Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
dealings of LOVE; influence from Erich Fromm
State of Activity: one cannot be actively in love and lazy in all other aspects. State of intensity; awakedess; enhanced vitality can only be the result of productive and active orientation; and what about meditation? that is the most productive nature. sitting still with self and being alert.
share experience; share work; social loving nature.
Rational Faith: based on the insights of the very nature of man. Faith in Potential/Possible Love for all.
Some social conditions and are responsible for the absence of love in our society. such conditions are :
being a part of a consumer driven society.
bureaucracy
conformity
selling and producing goods for little true benefits. (and working for the machine) rather than allowing it to work for you.
using little love at work, home, and play
laziness
routine and avoiding individual magnificence
managerial bureaucracy
motivation by mass suggestion
Character Structure of Modern Man: arriving at a "central relationship" v.s. a "team"
there's been a shift from individual --> bureaucracy
ceased to be independent --> to become dependent
modern capitalism needs men. men who cooperate smoothly and in large numbers. men (and here I mean men and women) who consume more and more, whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated.
but the twist is that modern capitalism needs men who feel free and independent; without a real conscience, yet willing to be commanded and do what is expected from them. guided without particular force rather by consumer need and quite obedience. to be lead without leaders. A routine of amusement and passive consumption (of sights and sounds) follows. Well fed, well clad, sexually satisfied puppets; but without SELF. This is important so that max profits can be obtained under existing market conditions.
Yet there exists a longing for transcendence and unity. A Brave New World.
So a drive to overcome separation persists, but with the wrong direction: the human unites by conformity; a herd mentality permits a "permanent" state of comfort, but with a 9 to 5 labor contract. There are two other options. A pagan orgaistic, spasmatic transitory state of union; a brief symbiotic union. Or, creative activity, which most would choose: the person unites self with the material and object to become "one" in the world, and unites himself with the outside world.
Love- the ideals developed over the last 4,000 years, is a semantic problem. to solve it can only be arbitrary (based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system).
"Love is union under the condition of preserving one's integrity and individuality" Spinoza.
Envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions. A desperate attempt to escape the anxiety of separation. The stage of "sacrificing" is a receptive, exploitative, hoarding orientation. Love is an action. the practice of a human power. active character of love is giving. Love that is compounded of maturity, self knowledge, and courage; is a practice and a concentration to learn; it demands genuine interest. genuine insight.
It always comes down to whether it, being love in this case, is "a means to an end or an end in itself".
"And thus, while the present never satisfies us, experience dupes us, and from misfortune to misfortune leads us to death, their eternal crown... there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself." Pascal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)