The following is a theory I have been working on for a number of years. I dibbled and dabbled for a number of years never commiting due to health reasons and am finally getting to writing down my thoughts. The reason I am posting is because there are certainly some very smart people here (way too many to list). I am posting this because I am not very smart and need to bounce ideas off others. Mostly, I need criticism. The following is a very basic version of my ideas and I am not worried a lot about spelling or grammar errors. Holes, criticisms, not explained thoroughly? Let me know. I will be going to Europe on the 4th and it will be good to collect my thoughts while I'm there.
Do we really have control over anything, or do we operate along the lines of determinism? We make “decisions†heavily influenced by our subconscious from a selection of a vast amount of incorrect and at best skewed information. The decisions themselves are small, insignificant, and generally channeled by vast forces that we have no control over. Has society really advanced when over 6½ billion people do not really grasp why E = MC^2; perhaps the most original or even the only original concept ever developed by mankind (the concept of social and physical relativism was not exactly a new idea and would most likely have eventually been universally accepted in a matter of time, however Einstein was the first to have scientifically quantified it)? This just exemplifies our forced use of deterministic responses in an ever increasing world of social stratification of the information haves and have-nots. Our society goes along operating on the principle that our principles are correct. After all, where would our confidence be if someone pointed out that our most basic axioms were developed by man, who has never made a perfect system? Realizing man’s human fallacy, some turn to religion, claiming that our seemingly harmonious world had to be created by a superior being. After all, religion answers questions that atheism can’t, “Where did we come from?†The problem is, where do we turn when religion can’t answer our questions, “If God is so good, why are so many going to hell?†The accepted answer is usually. “Humans can’t comprehend God’s plan.†Another good question would be, “Is religion just society worshipping itself?†as the late Emille Durkheim suspected. After all, religion tends to value whatever the masses currently agree upon. The other main alternative is atheism which pulls itself up by its’ bootstraps. Man has always tried to find the most basic certain truths. Mainly we do this through logic which induces logic which induces logic. “I think, therefore I am†was developed hundreds of years ago. However, all logic must come from a most basic logic, which in the end relies upon a belief. Does 2 + 2 = 4 or is it a man-made conceptualization? Could 2 + 2 = 5, or is it a concept outside of the realm of human thought and interaction; is there an actual physical realm outside of our thinking? An atheist’s most basic logic is based, in the end, on beliefs. Meanwhile, the agnostics must suffer in the middle without getting the benefits that either side has to offer. It is no wonder that emotions rise as a futile struggle against the system of Entropy.
So what is our best response? I believe that we must operate on the Principle of Practicality. Our decisions are manipulated by forces outside and inside of our cerebral cortex. The best that we can do is to live to our most deterministic potential and hope that nothing goes wrong. Life has a low margin for error and will take your breath away at a moments notice. From when we are conceived until the day that a vacuum fills our lungs, our best option is to follow our best options and enjoy everything in between.
We operate in a world where our decisions are squeezed between 3 forces:
1) Those outside of our control – These include any type of mass movements or decisions that are exogenous: war, social stratification of the classes, and social expectations. For example, our system of marriage is absurd. Why is it the man who generally proposes? Why does he get on one knee when he does so? Who made marriage monogamous in our culture? Why does an overpriced rock symbolize marriage? These are all decisions that we follow and have had no say in. They were created hundreds of years before we were born but the penalties for not following these mores are harsh. Try giving your future wife the ring you pulled out of a crackerjack box! The point is clear; we really have no choice but to follow social expectations. This is why geniuses are sometimes ostracized and teenagers are told they are rebelling. When you don’t follow along with social expectations you are outside of the mold and pressured to return through various means of abuse and berating. According to the renowned sociologist, Peter Berger, there are 3 ways of dealing with social persecution:
1) Get in line with the majorities’ concept of what is acceptable – If Marx were around to study the Asian labor situation in the 1800’s, he would have had a smile on his face. To say that the US treated Asians very poorly is an understatement. They lived in substandard housing conditions owned by racist and profiteering business owners. Workers were malnourished, underpaid, and died by the thousands. It is the classic version of the bourgeois suppressing the proletariat. The blacks were facing similar persecution, but not at anywhere near the same level as the unfortunate Asian émigrés. However, while the blacks still face lesser, but still substantial racial problems around the country, Asians generally face very little racial discord with the general population. This is because they have not only accepted the capitalistic system and culture of the West but they have become masters of it. Many East Asians silently cloaked themselves under the ideals of capitalism and improved upon the West’s individualistic tendencies by balancing it’s ideals out with the Eastern cultural values of self sacrifice for the good of the community. Go to any college and you will see a substantially higher number of Asian individuals on temporary visas getting degrees than individuals from African countries doing the same. It is very hard to justify contempt of those who have achieved success through socially acceptable means. Those associating with this form of ideology would say that, “success is the best form of revenge.â€
2) Form a subculture – When a number of people suffer real or perceived persecution they are united through the fact that they are all suffering the same problem. The solution is to unite based on group ideals. In general, these subcultures are untied by a charismatic leader whose main goal it is to routinize the legitimization of the groups’ beliefs and ideals. There are many examples of subcultures throughout the history of the world. They are inevitable with the increasing pace of diversity in the world. Most of the recognizable subcultures had very charismatic leaders whose charisma was sealed due to death at a young age: Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ceaser Chavez, Tupac, Kurt Cobain, Jesus, etc . . . My definition of charisma is the ability to see things in a new way and then convert others to this new way of thinking.
3) Withdrawl – As the title implies, this method simply involves withdrawing from society. You, in a sense, cut yourself off from social demands while society cuts itself off from you. It is similar to the physical form of depression in that it is internalized and backs away from problems under the idea that all control of surrounding are lost. An experiment illustrates this concept: Two groups of cats were put in two different types of cages. One group was put in a cage in which it was easy to get out. Another group was put in a cage in which it was impossible to get out and the cats were shocked every time they tried to do so. Eventually the cats in the electrified cages learned not to even attempt to escape. Their ambivalence continued even when the electrical penalties were removed from the cages. Withdrawal is not necessarily bad. Humans have the ability to withdrawal into areas that showcase the heights of human abilities; Newton, Michelangelo, and Max Weber all withdrew at times in their lives to perfect their works. Nowadays, professional sports teams go to various out of the way facilities to train and focus on self improvement. Buddhist monks meditate for hours on end and stressed-out suburbanite commuters practice Pilates on their lunch breaks. We all have a need to withdrawal at some points in our lives and “center our chi,†“sharpen the saw,†“just get away from it all,†or any number of other catch phrases that can be used.
This is not to say that withdrawal is always a good thing. The only 2 things in life that keep us in line with reality are math and social discourse. We need discourse to continually update reality, since it is socially determined. We need to bounce idea off others to see if we are on track. Humans are a bizarre creature; our large egos have a tough time comprehending how badly we need others. Put a man on an island alone and after a short time he will start to develop outrageous thoughts. No matter how mentally or physically tough we think we are, without others, we are nothing but a wild animal with no sense of self.
2) The skewing of information from our senses to our decision making parts of the brain – We are nothing but a mass of biochemicals operating in a form of unison. As such, any chemical mishap can send erroneous information to the decision making part of our brains which can only make sense of a very small amount of this sensory information. The information is routed through a part of the brain known as the thalamus. This part of the brain determines where information is to be sent. This is one of the first places errors may occur in sensing information. For instance, one of the theories of ADD is that people afflicted with this condition receive too much information for the thalamus to handle causing what is known as the “closed faucet hypothesis.†MS, epilepsy, autism, and many others exemplify how easy it is for information to be screwed up before the cognitive brain even has a chance to process it. To those who have a “normal†brain, we are still faced with the incredible inadequacy of the human brain. Its’ small size, slowness of computation, and all too human requirements of a finite supply of nutrients and resources cause our perceptions and judgments to be heavily skewed. We make constant mistakes in simple everyday tasks like estimating size, shape, and color of objects. Automobile accidents happen daily at a large rate and this is a task that the mind is fully cognitive of. Surely the amount of mistakes we make everyday without thinking about it must be staggering. For example, experiments show that people in a good mood tend to rate others more highly than those in a bad mood without even seeing or knowing these people. This is a case of our biochemical system complicating the cognitive functions in our lives. Indeed, in any case where emotions are involved, decisions and perceptions are never truly accurate. Being that people are emotional and not rational animals, it is easy to see how people are inadequate.
3) Body-Mind Conflict – Place a person in front of a hill and the chances that the subject will incorrectly judge the slope by a wide margin is very large. Why would the mind so largely mistake the slope of a hill? The answer probably has to do with the body-mind conflict. In order to conserve energy and survive longer, humans have reached a point where the body will lie to itself. Even if the mind cognitively sees a 10 degree slope, the body will lie and assume a 30 to 45 degree slope. This is not the only subconscious system in place to protect ourselves from danger; there are other “guardian angels†in place. There seems to be somewhat an innate fear of spiders and snakes. It is completely irrational, especially since far more people die each year of bee stings, ladders, and even toilets. Another example of mental altercation of judgment is the body’s ability to repress painful memories. Often time’s patients returning from bouts of serious depression or other psychological disorders have a hard time believing some of the things they said or did. Many will forget all but the most traumatic experiences and express incredulity at hearing about these past actions. From a logical perspective it makes sense that the body needs to lie to itself in order to increase survival rates and even just to function. The world would be a pretty dull place indeed if it was filled with unemotional people with absolute perceptions. Many of the higher forms of human ability would not be ever created. There would be no Picassos or Orwells.
The US Marines their own personal slogan for this mind-body conflict, “Pain is sweat leaving the body.†Pain is really just another biochemical message. It is simply a subjective illusion. It can be turned on or off along with the thalamus. Any hardcore runner can tell you about “hitting the wall.†This happens when the oxygen contained in the body’s muscles is absorbed and the body is forced to switch over to anaerobic respiration, an inefficient way to keep the body going by breaking down important fat and muscle cells in the body to sustain itself. The body sees it like a power plant which has run out of coal and switches to a gerbil running on a treadmill to get energy and expresses this concern to the brain. Meanwhile the brain knows that things will be alright because it has been taught by others that this stage will occur and you can continue without dieing. The body many times will say something that the brain cognitively knows is wrong and the result to those inexperienced is a sense of confusion or fear; so our runner keeps going and after finishing the race has acquired experience to more easily overcome those pain signals urgently sent by the body for the next race.
Do we really have control over anything, or do we operate along the lines of determinism? We make “decisions†heavily influenced by our subconscious from a selection of a vast amount of incorrect and at best skewed information. The decisions themselves are small, insignificant, and generally channeled by vast forces that we have no control over. Has society really advanced when over 6½ billion people do not really grasp why E = MC^2; perhaps the most original or even the only original concept ever developed by mankind (the concept of social and physical relativism was not exactly a new idea and would most likely have eventually been universally accepted in a matter of time, however Einstein was the first to have scientifically quantified it)? This just exemplifies our forced use of deterministic responses in an ever increasing world of social stratification of the information haves and have-nots. Our society goes along operating on the principle that our principles are correct. After all, where would our confidence be if someone pointed out that our most basic axioms were developed by man, who has never made a perfect system? Realizing man’s human fallacy, some turn to religion, claiming that our seemingly harmonious world had to be created by a superior being. After all, religion answers questions that atheism can’t, “Where did we come from?†The problem is, where do we turn when religion can’t answer our questions, “If God is so good, why are so many going to hell?†The accepted answer is usually. “Humans can’t comprehend God’s plan.†Another good question would be, “Is religion just society worshipping itself?†as the late Emille Durkheim suspected. After all, religion tends to value whatever the masses currently agree upon. The other main alternative is atheism which pulls itself up by its’ bootstraps. Man has always tried to find the most basic certain truths. Mainly we do this through logic which induces logic which induces logic. “I think, therefore I am†was developed hundreds of years ago. However, all logic must come from a most basic logic, which in the end relies upon a belief. Does 2 + 2 = 4 or is it a man-made conceptualization? Could 2 + 2 = 5, or is it a concept outside of the realm of human thought and interaction; is there an actual physical realm outside of our thinking? An atheist’s most basic logic is based, in the end, on beliefs. Meanwhile, the agnostics must suffer in the middle without getting the benefits that either side has to offer. It is no wonder that emotions rise as a futile struggle against the system of Entropy.
So what is our best response? I believe that we must operate on the Principle of Practicality. Our decisions are manipulated by forces outside and inside of our cerebral cortex. The best that we can do is to live to our most deterministic potential and hope that nothing goes wrong. Life has a low margin for error and will take your breath away at a moments notice. From when we are conceived until the day that a vacuum fills our lungs, our best option is to follow our best options and enjoy everything in between.
We operate in a world where our decisions are squeezed between 3 forces:
1) Those outside of our control – These include any type of mass movements or decisions that are exogenous: war, social stratification of the classes, and social expectations. For example, our system of marriage is absurd. Why is it the man who generally proposes? Why does he get on one knee when he does so? Who made marriage monogamous in our culture? Why does an overpriced rock symbolize marriage? These are all decisions that we follow and have had no say in. They were created hundreds of years before we were born but the penalties for not following these mores are harsh. Try giving your future wife the ring you pulled out of a crackerjack box! The point is clear; we really have no choice but to follow social expectations. This is why geniuses are sometimes ostracized and teenagers are told they are rebelling. When you don’t follow along with social expectations you are outside of the mold and pressured to return through various means of abuse and berating. According to the renowned sociologist, Peter Berger, there are 3 ways of dealing with social persecution:
1) Get in line with the majorities’ concept of what is acceptable – If Marx were around to study the Asian labor situation in the 1800’s, he would have had a smile on his face. To say that the US treated Asians very poorly is an understatement. They lived in substandard housing conditions owned by racist and profiteering business owners. Workers were malnourished, underpaid, and died by the thousands. It is the classic version of the bourgeois suppressing the proletariat. The blacks were facing similar persecution, but not at anywhere near the same level as the unfortunate Asian émigrés. However, while the blacks still face lesser, but still substantial racial problems around the country, Asians generally face very little racial discord with the general population. This is because they have not only accepted the capitalistic system and culture of the West but they have become masters of it. Many East Asians silently cloaked themselves under the ideals of capitalism and improved upon the West’s individualistic tendencies by balancing it’s ideals out with the Eastern cultural values of self sacrifice for the good of the community. Go to any college and you will see a substantially higher number of Asian individuals on temporary visas getting degrees than individuals from African countries doing the same. It is very hard to justify contempt of those who have achieved success through socially acceptable means. Those associating with this form of ideology would say that, “success is the best form of revenge.â€
2) Form a subculture – When a number of people suffer real or perceived persecution they are united through the fact that they are all suffering the same problem. The solution is to unite based on group ideals. In general, these subcultures are untied by a charismatic leader whose main goal it is to routinize the legitimization of the groups’ beliefs and ideals. There are many examples of subcultures throughout the history of the world. They are inevitable with the increasing pace of diversity in the world. Most of the recognizable subcultures had very charismatic leaders whose charisma was sealed due to death at a young age: Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ceaser Chavez, Tupac, Kurt Cobain, Jesus, etc . . . My definition of charisma is the ability to see things in a new way and then convert others to this new way of thinking.
3) Withdrawl – As the title implies, this method simply involves withdrawing from society. You, in a sense, cut yourself off from social demands while society cuts itself off from you. It is similar to the physical form of depression in that it is internalized and backs away from problems under the idea that all control of surrounding are lost. An experiment illustrates this concept: Two groups of cats were put in two different types of cages. One group was put in a cage in which it was easy to get out. Another group was put in a cage in which it was impossible to get out and the cats were shocked every time they tried to do so. Eventually the cats in the electrified cages learned not to even attempt to escape. Their ambivalence continued even when the electrical penalties were removed from the cages. Withdrawal is not necessarily bad. Humans have the ability to withdrawal into areas that showcase the heights of human abilities; Newton, Michelangelo, and Max Weber all withdrew at times in their lives to perfect their works. Nowadays, professional sports teams go to various out of the way facilities to train and focus on self improvement. Buddhist monks meditate for hours on end and stressed-out suburbanite commuters practice Pilates on their lunch breaks. We all have a need to withdrawal at some points in our lives and “center our chi,†“sharpen the saw,†“just get away from it all,†or any number of other catch phrases that can be used.
This is not to say that withdrawal is always a good thing. The only 2 things in life that keep us in line with reality are math and social discourse. We need discourse to continually update reality, since it is socially determined. We need to bounce idea off others to see if we are on track. Humans are a bizarre creature; our large egos have a tough time comprehending how badly we need others. Put a man on an island alone and after a short time he will start to develop outrageous thoughts. No matter how mentally or physically tough we think we are, without others, we are nothing but a wild animal with no sense of self.
2) The skewing of information from our senses to our decision making parts of the brain – We are nothing but a mass of biochemicals operating in a form of unison. As such, any chemical mishap can send erroneous information to the decision making part of our brains which can only make sense of a very small amount of this sensory information. The information is routed through a part of the brain known as the thalamus. This part of the brain determines where information is to be sent. This is one of the first places errors may occur in sensing information. For instance, one of the theories of ADD is that people afflicted with this condition receive too much information for the thalamus to handle causing what is known as the “closed faucet hypothesis.†MS, epilepsy, autism, and many others exemplify how easy it is for information to be screwed up before the cognitive brain even has a chance to process it. To those who have a “normal†brain, we are still faced with the incredible inadequacy of the human brain. Its’ small size, slowness of computation, and all too human requirements of a finite supply of nutrients and resources cause our perceptions and judgments to be heavily skewed. We make constant mistakes in simple everyday tasks like estimating size, shape, and color of objects. Automobile accidents happen daily at a large rate and this is a task that the mind is fully cognitive of. Surely the amount of mistakes we make everyday without thinking about it must be staggering. For example, experiments show that people in a good mood tend to rate others more highly than those in a bad mood without even seeing or knowing these people. This is a case of our biochemical system complicating the cognitive functions in our lives. Indeed, in any case where emotions are involved, decisions and perceptions are never truly accurate. Being that people are emotional and not rational animals, it is easy to see how people are inadequate.
3) Body-Mind Conflict – Place a person in front of a hill and the chances that the subject will incorrectly judge the slope by a wide margin is very large. Why would the mind so largely mistake the slope of a hill? The answer probably has to do with the body-mind conflict. In order to conserve energy and survive longer, humans have reached a point where the body will lie to itself. Even if the mind cognitively sees a 10 degree slope, the body will lie and assume a 30 to 45 degree slope. This is not the only subconscious system in place to protect ourselves from danger; there are other “guardian angels†in place. There seems to be somewhat an innate fear of spiders and snakes. It is completely irrational, especially since far more people die each year of bee stings, ladders, and even toilets. Another example of mental altercation of judgment is the body’s ability to repress painful memories. Often time’s patients returning from bouts of serious depression or other psychological disorders have a hard time believing some of the things they said or did. Many will forget all but the most traumatic experiences and express incredulity at hearing about these past actions. From a logical perspective it makes sense that the body needs to lie to itself in order to increase survival rates and even just to function. The world would be a pretty dull place indeed if it was filled with unemotional people with absolute perceptions. Many of the higher forms of human ability would not be ever created. There would be no Picassos or Orwells.
The US Marines their own personal slogan for this mind-body conflict, “Pain is sweat leaving the body.†Pain is really just another biochemical message. It is simply a subjective illusion. It can be turned on or off along with the thalamus. Any hardcore runner can tell you about “hitting the wall.†This happens when the oxygen contained in the body’s muscles is absorbed and the body is forced to switch over to anaerobic respiration, an inefficient way to keep the body going by breaking down important fat and muscle cells in the body to sustain itself. The body sees it like a power plant which has run out of coal and switches to a gerbil running on a treadmill to get energy and expresses this concern to the brain. Meanwhile the brain knows that things will be alright because it has been taught by others that this stage will occur and you can continue without dieing. The body many times will say something that the brain cognitively knows is wrong and the result to those inexperienced is a sense of confusion or fear; so our runner keeps going and after finishing the race has acquired experience to more easily overcome those pain signals urgently sent by the body for the next race.
