Day 3696, the self.

Daily picture, My thoughts

It is something we all take for granted, our sense of having a self. Not like the formless soul, but more like the painted pictures that first appeared on walls during the Renaissance. Some historians believe that the self, as we know it, was not a concept in Greek and Roman societies. There are even societies today that lack that concept, or it is only weak. Think of many East Asian cultures, traditional African societies, and Buddhist and Hindu philosophical traditions.

It is hard for us to imagine living in a world without good mirrors or pictures to see ourselves. And this is only the visible part. We now have TV and movies that show us many selves we can mirror, as well as all the books we can read, and the attention companies give to ourselves and how to improve ourselves.

I think it would be better to recognize that we are originally selfless, especially since the sense of self we possess is actually a construct or perhaps a byproduct of influences like Christianity. Consider Augustine’s Confessions, frequently cited as one of the earliest works of autobiographical introspection in Western literature. He examines his thoughts, memories, and moral conflicts, viewing the self as a unified, reflective entity capable of profound inner scrutiny, but this is a story for another time.

Day 3692, Civil disobedience.

Daily picture, Definitions

Civil Disobedience

From the Boston Tea Party to Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March, and from suffragists’ illegally casting their ballots to whites-only lunch counter sit-ins, civil disobedience has often played a crucial role in bending the proverbial arc of the moral universe toward justice. But what, if anything, do these acts, and countless others which we refer to as civil disobedience have in common? What distinguishes them from other forms of conscientious and political action?

On the most widely accepted account, civil disobedience is a public, non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies (Rawls 1999, 320). On this account, people who engage in civil disobedience operate at the boundary of fidelity to law, have general respect for their regime, and are willing to accept the legal consequences of their actions, as evidence of their fidelity to the rule of law. Civil disobedience, given its place at the boundary of fidelity to law, is said on this view to fall between legal protest, on the one hand, and conscientious refusal, uncivil disobedience, militant protest, organized forcible resistance, and revolutionary action, on the other hand.

This picture of civil disobedience, and the broader accounts offered in response, will be examined in the first section of this entry, which considers conceptual issues. The second section contrasts civil disobedience, broadly, with other types of protest. The third focuses on the justification of civil disobedience, examining upstream why civil disobedience needs to be justified, and downstream what is its value and role in society. The fourth examines states’ appropriate responses to civil disobedience.

Read the rest here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civil-disobedience/ 

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Day 3690, Authoritarian Anarchy.

Daily picture, My thoughts

If people ask me what my politics are, I usually say nothing, but if they insist, I will say that I am an anarchist. I have to admit that I don’t know enough about political anarchism, but I do know that no one knows what it means. For me, trying to explain how your specific flavor of politics works is like explaining how something feels; every explanation needs an interpretation. Behind every slogan hides countless books, personalities, and an endless history. None of the ideologies has ever worked in their purest forms, and Anarchy is no exception.

The reason why I say that I am an anarchist is that it should be the natural outcome if you have a few premises.

  1. There is no predetermined purpose in the world, no maker, and no rules but those of nature.
  2. We can think, reason, and create our own rules.
  3. From these two points, it follows that there is no natural hierarchy among people—only the ones we invent.
  4. If we are all the same, we should share all the available resources equally.
  5. We are all the same intrinsically, but also different in our capabilities, like our appearance.

If there ever will be a society based on Anarchism, then the biggest hurdle that has been overcome is education. In an anarchist society, as I see it, it is important that everyone knows their place in the community to prevent the need for authority to step in and assign roles. What I mean by “their place” is simply what a good test at school can already do that determines if you are good at math or with your hands, if you are an organizer or a leader. These are traits that should come naturally as you grow up and can change over time. For many anarchists, it is important that there be no authority, but there is always authority in knowledge, experience, and talent. The project manager might tell you what to do during the day, but in the evening, you tell them how to play the piano.

Underneath, I collected some of my notes about anarchy.

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Day 3689, will to be free.

Daily picture, My thoughts, Quotes

This is what I was thinking this morning.

I don’t believe in free will because I don’t believe we have a fixed “I” or soul. The I that I think of is more of a snapshot in an ever-changing row of identities. If I think or talk about who I am, I will change that story over time without realizing it. We forget how we identified ourselves in the past, making it seem as if our identity is a constant. You could say that decisions of my earlier me’s influence who I am now. I did not make those decisions; earlier circumstances and versions of me did. That’s one of the reasons I don’t believe in free will.

I do feel that I have a core that stays the same, but I also realize I have no independent way to check this. We all know that we change over time; no one will deny that. But that kind of change is more like what you go through at school, where you take classes and learn things. The things you learn add to who you are. But underneath these life lessons, so to speak, we also feel a more constant identity. We also know that a big part of this identity is located in the brain; change the brain, and your identity changes. Phineas Gage (https://www.verywellmind.com/phineas-gage-2795244) is the obvious example: whether he fully understood the change himself is less important than the fact that people around him did. Like everything in our bodies, our brains also deteriorate over time, and with them, perhaps our identities.

Our identity is constantly changing, and we might be lucky to hold onto the same identity for a few weeks before events alter our perception of our past and present us, the you that is in the making, with a new identity.

Many other thinkers have written about this idea. The way I wrote it down just now might be unique, but I can trace the path back into my past to see who influenced me and shaped my thoughts. Hume is one of those who have influenced me, not so much by the work I read from him but by the place he has in Philosophy. I have a book from him, and though I have had it for 20 years, it still looks brand new, though I found one of my bookmarks at page 92. I just tell myself that the mere presence of these kinds of books in my house rubs off on me. In reality, I used them to verify quotes because you should never trust a source to guarantee a quote’s accuracy.

I used my AI helper to point me in the right direction for finding a quote in Hume’s work about what I was writing about. It pointed me to this chapter, and though it quoted the passage incorrectly, the whole chapter is about an idea similar to what I thought of this morning. In my experience, the AI is almost always bad at quoting, and it tells so much itself. As I said before, you should always go to the source. On the other hand, the AI quote was not wrong; it still portrayed Hume’s intention, and like the modern “translation” into today’s English, they both differ substantially from the original in the words they use. Underneath the text, I will put two screenshots.

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Day 3688, Saturday Nietzsche.

Daily picture, Quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche

Daybreak
Book V

450 The allurement of knowledge. – A glance through the portals of science affects passionate spirits as the magic of all magic; and it will probably turn them into fantasists and, in the most favourable case, into poets: so vehement is their craving for the happiness of those with knowledge. Does it not thrill through all your senses – this sound of sweet allurement with which science has proclaimed its glad tidings, in a hundred phrases and in the hundred-and-first and fairest: ‘Let delusion vanish! Then “woe is me!” will vanish too; and with “woe is me!” woe itself will be gone.’ (Marcus Aurelius)

Day 3686, regarding vessels.

Boat building, Daily picture

These are the rules, or better said, guidelines, we follow when we restore a protected wooden boat. The government department that issues grants (Riksantikvaren) to boatowners expects us to follow these rules as closely as possible, and if we want to deviate from the original (either as it is now or as it was on a well-documented date in the past), we have to ask for permission and explain why.

A proposal for antiquarian policies regarding vessels with protected states.

  • Vessel use and maintenance should have the primary objective of protecting its Cultural Heritage. So that the cultural-historical value is preserved.
  • Restoration should be carried out in accordance with principles that clearly protect the vessel’s original qualities from a thoroughly documented era in its history. The basis for all restoration work on boats with protected status should be a detailed restoration plan for the boat, built on well-documented historical research.
  • The work will be true to its origin. This means that the vessel will appear as just that
    vessel or the vessel type that is defined in a specific period in its history. Motor and other technical
    installations should only be changed so that they interfere in the least possible way with the vessel’s historical origins.
  • The work will be true to its material. This means that all restoration work is a copy of the existing solutions, using materials of the same type or equivalent: oak replaced by oak, brass screws replaced by brass screws, etc.
  • The work will be true to its craftsmanship. This means that, as far as possible, all the details in the hull, interior, and rig are made to the specifications of the time. Replaced parts shall be exact copies of the old and with the same dimensions.
  • The restored vessel shall be reasonably the same. The work will be done with traditional, woodworking methods and to the greatest possible extent with historically accurate materials. Work techniques should harmonize with the period the vessel represents. This means that an originally hand-planed surface shall not be planed with power tools. Natural oil paint should not be painted over with chemical paint or other materials.
  • There shall be established a protection and maintenance plan for the vessel, with the intentions and requirements specified in these plans. The contents of the plan shall be approved by the “Riksantikvaren ” or a “fartøyvernsenter”.

Day 3685, Artificial conversation.

Daily picture, My thoughts

Christiaan: I personally think that META is a bad company because a selfish billionaire owns it, and it has supported some terrible regimes in the past. Many people know this, but they still use its apps. Those same people would not go to the next-door store if they knew the owner hits his wife regularly, so why the double standard?

Le Chat: Your point touches on a common tension in modern consumer behavior: the disconnect between personal ethics and convenience. Many people criticize companies like Meta for their ethical lapses, but continue using their platforms because the alternatives are less convenient or nonexistent. The comparison to a local store owner is interesting—boycotting a business with unethical practices feels direct and visible, but with global tech giants, the impact of individual choices feels diluted.

Do you think this double standard is more about the scale of the company, the lack of viable alternatives, or something else?

 

Christiaan: I think it is a lack of principles or a failure to keep the principles you have

Le Chat: It does seem like a matter of principle—or the lack of consistency in applying them. When people boycott a local business for unethical behavior, the consequences feel immediate and personal. But with a corporation like Meta, the ethical violations can feel abstract or distant, even if they’re objectively worse. It’s easier to overlook the disconnect when the impact isn’t visible in our daily lives.

Do you think this inconsistency reflects a broader human tendency to compartmentalize ethics, or is it more about the complexity of modern systems making it harder to act on our values?

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