Post 13
This post inspired by: http://www.owlsparks.com/decisions/philosophys-bad-press/
What people are doing is natural. Humans have about as much free will as an ape, or a lobster. While their behavior is very, unneccessarily, complicated, this doesn't mean they exercise free will and decision making, if such things truly exist.
The more individuals join society, the more removed they are from the immediate reality around them. Society is a safe place, and to fit in, you must live in a neighborhood with rules like "no privacy fences", drive a status car, all while having precisely 2.3 children.
This complex societal interaction is mechanistic behavior, monkey see, monkey do. Only the ones that are able to step back and understand what they have become can see that society is not something they want to be part of. Society requires that you follow rules and not get out of order, do your job, pay your mortage and all the other mindless drivel that entails.
What does societal assimilation entail though? Blind acceptance of what others tell them. The ideas that philosophers know to be important don't need to be answered when society tells you how to behave and how to act; no looking within for answers required.
Philosophy, and the practice of thinking leads to many loops of logic. The more I think the more questions I have and I never seem to make any progress. It is frustrating, to say the least. Normal people don't see the value of taking the time and energy to think about seemingly unimportant things. Why would free will, decisions, society, love, humanity or religion be worth thinking about when they are easily labeled "unanswerable questions"?
More than anything though, I believe that these kinds of questions require a deep look within the person asking them. Most people do not like what they have become and are now afraid to look where these answers lie, for it frightens them.
12.14.2009. 13:19
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