Post by Sir Frederick MartinPost by toolyPost by Sir Frederick MartinPost by yjk<?>---said;
“Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.”
All 'humans' are insane. It comes with the 'human'
condition. Evolution made 'us' so, as it was pragmatic.
Consider qualia(sensor, 'self', and situation) and hubris.
Madness personified.
define 'mad'?
1. The folk talk evolved(hunter-gatherer) heritage (anger).
2. The existential philosophical representation taken as 'reality'.
3. The electrical engineer, computer science, functional independent
information structure, that used to 'work'.
Then there is the changing context, the mystery of the place, the
putative miscreant 'gods', and the inherent meaninglessness of the
place(with hints of meaning).
The OP was of course referring to 1.
I wondered if what was meant was 'hardwire' malfunction [real
psychosis], or just software programming that has become invalid by
new world discoveries?
In the second form, it would be that we could be entirely functioning
PROPERLY, but only evolved in a blindness as to ouir 'real' situation
[Plato's cave syndrome or some such].
True madness, of the 'brain' kind...well, that's scary [I've seen real
psychosis and it ain't pretty].
But the 'cognitive dissonance' of new [not so new anymore] knowledge
could bring to bear to weaker minds [or brains or whatever] to embrace
very distorted and convuluted ideas in an effort to maintain said 'old
stories' [as synonymous to that old world programming].
Such 'convolution and distortion' could, perhaps, be seen as a kind of
madness.
But don't be too hard on the human being, for the 'stress' of
disallusionment can be a horrible experience. Sir speaks to 'new'
models that are needed...some new structure [programming?]...but as I
see it, there is little HOPEFUL in the new knowledge and the self
perception it allows. The REDUCTIVE nature of that 'new image'
resolves itself that we no more than microbe in a spoonful of pond
scum, caught in a tiny niche that has come together to allow us to
evolve to this state, for a short time, before 'change' absorbs us
back into the elements.
Any NEW workable model, it seems to me, would have negate the need for
HOPE, as the old models embraced.
Can that be done? IS that even possible? And from the perspective
from where I now sit, that appears like zombi-ism of some sort; or
something 'dead', yet 'alive'. We just can't FEEL anymore.
Or am I wrong? Where am I going wrong in this assessment?
Zombi-ism seems like an even worse madness than the distortions we
live under now? At least now, we can experience MOMENTS of rapture
and beauty...however short lived they might be. Total dispassionate
objectivity...I dunno; what's the purpose of that? Sex? Sensual
delight? Maybe drugs are the answer? Or brain staples [ha, I saw
that in a computer game years ago]. Problems with brain staples
though, is that someone has to be the one doing the stapling.
I think Sir sees himself [or someone like him] as the future staplers
of the world [neurological manipulators of one kind or another].