Paradox

Original Thinking

Here is an amazing excerpt on writing, thinking and living from Ludwig Borne written in 1823, from the May/June Ode magazine:

“There are people and writings that provide instruction on how to learn Latin, Greek and French in three days, or accounting in just three hours.  However, nobody has yet demonstrated how one can become a good original writer in three days.  And yet it so simple!  You have nothing to learn, just a great deal to unlearn; nothing to experience, but quite a lot to forget.  With the world as it is now, the minds of scholars—and therefore their works—resemble the old manuscripts from which you first have to scrape the boring arguments of a Church father or the blather of monk before getting to a Roman classic.

“Thoughts beautiful and—since the world is re-created with each human—new are innate to each human mind.  But life and education overwrite them with useless stuff.

“You acquire quite an accurate picture of this state of things if you consider the following: an animal, a piece of fruit, a flower, which we recognize from their true shapes.  What they are is what they appear to us.  But would we have a true concept of the nature of a partridge pie, raspberry juice, or rose oil?  So it is with the sciences, with all things we perceive with the mind and not through the senses.  They are put before us prepared and changed, and in their ran and naked shape we do not know them.

“Opinion is the kitchen in which all truths are slaughtered, plucked, chopped, stewed and seasoned.  There is no larger lack than of books without sense/reason/wit; namely which contain things and not opinions.

“Only a small number of original writers exist, and the best differ much less from the less skilled than one would think upon superficial comparison.  One creeps, one runs, one limps, one dances, one drives, one rides to one’s goal.  Yet a destination and way is what they all have in common.  Treat and novel thoughts can be won only in solitude.  But how do you achieve solitude?

“You can flee humankind but then you stand on the noisy market of books; you can throw away the books, but how do you throw from your mind all the common knowledge with which education fills it?  In the art of making oneself ignorant, the true art of self-education is the most necessary, most beautiful art yet the least often and least skillfully exercised.  Just as there are only a thousand thinkers among a million people, there is only one original thinker among a thousand thinkers.

True scientific endeavor is not a journey of discovery like that of Columbus but a voyage like that of Ulysses.  Man is born in strange lands; living means looking for home, and thinking means living.  But the fatherland of thoughts is the hear; he who wants drink afresh must draw from this spring.  The mind is nothing but a stream; thousands have camped along its side and cloud the water by wishing, bathing and performing other dirty tasks in it.

“The mind is the brawn, the heart the will.  You can acquire brawn, you can increase it, train it.  But what good is all that brawn without the will to use it?  A fear of thinking is keeping us back.  More oppressing than the censure of governments is the censure that public opinion exerts over the works of our minds.  He who listens to the voice of his heart instead of to the clamor of the market will always be original.  Sincerity is the source of all genius; man would be more ingenious if he were more moral.

“And here is the promised practical application.  Take some sheets of paper and, for three consecutive days, write down anything that goes through your head without guile or dissimulation.  Write what you think of yourself, of your spouse, of Goethe, of the Last Judgment, of your boss—and, when the three days are over, you will be ecstatic with amazement at the new unheard-of-thoughts you have had.  That is the art of becoming an original writer in three days!”

Identity

The following is a note I sent to a client who is feeling overwhelmed. 

I've been reflecting on our chat about Identity. It's something I've been working with a lot given all my prostate shit and my traditional 'male' identity.  You're right that CS is part of your identity, but not only your ego Identity.  As spirit you're much more than CS and your other endeavors, just as I am much more than my semen and books.  We are BOTH spirit and ego.  BOTH CS, books and something more, much greater. 

That greatness is wanting to express in CS and my books, but because it is of a different character and type altogether than our ego consciousness, we have to be diplomatic and tactful with the ego, to get it out of the way so the creative pieces of our spirit can flow thru us and out.  We can't deal with these pieces of spirit in the same way we deal with the ego.  When we try and think about them as if they were of the ego and not of spirit by setting deadlines, pushing and worrying, we will fail.  Ego methods do not work with spiritual things.

The way to work with spiritual things is spiritually.  The ego will worry and holler and struggle, but fuck it—no, that's where the tact and diplomacy you're so good at comes in. You want to do that with your ego.  As Emerson says, "Get your bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits."  So know who and what you are--spirit and ego; but more spirit than ego.  That is our Identity.  Allow CS to express, if and when it's ready.  No force, no pressure, and most of all, no fear!  It's like gestation; it's more of a female than a male thing.  Spirit is kind of feminine in that way, ego more masculine.  We need both, but perhaps it's time we eased up on the ego and it's methods and shifted more to the spiritual.  What do you think?

The Ego and Elections

Scott Walker has won in Wisconsin.  My ego, the ego in me, has taken a blow.  But I am not the ego. The ego has again shown itself for what it is, once again showing that spirit is the only choice.  But for the winners, the ego seems to have won. The ego in me hasn’t worked, but it seems to have worked for the winners.  The ego, which would rather be right than happy, was right for the winners but wrong for me and the other losers. 

In the ego world there are winners and losers.  In spirit’s world there are only winners.  Now that the ego has failed my ego self, I have no choice but to fall back on my spiritual self.  My self has failed but perhaps if I let that go and don’t take it so seriously, my Self will allow me to see it differently, through Its eyes.  We’ll see.  I hope so.  No, I know so but my self is in pain just now.

It’s very difficult to face the fact that the world the ego has constructed for me, doesn’t work for me; that the ideals, hopes and dreams I hold so dear are not shared, or not shared by enough people to win an election.  The ego in me likes to think that the ideals, hopes and dreams I hold so dear are god-given, the right ones, the ones that are best for everyone, the best way to contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything. But obviously, at least as far as democratic elections are concerned, that is not true; and the other egos in the world disagree.

In the ego world there are winners and losers.  In spirit’s world there are only winners.  Now that the ego has failed my ego self, I have no choice but to fall back on my spiritual self.  My self has failed but perhaps if I let that go and don’t take it so seriously, my Self will allow me to see it differently, through Its eyes.  We’ll see.  I hope so.  No, I know so but my self is in pain just now.

The DOD and Alternative Energy

I received a request to sign a petition to ask Congress to allow the DOD to proceed with its alternative energy and bio-fuel programs.  The DOD has been working with universities, scientists and entrepreneurs to develop alternative energy sources including a real bio-fuels program from weeds, algae and other substances (like Brazil has had for years), not ethanol from more expensive and environmentally destructive corn grown in politically potent Iowa.

The DOD is pursuing and alternative fuels program, not because it’s suddenly gone green and gotten an ‘environmental conscious,’ but because most of US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are associated with fuel convoys!  The DOD wants alternatives to gas and oil to save soldiers’ lives!  Secondarily, it wants to reduce US dependence on foreign oil and the need to fight to ‘protect’ it, and also to reduce its budget by using alternatives to the more expensive oil products.

Three excellent, rational reasons for DOD to proceed with its alternative energy and bio-fuel programs.  So what gives with Congress?  How corrupt and broken is our political system when our elected, so-called leaders fight the DOD and want to keep killing soldiers, depend on foreign oil, and drive up the deficit?  Who are the voters who keep electing these people?  When will these voters start paying attention and start voting for people who are not ideological radicals but really care about building a world that works for everyone and everything?  We are drifting lower and lower.  How low will we go?  Must the nation be destroyed and many more lives ruined before people vote differently?

Bread and Circuses

This is an older post, but worth sharing again.  I am not a big pro sports fan.  I’m not even a little pro sports fan.  In fact, I think the time, energy and money invested in professional sports is criminal.  Sports in school, even college, can be very valuable.  I think it has a place and should be nurtured there.  The trouble is, that love of sports in school, seems to mature into addiction to pro sports later in life, and schools are used as feeders for the pros.  I’m aware that following sports is a way to unwind, relax, channel and release aggression.  But following sports also has a dark shadow side that too often goes unnoticed and un-remarked, except by the power brokers and so-called leaders in politics and business.

The dark side can be summed up as bread and circuses, the phenomena that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.  Bread and circuses.  As the Roman Republic, became an Empire, Roman citizens stopped acting like citizens – stopped taking an interest in their community, stopped being actively involved in politics and in many cases even stopped working. 

To divert the mass of the population and keep the public’s mind off the collapse of the Republic and its values and ideals of Justice, the concentration of wealth and power and the abuses of power – the leaders of Rome gave the population bread and circuses.  Bread to feed them, circuses to amuse and divert them.  Arenas were built in every large town, and wheat was imported from Egypt.  Once hooked, the public’s appetite for free food and entertainment grew and grew until circuses weren’t enough and bloody battles between gladiators and feeding Christians to the lions were required.  As long as the elite rulers provided bread and circuses, they could do whatever they wanted.  That was bread and circuses.

I thought about bread and circuses as I watched the faces of the World Cup winners and losers on the so-called news last night.  Did you see the faces?  The faces of the Germans whose team lost – the grief, deep sadness and actual mourning?  It reminded me of the pictures of the faces in the crowds when Jack Kennedy died.  Hey! I shouted at the TV screen, it’s only a game!  And the winners in Madrid?  Thousands and thousands of people jammed together yelling and screaming, actual tears of joy running down their cheeks?  And I thought, too bad just a little of that energy and enthusiasm can’t go into saving the planet, and seizing the opportunities masquerading as the problems of poverty and injustice.  Instead, all that energy is bread and circuses.

The usual response is, hey, give us a break!  Those people needed something to celebrate and it also gave them a moment of national pride and unity.  Oh, yeah?  And what about the Germans? And all the other teams that have lost, and have you noticed the way the sports system is designed there’s always more losers than winners, that’s real healthy isn’t it - where’s the national pride and unity there?  And even for the so-called winners, how long will the pride and unity last?  Will it carry over into their everyday lives?  Will their everyday lives be better for the ‘victory’?

It’s all a momentary diversion, bread and circuses. But, its not just ‘momentary’ any more, pro sports is a year round, heavily marketed, designed to be addictive, trillion dollar business, a constant diet of bread and circuses.  And everybody’s in on it, from the President to your next door neighbor. 

But think about it, what if only a small part of that energy and enthusiasm could be channeled to dealing with the real life threats and opportunities surrounding us?  Only a small part; pro sports wouldn’t have to go away – much as I’d like it to, I realize that’s impossible.  It’s not an either/or, zero/sum, winner-take-all thing (as the sports metaphor would have us believe), but a both/and, win/win thing.  Couldn’t we do both, have sports and seize the opportunities in our seeming problems?  Aren’t we capable and competent enough to do that – to figure out a way to channel a small part of all the energy and enthusiasm that goes into pro sports to dealing with the real life threats and opportunities surrounding us? 

Science as Referee

A partial explanation for all the craziness we’ve been experiencing, the lack of a referee and the irrationality, is people’s loss of faith in Science. 

Science used to be the neutral referee, the generally objective test for public policy and the guide for individual choice.  But as big bucks have corrupted it (think of the ‘scientists’ that work for the oil companies) and a few high profile cases of scientists fudging their data have been revealed, certain politicians have accentuated these to discredit all of Science—very much like Reagan did with the welfare cheats and Willy Horton.  The public, media-fed resurgence of archaic religious dogma, even as more and more people say they are drifting away from organized religion, and again the media-fed political polarization, have also contributed to Science’s loss of influence.

In spite of all this, Science itself, despite a few bad apples, has not changed and remains our best hope for an honest, objective referee and alternative to irrationality and prejudice.  Talking about Mark Henderson’s new book, “The Geek Manifesto”, the Christian Science Monitor’s May 28^th issue says: “We now have a strong argument for smart people to get involved in the grubby world of politics, standing up for good public policies that are based on facts rather than gut feelings and prejudice.”

“What is required, writes Angela Saini in a recent New Scientist magazine, is for those citizens who value science to rise up and force it onto the mainstream political agenda.”  Good idea!  Isn’t it time we got angry about the lack of Science in policy-making, and took action to return its influence?