Stickmen
When leaning on someone or something else (as a constant) throughout life, are you based on something other then yourself. You can listen to words uttered from the mouths of liars or indignant fools, worship the workplace, t.v, world leaders, flags, books, corporations, myths, churches, icons or even general knowledge; comfort is all that will be found in these “nothings.” Drinking water that pours from a tap apparently happens. This may feel like something, and to the individual this does happen, if you follow through with the procedure involved. If you’re lonely, water can be mistaken for a friend as it potentially enhances ones health, it is refreshing and passes a string of time. But this practice is usually not thought about seconds after the water has been drunk, when maybe the individual has accomplished the most important ordeal in ones life. The question will always remain, what is important? Is it interaction with other humans, interaction with natural resources, or interaction with your own ideas and objectives? Another question that deals specifically with the title “Stickmen” is what is weakness, and does success actually develop from weakness, because the general people draw towards weak ideas even weaker then themselves. It is easy to die before death. Dying in this book will carry a new meaning. Dying means “the more you believe, the less you are an individual.” To answer these burdening questions I must tell a story about “Stickmen”. Stickmen are a consistent breed of non-thinkers who are so numb from societies constructs and expectations that are all as dead as their quite dead ancestors. They spend their lives deceiving others that they are in control because they have climbed higher up the ladder of nothingness then those they control. What comes from being controlled by Stickmen? The story goes that guilt, fear, shame, harsh self-analysis and failure derive from being controlled. I am not promoting opinion as much as I promote resentment for relentless confidence in an abyss of meaningless. The story will continue for as long as the sun beats down on our tortured world.
Three blind men walked into a convenience store and one of them tripped over a display of laundry soap and created a mess for everyone to see. The non-clumsy two were infuriated with the clumsy one because he made a big spectacle of himself and indirectly made them appear bad as well. The clumsy one joyfully exclaimed, “ why are you over-reacting , I have done nothing wrong, can you see what just happened, no. Can you hear what just happened, yes. Am I sincerely concerned with this matter, NO!” From this tale, the one most would commonly accuse as being the culprit, in reality was the hero because he refused to commit himself to concern. This is strength, this is good…
When leaning on someone or something (as a constant) throughout life, you are basing yourself on belief in some kind of security; you are a stickman. Listening to and blindly agreeing with so-called important voices may not be as confusing as revolting against them. Importance is saying one idea is better and more valid then another therefore, importance has to be cancelled out of every conclusion; only to the individual, diluted with whatever is in their head, can importance exist. Individualism is also deceiving, because individualism can spread throughout human circles like a disease and turn everybody against their own minds. This happens because Stickmenism is an easy way out of strength. Strength is meaningless as well but it is more fulfilling then “mind slavery”, because at least you get to live your own life in question and thought and not drugged by general consensus.
Three blind men walked into a convenience store and one of them tripped over a display of laundry soap and created a mess for everyone to see. The non-clumsy two were infuriated with the clumsy one because he made a big spectacle of himself and indirectly made them appear bad as well. The clumsy one joyfully exclaimed, “ why are you over-reacting , I have done nothing wrong, can you see what just happened, no. Can you hear what just happened, yes. Am I sincerely concerned with this matter, NO!” From this tale, the one most would commonly accuse as being the culprit, in reality was the hero because he refused to commit himself to concern. This is strength, this is good…
When leaning on someone or something (as a constant) throughout life, you are basing yourself on belief in some kind of security; you are a stickman. Listening to and blindly agreeing with so-called important voices may not be as confusing as revolting against them. Importance is saying one idea is better and more valid then another therefore, importance has to be cancelled out of every conclusion; only to the individual, diluted with whatever is in their head, can importance exist. Individualism is also deceiving, because individualism can spread throughout human circles like a disease and turn everybody against their own minds. This happens because Stickmenism is an easy way out of strength. Strength is meaningless as well but it is more fulfilling then “mind slavery”, because at least you get to live your own life in question and thought and not drugged by general consensus.
posted by hasselhof at 11:44 a.m.
5 Comments:
This is a pretty sad commentary on life, if this is how you truly feel?? (Good writing though_someone taught you well. lol)
By the way, you weren't "born in garbage".
love it. true, brutal honesty. wish you'd write more often though... can't read the same thing over and over again.... well i could... and i do... but some new stuff would be nice
anyway great stuff
Seriously. I like your writing, but it's so sparse. I guess that's your choice though. Please do come back sometime.
"but after all and above all it depends on who is diseased., who mad, who epileptic or paralytic: an average dull-witted man, in whose illness any intellectual or cultural aspect is non-existant; or a Nietzsche or Dostoyevsky. In their case something comes out in illness that is more important and conducive to life and growth than any medically guaranteed health or sanity… in other words: certain conquests made by the soul and the mind are impossible without disease, madness, crime of the spirit."
Throughout ["Dostoyevsky--Within Limits"] [Thomas Mann] finds parallels between the Russian and the sufferings of Zarathustra, his beloved Frederich Nietzsche. Speaking of Nietzsche he says: "his personal feelings initiate him into those of the criminal… in general all creative originality, all artist nature in the broadest sense of the word, does the same. It was the French painter and sculptor, Degas who said that an artist must approach his work in the spirit of the criminal about to commit a crime."
http://www.anotheramerica.org/thomas_mann.htm
Some people think it’s impossible to believe at will. That is, they think, it is impossible to believe something simply because one wants to. I think this view of belief arises from thinking the subconscious has no will.
The subconscious does in fact have a will. And its exercise of its will can change our beliefs.
By saying it has a will, I mean only that it acts rationally, to achieve its ends.
This explains some cases of belief in God. In these cases, the subconscious tries to force the agent into teh belief. Subconsciously, the nonbeliever who feels a sudden attraction to belief feels subconsciously what it would be like to believe: it seems to feel so warm and cozy; and there would be nothing at all to fear. I would even be immortal, thinks the subconscious. And we often find it hard to resist temptations. Like this. Particularly when we have observed the comfort on the other side for a long time and are aching under the discomfort of our own position. (Do people who want to radically change society never feel the urge to give up? If not, then who are all these people who were Marxists in college and who become investment bankers? Some, of course, were never serious about Marxism. But surely some were—some just get defeated. I heard of a man who gave up punk to become an accountat. I don’t know if he came to believe that this life would be better. But if so, it could have only been through the temptation of comfort.)
But this doesn’t clinch the argument for belief. Religious belief is far more analogous to the Apple than is knowledge. Belief in God is also like the pleasure machine described by Nozick: we don’t value comfort and pleasure above all else, he reasons. We would not agree to live out our lives connected to a machine that allowed us to live in a fantasy world, one in which we constantly felt supreme pleasure. Bliss arising from certain kinds of ignorance is to be avoided. It is pleasant, but when it becomes one’s _chosen_ path, it is false and desired only by cowards and weaklings. I believe this is what Hasselhof has in mind when he says, “When leaning on someone or something else (as a constant) throughout life, are you based on something other then yourself. You can listen to words uttered from the mouths of liars or indignant fools, worship the workplace, t.v, world leaders, flags, books, corporations, myths, churches, icons or even general knowledge; comfort is all that will be found in these “nothings.”” He says elsewhere that it is belief that he takes to destroy individuality. Comfort is not found in those nothings; it is found in belief in them. I submit that it is this kind of belief, the kind that we adopt through the temptations of comfort, that destroys individuality and turns us into sleepwalkers hooked up to pleasure machines.
Some stickmen, like some believers, are not to blame. They were brought up to believe in Daytona Beach, sleezy dance clubs, college fraternities, and gay bashing; like the religious believers, they cannot but believe otherwise. Other people have the intelligence required to know better, but opt for comfort. If you watch "The Fog of War", I think you'll see Robert McNamara realize he was wrong to comply in the killing of two million Indochinese. But he cannot give up the comfort of altering his belief, of really acknowledging this. The comfort of refusing responsibility is too irresistible for some stickmen.
Post a Comment
<< Home