|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
|
Voldemort? Upsy Downsy Whew! A Black Conservative Speaks Sock Puppet Giggles Worship When You Look Like James Iha Link Whore Thoughts on Girls Justin Oldham - Politics and Patriotism
Wilco The Flaming Lips The New Radicals John Mayer Zero 7 Dream Theater Radiohead Death Cab for Cutie The Notwist O.S.I. Ani Difranco The Shins Elliott Smith Badly Drawn Boy Chroma Key Coheed and Cambria The Streets Andrew Bird Sufjan Stevens Atom Site Feed 
|
10.03.2004
I think we underestimate the influence that our outer reality has on all our decision making. Our mental environment is shaped by our daily choices. My gut wrenching reaction to the worldview of Bush comes from my observance of my own work environment. For example, at the company I work currently, its commonplace to invoke the spector of the "guys down the street" as a means to motivate the employees to work harder. We are reminded on a near constant basis that there is always someone waiting in the wings to take our job, put us out of business or smack us in the head and take all that we have. Seige mentality. Dog eat dog. Survival of the fittest. Which is fine up to a point but when it comes to world affairs this mentality only leads to constant strife. Have you ever noticed that we always have to have an enemy at the door? Remember Ghaddafi? In the eighties he was just about to come eat our children, or so it seemed from the mass hysteria. One of the reasons that I fell in love with George Orwell was because he made a very conscious effort to connect our daily lives with a larger view of the world. When you read a book like "Down And Out In Paris And London" or "Keep The Aspidistra Flying", a couple of his lesser apprectiated novels, Orwell is making a broader observation about society but diong so by giving us, in great detail, the daily trials of the characters he follows. A reader that makes an effort to see through the eyes of the character slowly builds up the bigger picture needed to re-think their own preconceptions. Sometimes, if you are willing to let go and empathize with the characters you might see yourself in a new way as well. I experienced this recetly when I was reading "Age of Reason" By Sartre. I couldn't help by hold my own life up in parallel to Mathieu's as he examined his own life choices. When he thought "If I died today, no one would ever know whether I was a washout or whether I still had a chance of self-salvation." I recognized that same emotion; looking at the future in dismal optimism. Mathieu believed that as long as he never took responsibility there was always the hope in his friends that he eventually would. Instead he takes only the smallest steps needed to minimize the prospect of any long term responsibility. "His past was in continual process of retouching by the present; every day belied yet further those old dreams of fame, and every day had a fresh future; from one period of waiting to the next, from future to future, Mathieu's life was gliding - towards what? Every day you see life through your own eyes. You live the life of your own story. You empathize with what you expereince. Day by day you build the big picture that you use as a template for your own decision making. In what can only be proof that you can find insight in the most obscure places.. I came home late to find that Saturday Night Live was still on. The skit was about a group of people trapped on an escalator. Not an elevator, an escalator! A friend of my sister's was staying with us and amidst the laughing she was saying "Why don't they just walk down!?" The key to good comedy is pointing out our own absurdity in a way that can bypass our defenses. Its why people love watching the Daily Show, or reading The Onion. The absurdity of the SNL escalator skit is that the people trapped there cannot see past their own assumptions. They are trapped and they act accordingly. They scream and slap each other and one guy even leaps over the edge in despair. But from our perspective sitting at home we wonder why these people can't just rethink what they know and free themselves. Indeed. What I fear is that many of us are trapped in a mental framework that is not of our own choosing. I say this because we spend a considerable amount of time in the workplace. There we must adapt the mental attitudes of the company or else risk not fitting in or worse, getting fired. In may ways, adapting the company mindset is essential to promotion. When our overall goal is financial security we do what needs to be done to succeed. Day after day we might live the life of a character that is not ourselves. We suit up every morning and live the story of someone else. |
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
About Me
Any Box 
|
||
|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
