Darkside Dreamland

This is an extension to my previous post Response to “The Plague”.

One last topic of discussion from what Ezra wrote was this:

I desire something more, something of supreme excellence that will make me more than just a man. Is it too unrealistic to crave superiority and worth without relying on materialistic wealth? I seek enlightenment, ever growing wisdom and knowledge. I want to be the person everyone stares at in disbelief.

Ezra - The Plague

I consider superiority and worth to, in many cases, be opposed to each other. I also feel that my opinion is born out by the context used in the quote above.

Specifically the use of “without relying on materialistic wealth” with where I make the distinction between superiority and worth (as in self-worth). If one wants to be superior to others, then it is a clear invitation to be judged by their standards, many of these relying directly on the accumulation of wealth and power and is gained only through competition. Whereas in opposition to this, worth is the inherent value of a person and can be measured within a person without having to make direct comparisons to others. However, since we must be able to measure worth, I see it as a measure against knowledge or wisdom.

A worthy person accumulates that worth by gaining expertise in an area of knowledge. This could be actual knowledge, ability in a craft, skill in an art, etc. In this way there can be a multitude of worthy painters or philosophers.

By contrast a superior painter must be the one who has sold to the most people, and not have this accomplishment be posthumous (your not really superior to others while 6 feet under the ground). This direct competition for scare resources demands that the person seeking superiority to be more true to the whims of the crowd than either themself or their expertise. This does not ban the superior person from having worth. However, I do believe it separates them from the type of self-worth I mentioned by a qualitative degree.

In this way a worthy person is truly on a quest to enlightenment. They are in tune with the self and the underlying universe of knowledge. A worthy person can access knowledge in their area from any angle and make use of it for any pursuit. The superior person will only ever be able to use that knowledge to advance past others and be unable to use this knowledge to really build wisdom.

My opinion on this primarily comes from the Tao Te Ching.

From this point of view the truly worthy person may be revered by a few who are very close and understand the depth of his/her soul, but other will never be awe struck by a person who has dedicated the humble pursuit of wisdom.

That said, my point of view on the topic (at least as it is written here) is very narrow. It is also very open to debate.

Well I promised to actually get the pictures I took at Cape Cod up. So here are a few pictures from my trip to Province Town with my Dad and Cousin.

The main thing we went to see was the Pilgrim Monument. It’s big, it’s granite, and it has lots of stairs. And from the tops you get an amazing view of the whole area. Also, once you get to the top the wind can get fairly strong, which gave the three of us a chance to cool off after the hike to the top.

Outside (actually taken after going to the top)

The very long staircase. Ok, maybe not that long.

One of the views. It really is beautiful to go around the whole tower and check out what you can see from each side.

I’ll post pictures from my second trip to Brewster and the beach later this week. Although I didn’t take many pictures while out there. I may be the most useless person with a camera ever. Sure I take good pictures, but most times I just stand there with it, take in the view, and leave.

Oh well. Enjoy the pictures I did take!

This is both a post about life and inspiration and a reply to “The Plague” by Ezra over at Grimjow.net

Mostly the question is, is normalcy right, or even good?

Of course in this question we get a few distinct parts that I will discuss:

• Can we recover from despair?
• Is society captivity, what is the effect of such?
• How do we overcome, or become ‘above’ ordinary life?

The first two points I want to cover are a response to this:

Can something completely tainted and plagued by relentless despair recover? Even if it can be rebuilt will it be the same as before or will it always be missing that one piece of the puzzle that makes you a drone to society and to everyone else’s views and restraints? They say a bird held in captivity can never be reintroduced into the wild. Shouldn’t the same apply to a person?

Ezra

First, despair is a state of mind. It can be recovered from. However, just like cancer, despair can easily be considered a disease and the process of overcoming it can be just a difficult and fraught with peril. The recovery does change a person.

In some ways recovery from despair does force a person into the mold of society. As I see it, the majority of despair is caused by not being able to reconcile the self with the society one is faced with. At the same time I do not think this makes someone a drone, or even more likely to become one. Being always at odds with society will always crush the individual.

Is society captivity? Yes. At the same time though, we live in a time where being a functioning member of society requires far less than any time before. Ezra used the following line that I like very much, “Why should I have to jump through circus hoop after circus hoop endlessly just to live an ordinary life.”

Life and society is a circus. There are prescribed roles, and everything is organized into a very complex dance that often requires the suppression of the individual so that the full show can be accomplished. At the same time though, all the people jumping through hoops are only in one ring of the circus. Or to put it another way, even though the shows relies on submission to being in a show, there are a lot of people doing things that are totally independent of other parts. Thus, in order to exist freely and outside the normal role of the cog in the wheel, we need to assume a role which exists in society but allows us to become an independent actor.

Luckily, this has existed in society for a very long time in two ways. The Jester and the Shaman.

These two roles were very important to society, and very much within the walls and rules. At the same time, they are not ordinary life. Both are also positions that rely on an endless quest for knowledge and wisdom.

Obviously these jobs have changed a great deal with modernization. Most think they have disappeared. However, this is what our counselors, artists, priests, comedians, and others are doing. They exist outside the normal shell of the machine in order to keep things running smoothly and in order to point out the parts that are hurting the machine.

When done properly this should entail that the society is being evolved and moved by these forces in some subtle ways. When improperly done, these people serve as harsh enforcement tools by the state to correct “wrong thinking.”

I’ll discuss my views of superiority vs. worth is another writing. Before then though, hopefully Ezra will have a chance to respond so we can see where our ideas match up and where we can debate new points.