of our current western civilization constructed our world and their world based on the philosophical principle of service to the self as the primary motivation that moves the geo-political economy. Ideas such as this can be found in the writings of Ayn Rand, as well as The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. Sigmund Freud contributed to this egocentric quality that people universally display on many different levels of function as well.
Materialism is a perspective that contributes to the numbing of spiritual qualities, characteristics, understandings, and unfoldments. So the pursuit of material experiences and items tends to shunt aside real individual growth and development, as well as interdependent social developments. Many writers have written about the strategy to keep citizens afraid of one another and in competition with one another so as to keep people from joining in unions, public meetings or any other kind of threatening solidified social forces elite members of society are terrified of.
It's not my aim to completely denigrate materialism. I believe all of the opportunities for experience and learning that the west's declining material culture provides are valuable feedback mechanisms that can allow for growth in understanding. The tools that are the of result western science are magnificent accomplishments for the good of all. Computers are one example, and the concomitant internet subsequently released for public use afterwards exponentially multiplied the benefits of communication, information, and connection with other people all across the planet.
At present, I am criticizing what I feel is a very lop-sided vacuum of wisdom and spiritual evolution the western worlds maintain. Eric Fromm and Carl Jung both wrote about the west's pursuits of materialist science at the consequence of avoiding any kind of education about our spiritual and even religious inclinations. I believe that in the years to come as the western cultures rapidly decline due to evil financial and political malignancies, people will be losing many of the dreams manufactured for the twentieth century generations.
The loss of material pursuits, such as good paying jobs, stable families, and equity, such as spacious homes and luxurious cars, will introvert masses of people, and will require them to reach into themselves and search for deeper meanings to their lives. And it hopefully will help in promoting deeper societal connections between people, therefore solidifying efforts for social causes through shared suffering.
--eVan, January 5, 2013
If you want something, and you haven't let the pain of failure and disappointment numb you with the clouds of forgetfulness, then you haven't fully desensitized yourself from the things you want. Therefore, you have goals, and strategies to reach those goals. Many people play the game of double bind with themselves. Or, they expect to be disappointed with something or another, and then distort their true desires.
The above is a philosophy of pessimism. Pessimists insulate themselves with a minefield of projected disappointments, so as to numb disappointment. For example, if a pessimist is watching their favorite football team on television play against a "better team," they will project "their" team's loss at the end of the fourth quarter. This helps mitigate the palliatives for the advocates of pessimism. Pessimists are therefore caught in a double-bind woven by themselves. It's like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" way of thinking. Winning and losing are then miserably and successfully pushed away.
True wants and desires become a very painful thing to be avoided for many in this world. This world is manufactured for unfulfillment. Another example I've noticed is that with people who want to make art, but claim they "can't draw," are actually avoiding disappointment. The hurt and the pain that they imagine that they will encounter from their own judgments and their friend's judgments make them avoid drawing. This is an example of a thwarted desire, not an example of someone who has no desire to make art. Absence of desire isn't a problem here.
I say that this world is "manufactured for disappointment" for obvious geo-political reasons, but also because of spiritual reasons. I believe that human beings are animated by an immaterial spirit which exists beyond the physical body. Our spirits, souls, ethereal bodies, or whatever you want to call them, are part of a larger family of spirits or souls. Because we chose to embark on this physical plane of forgetfulness, distortion, and illusion, we are separated from our greater selves. Yet we all still feel the pain of separateness in so many unconscious ways. Loneliness is a universal problem humanity has for example.
Many people are constantly trying to assuage this sense of loneliness and separation through a plethora of tawdry societal schemes. The architects of our current western civilization constructed our world and their world based on the philosophical principle of service to the self as the primary motivation that moves the geo-political economy. Ideas such as this can be found in the writings of Ayn Rand, as well as The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith. Sigmund Freud contributed to this egocentric quality that people universally display on many different levels of function as well.
Materialism is a perspective that contributes to the numbing of spiritual qualities, characteristics, understandings, and unfoldments. So the pursuit of material experiences and items tends to shunt aside real individual growth and development, as well as interdependent social developments. Many writers have written about the strategy to keep citizens afraid of one another and in competition with one another so as to keep people from joining in unions, public meetings or any other kind of threatening solidified social forces elite members of society are terrified of.
It's not my aim to completely denigrate materialism. I believe all of the opportunities for experience and learning that the west's declining material culture provides are valuable feedback mechanisms that can allow for growth in understanding. The tools that are the of result western science are magnificent accomplishments for the good of all. Computers are one example, and the concomitant internet subsequently released for public use afterwards exponentially multiplied the benefits of communication, information, and connection with other people all across the planet.
At present, I am criticizing what I feel is a very lop-sided vacuum of wisdom and spiritual evolution the western worlds maintain. Eric Fromm and Carl Jung both wrote about the west's pursuits of materialist science at the consequence of avoiding any kind of education about our spiritual and even religious inclinations. I believe that in the years to come as the western cultures rapidly decline due to evil financial and political malignancies, people will be losing many of the dreams manufactured for the twentieth century generations.
The loss of material pursuits, such as good paying jobs, stable families, and equity, such as spacious homes and luxurious cars, will introvert masses of people, and will require them to reach into themselves and search for deeper meanings to their lives. And it hopefully will help in promoting deeper societal connections between people, therefore solidifying efforts for social causes through shared suffering.
--eVan, January 5, 2013
