Shining the light of truth on delusion
Over the years many of my friends have seen the explosive fits and bursts of creativity and passion that have defined my life and its ever-tumultuous trajectory. Music, poetry, love, and the quest for knowledge (both factual and not-so-factual. See my previous post) have been the gasoline for my internal fire. Through different phases of …
A co-authored post with my dear friend Molly. A most enjoyable endeavor!
Coauthored by Mike (@dogensmoon), of Fighting the Myth
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
-Albert Einstein
Inertia. A term borrowed from physics and applied to our willingness to enact change. It is a metaphorical use of the word, but it is quite beautiful with strong explanatory powers. The Newtonian definition reads something like ‘a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.’ What most people tend to leave out/ neglect is the second piece, ‘a body at rest tends to stay at rest…’ (For a most eloquent discussion about the inertia of ideas, please read Tony’s post here.) Therein lies the philosophical and neurological conundrum: our seeming inability or unwillingness to change. Change our minds, our behavior, and our actions, which tend to keep us locked in situations…
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I was talking with a friend the other day about stuff. All the things that we collect and ferret away into boxes and attics, basements and storage facilities. If your town is anything like mine, you will have noticed the proliferation of 'self-storage' facilities. What in the world do we need all this stuff for? …
I need to remember Love once seemed magical To mean something Now, it seems All I can do is to remember remembering. What would it be to feel? What would it be if it were here, now? With me, not simply words upon a page I need to remember.
It is quite certain this question has haunted many of us throughout our lives. As we walk through the minutes, hours months and years, we are bombarded by the constant internal naggings of ‘Am I good enough?’ ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ ‘Is this the right career?’ ‘Is this the right relationship?’ Day in …
This is going to be a long and detailed post. I am breaking it into smaller sections which should stand on their own. Also included here will be plenty of links if you wish to follow them into the fascinating worlds to which they lead. This will be part one of what I expect to …
Continue reading "The Origin and Meaning of Human Ethics (part 1)"
Just wanted to link this blog as it dovetails quite nicely with some of the ideas I am working with at my own site.
We’re unique creatures, humans. Not only are we conscious of our own mortality, but our survival is based solely on our ability to outwit the environment. We are vulnerable, soft, squishy, and unprotected…we probably taste like chicken. Humanity never developed the ability to outrun threats or blend into our surroundings. Rather, we utilize cognition and reason to navigate the world, and have developed tools that allow our success as a species.
Because our survival is dependent on our capacity to think…to fashion tools and to plan, our brains are very good at extrapolating information. We can take existing knowledge about the world and use it to fill in the blanks, positing theories about what is yet unknown. If the information is good, this strategy can be very successful. In his book The First Brain: The Neuroscience of Planarians, Dr. Oné Pagán discusses this concept. In regards to scientific Theory…
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Please excuse me while I go on a little rant. We're all probably guilty of this to one degree or another, but those of us still holding to conventional ideas of common courtesy pay a higher price. Let's begin, shall we? We have entered an era of 'microwave, I want it now' expediency. Everything we need or think …
Continue reading "The Decline of Civility in the Electronic Age"
I would like to take you on a personal journey. It is a journey I am hesitant to make as I will need to admit some things from earlier in my life that I would like to leave behind. Those of you who follow me on my Twitter account are probably aware of my …
From apple pie to religion, the road to our ultimate subjectivism is paved with the gravel of the senses.
