Wednesday, January 13, 2016

artificially limiting the content of consciousness...,


DOTE |  “If truth is what you seek, then the will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and leave you by the side of the road with your truth and nothing else.”
Exactly right! I found that out too late. Don't read DOTE. Save yourself!
Just kidding. If you're reading here, it's already too late for you.
Still, I am not a Ligotti fan based on what I've seen so far.
It appears that Ligotti is not psychological. 
“Most people learn to save themselves by artificially limiting the content of consciousness.”
Sorry, no cigar here, Thomas. Most people don't "learn" anything. The brain (unconscious mind) limits the contents of consciousness, thus making human life possible, as I said in my Meaning of Life post. There is a similar mistake here.
“This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones.”
Consciousness is post-hoc (after the fact). More precisely, the contents of consciousness are post-hoc. The "normal" human being doesn't "strive to be unself-conscious." People simply are that way. That's human nature. For the vast majority of human beings, it comes for free. As I said in my Meaning of Life post, you can thank evolution for that.
Does Naomi Kline believe her own bullshit? Does Ben Bernanke believe his own bullshit? Of course they do! That bullshit gives their lives meaning and purpose. Naomi and Ben are "normal" people, i.e., normally functioning human beings. Indeed, they are high-functioning human beings because of their obvious social success on this planet. Such satisfying success depends entirely on limiting the contents of consciousness in each case.
I am talking about unconscious filtering, which is automatic and reinforcing with more and more success. What I call "incongruent inputs" in the unpublished 4th Flatland essay—stuff that might upset the apple cart—are filtered to maintain delusions which promote social success, a positive self-image, etc. Thus Ben Bernanke's monetary policy did not exacerbate inequality in the United States, or, as Ben sometimes maintains, it doesn't matter if it did. This is motivated reasoning (bullshit). Bullshit is always some form of  post-hoc rationalization.

0 comments:

What Is France To Do With The Thousands Of Soldiers Expelled From Africa?

SCF  |    Russian President Vladimir Putin was spot-on this week in his observation about why France’s Emmanuel Macron is strutting around ...