Words are used to control people. The notion of self has been instrumental towards this end. It will go down in history as the second greatest egocentric misnomer of all time, the first being the belief that the earth was the center of the universe.
1) That the goal of our existence is self-satisfaction, by way of self-expansion, and self-awareness.
1) WRONG!!! The self is inseparably tied to the outside world, in fact the only thing that separates "you" (a mental concept) from the environment (a mental concept) is your perception that you are a separate “thing”. It is not your fault that the receptor cells in your eyes are only privy to 5% of the environment and the 95% that connects you to it is missed. The space between the atoms and molecules that comprise your skin does not exceed the space between the oxygen that wraps it. The goal is awareness not of self, but of the opposite of self. Self is the basis of ego. What is mistakenly referred to as self-awareness, is actually cosmic awareness.
2) That you cannot change people.
1) WRONG!!! JUST LIKE THE CLIMATE OF THE EARTH, PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS CHANGING!!! This is a romantically charged and jaded notion evoked when an individual has realized how alienated they are from the means of social change and how difficult a task it will be to educate miseducated people, in the process they concede this responsibility to the powers that be, and carry on shopping and posing on Facebook. If you think people are independent, and that you cannot infect them with seeds of knowledge you probably don't think to highly of education!!! Research the concept in perceptual psychology called "priming" (and this only deals with how people are changed by the environment around them, doesn't even get into all the ways in which people are intentionally influenced-which compounds into change).
It has no empirical basis, in fact, every major theory of psychology both empirically and theoretically debunks this overused (but poorly understood) layman’s proverb. It is selfish in that it puts human beings on a pedestal, it says that “humans (unlike animals) are so complex that no one can understand nor change them”, it assumes that human beings are so special and independent of the laws of physics that only the almighty "I" can be the basis of their causality. You CAN influence, change and control people because they (we) are not that special, and it is mere wishful thinking, laziness and ego-projection that compels us to insist otherwise. Do not blame your inability to organize meaningfully on anything but your ineptitude in communicating with others.
3) The hierarchy of needs
That “self”-growth is a hierarchical process, and that ensuring the needs of others (empathy) is not among one of our primary needs. That is, humanism separates your needs from the needs of the collective.
The self (the body) grows in tandem with its environment, there is no such thing as true independence or “self”-growth, only collective growth.
4) That you create your own reality
Indeed we integrate the culture we have acquired into our psycho-biological disposition, and on the basis of this formulate an understanding of the world. This is not to say that the laws of physics are altered in response to our beliefs. This may be the case on some quantum level, however even within this understanding, you exist in a dimension, which has its own character to which you must conform. The fact is you by and large do not create your own reality, it is comprised of the finite cultural niceties you have been given, to delude you into thinking you have some kind of choice. This is not to say that there is a "normal" to which we should all aspire to, indeed we must embrace our differences, so long as they do infringe on the common good of the collective. Indeed you add to the reality in a symbiotic sense, but to think that the intangible you is creating it is just another selfish manifestation of this poorly understood existential/ humanistic philosophy.
5) Freedumb
Indeed freedumb from tyranny and oppression (the freedom from the intent of others with more material power than you) is one thing, freedumb from this intricate interconnected web of sentience is a pipedream. It is species-ism. Considering corporations are people, you should think long and hard about what freedumb has in store for you in the long run.
RSS Feed
