Retaining a Child Likeness Versus Discerning the Axioms of Our Existence
" The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signifies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another."
The verse above is taken from The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali. Such books are often considered to be only spiritual in nature but this verse seems to be given as practical guidance in this mundane world. It is a human analysis of our own nature as creatures with the capacity for complex language and it suggests caution about the careless use of this aptitude. It offers concepts that enhance our ability to communicate and that also suggest techniques to more clearly categorize symbols, ideas and objects.
Human life is short. Several decades of observation with accurate memory are required to begin to develop an appropriate perspective of this world. Childlikeness is the domain of children. Our duty as adults is to create an environment conducive to the proper development of children for the benefit of a time beyond our own existence. Unfortunately the biological reality of our physical existence imposes a burdensome challenge. Our perspectives, with adequate experience and enough time for contemplation, are only beginning to develop during the short span, within a human lifetime, that is ideal for reliable and safe reproduction.
“Honour thy father and thy mother”
But how should we honor our fathers and mothers? Clearly not everyone who has born children is praiseworthy. We enter this world without experience. We begin our lives helpless and guided by little more than unconditioned instinct. It is necessary that our parents and the circumstance that they brought us into must condition our reactions to this world. This allows us to function as active participants within human society by creating a synthesis of crude copies of the examples that we observe and of the lessons that are taught by those who are near enough to us to be influential. Our native aptitudes and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that we are taught are gifts that should be accepted with humility. They are not accomplishments. We should not take credit for what we did not create ourselves. We honor our parents by using these gifts as a foundation, while we grow to assume the duty of cultivating ourselves. We honor our parents by initiating the processes of growth and adaptation within our own children and for those who are inclined to follow our example.
We view ourselves and others as belonging in sets of very polarized categories. These categories are typically grouped in clusters like opinion sets that can be chosen. This very linear system appears as a spectrum. Because we are able to choose positions within this spectrum that are near, beyond, or between the presumed extremes we enjoy the illusion of having minds of our own. This system is linear. It is one dimensional.
Now imagine that instead of just left and right we see that North, South, East, and West are all possible. Suddenly an infinite number of possibilities appear in a plane. If a pole is added the possibilities expand into all of space. We who have stepped away from the constraints of a one dimensional linear system can now find a place within a universe that once before had been unimaginably vast.
You and I, though still miles apart, can look at those still trapped within the polarizing linear constraints and see this trap being moved around. It is shifted and turned while those who are in the trap move with it.
The Tea Party Movement began as a fundraising tool for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. It soon became a more general tax protest with a strong emphasis on opposing the Affordable Care Act. In 2009 Judson Phillips founded “Tea Party Nation”.
Tea Party Nation held the National Tea Party Convention from February 4 to February 6, 2010. Sarah Palin gave the keynote address. It can be seen here on C-Span. If you take the time to watch her speech, notice how much the purposes attributed to the Tea Party had moved in other directions. A large portion of the speech was devoted to promoting military adventure. Such activity is almost a polar opposite of fiscal restraint. Also consider this: “On September Tenth 2001 Donald Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon could not account for $2.3 Trillion.” Rumsfeld’s revelation from almost a decade earlier was never brought to mind as if some types of waste and fraud are virtuous. Did you notice also how-left wing antiwar activism seemed to disappear after Barack Obama’s election? The one dimensional spectrum of slogans, ideas, and opinion sets can be moved, or rotated. Opposing teams can even trade places while hordes of the easily led continue cheering their champions.
In 2016 Bruce Dixon wrote about Deray McKesson’s invitation to the Aspen Institute's annual “ideas festival”.
In Bruce’s words “Contrary to its hype, Aspen's Ideas Fest is not about “big ideas.” Aspen is about “big people.” Aspen is one of the social occasions where, if you're invited, you can get actual face time with the one percent of the one percent. You can hike a trail along with a Bank of America president or one of the senior partners at Booz Allen Hamilton, the accountants for the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security. And Aspen also provides video and mic time to "thought leaders" usable for distribution to their "thought followers," and showing them in the presence of other Big People, which kind of pumps up the stature of the thought leader too. Aspen is about big people having a good time up in the mountains with other big people, flattering each other for their supposed “big ideas,” and pretending they all deserve their privileges and their power because American society as we all know is a meritocracy.” Those who already have enormous privilege and influence purchased Deray McKesson’s image to wear as a mask. These people, who already enjoy exaggerated influence, use this mask to move some faction of the hordes who are trapped within this one-dimensional narrative, to do their own bidding.
The Tea Party Movement and Black Lives Matter as labels are just words. They are symbols that serve, like flags, and as rallying points to factions of people who all presume themselves to share common ideas and purposes, but flags are easily moved. The hordes reliably follow their flag. Ideas are forgotten and purposes are abandoned. The energy of all independent, radical, or revolutionary grassroots movements are guided back into the one dimensional narrative to be reabsorbed.
Sadly, even in adulthood we remain childlike, we are far too easily led, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”.
" The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signifies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another." There is a thick fog that must be penetrated when attempting to communicate. We lean heavily on the shortcut of passing words, symbols, signs, and flags back and forth. We presume that the words, ideas, and objects that the ideas describe are the same even though they have been passed through several filters, much like in whispering games that are often played by children. If we even dare to offer an opinion that diverges from the current narrative, we risk being mistaken as an enemy, as disloyal, or as insane. We provide guard duty in the very prison where we are held.
Back when the hords of humanity were riled about historic flags and hollow bronze statues Jane Dailey published this article about General William Mahone of Virginia. He was a successful confederate General who had been admired during the war but became reviled after the war because he led a reconciliation party and because he attempted to shepherd freed slaves into civil society. But what if some clever partisan from among those concerned about flags and statues had stepped out of line to form a different approach to this hostile exchange. What if someone had proposed erecting just one more statue of a Confederate General. Such a proposal could have prompted some from the ranks of those angry, contempt filled hoards to step out of line, and away from the narrow-minded narrative, and then, perhaps to dip their toe into the pool of independent thought
The polarizing narrative managers and their “thought leaders” cause us to prioritize things very badly. While our attention was drawn to this controversy about historic flags and hollow bronze statues, old fashioned open slave markets were being held in a country that had been recently destroyed by “humanitarian intervention”. To this day, the once thriving nation of Libya, a jewel in Africa’s crown, a country that welcomed migrants from less prosperous countries, still lies in ruins. We can even discover that the intent of this invasion was never humanitarian. This blood is on our hands because of our willful ignorance and our continued support of evil leaders. **
Axioms are a set of fundamental ideas or natural laws that are given as true without proof. A set of axioms includes the smallest number of given facts or presumed truths upon which all other true statements can be derived by careful accurate reason. You may be expecting a proposed list of such axioms to be given here but that will be avoided. The detachment between words, ideas, and the object that words and ideas suggest would render such a list imperfect.
Any set of valid axioms is self-consistent. When properly done one of the axioms may be removed and replaced by a fact that had been proven with the original set of axioms, such that the new set can be used to derive all of the same truths that the original set had proven. The root of these axioms may be so fundamental that they are ultimately just the foundation of physical laws coupled with the nature of any ethereal or spiritual reality that can touch this physical realm.
These axioms are neither good nor are they evil. They apply in every situation, whether we build or destroy, whether we inform or deceive. They apply equally when we struggle to survive in a corrupt environment, or when striving to preserve or create a virtuous one. They are also the same when we have given up or have resolved to do evil.
“The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors.” Any list of the Axioms of our existence is subject to misinterpretation and deliberate misuse. If I propose the use of reason as fundamental, consider this: Rationalization is reason with a corrupt purpose. If purpose or intent are proposed then those who are not properly informed or adequately skilled will fail. It seems that all important matters must be approached with multiple considerations and a willingness to adjust the tactic as needed.
Is the need to arrive at some fixed ideal outcome an impediment to our progress? Imperfect and incomplete knowledge are limitations imposed on our experience and are an inescapable feature of temporal existence. Perhaps the goal is a process of continual searching, not some ultimate arrival. Good and Evil are choices that we are given to make. The Keys Of The Kingdom have been put in our hands.
I dreamt that I was traveling as a passenger in someone else’s car on a divided highway. At a traffic stop the police were interrogating me through the passenger-side window. Traffic on the other side was also being stopped to interrogate passengers. This seemed wrong, unjust, and inexcusable. In my mind I was forming thoughts so that I could confront and challenge the intrusive officers.
Upon awakening I considered this dream, still confident that I was right to defy this questioning. This created a dilemma. Police in dreams generally suggest that something about the self needs correction. After a while the conflict became clear. Only passengers were being interrogated. I should have been driving my own car. I did not need to even be on that road going in either direction. I could have chosen my own path.
A life without self-direction is like that of a park bench, a stone, or a small coin. Perhaps not a small coin, but a $100 bank note: But the Rook, Knight, Bishop, and the Queen are all just glorified Pawns. They are game-pieces, not game-players. They are all sacrificed to serve someone else’s purpose.
Hey Y’all, consider opening some of the links in the body of the text.
Make me Smiii,,ile!
Retaining a Child Likeness Versus Discerning the Axioms of Our Existence © 2024 by Mark Gresham is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
"But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Mark’s Newsletter that their writing is valuable..."
Mark used to be a him - when did he become a "they"? It's all so confusing now!