Hi. My nHowdy, teh names Robert call sign N316Jobsame is...
Posted by deleted 3 years, 7 months ago to The Gulch: Introductions
I'm very happy to have landed in the Gulch... the flight was a bit bumpy, hence the rough landing, but I made it. Looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work. We have plenty of challenges to solve. Lets get started. :-D
I think one of Rand's greatest contributions is that of showing how assumptive institutionalization of how we "care" for one another will always degrade into manipulation and power struggles. I'll offer a fundamental example. The average person (arbitrarily) has 30 others whom they "know". The probability of assumption is not 30 divided by 7.5 billion...that's a simplified base of perception. This is compounded by all the assumptions we may make, regarding ourselves and our personal interaction with the natural world, and the world of human creation. Compound again by the assumptions of our "group" of 30. What each of us "knows" regarding our lives is X to the negative power of Y. I use this as a perceptive exaample, though Asimov showed a methodology of making this a scientific exploration....and it's being used today.
I can imagine a teachable means of philosophy that negates a lot of developmental bias, and that children can begin to learn the fundamentals as young as 6 or 7. I am watching this manifest in my 6 y/o grand niece...I can see it happening globally.
Just where did Rand ever discuss or show that in any of her writings, fiction or non-fiction? Something from the great science of Sociology?
It never occurred to me in my 80 years to ever need to know or assume "what I am" or
or other time wasters such as "who am I" or even need to know what assumptions go on in an other individual's mind. All that can be done is to judge their actions and then deal with them as needed.
When I was about 3, I asked my father where do we come from. He said that we come from monkeys which cause a golden prehensile tailed monkey image (the only kind of monkey that I was familiar with) to form in my mind. It was very intense. I was never indoctrinated in some pseudo concept such as a god.
I have had social anxiety since about one year old and do not have to know or assume about the contents of others minds nor have I looked to making friends, acquaintanceships are enough for me.
I am a life form, I have that in common with all other life. Our purpose collectively is continuity. We do this through processing energy and procreation. We experience, unilaterally, comfort or discomfort as a percept. More complex organisms experience comfort / discomfort as happiness or unhappiness. These are the fundamentals of metaphysical values. To survive in some state of comfort and happiness is the purpose of life. Humans are unique. Because we developed tools to insulate us from the immediacy of survival we can create "assumption" on individual and organizational level and attempt to live by this as fact. Assumption can be manipulated by conceptualization during development of the mind.....A=B..equals cognitive dissonance between perception and conception. In a really tight nutshell.
Without some form of basic understanding of what we are and how we interact that applies unilaterally we shall always find ourselves in unreconcilable conflicts of beliefs. The Objectivist's Ethics provides this basic connection.
Rand: Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental dis-integration. (I hyphenated disintegration for clarity)
Thank you and Irshultis for pointing out a laziness I exhibited. Above, in this exchange, I illustrated a fundamental formula for assumption. Well....we just lived it!
As for this reply, the ability to edit lasts but a few minutes.
Welcome to The Gulch.
Toot! Toot!
Ps...shhhhh...MEMES UP!
It doesn't help having no expansion option so you can see your whole headline. You'll just have to go back and forth and review your heading carefully...might be a good way to develop a productive habit.
You do have that feature in the "Notes" area.
Welcome.
Damage control and rebuilding afterward, quietly and methodically.
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john k