The Mind is a Terrible Waste
Not that it doesn't come in handy now and then. It helps when reading instructions or trying to assemble something complicated. Then again, most of us heard the frightening statistics on how many people owned VCRs and didn't know how to use them. Imagine, a world where it's always [blink]12:00[blink]. Perhaps that's reassuring. I don't know.
It seems, as technology frees us more and more from having to devote time to some of the more "human basics," that we've long been in the process of relocating ourselves. Nothing as simple as a move to a new apartment or house. This relocation occurs without having to invite friends over to help you carry boxes. It seems that we are in the arc of a long journey; that of having once been creatures of hearts, souls and flesh, climbing the evolutionary ladder to the [to me] far-less-desireable creatures of the mind.
It's nothing new. Simple evolution, or devolution depending on one's point of view. But here we are. So much of our behavior is now dictated (and justified) because "we thought of it." We certainly don't have to devote our time to feeding ourselves, raising livestock, raising barns -- we actually have time for things to "occur to us" while we're surfing eBay. And, if it occurs to us, if it seems intellectually fair, then it must be right. It just has to be.
To even suggest, in public, that there might be things that are "fair" in nature that might not be "fair" to the mind will get a lot of folks twisted into a serious knot. To further suggest that "fair" might have nothing to do with many, if not most, things might get that Cosmopolitan ripped from your thirsty metro clutches and your pitiful self ejected from whatever establishment you happened to be in at the time you made that frightening observation.
Right and wrong might have far less to do with "fair" than many of us imagine. Love (n the best sense of the word) certainly isn't fair. But, done well, it's hard to see how it would ever be wrong. It's just one of those things that one could think about endlessly, form all sorts of opinions about, and yet still fall for -- at the most inappropriate times.
I've often thought that we could benefit from a sort of global "consciousness lowering." Many would argue that it's plenty low enough. I'm not sure. Stupidity is another matter entirely. I'm just not persuaded that the mind always has our "entire person's" best interests at heart. Sure, don't use it and there's always the risk of ending up with a career in politics or education. Use it too much, however, while denying the body, soul and spirit --
-- Maybe we need a new instruction manual, something the mind might understand.
It seems, as technology frees us more and more from having to devote time to some of the more "human basics," that we've long been in the process of relocating ourselves. Nothing as simple as a move to a new apartment or house. This relocation occurs without having to invite friends over to help you carry boxes. It seems that we are in the arc of a long journey; that of having once been creatures of hearts, souls and flesh, climbing the evolutionary ladder to the [to me] far-less-desireable creatures of the mind.
It's nothing new. Simple evolution, or devolution depending on one's point of view. But here we are. So much of our behavior is now dictated (and justified) because "we thought of it." We certainly don't have to devote our time to feeding ourselves, raising livestock, raising barns -- we actually have time for things to "occur to us" while we're surfing eBay. And, if it occurs to us, if it seems intellectually fair, then it must be right. It just has to be.
To even suggest, in public, that there might be things that are "fair" in nature that might not be "fair" to the mind will get a lot of folks twisted into a serious knot. To further suggest that "fair" might have nothing to do with many, if not most, things might get that Cosmopolitan ripped from your thirsty metro clutches and your pitiful self ejected from whatever establishment you happened to be in at the time you made that frightening observation.
Right and wrong might have far less to do with "fair" than many of us imagine. Love (n the best sense of the word) certainly isn't fair. But, done well, it's hard to see how it would ever be wrong. It's just one of those things that one could think about endlessly, form all sorts of opinions about, and yet still fall for -- at the most inappropriate times.
I've often thought that we could benefit from a sort of global "consciousness lowering." Many would argue that it's plenty low enough. I'm not sure. Stupidity is another matter entirely. I'm just not persuaded that the mind always has our "entire person's" best interests at heart. Sure, don't use it and there's always the risk of ending up with a career in politics or education. Use it too much, however, while denying the body, soul and spirit --
-- Maybe we need a new instruction manual, something the mind might understand.
posted by Larry Hertzog at 12:13 PM
1 Comments:
Ah, and here all along I thought I was championing NOT using our minds. You must use yours more than I use mine.
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