We would find ourselves fit for struggle if we believed with sincerity that nothing that may happen to us that we are unfit to bear. This would do us good in producing a sense of self-government and hope, whereas the dependence on science and reason keeps us from acknowledging our own innate strengths and building on them.
Lasch
“obviate the need for human effort” — “…nothing to struggle against, they have nothing to struggle for” - bukowski
(via theweightofemptiness)
REblogging since california has passed a law that legalizes cars that operate themselves.
Republicans can start asking for a respect when they see the harm of their cynicism and apathy.
“Reason promises Happiness; feeling protests that itisHappiness; Sense alone gives Happiness. And Happiness itself is like dust in the mouth” - Huxley,After many a summer Dies the Swan.
It hit me earlier this week: the point of tradition is to ensure the continuation of life. We spend most of our lives being adults, things capable of sacrificing themselves for others and subordinating the individual will to that of others. It is the viewpoint of children to protect themselves with as much importance as libertarians and liberals claim people should. But this latter perception disregards the fact that adult life is the constant war for happiness and against selfishness — a war against the individuation of life that would ensure we as a species die out. If that is your wish, fine, but don’t legitimize your misanthropy as a viable solution to our social problems: you simply don’t want any society at all.
Yet this opinion is held so highly by this generation. A generation of narcissists has come to hold the majority and because of that, tradition seems a gratuity. People now think that no matter how the world changes, it will change for the better. They believe that it changes because people change. This leaves no room for the old to pass on knowledge to their young, and thus the youth are perpetually alone, trying to relearn the world because a society of narcissists incessantly adopts new things, new traditions, new ceremonious activities, etc.
This is foolish and undemocratic. For instance, I took a class about the expanding and evolving role of technology in current society a few years ago. The professor was arguing that schools should adopt newer technologies and new objects of teaching to facilitate knowledge to students. He then askes if anyone in the class disagreed. A working class, I say that because I don’t want to presume she was simply poor, protested, saying that it is difficult to keep up with all the new technologies availed to kids in our current society. Yet the professor argued that it would be beneficial. Beneficial for who, exactly?
Imagine the kind of productive force and power necessary to create these new machines that every child would need to keep up with school and learn at a sufficient pace. The capitalist boulder rolls on — neoliberalism at its finest.
But this all comes down to how we view happiness, we see it as anything but something to be sought and maintained. We don’t see it is the “dirt in our mouth”, a thing meaningless if it is primarily sought in itself.
Happiness will never be had if we continue this silliness. We will never have an adequate counterargument to fight capitalism with if we simply want to be a bourgeoisie class of people without restrictions to face as we seek happiness.
Happiness must be earned and kept up — traditions must exist to provide parameters for our search. This seems to be a renunciation of all things new and in some ways it is but if there are adaptions to be made, let them be made — so long as the process of adaption doesn’t become the tradition itself.
One other thing I realized was that it seems awfully pointless to dissent with the ideology of progress, this constant endeavoring for change and adaption to satisfy every urge. But in truth, to dissent with it is just the point of life: all worthy things must be wrought by genuine effort. I must continue to put out ideas that contradict the prominent ideology which is destroying us faster than we know. I and anyone else who thinks they can help solve the problems we face that concern our over-indulgent, consumerist ethos must continue the tradition of fighting it. If it were as simple as putting out the answer and everyone understanding/following that principle, life would be much easier. But it isn’t that easy, and we have to face that. We have to fight and continue the fight that has existed.
