Often, in these pages, we have spoken about how our lives are, for the most part, subjective. We have spoken about the notion of putting ourselves in other people’s shoes, to use the native American saying, before passing any form of judgement. However, what we have not looked at is the impact of others upon us. As most people live their lives unaware of their subjectivity, it means that they make the assumption that their way is the only way, their way is the right way. People will happily act in one way for themselves and then violate it for others. For example, the other day I made a phone call and was asked to phone back when it was convenient for them. I acquiesced. Later, I received a call from the same person. I said it was a bad time as I was busy, and the person then went on a tirade about how they had made the effort to call and I should be grateful. Another time I was told to be more assertive, so I was in a way that made the other person come over to me and tell me not to be assertive around them again. This, as you can imagine, confused me. On one hand behaviours were clearly set out, indeed I was penalised for not following them, but when I did follow them, the response was that I should not. When I spoke about this with the people, their response was confusion, and confusions little brother, anger. This opens up a wider conversation: If people live subjectively and believe that they are objective (Nietzsche notes: ‘there is your way and there is my way, as for the right way, it does not exist’) then what impact does this have upon an individual?
Life is hard, we are born without any masterplan, without even the awareness to breathe until we are hit- pain, our first teacher, and so we try to construct a life for ourselves. The artist Michelangelo said that he saw David trapped in a block of marble and so set him free, which is a beautiful metaphor for life. We start of as indeterminate blocks of stone and gradually, through experience, chip away at our outer shells until we start to take form. As you can imagine, this is not easy- it is hard, it is painful, and it leaves scars. The writer Kahlil Gibran notes, ‘Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.’ And this is true. However, due to the difficulty of such creation, many would rather shy from the challenge and bury themselves into their dogmas and claim to know the great, holy, truth and see the world through the limits of their own vision, burdening others with the unbearable lightness of their being.
‘till next time
thegreaterfool2016 