tr1sm4tical

[tr1sm4tical]

Going against the grain.

[tr1sm4tical]

Being Yourself with Everyone Else

Even the most zealous, and dedicated solipsist can’t deny that other people exist. Even if someone could be so self absorbed, detached, and callous to function as if they were the only real person that existed, they still have to rely on the systems of people they roughly engage with.  It doesn’t matter how rebellious, radical, or exploitative, even vicious; that a person gets when they’re alone in a forest of pine trees. We’re hardwired as human beings to live a social life. No matter how far out into the world, no matter how remote; it’s rare to find any person who lives entirely alone. Now of course, plenty of people go through periods in their life when they have lost a friend or maybe even their last one, but the bitterness of being alone is something that seeps out from the core of our psyche. Is it a lack of individualism to associate with and necessarily be influenced by other people? That would kind of impractical, in my opinion.  The stress underlying loneliness can be harder on you than a regular cigarette habit. Having a regular connection to other people is a basic human need, and it necessarily plays a role in who we become throughout life. The people around us influence us before we are decoupled from our mothers, and onward from there. Before we even solidify, all of us are woven into the environment on several levels.  All of our ideas of individualism, being yourself, or even just being a little bit self centered are all in reference to whats the unspoken norm of group cohesion and assimilation. This isn’t trying to say the idea of ‘being yourself’ is a fraud, but it’s in reference to the basic fact that people rely on other people. To go a little further, there’s an idea called ‘collective unconscious’ which essentially brings up the collective human experiences that we all largely relate to as the basic animal we are. It’s not something spooky like a giant cloud file for all of humanities mind, of some Indiana Jonesy hulabaloo.  Here, Carl Jung explains it well. “The existence of the collective unconscious means that individual consciousness is anything but a tabula rasa and is not immune to predetermining influences. On the contrary, it is in the highest degree influenced by inherited presuppositions, quite apart from the unavoidable influences exerted upon it by the environment.” -Jung, 1929.

 Without going in the Jung-hole, it’s suffice to say that he put forth a neat idea that merely as humans we all come into the world with a range of crucial and constraining instincts and other features. In many ways, the worldwide influence humans have had was defined by natural human shortcomings. It didn’t take years of study for humans to understand that we weren’t the most capable out of the box, even today people still are attacked by fanged and clawed animals [cats included]. Even so, it took just what we consider ‘human beings’ a bit over a million years of winding but determined steps to get us to where we are today.      Obviously, the software has a few issues, but all in all it’s usually pretty reliable. That ‘software’ is essentially where the collective unconscious exists, it’s the implicit aspects of being both a human and also an individual. Again, we are necessarily woven into the tapestry of life in the human community merely by being a participant in the human experience.   We are embedded in humanity before our lives even begin. From then on every experience we have influences the way we approach life and the decisions we have to make, the habits we rely on, and the person we live as. Some of this is in your control, some of it isn’t.  Back to being yourself though....being yourself involves knowing yourself as a person. There’s a difference between gliding through life in a shallow bliss and taking the time to see who you are and who you want be realized. One isn’t better or worse than the other, everyone has their own style, but being yourself kind of requires the ‘yourself’ part. Knowing who you are, what you are like, what your values and desires are, having insight and an awareness of how others see you: All of this is part of self- awareness.  You don’t have to agree with or support any sort of custom to recognize that the local social norms are a real force. Knowing the way that others react to the superficial layers at a glance, and how your behavior and presence affects others is a key part of being yourself. Seeing yourself outside of the ego is important to maximize self guidance. Being able to accurately perceive the world around us is essential to being able to be what you want to be. Everyone has their own right way to live, and everyone generally tries to navigate their own path toward that.   Being yourself involves taking command of your own life to shape it in the way that you choose, including changes you want to see that are needed to have a new way of life that is desirable. It’s a fluid process that’s automatically interdependent with the world at large one is becoming individuated in. Even in the most romantic visions of the phrase ‘Be Yourself’ evokes, one theme is always apparent: A person wants to become what they see as a better version of themselves. That measure, better [or worse] is relative to the human society that person perceives themselves in, so essentially being yourself relies on everyone and everything else.  

[tr1sm4tical]

[tr1sm4tical]

[tr1sm4tical]

know thyself

 Whatever drives any one of us to make our decisions feels just as real, and present to us as it does to anyone else we may meet. Even if you’re with me and majority of people who aren’t aware of every habit, unconscious feeling, or memory influences your choices, we can still discern enough to carve a path through life. One thing everyone has in common is the basic pattern of observing the world, and making decisions based on how what we experience interacts with who we are. We’re all always responding to our environment with our personal styles.  No one out there is static, no matter how stuck in routine or stuck in general they may feel or seem. Time marches onward and drags us all with it, no matter how much we may try to dig our heels in. Life is precious because it’s fleeting. No matter how many billions of people walk the earth, each one of us only has one ticket to participate in existence. No amount of rational reflection on the generations to come will ever completely trounce the urgent reality of our present lives.   With this self-interest, naturally comes a need for self guidance. Everyone needs at least a sliver of autonomy, real or imagined, just to stay sane. Real or imagined is important for all of us to distinguish in our own lives. In this world of behavioral modeling based ads and media, it’s essential to be able to reckon ones ego with the raw data of reality.   This sort of thing isn’t easy, and the key to doing it is being conscious about it. Automatic analysis of a problem may yield good results, but the automatic nature of that sort of thinking leaves a blind spot. Sometimes, it may seem that being decisive is all about speed and forcefulness. It can be at times, but backing off of gut feelings and intuition are required every once in a while if we want to avoid being led around by a pile of unexamined thoughts and desires.   We can all get lost in our own sauce and benefit from a bit of a 3rd eye view on our lives. While friends and relatives may be helpful to this, it can only be validated by each one of us ourselves. No one else lives our lives, or has to ultimately face responsibility for our existence. Being able to set ones ego and self-image aside is a necessary skill to not only know thyself, but also to live an examined life.

[tr1sm4tical]

The Mind Spew

It’s gonna be here from now on. I’ll ry to write more about whatever gets the most response.