here goes …
by Seeker
Posted to Utterances on 2001-08-25 16:28:00
Parent message is 1049
The short answer about why I quote from all these books is – cause I’ve read them. Slightly longer answer is – I was brought up in a Xtian environment & it took me a long time to rid myself of all the damaging beliefs that had been packed into my poor, hairy wee coconut. I did it in part by reading guys like Robert Ingersoll and Mr. N.. The beats played a part here too. I read a lot of Kerouac, and even became a serious Buddhist – for a good few years. Finally dropped all belief in an afterlife, buddha-realms, reincarnation, all other dreamy, mystic nonsense, & made a vow to be true to my own human nature. I know that if I’m seriously gonna do that, there can be no adopting certain Xtian beliefs, just because they help me live a good life. Nah, the whole belief system: hell fire, judgement & damnation included, has to be accepted – or rejected – in its entirety. In trying to sneak Xtianity in through the back door, one of the theist’s favourite ploys is to hold JC up as a role model – oh, hold it – I feel a quote coming on – it’s a good one – it’s by John McTaggart, regarding JC – ‘The best thing about him was his pluck at the Crucifixion, and other people have shown as much.’ – I think that’s correct, I just let fly off the top of my head – or the bottom, I don’t know which (damn, there’s another quote!). Pretty sure that last one’s not entirely correct though – what was it Ray Smith said about Japhy? Ah well – onward. The point (there is one, I’m getting to it) is that if I want a role model, JC won’t be it. This (finally) is where Robert Ingersoll and those other guys come in. As a young atheist fighting the ‘great dragon’ (Nietzschean phrase) I found it immensely encouraging to know that other men had slain the beast before me. And they had left written records of their struggle. If I want to encourage anyone who’s now fighting the same battle, if I want to give these young lions a slice of power to use against the enemy – I’ll point them towards the writers who can help them most. That wouldn’t be me – I’m not in the same league as Ingersoll or Nietzsche; I’m down in the dirt at their feet (damn! – that’s Jack London creeping in now). I also don’t see it as my role to do someone else’s intellectual work. I’ll point them towards some good source material, the rest is up to them. So far as what it means to be an individual – a true ‘individual’, separated from all others, uninfluenced by anyone else, ever, would have no language, no grasp of science, literature, history – or religion. How much thought such a one would be capable of is open to debate. This would be kind of like being stuck in a sensory deprivation tank – I suspect it would drive your average human being crazy. I think it’s fair to say that a pure individual cannot exist – in the sense that he is not influenced at all by the thoughts and ideas of anyone else. Let’s see – how about if I define an individual as – one who sets his own goals in life. A goal can be anything: learning to drive a car, promoting atheism, writing a novel, whatever. And in pursuing your goal, do you start from scratch? Knowing nothing useful at all? Or is there another way? – ‘What’s that pedal on the left – oh, it’s the clutch – what does it do? – better lift the bonnet and figure that out. Hmm, this doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe I should just ask my dad to teach me how to drive.’ The second option would obviously be more effective in helping one to achieve one’s goal. Another example – if I want to learn to speed read, I’ll buy Tony Buzan’s book, analyse how people who can already speed read do so, and try to learn the same techniques. There’s no need to continually reinvent the wheel. In NLP, ‘modelling’ one’s consciousness after the psychological patterns occurring in the mind of an expert (in whatever field) as they ‘perform’ is an accepted method of achieving one’s goals. I’m not sure if this legitimises the practice, I must say this made me uneasy when I first encountered it, but it certainly seems to be effective. This whole problem of individualism I always relate to Stevie Ray Vaughan playing guitar (I relate lots of things to Stevie playing the guitar). You can hear Albert King and Jimi Hendrix coming through loud and clear when you listen to SRV. At the same time, it’s always Stevie playing. You can never mistake him for someone else. And it was Stevie himself who wanted to pick up the guitar and learn to play in the first place. You might say – that was his goal. He achieved it. It would not seem strange – if some youngster asked their father – how can I learn to play like Stevie? – if his dad advised him to listen to Hendrix and Albert King. So, to anyone reading these messages who wants to live as a free and autonomous human being, my advice is – read Robert G. Ingersoll and George H. Smith. (The End.) Whew, what a burst of typing. I haven’t strung that many words together for ages. Don’t know if I answered your query – certainly set out to. I guess I rambled a bit, but hey, hope somebody, somewhere out there, finds at least some of this helpful and/or interesting.
