The truth of us being connected and all being one is often discussed in this forum. This is certainly true on a cosmic level.
However, on Earth, in our everyday immanent reality, society has not become one cohesive entity but a fragile agreement of social rules we deem "truth". What is truth? Nietzsche says that there is no such thing as absolute knowledge, but that we create it. Outside these social rules the world is troublesome and enigmatic - continued mastery over the chaos is what makes the world seem stable, law like.
Now, in a dangerous and unpredictable world, why would we be more concerned with the Truth than with our own self preservation? The truth can be terrifying - your parents are not very smart animals who raised you into an often harsh and painful world. And then, in order to not feel scared, some time way back when society was just getting started, we started to make words - the first lies!
These lies made us feel proud, we started deceiving ourselves into thinking that we were "civilized" and "moral" in order to transcend our isolation. So, these lies (social Truth) became valued over the truth of our isolation, and we created groups based on these lies.
The shared meaning of words was useful because it reduced the possibility of deception; the word is a metaphor for a stimulus, an image or a sound and if we share the same map of the Universe, we will live in a more orderly reality together. This is not an objective truth but always someone's version of what should stand for truth.
We forget that the concepts came first, the real thing is always an imperfection of our ideals. For instance, how can we know what to call someone's behavior if we don't have a concept of honesty? However, out of the human ideal for a peaceful society we, from an early age, start forming a collection of opinions which may be able to overpower our power impulses, our selfish need for self preservation, to create a more well rounded perspective, one which would hopefully create stability in society while still allowing ourselves freedom.
The truth with a capital T (which I suppose is unconditional love) is just one thing to base your life on, or society on, you could also base things on lies or something else and it would still be true because it just is what it is.
It is up to us, in our infinite creative potential, to explore the possibilities of how to transcend our isolation and play better and better games while we are here, but always in danger of those who have formed opinions which could be based on dangerous lies - they are playing a game which isolates themselves because they create different opinions than the norm, and they think these opinions are more true because they've been reached individually and not handed to them. In reality, they simply prefer one lie over another and this makes them dangerous to society which needs shared meaning to function.
So, while our natural drives are based on self preservation, through love and understanding and creativity we may be able to become more comfortable in our short little lives to have some fun and hopefully contribute something to society which will make it even easier for the next generation to keep exploring creativity and finding better ways to transcend our impulse for power and control. It is impossible to know now if through words, or human will, we will be able to ever transcend our base drive for self preservation. If Love is the unifying force, then perhaps it is only a matter of time before this happens and society becomes a perfect representation of it's ideal, a Utopia.
Or is the Utopia already here?
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Edited by EternalCowabunga (09/19/07 11:47 AM)
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This is pretty much the experiment I'm conducting in my life right now. I'm actually trying to find the balance point between holding on and letting go. It's good to preserve the self but not at any cost. Once I became more honestly aware that I am on my way to dying I starting doubting the value of my self-importance and the role it is playing in my actual experience of being alive. I now believe it's a killer and the major energy drain in my life. Still, some balance of self-importance may well be necessary for living the human experience.
Not so long ago I had a very intense psychedelic experience with a good friend in the forests of Northern California. He became so high that I could not contact him on a verbal level. He was standing in darkness but I could see him clearly, he was waving his arms in a very symbolic fashion. I could see beams of blue light arching from his finger tips (no shit). I was finally able to get one word out of him. He said clearly and then did not speak again for a long time one word. "Balance". I guess because of the condition I was in I was very impressed and have been working on this ever since. He didn't remember anything.:D
I have found using death as an adviser is the antidote to self-importance and energy drain. I'm just a beginner at it though, don't get me wrong. But I know it works.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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hmm that sounds like quite a night, yea im from northern california, energy is really high in the woods for sure, redwoods are so people friendly too, well I think it is really positive what you are doing, and I myself go through life changes in my trips as well, and will come to some conclusions from those
-------------------- SITUATION NASTY LIKE COLLEGE CHICKS - A
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