There are human universals yes, but after being stripped of my black and white Jehovah’s Witnesses moral code, I’m learning to apply factual relativism. I think my brain as a clear transparent gel in my mind that receives imprints from everything. From the environment, childhood, etc. and whatever is imprinted cannot be erased; only printed over. So, the actual surface or what I consider me changes with ever new realization. Although new information can be pressed against the existing wrinkles and lines creating new patterns and landscapes. All of my morals, values, beliefs, etc. were created in my early life. Now that the foundations of those morals have been stripped, as which is common in people from cults or strictly controlling or religions upbringings, I am left to reach my own value and moral code by other means.
I have decided to take the words of the great philosopher and writer Bertrand Russell, “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge”. I would say biologically that the good life is one inspired by culture and guided by genes. The concept of good and evil is a purely human creation. Nature is neutral and does not record in black and white film. But I try to live my life while thinking about how others would view it still. This again is caused by the deeply engrained need for approval and acceptance that was beat into me.
The fact is that our brains are like putty, but firm in the deeper regions of the brain where constant and repetitive behaviors have been made which carve out a particular pattern or well traveled path and our minds flow in the safe and well know direction rather than risk some new behavior or belief. From what I’ve learned, there is no I, soul, me, you, etc. The conscious is an illusion created by the brain to give us a sense of oneness and control with our own cognitive processes. I watched a program on the Science Channel called ‘Finding my Mind’ that followed a mathematician while he got brain scans and other test to help discover what makes a human a human. He receives one test, the test that has proven that our conscious mind is delayed and behind the actual time of when a decision has been made. In fact, the person performing the test knew before hand what the man would choose seconds before the man himself was actually aware of making the decision. He walked out of the medical center silently, looking shocked yet to me slightly relieved. Could that be a big relief in knowing that he no longer had to feel horrible guilt for everything bad he’s done? He must come to understand that although there is no I, me, or singular decision making tool in the human brain, we are still capable of making decisions and consequences of those actions still have an influence on the final decision made. However much of the processes underling thought and decision making are largely unconscious and out of our control or influence, even our comprehension and vision.
Obstacles beyond our control and comprehension might influence our brains not to do what makes sense. This is apparent in the behaviors of people like me that self harm, or people that abuse drugs, or decide to believe in religion. It makes no sense to some, but to others it’s the only way to live. And we see how these people usually grew up in bad neighborhoods or households, were abused, or something equally as traumatizing. Doctors are the drug dealers of the legal world. I can’t believe what I’ve found out about the corruption of the drug companies and psychiatric field. Their philosophy is to diagnose and prescribe as much as they can; corruption is everywhere. At least I am not naïve anymore, I know to question everything. I am for the first time in my life attempting to think for myself. after years of being mind controlled and told that I’m a bad sinner and need to become a Jehovah’s Witnesses in order to make it into paradise, I think thinking for myself is just what I need.
I grew up in a doomsday cult which kept me from thinking of the future and living in misery, guilt, and constant excitement for Armageddon to come. Once I came to accept everything I once knew was a lie I still continued to live the lifestyle. Even after years of being an atheist, guilt resided in me for having oral sex with someone I really loved. Why? Because of those great currents of consistency and routine engraved patterns and paths well traveled, and my evolved brain knows to stick to what has kept me alive thus far, and is not quick to create a new path into the unknown. Here is where logic blatantly clashes with ignorance, which has yet to fully bury itself into my unconscious brain and worthless memories.
Like that mathematician I have learned that there really is no me, and I sit in awe many times at the cognitive processes and thoughts that run through my head without my control. Thoughts of depression, helplessness, and guilt run through my head even though logic and reason tells me it is harming me and my life and has no rational place in it. Still I weep. This is why I keep learning and unlike that man I have gone farer in understanding how my mind and every human mind works. There is so much I do know and so much I and all scientists don’t know. But what I do know is that logically hating myself and holding close to values and beliefs that I find illogical is pointless. And that I should not let anyone tell me what is right or wrong.
My belief of the ‘good life’ is like that of Bertrand Russell. However, it is my choice whether or not to pursue that ideal or not. Of course because of human universals, we should all apply empathy. In that aspect I’m capable of being the most ‘empathetic’ person in the world. Even towards Cory, and yet my other engrained or perhaps natural instincts and values tell me not to empathize with him because he will only take advantage of me. In the end, we all only care about what we want, humans are selfish creatures by nature, I think only because of culture and evolution did we develop our sense of morals. Fuck society and the unsubstantiated cultural values and beliefs that it has bestowed upon us all over the centuries. They have evolved from the ignorance of religious doctrine and limited knowledge of human nature and science.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Nature, Nurture, and Free Will
The typical debate that goes on endlessly is whether or not our behavior is more determined by nature or nurture. What people fail to see is that they can work together. Imagine your brain as if it were like an orchestra. The sound of the symphony would be dependent on the instruments, pitch, and notes. Think of a symphony as your psyche. The human psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior, and personality. To the more ‘religious’ or uneducated it might be the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind. The Greeks believed that the soul or "psyche" was responsible for behavior. Thanks wiki! I want to say that there is no 'soul' as for what most people think it actually means what psyche means. Or they think a persons 'soul' has control over what we do. This is not true.
So our psyche is like a symphony. The symphony itself is not a singular thing; it is a many yet singular entity. Imagine how many different things can influence a single symphony. Some known, some unknown, some unnoticed. Imagine the conductor of the symphony represents your sense of ‘soul’. In reality, our ‘symphony’ is guided by a conductor’s baton of composed of DNA. Certain notes must be played in tune with another instrument at a certain tone, tempo, and pitch. Certain values, thoughts, memories, beliefs, and desires must be played in tune according to the laws of nature and culture. It must flow seemingly seamlessly with no cognitive dissonance. The instruments must flow in tune with each other and be in well working condition. They use the instruments they have available. You can’t play the flute if you don’t have a flute to play with. The musicians must work together as a team after hours of rehearsal time. The same tunes flowing over and over again, thoughts and notes heard over and over again until they are ingrained and become automatic. The same routine for hours and hours until it was learned and played beautifully. Unless someone was taught to play the blues, in which case, why would they play anything else if they know playing the blues gets them by? The symphony must flow through the same patterns and pathways it’s used too. The conductor seems to have the most influence over the symphony but does not. The musicians appear to have more influence too but do not.
Well what has the biggest influence on my psyche then you may ask? Or what did the musicians even represent? They can represent anything. ‘Imagine your brain as an orchestra’ I said in the beginning. Your BRAIN is what influences everything you experience, your brain is bigger than your psyche. Your behavior is an expression of your brain. Just like the orchestra is bigger than the symphony. Comparing your brain to your psyche is like comparing candles to the universe, it doesn’t makes sense and they are in two completely different dimensions. Your psyche is insignificant in the long run because it is just a show. It is just a beautiful show of power, elegance, control, structure, meaning, climaxes, etc., Brought to you in part by: The Human Brain. It is frivolous in the main scope of things, yet the one thing that makes us human and special. The symphony is dependent on the entire orchestra while the orchestra is dependent on the musicians, the building, fans, money, schedules, time and space etc. Well perhaps our thoughts defy the laws of physics; however, they are just thoughts which are a representation of our conscious anyway. Remember you are like the listener to your own symphony and can can’t even grasp the concept of your own brain or ‘orchestra’. Imagine someone else trying to listen to your own personal symphony or experience your ‘psyche’? It would be impossible because it is uniquely your own perception from your entire ‘brain’.
Lastly, someone deaf would hear nothing, in fact might develop a sense of hearing the music through vibrations. Imagine a psychopath as a tone deaf person. They can’t hear certain notes in the symphony; they can’t hear notes of remorse, empathy, or guilt. Yet they seem so evil and take advantage of their lack of these emotions and feelings. Perhaps this is their way to ‘feel vibrations’ or to take advantage of what they don’t possess to flourish. Should we blame them or the flaw in their making? Blame genes? Upbringing? Aren’t we all here trying to do whatever makes us feel good about ourselves? Perhaps not if we weren’t taught to do so like me. Our desire to blame and punish is yet another emotion that evolved and is part of survival. Oust the one taking advantage of the group or else they will suck you all dry. Our psyche is dependent on nature and nurture which also means that our behavior is dependent on flowing harmoniously with the many entities of our universe in our search for meaning.
Where is all of the evidence for this you may ask? There isn’t much information about feral children aka ‘wild children’. It is known that in cases where children were raised around or by animals or lacked socialization with humans, they took on the characteristics of whatever living thing they were around. In one case a girl became just like a dog. She barked, walked on all fours, couldn’t speak or behave anything like a human. In most of these very few cases, the children never become normal, often many of them slip back into the forest or wherever they came from. Obviously we mirror what we see and what we are around. This girl had no concept of self and did not recognize herself. This is something we learn to do because the brain is so malleable. Some of these kids were able to learn basic grooming, manners, and functioning. They are capable of being normal genetically, but psychologically it ain't happening. Just like they could never be full dogs. DNA simply doesn't allow it. Some did learn how to talk. Like an orchestra we are variable and influenced by innumerable outside influences.
So our psyche is like a symphony. The symphony itself is not a singular thing; it is a many yet singular entity. Imagine how many different things can influence a single symphony. Some known, some unknown, some unnoticed. Imagine the conductor of the symphony represents your sense of ‘soul’. In reality, our ‘symphony’ is guided by a conductor’s baton of composed of DNA. Certain notes must be played in tune with another instrument at a certain tone, tempo, and pitch. Certain values, thoughts, memories, beliefs, and desires must be played in tune according to the laws of nature and culture. It must flow seemingly seamlessly with no cognitive dissonance. The instruments must flow in tune with each other and be in well working condition. They use the instruments they have available. You can’t play the flute if you don’t have a flute to play with. The musicians must work together as a team after hours of rehearsal time. The same tunes flowing over and over again, thoughts and notes heard over and over again until they are ingrained and become automatic. The same routine for hours and hours until it was learned and played beautifully. Unless someone was taught to play the blues, in which case, why would they play anything else if they know playing the blues gets them by? The symphony must flow through the same patterns and pathways it’s used too. The conductor seems to have the most influence over the symphony but does not. The musicians appear to have more influence too but do not.
Well what has the biggest influence on my psyche then you may ask? Or what did the musicians even represent? They can represent anything. ‘Imagine your brain as an orchestra’ I said in the beginning. Your BRAIN is what influences everything you experience, your brain is bigger than your psyche. Your behavior is an expression of your brain. Just like the orchestra is bigger than the symphony. Comparing your brain to your psyche is like comparing candles to the universe, it doesn’t makes sense and they are in two completely different dimensions. Your psyche is insignificant in the long run because it is just a show. It is just a beautiful show of power, elegance, control, structure, meaning, climaxes, etc., Brought to you in part by: The Human Brain. It is frivolous in the main scope of things, yet the one thing that makes us human and special. The symphony is dependent on the entire orchestra while the orchestra is dependent on the musicians, the building, fans, money, schedules, time and space etc. Well perhaps our thoughts defy the laws of physics; however, they are just thoughts which are a representation of our conscious anyway. Remember you are like the listener to your own symphony and can can’t even grasp the concept of your own brain or ‘orchestra’. Imagine someone else trying to listen to your own personal symphony or experience your ‘psyche’? It would be impossible because it is uniquely your own perception from your entire ‘brain’.
Lastly, someone deaf would hear nothing, in fact might develop a sense of hearing the music through vibrations. Imagine a psychopath as a tone deaf person. They can’t hear certain notes in the symphony; they can’t hear notes of remorse, empathy, or guilt. Yet they seem so evil and take advantage of their lack of these emotions and feelings. Perhaps this is their way to ‘feel vibrations’ or to take advantage of what they don’t possess to flourish. Should we blame them or the flaw in their making? Blame genes? Upbringing? Aren’t we all here trying to do whatever makes us feel good about ourselves? Perhaps not if we weren’t taught to do so like me. Our desire to blame and punish is yet another emotion that evolved and is part of survival. Oust the one taking advantage of the group or else they will suck you all dry. Our psyche is dependent on nature and nurture which also means that our behavior is dependent on flowing harmoniously with the many entities of our universe in our search for meaning.
Where is all of the evidence for this you may ask? There isn’t much information about feral children aka ‘wild children’. It is known that in cases where children were raised around or by animals or lacked socialization with humans, they took on the characteristics of whatever living thing they were around. In one case a girl became just like a dog. She barked, walked on all fours, couldn’t speak or behave anything like a human. In most of these very few cases, the children never become normal, often many of them slip back into the forest or wherever they came from. Obviously we mirror what we see and what we are around. This girl had no concept of self and did not recognize herself. This is something we learn to do because the brain is so malleable. Some of these kids were able to learn basic grooming, manners, and functioning. They are capable of being normal genetically, but psychologically it ain't happening. Just like they could never be full dogs. DNA simply doesn't allow it. Some did learn how to talk. Like an orchestra we are variable and influenced by innumerable outside influences.
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