This post took off in an unanticipated direction, for two reasons: it began with a meditation on the mysterious nature of the coupler introduced in yesterday's post.
It then occurred to me that the coupler cuts both ways, in that it is necessarily bound up with both freedom and alienation. I began pursuing the latter angle, before my brain ran out of gas prematurely due to low blood sugar. We'll get back to the generative nature of the coupler per se in the next post.
Yesterday we spoke of the mysterious "coupler" between symbol and symbolized, word and referent, subject and predicate. Most people don't bother to think about it, while Percy is so bothered he calls it an "ultimate mystery."
Of note -- and he was a science-minded, trained physician -- it cannot be reduced to any material, neurological substrate, for it is fundamentally immaterial:
The coupler remains a mystery, and in my opinion will never be accounted for mechanistically..., because the coupler has the freedom to couple any elements of language (Percy).
It's why man never stops talking, and yet, never says anything in the same way twice (unless reading from a script). Human language is simultaneously constrained and yet infinite. Could this be because, unlike other animals, man is conformed to the Infinite?
When lower animals reach a state of homeostasis, they fall asleep. But for man, this is when the trouble starts. Give him food and shelter, and he starts dreaming of alternative realities and living in a parallel looniverse. When its instincts are satisfied, the lower animal is "perfectly at home." But for man, it is as if he discovers This is not my beautiful house!
Alienation. No animal is alienated, whereas it seems that man cannot not be alienated from this world. We have written many posts on how the left reformulates this existential alienation in political terms in order to exploit it for the acquisition of power. Genesis 3 is simply our ur-myth of man's alienation, and oh how many aphorisms go to this truth. Myth?
Whoever does not believe in myths believes in fairy tales.
Neo-Marxist fairy tales of the tenured.
The left is made up of individuals who are dissatisfied with what they have and satisfied with who they are.
The self-satisfaction takes the form of their supremely punchable smugness and superiority, the arrogant wisdom of the unlearned.
If the leftist is not persecuting, he feels persecuted.
Or in other words, cannot stop persecuting MAGA extremists and horrible deplorables in order to manage their own persecutory mind parasites projected into us. It's why we are the THRETS TO DEMOKRISY!
He who wishes to avoid grotesque collapses should look for nothing in space or time that will fulfill him.
Sorry, the alienation is baked into the cake, which was left out in the rain in a park east of Eden, and there is no manmade recipe that can build it back better again.
Hell is the place where man finds all his projects realized.
The Democrat platform is the Good Intentions Paving Company: destination Hell.
The proclamation of our autonomy is the founding act of Hell.
The atomistic individualism of the progressive herd of conformists.
The promises of life disappoint no one but the one who believes they are fulfilled here.
The promises of the left disappoint anyone foolish enough to believe them.
To be a conservative is to understand that man is a problem without a human solution.
To be a progressive is to be the disease it pretends to cure.
He who jumps, growls, and barks has an invisible collar and an invisible chain.
They call it "institutional racism," but it's just the pleasure of participating in one's own subjugation, i.e., auto-victimization for fun & profit.
The liberal is capable of sacrificing even his interests to his resentment.
BLM, CRT, DEI, BDS, DNC, MSNBC, etc.
Activism is the asylum for one who has nowhere to dwell and nowhere to go.
In other words, alienation pretending it has a political solution.
Social problems are the delightful refuge of those fleeing from their own problems.
The left never stops trying to put us out of their misery.
Human nature always takes the progressive by surprise.
Because postmodern philosophy begins with the denial of essences, including human nature.
Man prefers to apologize by offering another person's guilt, rather than his own innocence, as an excuse.
White privilege, patriarchy, transphobia, et al.
Today the individual rebels against his own inalterable human nature in order to refrain from amending his own correctable nature.
There is actually a cure for gender dysphoria or autogynephilia short of cutting off your johnson. Of course, here in California the cure is illegal.
Man matures when he stops believing that politics solves his problems.
The intrinsic and permanent immaturity of the progressive left. But
The only possible progress is the internal progress of each individual. A process that concludes with the end of each life.
Again, illegal in California.
The soul is the task of man.
For the left, the soul doesn't exist, and besides, they killed it.
We only know how to carry ourselves with decency in front of the world when we know we are owed nothing. Without the pained grimace of a frustrated creditor.
Life isn't fair, and the world doesn't owe you a living. But it helps to make yourself useful to your fellow man.
Man is the animal who imagines itself to be Man.
As we shall see, one of the consequences of the coupler is that man is never finished, but he is oriented to a telos -- a telos that is present in history.
Self-satisfaction is pathetic proof of lowliness.
And no matter how far they dig, don't be surprised that the left can always go lower.
4 comments:
Lots of good ones here today.
Give him food and shelter, and he starts dreaming of alternative realities and living in a parallel looniverse.
It almost seems as though that's even one of man's driving purposes in life, once the basic needs are met. He works to slack, although the vast majority of people never understand what to do with that slack once they have it.
Today the individual rebels against his own inalterable human nature in order to refrain from amending his own correctable nature.
Not only with decency, but with genuine dignity.
And no matter how far they dig, don't be surprised that the left can always go lower.
No limiting principle. Actually, no principles. Chaos ensues.
The long march of evil through the institutions is damn near complete. But there are always unintended consequences. And miracles.
This post describes "When lower animals reach a state of homeostasis, they fall asleep."
People do that to. Quite often.
And animals, quite often, do not. Animals, even when in homeostasis, play. Dogs are a prime example. They love play most any time. Mammalia are playful. Studies of river otters show they blow most of their day at it.
Surprisingly, even lower animals such as cuttlefish have been observed messing around and playing practical jokes on each other. Octopi get bored in captivity, even after being fed, and shoot jets at passerby trying to get a rise. Octopi are affectionate and they like touch. Wild octopi, after they get used to divers, do all kinds of wacky sh*t like hanging off of a leg for no apparent reason.
Birds love to play. When the wind is right they will swoop and soar gleefully. Some birds such as ravens have been observed sliding down snow berms for kicks.
So, a huge, unbridgeable gap between people and animals? Sounds like hubris. It is is easy to imagine some old sperm whale bull, hoary with age and experience, breaching to look at the stars and moon and thinking stuff like: "How did I come into existence?"
We have no effing clue what they think or do not think. So, maybe there is a subtle spectrum of consciousness like a bell curve from the animals up to people, but a massive gap? We can't say that with any certainty.
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