2008年 06月 2日 月曜日 16:34
Asked of Buddha:
"Are you a god?"
"No."
"Are you a saint?"
"No."
"Then what are you?"
"I am awake."
How to Achieve Self-Consciousness.
I am awake. I'd love to know when the world stopped focusing on the individual. The individual is the key source of the whole. A whole is only the sum of it's parts. Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore, I am. We've all heard this rhetoric before. Descartes understood the importance of the individual as well as Kierkegaard. When did we stop emphasizing the importance of the individual? Why? Everyone needs to know that they are a part of the whole. Everyone needs to know that they are needed. If we do not live for one another, then what is our purpose? We're not meant to aimlessly wander the Earth. The proof is there. We've built cities, societies, and civilizations all through communication with other individuals. As a whole, we are great, but the whole cannot exist without it's most influential and most crucial building block, individuals.
How Does Individuality Fit in with the Individual?
We start to find ourselves the moment we are brought into this Earth. It's a nature versus nurture argument. By nature do we turn out as our genetics instruct us to do so? Or do we develop through the people who surround us, the ones who nurture us? I believe in nurture. Science can only explain so much. Science can tell you what makes you feel a sense of euphoria, how adrenaline reacts with your body, and some even say they can pick apart feelings of love, explain it, and break it down into chemical reactions. Bullshit. You can never find steps of love in a book, even if you could, isn't this statement generalizing us as one? Our bodies are not same. Individuality plays into nurture. You learn kindness from your mother, you learn sternness from your father, you learn camaraderie from your sibling. What I've just said was purely example, of course no one will share the same experience with their immediate family. I'm not a believer in science for the answer to every question humanly possible. I find math and science to be detached and predictable.
"I've got a peculiar weakness for criminals and artists;
neither takes life as it is." - Stanley Kubrick
It is my belief that math and science are predictable fields that insecure people have the most interest. Math and science are predictable fields and the majority of people that like them are dubious, in my opinion, opposites attract. Certain people are drawn towards art and the literary arts. Both of those being unpredictable and attractive to those who are confident in recognizing who they are and where they stand. You see, the uncertain individual will always try to explain things conventionally, without much adroitness. Individuality is formed by life experience to that specific individual. Our problem today is losing sense of our individuality because there is too much emphasis on the whole.
How Does Modern Society Emphasize the Whole?
Scantily-clad woman on the covers of magazine, billboards, television, newspapers, etc. We all know the average women, the world-wide average woman is no where near that generic image that we see everyday. Modern society emphasizes the whole by the Electoral College during Presidential Elections. Wouldn't it make more sense to count individual votes and then decide from that majority? Why make each state sway one way or another? Have we forgotten how to count? The average nine to five most people work each day deemphasizes the individual. What other way do you have of expressing yourself in a cubicle.
"But one of these days, you'll heart will just stop ticking. And they sort of just won't find you until your cubicle is reeking…and we keep on listening to those freaks on the TV, who claim they will save us, but want to enslave us." -Regina Spektor
Will we ever find our voice again? Will we ever find our roots again? We need to go back to basics. We get caught up in our regular nine to five and we go through a scheduled routine each and every day. What happened to living? Some say that everything possible has already been thought of or spoken, if so, then what's the point of communicating at all? The point is we are an ever-changing species. Our crave for knowledge is ever striving. Apathy is an easy way of life to revert to when every story on the news is negative. We see image after image of war, famine, shootings, death, pollution, fires, natural disasters, anything horrific is only a click away. We are the only species that continues to kill one another without fail, we are the cause of death to our fellow men. We are the creators of genocide and suicide. What a lovely legacy.
Why We Rebel.
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a
man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary
prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his
intelligence." -Albert Einstein
When we beg for change, when we long for freedom, revolutions take place. Just as nature intended, we are evolving more as each new generation is born. Thoughts become more profound and voices become strengthened. As individual, intelligent beings we were not meant to settle for mediocrity. People should have the right to control their own destinies and if one does not care who holds the key to his life, then he/she is of no importance. Taking interest in what life has to offer is essential to living life and achieving fulfillment. If an individual does not care about his life, then he is serving as a body and not as a quintessence. We're supposed to rage against normalcy and strive for greatness. A greatness that's in the interest of the world we inhabit and the treatment of our fellow men.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered with failures, than to rank with those poor spirits who
neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that
knows not victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt
Coexistence is quite possible. It is just a matter of how much we are willing to open ourselves up and see the scheme of life and death. We are all finite. The realization of being finite is glum, but it helps us realize that we are not all powerful. Ego would not exist if we just realize that we are all going to inhabit Earth for a limited amount of time. No one would hold their head too high nor too low. We are meant to realize our finiteness and be brought together as one; as one harmonious voice of equality. We can still maintain our individuality in this harmonious oneness as well. We should all feel connected because we all share same the fate, the same blood, and we are all capable of sharing the common ideal of peace. We rebel because we are unhappy with the current state of something. We rebel against the norms and the odds. The one who settles for mediocrity will never achieve or find happiness within others nor within himself.
Relations with The Earth
"I would feel optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E.B. White
When did we get tired of our home? I could go on about preserving and protecting our planet, but that's been done a thousand times over and I'm sure you get the jest of it by now. I'm going to speak of why have we detached ourselves from our roots? Why are we on the road to severing our ties with the Earth? If we get back in touch with our natural elements is there more of a chance of coexisting with one another? I believe so. I know so. Since when was nature not enough? We've become so caught up in technology in this day and age. It's as if we've grown tired of nature. Our inventions can never amount to the products of nature. Every invention we've made is derived from nature. We cannot outrun her. No matter how many skyscrapers block out the sky, she is still visible.
We seem to have lost our roots from the products and inventions of our own making. Nothing is quite comparable with nature. What steps do we need to take to reestablish our roots? Cities are filled with smog, gases, metal, noise pollution, glass, steel, and rubber. All of these words bring about negative imagery that we have put on our one and only home. We've become poisonous and toxic residents. Today, a man is defined by his money and status in society. What ever happened to the boy who turned into a man while he was out hunting and killing his own food for nourishment and surviving amongst nature? Manhood and Womanhood now have different definitions. It's almost as if our society is evolving into a 1984 scenario, the meaning of words begin to hold less importance as time goes on. Let's return to the trees and the grass and start from scratch. Our current way of living is bogging down spirits worldwide. Nothing holds much beauty anymore besides the communication and cooperation between men and women, nature, and free thought. Though, these elements seem hard to come by now. Optimism is the key ideal to strive towards in making a difference.
"The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted." -Peter McWilliams
How many times do we have to go through war, famine, and revolutions before we realize that we must coexist with one another and work together to form a harmonious world? The action it would take to achieve the conclusion we all crave for is quite an easy and simple task. It's only a matter of who's interested. It's a matter of declaring war on apathy. It's a matter of waking up.
I am awake. I wish the rest of the world was. We've built a dreary civilization for ourselves.