9,10, Begin Again
Well, now that livejournal is no longer en vogue, I feel like I can post something again. I want to say that there will be less bitching this time around, but I'm not into making promises I can't keep.
I'm at a point in my life...that's it. I'm at a point in my life. I look around and I see people craving what they don't want. I see people indulging in what they don't need. And I'm not even talking about just basic needs. I see people in this funk of "just because." I'm uncomfortable with what I see.
All of this "just because" goes hand in hand with the burgeoning consumerism in our country. The inflating insurances and taxes. Even the government taking baby step after baby step to fuck with us. You want to think its unintentional. That everything is well intentioned and all of this is just flak that unexpectedly fell off the side of the ship. But it really isn't.
So, seeing all this. Believing all this. I choose not to pay it any attention. Am I contributing to the problem? Probably. But in a small way. This story is more personal. This is a journal after all. But all stories are personal. In fact, life itself is personal. It is about me just as much as it is about you. We let people into our personal lives and they become a part of them. Society is impersonal. Which is kind of funny to think about since most people think of society as a large gathering of persons. IT IS NOT.
Society is a construct of intangibles. Freedom is present, or not, in a society. Economy is present in a society, or not. Politics, religion, consumer trends, town meetings and law are all parts of society. But these are all intangible. They lack tangibility. They cannot be touched or felt. They are mental abstractions that come from the combined consciousness of human thought. So this begs the question, how can the thoughts of hundreds of millions of millions of people be considered personal? How can any one person gain from society?
The answer is simply that any one person cannot be said to gain from society. We either all win or we all lose. It's a net effect...overall. And that is key. "Overall." But is by no means personal, nor was it ever meant to be. It was a system that was put into place to maintain order. Yet, how do you govern intangible thought? Every aspect of society tries to do this in its own way. Religion tries to govern intangible thought with spirit and afterlife. Politics tries to govern intangible thought with law and order. But when broken down to the most fundamental levels, not one mainstream religious or political doctrine, aimed at the masses of society, will every truly affect the individual, unless it affects ALL of society first. Or at the very least, that segment of society with the most personal access to the individual.
Society cannot sustain us. The human animal can only be nurtured day by day and from person to person. If we do not eat everyday, we will wither and die. If we are not intimate with our kin and close relations everyday, we will lose the will to live. If life is personal, then society cannot be life. It can be a part of life, certainly. But in and of itself, it will never be your life.
This is a personal story. And as such it will encompass many persons. At the very least it is a roadmap of my mind. But sadly, the mind is also an intangible construct. So a roadmap will doubtless do much good---
I'm at a point in my life...that's it. I'm at a point in my life. I look around and I see people craving what they don't want. I see people indulging in what they don't need. And I'm not even talking about just basic needs. I see people in this funk of "just because." I'm uncomfortable with what I see.
All of this "just because" goes hand in hand with the burgeoning consumerism in our country. The inflating insurances and taxes. Even the government taking baby step after baby step to fuck with us. You want to think its unintentional. That everything is well intentioned and all of this is just flak that unexpectedly fell off the side of the ship. But it really isn't.
So, seeing all this. Believing all this. I choose not to pay it any attention. Am I contributing to the problem? Probably. But in a small way. This story is more personal. This is a journal after all. But all stories are personal. In fact, life itself is personal. It is about me just as much as it is about you. We let people into our personal lives and they become a part of them. Society is impersonal. Which is kind of funny to think about since most people think of society as a large gathering of persons. IT IS NOT.
Society is a construct of intangibles. Freedom is present, or not, in a society. Economy is present in a society, or not. Politics, religion, consumer trends, town meetings and law are all parts of society. But these are all intangible. They lack tangibility. They cannot be touched or felt. They are mental abstractions that come from the combined consciousness of human thought. So this begs the question, how can the thoughts of hundreds of millions of millions of people be considered personal? How can any one person gain from society?
The answer is simply that any one person cannot be said to gain from society. We either all win or we all lose. It's a net effect...overall. And that is key. "Overall." But is by no means personal, nor was it ever meant to be. It was a system that was put into place to maintain order. Yet, how do you govern intangible thought? Every aspect of society tries to do this in its own way. Religion tries to govern intangible thought with spirit and afterlife. Politics tries to govern intangible thought with law and order. But when broken down to the most fundamental levels, not one mainstream religious or political doctrine, aimed at the masses of society, will every truly affect the individual, unless it affects ALL of society first. Or at the very least, that segment of society with the most personal access to the individual.
Society cannot sustain us. The human animal can only be nurtured day by day and from person to person. If we do not eat everyday, we will wither and die. If we are not intimate with our kin and close relations everyday, we will lose the will to live. If life is personal, then society cannot be life. It can be a part of life, certainly. But in and of itself, it will never be your life.
This is a personal story. And as such it will encompass many persons. At the very least it is a roadmap of my mind. But sadly, the mind is also an intangible construct. So a roadmap will doubtless do much good---