Sagely Salvaged

Still, why is it difficult to “examine thyself”?  Why are there philosophical commandments or why does it take the admonition to “go there”?

Well, my biases were implanted by my parents, teachers, priests, opinion leaders, politicians, and exposure to various cultures.

So the question then is: In life why are biases given to children?  Why is life made up of each other giving or forcing upon children other’s perspectives?  Is it because they’re true?  Or is it because they are a benefit to us?  Or is it because they are a benefit to others?

For almost all of human history and still in most places across the world beliefs are implanted onto children for the convenience of others, for the convenience of people who have power, for the convenience of priests, for the convenience of parents – who themselves hold same biases but don’t think they are biased so long as they can inflect biases onto their children:  Parents normalize biases into “just facts”.

And so children have these beliefs imprinted and implanted that are often forced on them; children bullied into views sometimes.  (Recall: come to church or else; you gotta believe this and that; only bad children will believe something other).

So children form conclusions, perspectives, and beliefs in an aggressive and often abusive way.  And it’s very painful -emotionally painful- to examine the biases implanted by culture, our parents, our teachers, and so on.

But why does it feel so painful?

Something within evolution has trained us not to examine.  If you look into most of the human evolution, beliefs in a tribe haven’t changed much at all.  To question or to oppose ideas based on some drive for greater understanding would cause a great deal of anxiety:  In a tribe of delusions, objectivity crushes a person’s “central sexual market value.”

We are evolutionarily trained against objectivity in the realm of ethics and in the realm of politics (tribal politics, so to speak).  However, particularly for men, if you fight too much or too long for ethical objectivity, you are not or you cannot go out to hunt or fight wars.

The dedicated thinker ends up acting like some feeble up a mountain meditating …and that dude isn’t getting laid.   Or if he is, he isn’t doing much reproducing.  Best of luck to a tribe whose men are just thinking instead of bringing meat, milk, and veggies, to nursing moms or elder parents.

If a man does go too far out of reality, that guy can’t function as a good provider.   So men have this tension between subjectivity in the social or familiar tribal realm vs. objectivity in the hunting and warfare realm.  And so this is the tension men face.

(I can argue society has gone way too far in the feminine world of subjectivity and way too far away from the masculinity world of objectivity, but I’ll save that argument.)

So, to know thyself means if you really, I mean really, do want to understand your biases then you need to realize that you were programmed for the convenience of others.  You were programmed for the convenience of the powers that be, i.e., whether politicians, priests, or parents, it doesn’t matter as the principles remain the same.

That you were trained as a pet or livestock fearing the electricity of the fence that really isn’t even electrified.  You were taught to fear freedom of thought.  You were taught to fear specific ideas (Recall: that’s a terrible, terrible, thought to have).

So it’s very painful to look at society, to look at parents, maybe without intention or with intention – it really doesn’t matter, but knowing they programmed you with falsities for their own convenience.  To serve you up as a tribal piece of livestock for the powers that be.

That’s an excruciating and difficult thing to experience, or to go through.  And it is a dangerous thing to talk about.  It is a very dangerous thing to experience because that’s the matrix -right- the matrix: false beliefs feed into you usually by parents, increasingly by daycare workers, teachers, and so on – such is the case as States are ever more in the business of rearing children.

As an individual, you’re absolutely permitted to be deceived, to be handed wilds of modern “speculation.”  For the curious-minded, the culprit of intellectual seduction will be offered as wild recent speculation or speculative philosophy.

Our culture is prone to the distraction of oneself by watching the lives of others through t.v, movies, and the internet.  These speculations that unfold before us but within which we have no part adds to the difficult task of self-examination.

(Now wondering, how do we discover the truth instead of how we live the truth – that’s a promising idea.)

So you need to know yourself because you need to know how or why you were lied to.  And then you have to find a way to embrace the truth without embarrassing the black nihilistic rage of having been lied to.  For having your desire denied for goodness and conformity, or for bond and unity with your elders.  Lies used against you to turn you into a form of tax, warfare, or breeding livestock for the powers that be.

I’m able to see passages of relativism; these worlds that we construct as truths so long as there are people who passionately believe.  The belief of a Hindu that Vishnu is God, the belief of a Mohammedan that Allah is God, even the notion that there is no god – all are true provided each of these beliefs is embraced with passion and intensity.

But I ask, are you okay with the mechanical act of worship?  Because it just might be a travesty of faith.  For many, it might even be an offense to the same god who accepts these sincere yet misdirected beliefs of the idolator.

So we have to know ourselves because without knowing our biases we cannot achieve the truth.  The reason why there are philosophical commandments to know thyself is it’s painful as hell, and disorienting as hell, and distributive as hell to your life.  I mean, if all your relationships are founded on delusion, when you achieve the truth your relationships are revealed as themselves – delusions.

And that’s the fundamental matrix that falls away from people who go for the ideal, who go for the truths, who go for the objectivity within subjectivity, who go for the “facts.”

You, now knowing relationships are based on allusions – either these relationships come with you to the truth or sometimes entire relationships are revealed as sets of delusions – and you have to face difficult choices.