An exercise in thought.
An exercise in thought.
I would like to begin by asking a favor of you. Villanize me to yourself now. If you are able to, please skip the next paragraph with my thanks. If not, then allow me to assist you, as my status of a redeemable human being is quite detrimental to this exercise. If you find yourself wishing me ill, please skip the rest of what you read.
I am not a good person. In fact, I revel in the fact that I am in some ways the opposite of you. Highly competitive, egocentric, morally ambiguous, openly hostile, and argumentative. Those are my best qualities, and only some of the reasons why I am superior to you. I lack something that you possess. That finer point of conscience that makes you aware of the reality of others, that spark that makes you seek acceptance. I am less, and paradoxically more capable than you are because of it. I do not think of you as a good person. I do not think of you as a bad person. I do not think of you at all, dear reader as anything other than a potential avenue of entertainment and a mediocre one at that. I find you to be mundane, ignorant, childishly petty, and other large words that you do not understand. Are we still friends? Do you seek to find some similar trait that would link yourself to someone like me? The sheer audacity of such an attempt would be an insult, but you haven't the wit to realize that. Only a boorish ass would continue to read this as any person with a sliver of self worth would have understood that I come here not to make you think, but to insult you. Please, strike back. Look for faults in my spelling, errors in my punctuation. Find SOMETHING to make yourself feel on my level, even if only for a moment. Feel free to ignore the fact that this is just another display of your insecurities. Have fun with it! Tell you what, I'll leave one spelling error for you to find. Alas, even that will bring me only the briefest of respites, as you fail at that as you do in so many other things. And still you read, with your meager intelligence, sophomoric ideals, and naive simplistic views of your place in society. If my taxes were not taken by force in order to give your wretched semblance of a life the illusion of security, I would be a happy man. In the last election I voted against the canidate you and all your ilk favor. If you did not vote, then I hope you have the sense to realize what a wasted display of rebellion that was. Be more creative next time by asking an adult what you should do. If you did not vote because you are not an American, then I pity your poor choice not to be born one. It would have made you more than a random statistic that any real superpower would ignore. I am a highly functioning sociopath, and I have more rights that you. Imagine that my status as a minority will one day grant me a job that you will never acquire despite your efforts. You are either too fat, too thin, or too deluded in your appearance. And there is nothing that you can do about it, for actual action would take resolve, which is what you lack. Dislike me. It is crucial. If you do not, then you deserve congratulations for falling short of the simplest goal yet again.
Are you still with me? Good, because there is one thing that bothers me greatly. You see... You actually agree with me on some things and as such, you are of no use to me. What I require is a foil, a yin to my yang, a ping to my pong, a Goofus to my Gallant. For you see, I am tired of being right.
I recently had a conversation with a female coworker. She proclaimed that she is in favor of not allowing gays to donate blood because she didn't want any child of hers to come in contact with it. Her reasoning was laudable. She quite simply didn't want the child to become gay as well, because it's just something in the blood that makes a person that way.
Don't you dare smile. Do not laugh at her assumption, because you yourself have made similar comments even if you didn't realize it. That is because you, like her, have a belief system that is flawed. We all do, myself included. Anyone who believes that theirs is perfect, is flawed by design for perfection is by it's definition an unattainable goal. True perfection would never need to be applied, practiced, or demonstrated. Doing so would imply that it needed proof of capability, which is something that is quite the antithesis of a belief. Perfection is a fact and can not be anything but itself.
However, feel free to be confused as I myself was. Not at her statement, but by how it can make you feel, and then why it should make you feel at all. Such a statement can be both profound, yet also meaningless. If you are familiar with the Verification Principle, by which the meaning of a sentence is determined by the various ways one could take to determine the truth of the sentence. Of course, there are some snags here. For instance, the principle itself isn't subject to verification. And so if you are to believe what the principle tells us you must conclude that the principle is meaningless. Therefore, you should then UN believe it. Feel free to ponder that.
Verification here is a tricky thing especially because it confirms and denies everything I've just said. Congratulations, you have wasted your time. However, if you were to unbelieve the verification, you would see that her opinion isn't wrong or right. It is meaningless because it was stated as a fact. Her belief was nothing and everything, for it was simply itself. Enjoy perfection when you find it, as it is rare.
This was her truth. It wasn't questioned, it wasn't up to debate as much as it was open for argument. But she, as you dear reader, is unable to realize her faults yet. There are a great many things that you take as fact without TRULY seeking out the argument. And now we get to the real meat of the matter.
Her life was without reflective equilibrium, and that is a dangerous thing. There have been many cases where this was accepted. Blacks were slaves because slave masters lacked a valid counterpoint. For ages, society was either unable or unwilling to imagine the alternative. Work needed to be done, and no human being would be willing to shoulder such a responsibility. Therefore those that worked could not logically be anything more than beasts of burden. And for a long time this was a perfect fact and life went on. It wasn't until there were enough truths and lies to the contrary that things changed. When women entered the debate on their own rights to have a vote in society they brought with them new perspectives that were alien to the common man. Once again, there was a sounding board.
It's easy to say that you are much more enlightened. You have no such obvious flaws, for you are modern. My dear, deluded reader, so were these people. Great men and women, far braver and industrious that you will ever be are now primitive compared to you. As will you be when compared to your grandchildren. What makes this possible is something known as "reflective equilibrium." It is through discourse, an array of interlocutors, and the willingness to accept that you are wrong that leads to the future.
Are you willing to test yourself? I challenge you to try to argue the opposite point of something that you disbelieve in. Furthermore, I challenge you to win against a well-armed opponent. Reflective equilibrium as variant of personal meditation will only truly get you nowhere. Your beliefs are therefore meaningless since there is no one to deny you but yourself. It will be an endless loop of failure, yet another step backwards from actual progress as you attempt to be a real human being. If you enjoy your weakness, if you wallow in your mediocrity as I revel in my ambiguity, then we are both well and truly fucked. Maybe we all are... But if you have the ability to see past yourself, or like me, have an ego that demands nothing less than the strive for perfection, then maybe one day you will meet me and you will prove me wrong. Discuss. Everything. Evolve. And I promise you that I will at least meet you halfway.
I hope you'll pardon my blatant manipulation at the beginning of this piece. I hope that if you've read this far, you can understand why having a "heel" with a similar view as yourself can be rather effective. If you haven't read this far, I forgive you anyway. Thank you for at least feigning interest to a certain point. =)
I would like to begin by asking a favor of you. Villanize me to yourself now. If you are able to, please skip the next paragraph with my thanks. If not, then allow me to assist you, as my status of a redeemable human being is quite detrimental to this exercise. If you find yourself wishing me ill, please skip the rest of what you read.
I am not a good person. In fact, I revel in the fact that I am in some ways the opposite of you. Highly competitive, egocentric, morally ambiguous, openly hostile, and argumentative. Those are my best qualities, and only some of the reasons why I am superior to you. I lack something that you possess. That finer point of conscience that makes you aware of the reality of others, that spark that makes you seek acceptance. I am less, and paradoxically more capable than you are because of it. I do not think of you as a good person. I do not think of you as a bad person. I do not think of you at all, dear reader as anything other than a potential avenue of entertainment and a mediocre one at that. I find you to be mundane, ignorant, childishly petty, and other large words that you do not understand. Are we still friends? Do you seek to find some similar trait that would link yourself to someone like me? The sheer audacity of such an attempt would be an insult, but you haven't the wit to realize that. Only a boorish ass would continue to read this as any person with a sliver of self worth would have understood that I come here not to make you think, but to insult you. Please, strike back. Look for faults in my spelling, errors in my punctuation. Find SOMETHING to make yourself feel on my level, even if only for a moment. Feel free to ignore the fact that this is just another display of your insecurities. Have fun with it! Tell you what, I'll leave one spelling error for you to find. Alas, even that will bring me only the briefest of respites, as you fail at that as you do in so many other things. And still you read, with your meager intelligence, sophomoric ideals, and naive simplistic views of your place in society. If my taxes were not taken by force in order to give your wretched semblance of a life the illusion of security, I would be a happy man. In the last election I voted against the canidate you and all your ilk favor. If you did not vote, then I hope you have the sense to realize what a wasted display of rebellion that was. Be more creative next time by asking an adult what you should do. If you did not vote because you are not an American, then I pity your poor choice not to be born one. It would have made you more than a random statistic that any real superpower would ignore. I am a highly functioning sociopath, and I have more rights that you. Imagine that my status as a minority will one day grant me a job that you will never acquire despite your efforts. You are either too fat, too thin, or too deluded in your appearance. And there is nothing that you can do about it, for actual action would take resolve, which is what you lack. Dislike me. It is crucial. If you do not, then you deserve congratulations for falling short of the simplest goal yet again.
Are you still with me? Good, because there is one thing that bothers me greatly. You see... You actually agree with me on some things and as such, you are of no use to me. What I require is a foil, a yin to my yang, a ping to my pong, a Goofus to my Gallant. For you see, I am tired of being right.
I recently had a conversation with a female coworker. She proclaimed that she is in favor of not allowing gays to donate blood because she didn't want any child of hers to come in contact with it. Her reasoning was laudable. She quite simply didn't want the child to become gay as well, because it's just something in the blood that makes a person that way.
Don't you dare smile. Do not laugh at her assumption, because you yourself have made similar comments even if you didn't realize it. That is because you, like her, have a belief system that is flawed. We all do, myself included. Anyone who believes that theirs is perfect, is flawed by design for perfection is by it's definition an unattainable goal. True perfection would never need to be applied, practiced, or demonstrated. Doing so would imply that it needed proof of capability, which is something that is quite the antithesis of a belief. Perfection is a fact and can not be anything but itself.
However, feel free to be confused as I myself was. Not at her statement, but by how it can make you feel, and then why it should make you feel at all. Such a statement can be both profound, yet also meaningless. If you are familiar with the Verification Principle, by which the meaning of a sentence is determined by the various ways one could take to determine the truth of the sentence. Of course, there are some snags here. For instance, the principle itself isn't subject to verification. And so if you are to believe what the principle tells us you must conclude that the principle is meaningless. Therefore, you should then UN believe it. Feel free to ponder that.
Verification here is a tricky thing especially because it confirms and denies everything I've just said. Congratulations, you have wasted your time. However, if you were to unbelieve the verification, you would see that her opinion isn't wrong or right. It is meaningless because it was stated as a fact. Her belief was nothing and everything, for it was simply itself. Enjoy perfection when you find it, as it is rare.
This was her truth. It wasn't questioned, it wasn't up to debate as much as it was open for argument. But she, as you dear reader, is unable to realize her faults yet. There are a great many things that you take as fact without TRULY seeking out the argument. And now we get to the real meat of the matter.
Her life was without reflective equilibrium, and that is a dangerous thing. There have been many cases where this was accepted. Blacks were slaves because slave masters lacked a valid counterpoint. For ages, society was either unable or unwilling to imagine the alternative. Work needed to be done, and no human being would be willing to shoulder such a responsibility. Therefore those that worked could not logically be anything more than beasts of burden. And for a long time this was a perfect fact and life went on. It wasn't until there were enough truths and lies to the contrary that things changed. When women entered the debate on their own rights to have a vote in society they brought with them new perspectives that were alien to the common man. Once again, there was a sounding board.
It's easy to say that you are much more enlightened. You have no such obvious flaws, for you are modern. My dear, deluded reader, so were these people. Great men and women, far braver and industrious that you will ever be are now primitive compared to you. As will you be when compared to your grandchildren. What makes this possible is something known as "reflective equilibrium." It is through discourse, an array of interlocutors, and the willingness to accept that you are wrong that leads to the future.
Are you willing to test yourself? I challenge you to try to argue the opposite point of something that you disbelieve in. Furthermore, I challenge you to win against a well-armed opponent. Reflective equilibrium as variant of personal meditation will only truly get you nowhere. Your beliefs are therefore meaningless since there is no one to deny you but yourself. It will be an endless loop of failure, yet another step backwards from actual progress as you attempt to be a real human being. If you enjoy your weakness, if you wallow in your mediocrity as I revel in my ambiguity, then we are both well and truly fucked. Maybe we all are... But if you have the ability to see past yourself, or like me, have an ego that demands nothing less than the strive for perfection, then maybe one day you will meet me and you will prove me wrong. Discuss. Everything. Evolve. And I promise you that I will at least meet you halfway.
I hope you'll pardon my blatant manipulation at the beginning of this piece. I hope that if you've read this far, you can understand why having a "heel" with a similar view as yourself can be rather effective. If you haven't read this far, I forgive you anyway. Thank you for at least feigning interest to a certain point. =)