mind

Day 2931, one dimensional man.

Daily picture, My thoughts

You can freely choose the latest fashion from the choices offered. The fact that most people in old pictures are easily recognized as coming from a specific time shows that there were only a few styles to choose from. We freely choose to all look the same, even if we don’t want to. We still look out of order in a recognizable style. Going against the grain has also its style. We choose between what is on offer, though you might question the freedom in such a forced choice.

The distinguishing feature of advanced industrial society is its effective suffocation of those needs which demand liberation—liberation also from that which is tolerable and rewarding and comfortable—while it sustains and absolves the destructive power and repressive function of the affluent society. Here, the social controls exact the overwhelming need for the production and consumption of waste; the need for stupefying work where it is no longer a real necessity; the need for modes of relaxation which soothe and prolong this stupefication; the need for maintaining such deceptive liberties as free competition at administered prices, a free press which censors itself, free choice between brands and gadgets.Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man

Day 2930, freedom.

Daily picture, My thoughts

The problem of free will. We had no say in who we are, what our character is, and where our upbringing has pushed us. We glide on a slide down to our end, and only the wiggle room between the sides of the slide gives us the impression that we have free will.

We will no longer condemn each other for having red hair, being gay, or being a woman. One day, we will no longer condemn each other for our other traits. There will no longer be a right way to live, and the only boundary will be the freedom of others to live their lives fitting the way they are. Society will no longer blame the drunken driver; it will only take away their driver’s license in the same way that someone with a contagious disease gets quarantined. Life will still not be fair, but our political way of living is no longer up for debate; it will have no value and should be contested in the same way we contest our choice of clothing. 

People who don’t believe in free will will see a future like this. And where is the choice to make this change in you and society, you might ask? It has to be similar to the process of emancipating women. It will go slowly, but people will accept it over time, and no one person or idea will tip the scale.

Day 2927, On the genesis.

Daily picture, Quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Will To Power
Book One: European Nihilism

25 (Spring-Fall 1887) On the genesis of the nihilist.- It is only late that one musters the courage for what one really knows.14 That I have hitherto been a thorough-going nihilist, I have admitted to myself only recently: the energy and radicalism with which I advanced as a nihilist deceived me about this basic fact. When one moves toward a goal it seems impossible that “goal-lessness as such” is the principle of our faith.

Day 2919, prematurely.

Daily picture, Quotes

 

Friedrich Nietzsche

Human, All Too Human II
The Wanderer and His Shadow

297 Do not wish to see prematurely. -As long as we are experiencing something, we must give ourselves over to the experience and close our eyes, and thus, while still in it, not make ourselves already the observer of it. That would, of course, disturb our good digestion of the experience; instead of a bit of wisdom, we would take away a bit of indigestion.