Pondering Pig #7

[PigNewton]

E-Go Stroking

July 8, 2015 at 2:27pm

 It seems to be the case that members of our society display unease, offense and indignation when confronted with an opinion he or she does not agree with or understand. People conversationally creep, like guerrillas in the night, around discord as if disagreement was a cardinal sin. Socially, it is. We all want to believe we are thoughtful individuals and jump at every chance to demonstrate this to family and friends. However, the moment our cavalier and indeed pompous attitude is questioned, the gates of hell swing wide open. There is a myth in our culture which has penetrated all levels of society. The myth is "We all are equally, good, skilled and intelligent. Further, we deserve to be told how great we are all the time and anyone who disagrees is a callous, bigoted, arrogant imbecile."

 

 We see signs telling us how sexy we would look if only we wore the underwear the photo-edited models display. We take online IQ tests to ensure we're as smart as we're told by Apple, Microsoft and facebook. We feels morally sound when we purchase organic or otherwise advertized "healthy" foods, most of which are entirely toxic in their composition. We're classy when we drive a sports car and "down to earth" when we eat a provincial dinner. And what heartless sadist would interfere with our delusions? Who would disagree with this perception of the self? After all, depending on which store you are browsing at the moment, you're flawless and yet wretched beyond compare. You're good enough to buy their product but also deficient enough to be incapable of refusing it. Of course, what you buy inevitably displays clues as to your inner self. You buy for a reason. And this public spectacle of your inner psychology should be expressed. After all, you can't avoid it. So you may as well be deliberate with what you show the world. The logical conclusion is: Buying what represents you is of vital importance. The equally valid conclusion that buying what represents you means nothing is often not well received by marketing agencies.

 

 And so the fiction ebbs and flows. Everyone congratulating each other on how wonderful we all are. No one considering the reason for all this. No one considering how fear and insecurity have shaped our understanding of the world. The truth is, the public does not indulge in particularly insightful ingenuities. The public mind is scared and frightened of being found out as a charlatan and thus must protect itself from the presence of authenticity and intelligence. This explains why people generally despise intelligence, argument, taste, art, beauty, sentiment and honor. The public would rather hang a genius for being the embodiment of a comparison which leaves them feeling puerile, vapid and lacking all forms of adequacy. The stupid majority would factor that into their self-congratulation if they didn't respond to any amount of honesty with rabid indignation.

[JohnTV]

I see the Aristotelian Western civilization-circle-jerk of unbridled ego growth as a manufactured situation of countertransference [sic], and not a natural progression of Humanity. Or rather maybe, a controlled degeneration via the marketing, and subsequent exploitation, of Fatalism.

[JohnTV]

On a related note, have you ever read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn?