Reality is a Paradox

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A paradox: a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true.

So it is an idea that first seems to have no business being true but then is. It is true because as you go down the rabbit hole of thought, your mind confines its sight to the mud and dirt around it, and forgets the rest.

“I am happy. Look at me, I am happy. I feel happy. I AM HAPPY!”

Does that sound convincing? Do you believe me when I say that? Do you find it to be true or faked? Genuine or false?

Interestingly, we equate the two. True=Genuine. False=Faked. Is there such a thing? 

Genuine: truly what something is said to be; authentic… it is in the definition. Genuine is the act of being true. Well… that doesn’t really help. Let’s try faked.

Faked: forge or counterfeit (something). So fake is forged from what? What could be used in the process of creating something that is not true. 

True comes from ourselves. We are being true when we are listening and acting to what our inner self is telling us. I am a genuine human when I act in a way that my inner authentic self is guiding me, rather than the norms and pressures that push one way or the other.

I wonder though, since that is my genuine tendency, whether we really can separate ourselves from the world around us. Can I really be free from the expectations put on me before birth due to one body part? Does there really exist a true identity that I can reference to in hopes of feeling pure? And can I really be free of the falsehoods and misconceptions my genetics have imbedded within to maintain sanity? Uncomfortably, I feel obligated to respond with, “no”. 

I don’t believe there can be a “true self”. I find it very unlikely that there can be a core version of ourselves that exists past all the bullshit that surrounds us. So in other words… we are a part of the bullshit.

A beautiful quote I found that refers to this idea is by David Hume. This early 1700’s philosopher said, “we are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement”. In short, Hume believed that every human is a sum of its perceived surroundings and changing tendencies. 

Therefore, what is true? If everything we are manifested from comes from the things around and inside us, then is it any more true than anything else? Is there really an objective truth, or does there exist a sum of subjective falsehoods that come together into one line of thinking in order for everything to make sense? And when I say it like that… it certainly doesn’t sound very genuine.

Yet we should not go down this rabbit hole without looking down the others first. If nothing is true, then why do things feel true? Well, there are a number of ways of explaining this idea (of which I attempt to do in the hyperlinks at the beginning of the post), but I will try to do it in a simple way. Some things feel true, and others feel false because we are all biased

We have all gone down some type of line of thinking about the world and ourselves. None of which is necessarily more true than the other, but feel more true due to our desire for it to be true. Whether that desire by conscious or subconscious, good or bad, it’s all the same, we biasedly want it to be true. To finish this loop of thinking, our bias comes when our flowing perception of self-concept as we identify ourselves differently with every experience throughout life. 

So, I AM HAPPY!!!! Is it convincing enough? If not for you, is it enough for me? Can I believe something until it is true for myself, and only then will it become genuine and true?

The truth that I see is that everything is a paradox. Nothing makes sense or is true until we proclaim it to be. And once we have done so, it is then indefinitely that way… well until we say otherwise. And the moments before we biasedly except something to be true in our world, it is a paradox. Not because the idea or experience is seemingly absurd or self-contradictory at first and then understood. It is instead because we find it to be absurd and then we contradict ourselves and call it certainly true. The idea never changes, we simply do. 

Our Subjective World

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With today’s post, I hope to explain the subjective world we live in. Being a rather abstract concept, and a debatable one for that matter, I encourage you to email or comment below on any questions or concerns you may have on my explanation. I certainly do not believe my explanation is anything objectively true, so please disagree with me in anything you find troubling.

To begin, I want you to take your eyes off the paper and find something to hold. Whatever that thing is, please get up, if you must, and grab it. What does it look like? Can you describe it? Can you feel it? Go ahead… feel it. Tell yourself what it feels like. Convince yourself that it feels like that. Now identify its colors. Is there any red on it? What about blue? Do you see the slightest bit of blue on this object? And don’t forget to name it. Give that item a name if it does not already have one. I’m not saying you must name it like your pet, but instead identify it. If you are holding a rectangular-shaped device that can allow you to text, call and download millions of different apps at your control, name it a smartphone. Or if you are holding a soft fabric with four holes, with the largest one at the bottom, name it a shirt.

Now that you know what you are holding, now that you are certain, I want you to be uncertain. Change the item, not in the physical world, but in the mental one. Bend the reality that you perceive until you begin to feel roughness on the edges of the object. Wait until the colors you see change into the ones you once did not. Then rename it. Call the cellphone a fork, and the shirt a racket.

The question you are probably asking yourself right now is what the hell I am talking about. You can look at an apple all day, but it’s only changing colors once the outer layer begins to rot away. And in a sense, I totally agree. Unless we alter the physical world, or it alters itself, it will never physically change. But my question to you is whether the physical world is the only way to perceive something? Are we limited to the objective physical world, or is there a way for us to subjectively perceive things from a different light? And honestly, I truly believe the answer is ‘yes, of course’.

Subjectivity is something influenced by feelings, tastes, and opinions. When defined this way, I feel that is clear that our world is subjective because everything, and I mean everything, is influenced by our feelings, tastes, and opinions. To demonstrate this, I want you to hold that same object in your hand again. As you feel it, you cannot know for sure whether it is you raising the object or if it is instead levitating up as your hand moves up. One could argue that you “feel” the object, but the same situation occurs. Do you feel the item in your hands, or does a sensation rush into your hands as you think you are holding the object? 

** Here’s a more concrete example: everything is subjective because there is a constant filter that we take the world in from. As in with every sense you have, there is a filter from that thing you are experiencing and whatever you define as yourself experiencing it. In between you and the thing you experience is the lens that transfers this information. And that lens, of course, is biased and subject to the emotions and expectations that you have of yourself and the world around you. Therefore, nothing is a direct intake without some type of internal influence when interpreting. **

Any one of our senses could be rearranged in this manner, which inconveniences us to not know which reality is true. Therefore, is it that we feel the physical world, or do we have common sensations that we associate with our interactions with the physical world? And honestly, there is no way to be totally sure of the first option, which leaves us with the latter. We are left to believe in a subjective world simply by the process of elimination.

The issue with this philosophy is that it is impossible to think that the physical world does not exist. Sure, everything is subjective, but to believe nothing is objective and to believe the physical world is only a construct is simply incomprehensible for the human brain. 

Another issue is that this mindset does not factor in probability. We cannot be a hundred percent sure that there is an objective world, yet the likelihood that there is one is very high. What I mean to point out is that if there is no base point, which we call the objective world, then there exists a massive coincidence that we all can agree on basically everything we experience. In other words, for no objective world to exist would require every conscious mind, or at least the clear majority, to agree that their unique, separate perceptions of reality are the same. Therefore, I believe the most likely situation is that we all live within an objective world, yet we all perceive it through our own unique subjective lens which alters how we experience the objective world ever so slightly.

As outlandish and confusing as this idea may sound, I guarantee you have thought this very thing before and did not even know it. For example, have you ever thought or been told that your red could be my blue? The idea is simple: one cannot describe the color blue without using examples of blue things or mixing other colors to make the color blue. Both forms of explanation require a common understanding of what blue is, which is why the statement, “your red could be my blue”, cannot be disproved. That statement is exposing our understanding that the subjective world we live in is only seen as objective when everyone agrees. Yet since I am only in my head, I must assume that we are all agreeing on the same color red.

Other examples, like my second could be your minute, my rough could be your smooth, or my angry could be your calm, all cannot be disproven for the same reason. Broadly speaking, that reason is that we assume our experiences are all agreeing yet have no way of proving it. 

Now with our subjective world defined, I ask that you go back to the object you were, or are, holding. Grab it one last time and look at it again. The physical world demands that it be the colors that it is now, but your subjective lens can say otherwise. You cannot change the physical world, but you can change how you preserve it. I am not saying you can do that this second (well, unless you quickly take a psychedelic), but what I am saying is that it is certainly possible. And with this possibility in mind, our subjective lens can certainly become a bit more interesting and possibly make the world seem a bit brighter.

What is the Purpose of Life?

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Life is a complicated mix of consciousness and biological needs and desires, of which we can only begin to understand through a subjective, biased lens. So, before I even begin this post, I would like to state that I do not know the purpose of life. All I present in this post is something that I have found to be very true from my own knowledge and understanding of the world around me. Yet by no means does this have to be the case for you or anyone else.

I, like many people, have spent quite some time debating the answer to this question. Some think about this jokingly over beers, while others write in-depth novels on this perplexing question. It is a question that has been around since the first homo-sapien developed a prefrontal cortex large enough to wonder if there was more to life than finding and consuming food. And this question will probably remain as long as a living thing of at least that intelligence exists within this universe.

My answer to this question is simple. The purpose of one’s life is to experience its life, and more broadly, to experience the universe around it.

This all began when talking to a friend of mine. Feeling a bit down, his philosophy of life took the skeptic route. He questioned and pointed out the flaw in caring about anything.

Nothing is real,” he said. “Everything is a construct built through evolution and natural selection. The only reason we feel joy is because our brains are programmed to do so when we are experiencing something that will probably extend our meaningless lives in either an abstract or concrete way. So, in other words, there is nothing true about it. Plus, it’s all going to end eventually anyways, so what’s the point”.

I considered taking a few paragraphs in order to unpack what my friend said, yet as I wrote, I found out that it was going to take a lot more than a few paragraphs. Therefore, I decided to write a couple of posts that explain the ideas my friend was talking about in his little rant.

As I talked with my friend, I gave him my usual answers to his statement. I explained how it was about the process, not the end. And that the process is filled with emotions that are true to us, and that is all the truth we need to find a life worth living.

Yet none of those answers felt sufficient. I could still feel the persistence of his skeptic mindset and I felt a bit lost for words. Yet, through that confusion, I found clarity. I sat next to him and asked myself what the purpose of life really could be? What could it all be for?

It was then that he asked once again what the point was. What is the point in living if it is just going to end? And then it hit me. All at once I actually felt love and fulfillment in my heart because it all seemed to make sense.

I told him the purpose of life is to experience it, to experience the universe. The beautiful part about a living creature, especially a conscious one, is that only with this creature can things be seen as beautiful. Earth alone is nothing special. The ocean tides are not themselves majestic as the salty breeze goes through your hair. The peaks of mountains are not themselves gorgeous as the sun slowly begins to rise above the horizon. And this universe is not amazing if there is nothing to find it amazing.

As a living creature, I feel that our job is to live. Our duty, our purpose, is to experience and take in the world around us. Because without our thoughts and emotions that connect with these experiences, it would all be for nothing. The tides will move in without anyone to paint them. The sun would set without anyone to gaze into the bending red light. And the universe would continue to exist without anything to call it home.

And don’t get me wrong, I am not saying our purpose in life is to understand the universe. We don’t need to know the temperature outside to know when it feels warm enough to lay in the grass. We don’t need to know the types of trees to understand that the changing color leaves are beautiful. And put simply, we don’t need to understand what we are experiencing to experience it.

I have found that the purpose of life is to experience it the most you can. I believe that we should attempt to live the most experiences and witness the most beautiful things. We don’t need to conquer this universe, we should just acknowledge it. We should just see it for what it is and feel content that it did not go to waste since we were there to experience it.

This universe is beautiful because we are here to believe that it is. Life’s purpose is to live. Not survive, not to grow and modernize, but to instead live. It is to take in everything around us and smile.

What’s the purpose of life? Well, you’re doing it. You do it every day, but very few have the imagination for reality. So, if you want to pursue the purpose of life, then live some more. Experience new things and see what really lies outside of the little box you have stayed within most of your life. Because if you don’t experience these new things, then their beauty and wonder will be lost forever.

Nothing is Real

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I for one have heard dozens of people say, usually in frustration, that nothing is real. They exclaim that nothing matters and that everything is bullshit and fake. With my post today, I hope to explain this idea and show how fake or not, everything may matter after all.

After careful reverse engineering, I believe the statement, “nothing is real”, is better said as “nothing is natural”. I feel obligated to fix the statement because obviously… something must be “real”. We could go the skeptic route and question our very existence and senses, but without going too deep we can safely assume that we exist somewhere at some time in someplace. So, it is not that we are not real, but instead that everything is artificial.

An example of how everything is artificial is to point out that the only reason we find life worth living is because we have evolved to think in that way. Our brains, through years of natural selection and survival, learned that when we value life at a high standard we typically extend it. Alternatively, the brains of our species that did not value life so highly died off. Not suddenly, but instead very gradually. The people with ideas that life was nothing too valuable did not fear death as much, which led to shorter lives. With this shortened lifespan, came less time to reproduce and influence others with their views.

** That’s assuming that this was even something learned through nurture. I would make the gamble that life is just inherently brought about with the built neuro-networking that values life. I mean, it’s not like people just popped out of nowhere, they evolved from something else, and I’m sure that something else had learned to value life long before. **

The primal instinct within us to survive is within us all. But to show my point, just because something is within us now, doesn’t mean it has any more right as an alternative mindset. If we had evolved and developed differently than what we value as good and bad may very well be flipped. Yet regardless, even if they flipped we would feel just as emotionally attached to them.

To make this idea more concrete, I will create a hypothetical. Imagine a society like ours, that found suffering to be good (I personally define suffering as pain, mental or physical, that has no purpose or meaning behind it). As these members of society were brutally tortured on their days off from work, much like a spa day for us, their dopamine levels would skyrocket. As their nails were peeled from their fingertips, and their limbs were slowly pulled apart, these people would laugh or just feel relaxed.

This hypothetical seems a bit unrealistic, for we are a bit biased, but if we begin to see past our assumptions it may not seem so far-fetched. Referring to my hypothetical, what if that society felt joy from suffering because their atmosphere dissolves human tissue that isn’t actively working to repair a broken body part. As this society developed, it learned what it had to do in order to survive very quickly. Therefore, the people who discovered the way to live did what they had to do, and the ones who did not, died. As this process of natural selection continued, eventually the society was just left with people who felt safe and secure when their bodies were suffering.

Now earlier I defined suffering as pain with no greater purpose. Survival is in many ways a greater purpose, so let me finish my hypothetical. After twenty thousand years of this poisonous atmosphere, it eventually stabilizes, and people are no longer required to endure pain to survive. Yet, even with this shift, they continued to suffer optionally. Not because they must, but because they want to. They do this because that is what they have defined as good and happiness. This society would label an act that we call bad as good, and neither of which are any more true than the other.

A question you may be asking is how I can be so sure that this society would continue to suffer. How can I be certain that this society would choose to endure pain when they did not have to? My reasoning is because you can see a similar process going on in our society today.

Human beings enjoy sugar, not because it is just good, but instead because our bodies have learned that it is a high source of calories. And when we were scrapping for anything we could get our hands on; high-calorie meals were just about the only thing humanity needed. It was not until very recently that we developed the reverse issue of overeating in certain parts of the world. Hence why we see such high rates of obesity throughout the United States. We crave these foods even though we do not need them, and many people are unable to resist the temptation.

In numerous parts of our lives, we can point at the things we think and realize that they are completely constructed. Have you ever noticed that even before the “scary” music (what really makes music scary?) starts playing in a superhero movie you already know who the villain is? With seemingly every super villain’s costume, it appears to be pointy with dark colors. Have you ever wondered why that is? There is nothing truly scary about these shapes and colors, yet we seem to fear them. It seems even as a twenty-year-old I walk a little faster after I turn the lights off in my basement.

These things are simply what we have learned to stay away from. Pointy things can typically break through our outer layer, which we call skin, and cause our blood to leave our body in a non-ideal way. The dark is something that our subconscious tries to avoid because when things are dark we have trouble seeing them, which allows us to be vulnerable to a possible threat.

Nothing is natural. Our very definition of what is right and wrong is simply an artificial construct that has developed through natural selection and evolution.

Now, this idea may sound sad at first. It may be a little disappointing to believe that nothing is absolute and pure. But there is a silver lining to this mindset, and it’s an important one. Whether we understand pain is simply neurons firing off signals to inform our brain to avoid continued damage to the body or not, we still feel it. No matter how conscious you are of our artificial world, we still feel and experience these things as if they are natural and absolute.

At the end of the day, I really don’t want to be punched in the face. I would also prefer to not have my fingernails forcefully removed, even if that is my personal bias talking. Everything is artificial, but that does not mean it is not real. What I feel is a very real part of me. Whether it is physical or emotion, it doesn’t matter, at the end of the day my emotions are present, and I would prefer to please them. I want to please them because when they are happy, I feel happy.

I believe that we should attempt to understand our artificial world, but to also not feel bad because of it. By knowing that nothing is natural we can then begin to try to change the seemingly unavoidable issues in society. We can begin to look past our biological desires and attempt to find what those desires are truly looking for. And we can do all of this with our heads held high. Whether my happiness is a construct or not, I feel it. And to me, it feels very real. I believe that realness is worth fighting for.  

Philosophy Through the Ages

What would happen if any philosophy was taught on a platform as large as religious philosophy, would this be a good thing?

Here in the United States, our philosophical sphere is in limbo. Not too long ago churches held a lot of control over what people thought and felt about the world. However, as time moves on people seem to be pulling away from the religious ways of their lineage, and this could lead to some very interesting results. I don’t want to make a statement here about whether or not this was a good or bad thing, but I do want to discuss the interesting notion of widely practiced philosophy. 

Although we like to separate religion and philosophy, at the end of the day, religion is just a branch of philosophy. It provides a way to think about the world, and answer it’s greatest questions based on what we observe. When religion is thought about in this way, it paints an interesting picture of how things were in the past, and how they still are in other parts of the world. With philosophy being taught every Sunday to almost every person there were a few really interesting effects on the mind of the masses; widespread standardized thought, lifelong education, and regular mental stimulation.

As people, I think that we have a drive to be similar to one another. There was no better way to relate to your neighbor in the past, than what religion you both practiced. Now of course there are many slight variations between and even inside religions, however many of the structures are the same. With this said, whenever there was a moral dilemma or a crisis of the soul in the past, you could take a pretty good educated guess at how someone would handle it based on their religion. This comes from the fact that religious thought is standardized, and widely distributed. Downsides to this can be found everywhere, but I think most of them boil down to the fact that when people are all thinking in a similar fashion, progress begins to halt. With that said, there is also a lot of comfort to be had with knowing that many people share the same ideas as you. Another benefit is the fact that people can get up to the same page with how another person thinks, just based off of being part of the same school of thought.

Many things from childhood end as we grow up. We leave school, go to live on our own, and join the working world. If you are part of religion however, that is a school that will never change. Much unlike the workplace or starting a family, your rank and duties don’t change much over time. From the moment you are born to the moment that you die you are a servant to your church, and you present for roll call every week. This is made doubly interesting by the fact that each visit is a teaching. We now live in a time where many graduate out of school, never to step foot in a learning environment again. This is a stark contrast to the way life has been for so long, it will be interesting to see what happens as a result of it.

I’ve spoken already of the fact that the church keeps schooling you all the way into old age, but I would also like to speak of how that affects the brain and psyche. The human brain does very well to be stimulated consistently throughout life. Because religion is a philosophy it is always pushing the limits of the mind and shifting how we view the world. This also leads to a powerful counterpoint to what I said earlier, that standardized thought restricts progress. That is, if we are constantly encouraged to think in new ways, this practice will most likely lead to the generation of new and creative thoughts from ourselves.

I wanted to write this just to play with the thought of how religion used to affect us as a philosophy, and how the newer lack of it will affect us going forward. I can’t say whether or not this is a good thing or not. On one hand people are thinking more individually than ever before, not hindered but crowd effects and lifelong indoctrination. On the other hand, people are no longer being stimulated and forced to learn in later adulthood, which could lead to a decline in creative and refreshing ideas. Finally, with that I would like to leave you with a question; What would happen if any philosophy was taught on a platform as large as religious philosophy, would this be a good thing? I do not think religion may be the best way forward in the progression of mankind. As it loses popularity however, it is very important that we look to other schools of thought to provide answers to life’s biggest questions.

Life Through Other’s Eyes

However, I think that it is time we challenged our human-centric views on the world and tried to put ourselves in somebody else’s paws.

I think that it’s fair to say that as a people, we have a rather dominating human-centric view of the world. I mean it makes sense to me, primarily thinking about one’s own species is probably a pretty good way to practice self-preservation. However, I think that it is time we challenged our human-centric views on the world and tried to put ourselves in somebody else’s paws.

I believe a good example to talk about is dogs. What I’ve noticed is that people seem to give dogs a lot of human traits that I really don’t believe to be there. Let’s think about poop for a second. Barring any major change in your genetic code, I would venture to guess that you don’t really enjoy the smell of poop. Many people I have noticed, also assume that dogs shouldn’t either. I have seen some people say that a dog sniffs and eats his own poo because he is stupid, this is clearly not the case. To think this, is taking a very human-centric approach to observation. What is instead most likely happening, is that a dog’s powerful genetic predispositions have not gone down a path that says “poop is bad”. Animal behaviorists call this concept Anthropomorphism, or the personification of nonhuman things.

If we look deeper into a dogs experience, we realize how different the world they are seeing really is. Of course people realize some senses are heightened and others are dulled in dogs, but what many fail to remember is that the things we sense may be interpreted entirely differently by dogs. Some sounds we may find soothing causes them panic, some tastes we hate they can love (like poop). Of course this is just dogs, who are mammals. When we look further away genetically the differences become even more extreme.

Some animals don’t rely on vision to navigate at all, but instead on vibrations in the Earth. Take a moment if you will, to imagine what that existence would be like. How about some ants, who operate almost exclusively on the scents of chemicals left behind by their fellow colonists? When we take a moment to try and imagine these things it is clear to see that even when we are factually aware of the differences that we have, it is so hard to place ourselves in that experience. This just goes to show a piece of the endless puzzle that is living existence.

This is usually the part where I talk about this idea’s societal implications and what kind of good it will do. I am not sure if it would do any good, it might just end up being a fun thing to talk about. However, I hope that maybe if more people think this way then they could appreciate the complexity and true scope of life a bit more. So the next time you see your dog dashing around the yard like a maniac, or an ant carrying a crumb across the floor, just think to yourself, “What does life look and feel like to them?”. I think you may be surprised with the results.

Grow Up

Did you pick what you ate today? What about yesterday? Did you consciously choose each item out of desire or did a lifetime of stimuli dictate the decision? Maybe it just happened?

If you watch a video presenting evidence of carcinogens in coffee, you may choose to skip your next morning brew. Unfortunately, that next morning goes terribly without your laser focus and pristine work ethic. You find yourself struggling to get any work done and go for a cup of coffee in the afternoon. You then finish the day, still caffeinated, and unable to fall asleep. Regretting ever listening to some overhyped conspiracy theory video, you go back to the daily routine of waking up and running for that morning coffee.

Out of your own “free will”, you made a decision to skip that morning coffee and get one in the afternoon instead. But that wasn’t the original plan. The goal was to skip the coffee altogether and save your body from all those carcinogens. However, you didn’t anticipate the hours of exhaustion and daydreaming.

Here’s something else to consider with “free will” in mind. We began as single celled organisms scattered around the globe. They were born out of some unlivable environment. They grew over a couple billion years with each cell struggling for survival and making as many copies of itself as possible. Now the Earth has me pounding away on my keyboard and you looking at a bunch of tiny flashing lights. Life began as a product of its environment and adapted as environments changed. We all started our journey at birth and now have years of experience influencing our decisions.

Examining “free will” is a way to begin thinking about how and why we make decisions. Accepting that the environment has a significant impact on everyone’s life, you may be able to focus in on what you should be doing and not what others should be doing. Perhaps you can work together and help others do what they should be doing as they help you. To be clear, I don’t find questioning the existence of free should change how we treat others.

  • If we don’t have free will then we can’t blame anyone or make them responsible for any bad choices that they make. Instead, as a society, we must have compassion and help those who make bad choices and guide them to a better path so we can all happily live together.
  • If we do have free will then we will continue to make decisions that assist us pursue happiness. We will use trial and error to traverse this world in search of satisfaction. We are in complete control of what we do and can often work together to achieve our goals.

These statements do not fully explore the implications of the existence of “free will”. However, I believe they’re a starting point and suggest that when making bad decisions, we need to reflect and change to correct ourselves. This is not some revolutionary idea as you can find variations of the same concept all across the internet. We should all strive to consistently grow alongside those around us.

I find working with everyone around me to accomplish amazing things to be one of the only ways to achieve satisfaction. Whether we have free will or not you can’t hate people for who they currently are, we all need each other. Limiting our pool of peers doesn’t allow us to grow in the long run. Although, anyone can be “dangerous” before we really get to know them. In the short run, someone may be bad and bring those around them down. In this case I see 2 obvious options:

  1. We can all choose who we keep around us. We don’t have to get along with everyone and have the choice to get away from them.
  2. If you focus on yourself, you can start moving forward and maybe they will choose to follow. Once your on your own path forward good habits are as hard to break as bad ones making it harder for people to push you around.

I find these idea very humbling when exploring them every now and then. No human has any foresight as an infant to assist them in planning out their life. I have a few friends born into volatile families that crumbled throughout their childhood. I often find myself caught up in my life that I lose sight of reality and begin acting as if everyone had the same past. When something upsets me I begin to question everyone’s actions, including my own, until I get extremely frustrated. Ruminating on “free will” or similar ideas brings me back to the idea that we are not the creators of our present success or failure. But we can be the creators of our future successes and failures. At this moment, I can try to blame a clueless individual for doing me wrong or we can try to grow up together.

How About We Stop Judging

Judging is defined as forming an opinion, or drawing a conclusion, about someone or something with limited knowledge and using your own perspective on the matter.  When considering judgement in this way, I find that it happens a lot more than we realize. Essentially everything we consider and do is in this manner. We use both the knowledge we have and the bias we own to make our decisions and judgments on a situation.

Hence why for the most part I am okay with judging. It is something we are programmed to do, there is no denying that.  It is an evolutionary trait we have developed to prepare for quick decision making and necessary assessments of possible danger.  What I am not okay with is when we use this skill on other people and assume we know their situation. When we compare what they are going through to our own experiences, and assume we experienced the same thing but magically prevailed. Call me crazy, but I don’t believe in magic.

Here’s the one thing we tend to forget when thinking of others, they aren’t you. You, me, the guy in your tenth-grade math class, your crazy neighbor, your parents, and whoever else you can think of, all have one commonality.  That commonality is that we lack any absolute commonality with one another. Let me explain.

Subjectivity is something influenced by feelings, tastes, and opinions.  When thinking in this sense, our world is subjective because everything, and I mean everything, is subjective.   A simple example of this is shown when you hold your phone in your hand. As you pick up your phone, you cannot know for sure whether it is you raising the phone or if it is instead levitating up as your hand moves up.  One could argue that you “feel” the phone, but the same situation occurs.  Do you feel the phone in your hands, or does a sensation rush into your hand as you think you are holding the phone?  Any one of our senses could be rearranged in this manner, inconveniencing us into not know which reality is true.

Here’s a more concrete example: everything is subjective because there is a constant filter that we take the world in from. As in with every sense you have, there is a filter from that thing you are experiencing and whatever you define as yourself experiencing it. In between you and the thing you experience is the lens that transfers this information. And that lens, of course, is biased and subject to the emotions and expectations that you have of yourself and the world around you. Therefore, nothing is a direct intake without some type of internal influence when interpreting. 

It should be noted that although this concept is commonly accepted among modern philosophers, one should not get stuck on this way of thinking.  However, there is an important thing to notice with this realization. With the understanding of our world being subjective, comes the understanding that how we all interpret this world could be completely different depending on the person.  An example of this, that most of us have all heard, is that your blue could be my red, and vise versa. The colors that I have defined in my head could be entirely different than yours. This is idea, of individual realities, is reinforced with Cogito’s quote, “I think, therefore I am”.  

Since we are not in each other’s heads, it is impossible to tell how someone other than yourself experiences something.  We can relate with one another, but we can not truly know what it feels like to be that person. And that is why the one thing we all have in common leads to the very thing we all have uniquely.  We all live in a subjective world, but that subjective world makes us experience our unique thoughts and emotions.

This is why judging is so terrible.  When we judge we assume we know what it means to be that person and to be honest with you, there is no way we do.  Two people’s external surroundings could be identical and it still wouldn’t matter because their internal ones could be infinitely different.  

This is where I feel most of the issue in judgement is.  People compare themselves to others who turned out worse than them, yet grew up in the same environment.  They see these people and sometimes guiltily smile. Many of us only see as far as the external world and assume the rest is the same.  The thing is that it isn’t, and arguably if it was you would do the same exact thing. So unless you wanna disagree with the fact that we are the product of nature and nurture, we need to start considering both parts of people.

Therefore, we need to stop judging others.  We need to because we are in no position to.  We need to acknowledge the fact that someone addicted to cocaine and heroin, spending the next 15 years in the hole from dealing is no worse than you or me.  We all live in an uncertain world. One with no bearing on how anyone thinks other than ourselves. Let’s stop pretending like we are magically better than anyone else. We need to accept the fact that nobody, nobody, deserves to be judged.  And that nobody should have the liberty to use minimal, biased “facts” and throw them onto anyone but themselves.

Life is a Trap

I am not going to lie, this realization is not a “happy” one.  I use quotes on this term simply because of how relative it is.  How relative our definition of what is happy and what is sad. In truth, there is nothing sad about this realization, but regardless sadness is typically our initial reaction to ideas like this one.  This idea is that life is a trap.

Before I continue with this I would like to clarify my definition of a trap. A trap is something one does not mean to get into, yet does anyways.  Something people or things try to avoid, yet are tricked into walking in. They are tricked into this trap because they believe it is “their” decision.  A squirrel runs into a snare because it believes the peanut butter is easy pickings. A person sends money to a Nigerian prince because they believe that they will get gold in return.  A trap lets you believe you are making your decision for your own interests, but in reality, you are doing it for the trapper’s interest.  

Now how in the world is life a trap?  Life is a trap because we have the illusion of control and free-will in our decisions and who we are.  Life is seen as something we experience, rather than something we are a part of.  We do not choose who we are or who we become. We don’t experience life, we are life.  Individually, each and every one of us are life that functions as life is supposed to. And one of those common functionals for complex life is to give meaning to itself.  By creating meaning and purpose, there is motivation to continue itself and its species lifespan.  

The blunt, objective reality is that nothing matters.  To be more exact, nothing even exists in the concrete, defined way we interpret it as.  A computer is not a computer. A dog is not a dog. Life is not life. These things have no ultimate definition or meaning to them. They are created by ourselves to make the illusion of what we consider life.  To make the illusion of progress and purpose. This illusion is a trap because it is something we believe we are in control of when in reality we just do exactly what a living species is supposed to.

We are creating the trap of life, which we call the world.  One with hope. One with goals and ambitions. One that is yours for the taking if you are ambitious enough.  And look how false it is. Look how not real it is. How fabricated it is. I see reality, the concrete reality, as everything around us, yet never we can identify with.

This now begs the question of the who trapper is.  If there is a trap, then there must be someone who set it.  Ironically, I believe we are the trappers. Each and every one of us have created the trap of life for ourselves.  This makes sense because who can live like I have been describing in the last couple of paragraphs. Who can live with nothing?  Who can live as nothing? Not humans, that much I can guarantee, and probably not any life for that matter. So whether it be conscious or not, ironically, we are the creators of a trap we all “consciously” walk into.  We are the trappers of ourselves and our trap is the illusion of how we define and give purpose to the world around us.

This idea seems sad because it is exactly what we, as the trappers, attempt to avoid.  It is the line of thinking that in many cases is the pill we never swallow. The thing is it doesn’t have to be sad, because just like anything, sadness is not sadness.  Nothing is clear cut, and therefore nothing has to be reacted a certain way. By stepping out of the trap humanity has created for itself, comes the end of one reality. The end of one “truth”, which then probably leads to another “truth”.  

One should wonder that if that is the case, then is there even a point to get out of this trap if we will naturally just create another one for ourselves?  The answer is I have no idea. I haven’t the faintest clue of what is outside of our trap. As of now I just see darkness, but my bias to see darkness could very well be clouding the light at the end of the tunnel.  My ingrained way of thinking within the trap could simply make me assume there is nothing outside of it.  

Therefore, I have no answer.  I have no idea, and I may go my whole life not knowing, but you don’t know until you try.  So my one request is to consider this abstract thought. Not because it is a better way to think, or even necessarily going to lead to anything, but because it is a truer way to think with incomprehensible potential.  

** Haha, but oh do things change in life. Follow the link to a post that addresses this idea, yet finds the most important idea that this post accidentally leaves out. Yes, everything is fabricated, even ourselves.  **

Our Concrete Minds, Making a Concrete Universe

Life, existence, reality, whatever you want to call it, what is it?  Where are we? And who are we? These are only a few of the seemingly unanswerable questions.  Questions asked in such an abstract mindset that a solution seems impossible. They are impossible until we bring them into conceptually objective terms and allow assumptions to be made.

Life is the existence of an individual human being or animal.  That is straight out of Google. Within a millisecond I received an answer to such a confusing question.  Obviously we both know Google’s answer isn’t anywhere close to what I was referring to in the first paragraph.  It seemed clear I was questioning the nature of our reality. Essentially wondering what the very thing existence can be classified as other than using synonymous words with the one I am trying to define.  Yet here is Google doing what it does best, giving us straightforward, concrete answers.

I then asked Google what the universe is expanding into. It told me, “The Universe isn’t expanding into anything, it’s just expanding. The definition of the Universe is that it contains everything. If something was outside the Universe, it would also be part of the Universe.”  Nice, another easy one. We are in the universe, which is within itself, so we are definitely in the universe. A simple concrete way to address such a complex question. Rather than wondering what could be beyond the fabric of time and matter, it is quickly concluded that there is nothing.

I think you get the point.  There appears to be an issue when trying to ask an abstract question in such a concrete world.  Whether it be the respect we have for hard science compared to soft science, or the traditional answers we have to truly thought-provoking questions, it seems we have a preference to think concretely.  For instance, which theory is harder to understand and accept, the theory of Plate Tectonics dictating how and why earth’s land moves or that gender and sex are two different things?  These are both commonly accepted among the scientists within their field, yet the distinction between gender and sex appears to be widely less accepted, which, all in all, makes total sense.  

Of humanity’s two-hundred thousand years of existence, all but five percent of that time has been spent running around as hunters and gatherers.  It wasn’t until roughly ten-thousand years ago we began to use our brains in ways that advanced human development. As you can imagine, this has not allowed a lot of time for abstract thought.  Rather than sitting in a room questioning who we are, most of humanity has spent its time looking for its next meal.

This dominance in thought has, in my opinion, led to a huge societal problem.  I feel that this bias and preference for concrete thought has limited society’s growth.  It is stopping us from considering so many perspectives and ideas simply because we are not used to thinking in that way.  We either take these abstract questions as absolute truth or unpopular opinion. For example, have you ever considered that we assume if something is false it can not be true?  It may seem obvious at first, but when you break it down you realize it is merely an assumption we make, rather than a fact of the universe.  

These ways of thinking should both be considered in the same questioning, yet open-minded way.  We should strive to understand the significance of both and allow them to cross our minds before we take a stance on a subject.  Google’s first link is convenient and fast, so we definitely should not ignore that luxury. But maybe we need to give the concrete mindset a little break.  Maybe we need to scroll a little down the page to find the less accepted, but equally important answers to the world around us.  

Let me know what you think in the comments below and feel free to click the link below to read more on the subject of reasoning and thought. http://complexitylabs.io/subjective-thinking/