Monday, May 19, 2008

My dharma

Things you have taught me, or, I might be wrong but I’m still learning.

Warning: reading this may cause discomfort.*

Why is the world so fucked up?
Because the postmodern breakdown of metanarratives leaves us with a lack of ethical foundation. Late capitalism exploits this by manipulating our desires to subjectivize us as selfish consumers: We buy what they tell us we want. This ideal of selfishness perpetuates itself through popular culture, which exploits our insecurities and fears so that we think we want what they tell us. We think that makes us empowered and free. These discursive formations are found in popular music, television and film that provide us with the resources to negotiate our identity within the confines of ideals that are a virtuality, and looked at critically, are pretty shitty ideals. But because we want to think well of ourselves, we project our shadows onto the illusions they provide us, while those illusions reproduce themselves within us subconsciously. Deprived of the ability to consciously encorporate the shadow because of our attachment to an ideal-ego we then manifest the shadow in our presentation of self to others. In other words, we start to obsess about those negative qualities and in order to defend itself, the paranoid ego sees those qualities in others. When we accuse others of having negative qualities it brings attention to those qualities within ourselves.
And all of this only reinforces our selfishness, serving late capitalism. It is in the very act of accepting their definition of power that we loose it. Because when we believe that power is being able to get what you want, we become susceptible to needing what they give. So to get what we want we start to manipulate others, or try to anyway. Which makes us dependent. Because our desire as consumers forces us to validate our egos by constantly shifting our negative aspects onto others while also relying on others to provide us with a concept of self. We form illusions of others to give us a shopping list of qualities we can use them for. These become manifest in ego-ideals, our concept of others as we perceive those others to see our selves. When someone violates those expectations, our threatened ego lashes out to reinforce itself. And that’s why people are shitty to each other.
Also most people are young souls.

What is your solution for the lack of an ethical foundation?
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” allows us to form identification with others that is interdependent, not dependent, because it forces us to equally value others with ourselves. This leads us to a more balanced perception of others in our ego-ideal. Just as you come to understand that you’re not perfect you don’t expect others to be perfect, so you can forgive without having to compromise your concept of self.
“Detachment from the illusion of self.” Don’t attach yourself to the illusions your mind creates, because while these may be reality for you, they only exist in virtuality in relation to the Real. You can never contain the Real within your concepts. For example, any concept you have of another person is simplistic in relation to their actual consciousness. You can’t read minds and other people can’t read yours. You’re human, don’t take yourself too seriously. You’re a delusional ape. So long as you are attached to the illusion of the self, you can only be what they make you. And they try to make you feel bad about yourself so they can have power over you.

But how do you escape the illusions created by late capitalism to enslave you?
The Four Noble Truths. Your disempowerment and dependence is a result of your desire, which is based on a perceived lack within the self that you seek to fill through others. Late capitalism reproduces this perceived lack in order to provide you with products to consume to fulfill your desires. The bourgeois modernist self will always be insecure because it is that insecurity that makes you susceptible to manipulation.
Enlightenment is part comes in the deconstruction of the self/other binary, which results in ego-dissolution and detachment from desire. We are all made of stardust. Manifest in fractal complexity, the materiality of your existence is of one substance with the universe. That which you identify as your self is a temporal consciousness that is as a firing of a single neuron within the cosmic brain.
Ideology is just another way of saying maya. Look it up.

That sounds like hippy bullshit, Matt.
It’s just a metaphor, like monkey brains. You can’t ever tell the Truth, just pass on the dharma as you’ve received it. Dude, I just blew my own mind. Sorry, I’m kind of spaced.

What the fuck are you talking about?
EVOLUTION!

Chill out.
I’m ok now. My point is we need better idols to replace the ones we’ve smashed.

Why do you care what I think?
I don’t.

Where are your citations?
This is a fucking blog.

-mm

* Maybe you don’t like what I say. Maybe because of cognitive dissonance. Maybe because I don’t make any sense. Maybe you just don’t get it. Arrogance used ironically, in deference to Nietzsche, because I think it’s funny.