When we say that we hate someone, and want to kill them, or say that we do not like them at all, I wonder…is it a mask, a voice, a thing that constitutes part of our social make up that causes us to believe that we do hate someone etc and therefore there can be no other way of seeing it???
I think that it is like some would say, an inner voice – but again, it does not have to be something that we follow (inner voice, unconsciousness etc). We can desire a war, but can also recognise that it is something that serves absolutely no interest at all in human survival – therefore we can recognise the very futility of desiring, or attempting, to instigate a war. In this way, then, armies, weapons, so on, are useless, futile and old fashioned modes of our society.
To think, and consequently act, in modes of violence or war, or other aspects like these, is therefore to be irrevocably dated, and cannot ever be considered macho. The macho – if there is ever anything like it – is to transcend these desires and to defeat the patriarchal concepts that structure our outdated form. It has to be accepted that the human mind has limitless potentialities in terms of the imagination, but in being able to have that ability, it can also have the potentiality to refuse to enact those potentialities.
We can see how Sartre tried to describe freedom as being the ability to do anything – therefore one could be, in a way, frightened by their possibilities, so they would not go to the extremes that their free minds could envisage. Consequently there would be no desire to act out fantasies – after all the best planned intentions always go wrong.
We could say that the unbounded mind leads the way, helps us to see things, or experience things, in a new light, and in the way of Sartre, retains that unbounded freedom within the mind, using the very same unbounded freedom to exercise restraint and thereby not feel that it is necessary to put thoughts into action – especially if they are themselves to be restrictive resultant actions (such as war, murder, etc) that cause long-suffering pain and unhealthy memories.
The unbounded freedoms of the mind should act so that the lives of people are unbounded as well – for everything is in an eternal state of flux and naturally the mind seeks hope and excitement and enlightenment through constant learning and development. In this way we can already see that a lot of our practises are restrictive and unhealthy because of the very nature (the outdated modes) in which we operate and enact various matters.
In the tradition of Anthony Giddens, who termed our society as one that was reflexive – that is, in having to deal with its own consequences – we can argue that our minds are reflexive already – in that they can deal with the very potentialities, and even the desires, to carry out actions that carry with them consequences that persist in their operational sectors for a long time – such as painful memories, war, violence, etc.
If we talk about Fibonacci numbers, we find that there is a definite degree of orderliness in the universe, e.g. the spiral galaxies, or even the way that flowers are arranged. The petals and stamen (the bits that carry the pollen) are arranged in a pattern which allows maximum strength in supporting the petals and preventing the flower from falling apart. This prevents the flower failing to serve it purpose, not only that it wouldn’t be a flower would it?
What does this have to do with the ‘desires’ that we are discussing? Well, when one considers it, most things, everything, almost, has an orderliness, a purpose assigned to it, a way a path, an ideology etc. Humans up to now have also had a way, a purpose , a path. But that is where the story departs from our Fibonacci numbers – we can go beyond the orderliness of the universe in order to transcend our limitations and find new ways and new lives. Our lives on Earth are terribly institutionalised and restricted when we consider the potentialities that the human brain can envisage and enact.
If we look at the spirals, the fact that many things are based upon the magic number of 137.5 degree (which is equal to five segments in a circular set of 13 segments – both of these being Fibonacci numbers) tells us that the orderliness is essential for many things, but from a human point of view, it is not a thing that has to be absolute.
As an example, if we use slightly out, or lower/higher than 137.5, numbers, we get spokes instead of spirals. Spokes may not have the strength that is required for example for flowers, but spokes do have the ability as structures, to be used in practice for mixing liquids more efficiently than other arrangements that might pertain to the natural order of things.
Hence, as this demonstration shows, humans can take things beyond their natural stage and discover new ways and means of constructing themselves, their universe, etc whilst at the same time allowing the natural order to remain.
To remain institutionalised is to remain-in a mode that is opposite to the order of things. It also defeats a possible culmination of the on-going hopes and aspirations humans have always had.
(Remember this is the viewpoint of an autistic, it may not necessarily match or satisfy the opinions of people who think emotions are a major important necessity in the human world-view.)
Originally written circa 1995 on my first ever computer which was a twin floppy drive machine! Some slight changes made since (spelling etc).
