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You are currently browsing articles tagged Philosophy.
Tags: Philosophy
Much of what I have been saying intimates that much of what ails mankind is the result of the limitations put upon him by his civilization by way of cultural inculcation. The question we have to ask ourselves is which should come first, man or his society? This is a difficult, maybe even impossible, question to answer. In fact, even initiating such a contemplation is a difficult endeavor, for where are we to begin? Humans are egocentric by nature, and this is expressed in our want of freedom and independence. On the other hand, we are wickedly social and are driven to seek the company, or should I say the attention, of others. But if we are to accept that there is an unacceptable constraint on human nature by cultural inculcation then we must come to a conclusion as to which agency we should make divine, individuality or nationality. In part, this decision must be made after a painfully pragmatic take on the issue- is man even able to glory over the individual while forcing society to take a back seat. Would such an endeavor lead to social chaos? If man is to truly face up to the social ills that are the champions of discontent then this discussion must be somehow come to fruition and thereby finds its way into the social limelight of intelligentsia today.
Genruk
Tags: Civilization, cultural inculcation, Discontent, Human Nature, Perception, Philosophy, Social, Truth
When a casual “How are you doing” is offered, and the reply is “OK,” what are the implications? Most likely the implications intimate that the individual’s life is currently nowhere near optimal and they are likely unhappy. Let’s examine an example from. We’ll call her Eve. Eve says she is OK. But I know the scoop. Eve is an alcoholic. Eve is cheating on her husband. Eve has a socially disreputably disease that is compounded by her drinking. AND, Eve is driving without a license. So when Eve says that she is OK, she is really miserable.
Though Eve’s problems are of her own making, there is another element that of Eve’s predicament that is constipating any and all effort to remedy her situation. She has come to appreciate the unstated sympathy that her friends and acquaintances impart upon her and has manifested into her own private perpetual pity party. She is addicted to sympathy. Eve’s problems are further compounded in that she likely has a psychological disorder that will impede any serious efforts to better her situation.
The problem is that “Eve” symbolic is our culture. The West, racing towards an age of decadence, emanates the radiation of the pity party upon all of its citizens as a sort of heroin to dampen the pain. Real life TV is a prime example of pathetic people that have found the ultimate bullhorn to pronounce their woes on a national scale, underhandedly propagating the notion of normalcy for the masses in a world replete with rampant moral as well as tangible corruption. The individual pity party has expanded into the realms of near ubiquity. Just as heroin makes life better for those suffering from pain, such a social demise offers the narcosis of sympathy. It sells because it works, but only in the short term and with a miserable denouement when the dose of the “drug” becomes toxic. Demise is the result, be it an actual heroin overdose or a fracture of the psyche too deep from mending. This begs the question: How are individuals to become party poopers of pity parties when our culture is sending invitations to the biggest bash of all?
Genruk
Tags: Apostasy, culture, Discontent, Inculcation, Philosophy, Truth
The persistent problem with the human condition is that after man has instituted some revolutionary change for the collective better, these same men typically backslide towards self-centered, avaricious and occasionally nefarious tendencies. This merely drives the cycle of discontent. In order to combat this inclination man must first learn how to be self-aware and vigilant of his own programmed instincts and behaviors such that he may recognize these nasty little tendencies for what they are, tendencies that are to the benefit of the individual and maybe his immediate community but that can be destructive or even anti-social for the greater whole. Man simply needs to levy a campaign of self-realized truth.
For example, as per the Rule of 150 and its cousin hypothesis the Rule of Familiarity, man is xenophobic by nature. When a man is confronted by a strange man of which he might exploit, were he to consider his situation as a creature that is pre-programmed to be wary to aggressive towards the stranger, then he might be able to combat any shifty designs that he might have contemplated through an honest evaluation of the animal nature, his animal nature, in regards to the whole affair. In doing so, the truth of his nature is acknowledged, embraced, and hence is not vilified into the shadowy realms of Stygian iniquity. Man can be compelled to do the right thing not because the bible tells him so, but because it furthers a social existence that eschews discontent and catapults mankind into the machinations of honest glory. This acceptance of veritable human nature is the only compound that will accelerate humanity and society into an exemplary existence, one of which each of us can wake each day, look into the mirror, and be honestly proud of what we see. Now that is a life worth looking towards.
Tags: Discontent, Human Nature, Perception, Philosophy, Rule of 150, Truth
The sentiment of Bad Natured is geared towards discovering the off ramp from the platitudinous philosophic contentions that serve to perpetuate and honor themselves as opposed to, and at the expense of, the humans that created them. It is time to set aside, leave behind, and move beyond these tired philosophies of yesteryear and embrace pragmatic, living and breathing contentions whose purpose is to serve mankind instead of promoting the highfalutin notion of intelligentsia safely ensconced in its ivory towers of thundering self-importance. It is time to reverse the subjugation that philosophies past have held over man, theories whose self-serving import spin unnecessary answers to issues that exist in some sidereal realm of which the everyman is not only made aloof, but unknowingly is driven to counterfeit cosmic actors and actresses whose only role is to play out a global tragedy, as if no other means of existence could possibly make sense. Instead of the canonic role-playing applied to man and his purpose in life, Bad Natured merely approaches the truths of the human creature in order to facilitate an existence based upon the veritable nature of man instead of the highly romantic and supposedly divine role of men and the ludicrous fashion of existence that has only led human beings to beat themselves silly upon a insuperable wall of discontent. As such, the goals of Bad Natured are:
1. Help humanity see the veritable creature that man is as opposed to the mythical creature that culture has concocted for mankind to believe itself to be
2. To reduce and eliminate the shame that culture has infused man with when the inner animal of humanity comes seeping in the surface
3. To help man be at one with the animal that he is. This is not to say that men should attempt to satisfy their every carnal whim, but to understand that these emotions are part of the collective that is human nature and not the whims of some nefarious entity
4. To use these truths of human nature in the creation of judicious and insightful communities and feasible legislative policies that take into account the veritable nature of man
If man is to have a goal, a purpose in life, it should be to get off the high horse of hubris that threatens the tenuous infrastructure of society and instead turn that blind eye back upon ourselves, see ourselves as we really are, and then institute a society based on what we are and not that we wish to be.
Tags: Apostasy, Discontent, Human Nature, Philosophy, Truth
The common argument today is that our civilization is but an expression of our fundamental human nature and that any attempts to parry such a phenomenon is a fruitless blow to basic humanity. What rubbish! What this short-sighted view fails to take into account is the inculcating forces of culture, forces which cause men to behave in ways far removed from their natural inclinations. Culture is no doubt the result of the expression of humanity, but its foundations are born of an unnatural explosion of the human population which has resulted in bloated community populations of which man is not suited. As such, culture is no longer interested in merely mirroring the natural facets of humanity and has instead engendered the responsibility of containing man’s inherent of behavioral expressions in a fashion that accords to the abstract wishes of civilization in its efforts to propagate that same civilization at the cost of individual contentedness. In other words, as man has been forced to accord himself to the wants of society, his basic instincts are no longer the driving force of human expression, resulting in a culture which is not so much an expression of pure humanity but is instead an expression of an aberrant humanity that is stressed beyond comprehension. It is this distorted expression that deserves our attention here in our plight, our disheveled search for a means to find a social structure upon which consummate contentedness is to be the order of the day.
Tags: Apostasy, culture, Discontent, Human Nature, Inculcation, Philosophy, Truth
“I Am Not an Animal. I Am a Human Being. I Am a Man.” And therein lies the problem. This quote, wrongfully taken out of context from the inimitable David Lynch’s Elephant Man, still well serves our purposes, for we at Bad Natured feel that this intimation to be true of most human beings, disfigured or not. We can blame it on our amplified sense of self-awareness if we want, but this notion is true nonetheless. Coupling extreme intelligence with our obtrusive self-awareness, and adding in a dash of human nature gone awry to connote the presence of evil, all with the occasional vociferous prophet that easily gleans our attention by ingeniously saying what we merely wish to hear, we have the perfect ingredients for apotheosis, or self-elevated divinity.
While this is all good and dandy, the problems that result are born through our election of the self to the holding of office of God’s children, for we conveniently relegate our behaviors to that of sidereal spirits, frowning upon any notion that hints of basic biology. We are merely souls trapped within bio-bags, at least that is the fantasy. In believing as such, we somehow dismiss that our genetic codes are curiously similar to chimpanzees, that our instinctual behaviors are merely an extension of these creatures. Try as we might to think ourselves different, special even, we point to our iPhones and Blackberries as proof to our divinity, as if. Our cultural inculcation only fuels our dreams of sublimity, and when our innate behaviors leak out, as they will invariably will, we point to Satan as the agent of deviation, replacing the notion of hard-wired human nature with evil.
What is worse, using the word biological to describe a human being becomes an affront to the spiritual, as if these two notions could not sit in the same room without starting a fight, as if they were so antagonistic to each other as to be akin to matter and antimatter, with any and all intimacy bringing to fruition chaos and destruction with cold emptiness the bambino of their intimacy.
For the record, human beings are animals; they are driven by primal inclinations; they are brainwashed by their culture to believe the predominant mythology; and biological verity does not preclude the possibility of some spiritual existence.
Tags: Apostasy, culture, Human Nature, Inculcation, Philosophy, Truth
The American process of government found its initial success due to the sheer nascence as a social system, but enough time has passed that vested interests and methods of corruption have been discovered and intertwined into our politics and will not be extricated without an unfair fight.
Genruk
Tags: Philosophy, Truth
Almost every review of national history where diplomatic relations are examined will reveal one interesting phenomenon- the winner of the diplomatic interaction will have undoubtedly utilized a policy of diplomatic mischievousness to its fullest effect. Diplomacy is a sword fight of words, where the intents of each opponent is to pigeonhole his opposite into committing to something to the benefit of another at the expense of the committing party. This is where the agency of shenaniganry comes in. The great Bismarck may have best stated the truth of politics and diplomacy as “the capacity to choose in each fleeting moment of a situation that which is…most opportune.”
The simplest shenanigan is to pretend to commit to something, with the caveat that another will likewise make some commitment, in such a fashion that the commitment of one will not be upheld whilst the commitment by the other is held true. The common thread here is to get a country to facilitate some present day concern with the promise that the other country will oblige some commitment in the future, which of course it has no intent of doing.
The mischief of diplomacy that holds the most puissance is that which uses public opinion to sharpen the sword. The ambassador that best sniffs out public opinion to all relevant parties and then angles diplomatic combat to champion his intents by way of public opinion is the country’s hero. Ambassadors that can judge the public mood are worth there weight in embassy gold.
The real Olympians of diplomatic relations are the ones that create diplomatic crises by their mischief and then allocate the blame onto the shoulders of their diplomatic opponents. Diplomatic duplicity by way of unctuous rhetoric that dutifully inflames public support whilst concurrently instigates foreign sovereigns to commit diplomatic blunders are the work of diplomatic genius, with our man Bismarck having set the bar of creating and then profiting from diplomatic crises.
In short, ambassadors and diplomats must exhibit characteristics that man rebukes on the one hand and champions on the other- duplicity as state policy or ignominy defined, the buttery side of this bread is a side best left publicly undisclosed.
Tags: Civilization, Philosophy, Truth
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
Vincent Peale
Tags: Human Nature, Philosophy, Psychology, Truth
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