Those Who Believe in Fate

 

     The essence of fate, what the whole idea entails, is essentially that an outside force takes hold of the steering wheel in one's life and shifts the building blocks, the events which the individual encounters, in a configuration that is not of that person's choosing. The individual is in a submissive position while "Daddy", the bigger force, is allowed to do as it pleases. "Daddy" is in charge in this belief.

      Those who have had things "handed to them" or those who have had devastating events drastically change their life may claim that fate rules the lives of the many people of this world. A person who is lazy and lets the world pass by may claim that fate is making everything happen because from their point of view they are thrust into situations such as their childhood, their career, and marriage with little or no action on their part. This situation is an example of a person who has let their point of view distort their perception of the rest of the world's population. They will likely believe that all or nearly all people are like them. This individual always had the freedom to do whatever they pleased, but in having such a small amount of ambition chose not to. In continually nurturing their own belief in fate, by choosing not to act, letting events go on around them, occasionally getting caught up in a flood of circumstance and being carried off to an event without their consent, it all happened as they said it would.

The Return of the Passions

 

      In the modern age we denounce our beliefs. As a result we cannot settle on any one thing. We are always in the mindset that what exists will no longer "be" in the blink of an eye. Therefore, we tend to focus more on our own consciousness rather than the crumbling structures outside ourselves. One must not forget then, to be wary of the temptation to place folly in the space that false-beliefs once filled.

      If those who came before us found their passions in that which we toss away as broken childrens toys, what then can we feel for? What can inspire us? When so much territory of art (that sacred craft) has "been done", is it our fate to tread over old, overdone styles?

       Love endures regardless of what we uncover about what emotions are composed of biologically. Passion for life endures when the mythic stories of the religions of our forefathers have been denounced. That passion is not gone when we toss Moses and Jesus to the garbage heap- on the contrary, the the passions are purified when we liberate ourselves from those rusty old machines. Those irrational fears can cause only harm, cripple the spirit, and misguide the individual.

Substitutes for True Life

      The main focus here is what masses of people flock to, that empty television programming simple in it's content but content nonetheless. This suffices to give fuel to those who are so pathetic to not have content of their own creation to engage themselves with.

       Entertainment is of worth in that people often need a break from whatever labors they are involved in in daily life, but that entertainment should only be a side dish to the entree, a snack beside the main course of a fulfilling life. If one is an artist, the pursuit of their craft is a far different thing than someone who idly consumes the products of others and never participates. Join in the creation process, by all means!

       It is sad to me whenever I overhear common people speaking about their preoccupations. I sense that they missed the train, so to speak, they missed encountering the events that would inspire them and form them into a full-fledged individual with flowering passions. Instead, hollow drama or sports entertainment enters their eyes and ears; the repetition of regurgitated clichés are vomited out for the simple masses who desire what is easy, retreating from whatever threatens to challenge them in any way.

       In peering into the lives of these simple animals it seems they often seem to bark the same answer: That retreat into the simple is a way to sink away from the stressful, unfulfilling job, and escape from the nagging wife or the neglectful, emotionally dead husband. If only better choices were made, but alas, this cannot be expected of from this sort of person. The experience of life is not one to be pondered, oh no. And these important decisions such as what sort of labor will consume one's time and who one will spend the rest of their days with require no special thought, of course not, no no no. Confronting a person about a break up or considering a career change is far too scary. Trying to enrich what one has? Far too much trouble. Best just to charge toward death.

       Bad life choices and a lack of internal growth seem to lead one to have such low standards and be so easily elated by that which is predictable. These uninspired people have fallen into the rut of the false-efficiency model, getting by following trends like a lemming. They are the mob, the mindless face of society following each fad blindly as one of the flock. They are everywhere promoting endless rehashes of the same empty television entertainment, buying up tabloid fodder, squawking on like the bird-brains they are.

Sit in Awe

 

      In taking up my pen to criticize my fellows in their way of religion I mean not to stop them from expressing their purest selves. By all means express yourself and imagine a connection with some force beyond our human selves. By all means people need that purity in their everyday lives. The problem is when people limit that force or forces when they begin to declare certain things about it which they really do not know about. Just leave the defining alone and sit in awe of it all. Purity is key.

Pure Judgement

      One must be mindful of pure judgement. Pure judgement can only be attempted when one frees oneself from the false-self, that of gender, nationality, instilled morality, etc. Only the pure self should remain when meditating on something for pure judgement to be possible. Anger and/or hastiness must be left behind, along with all but the pure mathematical layout of the events involved to be judged and decided. Only in this mindset may one have a hope of pure judgement.

Naiveté Through the Ages

      In watching a bad 90s film about "the youth having it their way!" (Yes, the one that came to your mind likely applies because those movies are numerous and cliché) I wondered if in 20 years I will appear that way to those who come upon what I have created. The clichés in these films are centralized around a faintly thought through notion that "society is bullshit!" and "the youth will have it their way!" (Not that they have a better idea of how to run things). It is so miserably naive. In watching it it is hard that people were so childlike in their responses to issues that seems elementary now. On a second thought though, it is those naive people in the 90s who seeded so many of "the new ways of thinking" that have become so integral to our worldview.

       In the films and television programs of the time that naive revolutionary spirit was everywhere and the issue of accepting gays and lesbians, for instance, was pushed so fervently. Seeing these shows today the issue seems like it was made a spectacle of in how much the topic of gays and lesbians gaining acceptance was pushed with such naive radical fervor. It almost seems like a moot point to us now but we may forget how naive society as a whole was for these "revolutionaries" to seem so naive to us well into the 21st century. For the naive to be the "enlightened" the rest of society must be very blind indeed. We must remember to be thankful for the work that certain dreamers carried out, for although much of society is still ignorant they are much less so because of those who spoke out.

       Each thinker from the ancients to our modern age is submerged in the mode of thinking of his or her time. It is the slight deviation from this that influences society into losing some of the ignorant modes of thought they once held. It is the goal for the revolutionary thinker to be relatively free of naive blunders of thought that are typically seen in the general populace. That blindness is so difficult to see. It is like standing within fog but being unaware that it is there. The deciding factor when judging people from the past is on the ideas themselves, and so naiveté is acceptable when one remembers to separate the idea and ad hominem judgments.

       This reminds me that my critical judgment of my own work is both a good thing but also that in the process of editing my work I do not need to be so fearful that the minuscule detail, means success or failure. I realize that my own naiveté is just fine for such a quality is typical. I am willing to point out as false what the general society of today deems as acceptable at the risk of humiliation if I make an error in judgment. I must remember that error is normal on occasion. It is more acceptable today to stick one's neck out and take a chance in speaking from one's heart so I don't have much to fear. Each decade sees some construction of the blocks leading with each ascending step to greater heights of awareness, and so my struggle, I feel, will be much easier than that of those that came before me. Perhaps this is naiveté.

When the Decrepit Discover Spirituality

      Those with despicably low standards believe that nothings are significant. This makes their life seem more special. It is the practice of the lowly to speak about how extraordinary their nothing experiences are. The mediocre do the same at their own level. Of course they rarely are aware of just what they are or the true quality of their lowliness and the lowly actions of those around them. One small virtuous act is to have acted out a divine order. One small enlightening realization is to arrive at one's (believed) destiny. Low standards cause one to imagine that greatness is just as far away as the remote control. These people truly do not care much at all and thus their view of existence serves them to feel wonder in that which is not much to speak about because, to put it simply, they are lazy.

Love in Itself Does Not Mean Anything

      The word love is thrown about all too easily. What does one even know about love? Love, to the individual, is as grand or pathetic as they are. To each person love is imagined to be a high ideal but to a person of low standards love is actually nothing to speak of. These people wish to make their life seem grand and so they place the few things in their life on a pedestal, most likely adding some pseudo-spiritual quality to their claims of love. A person with a passion to love another follows through with consistency and a strong quality of goodwill in their actions. Anything else is not really love.

       A lowly sort of person will find their self in a position to gaze upon a relation, a circumstance which they may deem to be spontaneous, but is most likely deep down a semi-conscious act acted out to elicit a synthetic feeling/moment of love. The other is looked upon while lying asleep or going about their daily routine, for instance, and the neglectful person lacking passion and true-love will (to make life and their self seem more grand) cause themselves to believe that their well of feelings are overflowing for this person but really they are trying to celebrate something that is not there or is nothing more than mediocre. They allow themselves to attach declarations such as, "You are so very special to me" or "Our love will stand the test of time", regardless of how weak their efforts really are. They often invoke God in their adolescent imagination for this self-righteous moment to play out with angels' trumpets blaring and all. This is no more than emotional masturbation, a setting up of circumstances to play as one with true passion would act and feel so as to manipulate one's psyche and feel the rush of "love" in a similar way.

       When a thing- anything is around a person long enough it tends to become sacred in a sense to that person. An ordinary tree can become "the holiest tree in all the world" to a tribe that lives in its vicinity. Likewise, a person who occupies the home of a person becomes part of the sacred environment of this human animal. People often consider the people around them more special because they are literally part of them, solidified as memories in the brain. God's own blessing may be imagined in one's delusions if they so desire to believe their company is so unique. This is all a selfish act, a human skill in making the mundane meaningful, regardless of how false it is in reality. To the child-mind, one may praise all of the people around their self because it reflects on them as well.

       In most households the people are not of an extraordinary character but people's opinions of each other are generally exaggerated because this glossing over of faults is a reciprocal act. People, regardless of their character, aggrandize their fellows, often declaring that they love these people. It is advantageous to do this because it creates a strong bond, on a biological level it helps these organisms survive. It also combats a loss of self-pride in that whatever idiotic beliefs and actions a group of people may engage themselves in, if they all declare it to be ideal, for them it is ideal. This way, even the most pathetic of people can find themselves at the end of their life believing they lived well. They will be more likely to feel this "love" stronger and more frequently than other people in being free from the restraint of rational sense. What can be done? One who insists on being true should remind themselves that the "love" of these people is inauthentic and less real. It is poisoned with inconsistency and a lack of trustworthiness. Once again, stay as far away from the mediocre as possible and do not let them effect you. Forget them. Live true with passion.

It is a Strange Thing

It is a strange thing when the god you grew up believing in goes the way of Santa Claus, loses importance for you just as the creatures who lurked in your closet when the lights went out at night.

It is a strange thing to see the tales of the Bible go the way of other fanciful stories falling in line with fairy tales.

It is a strange thing when the stories of the Bible are dispelled through archeology, various other sciences, and a closer, more critical look to literature.

Just as the magic of winds and rain are exorcized of spiritual origination, so goes belief in the old sky god through similar scientific explanations.

God Never Spoke Old English

      Quoting the Bible or speaking for God using words such as "thee" and "thou" in no way mimic the way that the Judeo-Christian God was even intended to speak. The Bible was translated in a specific way in the King James version to suit the taste of the people at the time. If anyone quotes the Bible using "thee", "thy", "thou", etc. in doing so trying to "sound more holy", they are really showing their ignorance.

False-Action: The Broad Sweep

      It is so typical for one to abuse the privilege of masculinity and use it to blindly swat away troubles that come one's way. The problem with such broad sweeps is that good is swept away with the bad (if we can really simplify it that concretely). A complex character is one who can be delicate or use force when the time calls. It is a wise person who has the ability to judge while also having the ability to be forgiving. Such things often take great mindfulness and an ability for one to think outside themselves. Such tests separate the grunt mindset from those who rule their lives with some sort of balance.

       It is a tactic of the weak and the dim-minded to pass off their low standards of living as ideal so that they do not appear as worthless as they are. These masses of humanity have about as much use for intelligent thought and action as an amoeba does and so they declare all that makes them feel inferior to be effeminate, nerdy, etc. to create a sense of fear connected to these actions so that others do not try to excel. So much of the drive related to striving is connected to attaining the high-regard of one's peers. If one's peers have come to a decision that dim-witted thoughts and actions are ideal/masculine and striving to attain higher and higher goals is weak/effeminate, then one may be severely discouraged from this goal.

       There is a sort of broad sweep that occurs socially which starts at a very young age. Kids make up social rules by which others must follow which are based on some hysterical fear of standing out. Anything that may make one special is suspect, inversely, those who are most mundane and play by the rules are considered the best by the majority. These sorts of people make life hell when growing up because everything is suspect to cause one to be ostracized from the group. One may not make a move that is outside the official list of actions or else one will be called out as odd, effeminate, etc. The majority rules in this judgement and the majority will not have worthwhile characteristics. This molding the individual to the masses is a destructive act against the richness and variety of character in society. Causing the individual to fear taking chances will only make life more boring and agonizing in that there will be significantly less interesting people. It is this broad sweep that so often makes life colorless and miserable. For most people this behavior doesn't end in high school. The fear continues through life and the strict regimentation of behaviors are just as limited.

Absolutes

       A person who uses absolutes, for instance, someone who says, "People are unfair" brings attention to certain qualities of their character. Those qualities include:

1. Being unaware of the importance of being exact

2. Lacking control of their emotions in their exaggerating

3. Immaturity in believing they can summarize the rest of humanity so easily

4. Insecurity in creating a false bad name for a group of people due to their own fears, for instance, often related to fears of socializing

5. Due to a fear of realizing their own weaknesses, they make claims that all people are some despicable thing in order to create a false sense of superiority in themselves

       This list includes a number of examples in which a person judges all people of a certain group or even the whole Earth. It seems that using absolutes to label groups is the most common: All teachers, all Catholics, all scientists, all liberals, all children, etc. Of course, "All" is not generally included but it is definitely implied. "People are untrustworthy" is one statement that is said often. If a person who said such a declaration thought beforehand how inaccurate this statement is, perhaps they wouldn't say it. All people are untrustworthy? That is not a correct statement. The statement is said as an emotional reaction to events which effected an individual and they are venting their anger about whatever happened and are expressing it in a very exaggerated way. To realize that oneself is speaking wrongly and did so in the process of venting is somewhat admissible, but if one is so ignorant that they go about in a frenzy believing the whole population of the world would steal food from an orphan's mouth to feed their own, they are terribly mistaken. To take an absolute this far is an attempt to self-glorify, to make everyone else seem to pale in moral comparison.

       An extremely defensive user of absolutes will defend such a claim as "People are untrustworthy", for instance, by arguing "Well, is there anyone who has not done something wrong at some point?" This is a shameful way to argue because the person defending the absolute knows full well what the point of the absolute was. The point in saying that "People are untrustworthy" was to say that people will take advantage of you if you do not watch their every move. Is there no one that can be trusted? Of course there is. That proves this statement wrong immediately. There are many people throughout the world that will not snatch off your belongings if you walk away from them.

       The defender of the absolute may still refuse to admit the fallacy in their statement (at this point it is best to just give up trying to make them understand). This person, in lacking creativity will likely repeat the argument they already stated, "Is there anyone who has not done something wrong at some point?" The answer is no, of course, an answer the dim-witted person set up to win the argument in their mind. The argument may be analyzed in that people's "wrongs" are of various degrees from murder to failing to return someone's pencil. Now, failing to return someone's pencil is not much to worry about and so the many people who have never committed harmful acts of a serious degree against another can be noted on one extreme of a scale. Other people have caused another harm but are considered trustworthy because their wrongs are so few and that sort of behavior is very rare for them. This sort of person is, for the most part, trustworthy.

       A whole spectrum of behavior can be seen in the various people of the world. The point in going into this detail is to say "So what?" in regards to the argument "Is there anyone who has not done something wrong at some point?" because although we assume everyone has done something others consider "wrong" at some point, many of them are still considered trustworthy without question. There is no reason why a person would not be trusted when they have done nothing to warrant suspicion. And so, there are many examples of people that can prove this absolute wrong. If this person continues to argue that someone must be "without sin" to be trusted or something else just as preposterous you know you have probably wasted your time speaking to them. Hopefully you learned something in that process.

       People who make such broad claims about groups of people must have some proof to back up their claims. There are certain traits that group members sometimes share but this is a very particular sort of thing. To the person who declares "All people are untrustworthy" they have probably surrounded themselves with many untrustworthy people and may at least somewhat untrustworthy themselves. This person should just find more trustworthy friends/acquaintances and quit complaining. Don't be surprised if you are robbed when you spend your time with thieves. Don't be blinded and think the whole world is just as the part before you is.

A Man's Greatest Weakness

      A man's greatest weakness is his mask. So often, to be accepted by others in society he must wear a mask of a false-self. This mask is overcompensation of masculinity, for instance, and/or rigidness. In short, he is sacrificing his true self to play as an animal who competes with others for survival and so becomes a cog, helplessly serving to keep the wheels of society turning. He is made to believe he is not good enough if he does not play the part, that false form of man, and so in this way many men live their lives as a complete farce.

       It is one thing to realize that we are wearing masks when taking part in the fictional drama called society. It is one thing to realize this and play the part lightheartedly with an air of humor about the whole process, but when one believes that the part they play is real is when they lose their true self. These people who play the part of a male or female so rigidly are nothing more than a joke. A man who holds his pride so sacred that he builds up impenetrable walls and tries to laugh everything away or explode in anger any time someone tries to get him to open up has fallen for the jest that is society. Life can be enjoyed fully only when one sees it for what it is.