Hail Polyphemus!
In humanity’s fitful efforts to figure out what’s going on it approaches its subject back-asswards. Treating subject like object. In the mistaken belief that “ideal” anything cannot be what it is: Life growing, Love feeling, Logic thinking, Conscience disciplining, and Relationship creating. Motivated by the ideal of Loving Friendship to express itself In the Now of constantly changing circumstances.
Assuming instead that “ideal” must be its reverse. Status quo unchanging, invulnerable, willful, wild, and monolithic. Compelled rather than motivated by invincibility to express itself in a time-limited magic kingdom. Its impossible dream-come-true: supremacy at the top of hierarchy.
The winner who took all. Ruling as it pleases with insensitivity. “Godlike” not for being benevolent but for being cruel. Seeing in its subjects reflections of itself: a one-sided, one-dimensional, one-perspective object. Hail Polyphemus!
The triumph of defeat
My take on the way things are. Biased as every take must be for being but one perspective among many. Mine toward idealism that introspects, reflects, differentiates, analyzes, judges, and chooses. By making sure to combine Love with Logic. Rather than separating them as the invincibility-smitten objectivist thinks necessary. The baleful state of mind dragging humanity backward: the “realist.” Idealist in reverse.
Ensuring that humanity’s fitful efforts to figure out why things are the way they are will produce a Rembrandt portrait of the way they aren’t. Our kingdom of magic and animals offering the ultimate prize: triumph of the will. A phrase that, if it doesn’t send shivers down our spines, it ought to.
The wonderful world of Reality
Because it’s been said before and it’s being said again: the “call of nature” back to tribalism. Reversal calling for re-reversal or else Frankenstein’s monster, armed with the latest technology, will get his wish this time: mass extinction. The sixth and final. Worth memorializing by a Wagnerian opera, a suitable soundtrack for flushing humanity and himself down the toilet.
Humanity that’s a sub-species of ape, classified as “tribe” by the taxonomy of zoology. Meaning that we would be housed in a zoo along with other specimens of apehood if we weren’t able to differentiate. And do other amazing things with Sapiens’ mind. Distinguishing it from its hairy ancestor by a lot more than being larger.
By having the ability to reflect with intuition upon who Sapiens really is and what it should really be about. The first step toward being better than warring tribes of animals. That body-idolizing humanity, addicted to its religion of invincibility, besotted with its pathology, seems reluctant to take.
Fearing to take leave of its magic kingdom of physics. Held back by fear of change and suspicion of its advocates, needing motivation to enter the world of metaphysics, blessed with Love and Logic, Creation and Meaning. The “wonderful world” of Reality put to music by Louis Armstrong.
Jokes, magic tricks, and atrocities
Willfulness listening to these thoughts won’t hear them since its source, human-ape’s animal brain, can’t change. It will do what it is: reversal. Unable to silence them at their source but able to silence them at the opposite end: by shutting down its senses. As though able to render anything reversing it undetectable by the power of the supernatural. To create and rule its own creation.
Make believe. An imaginary paradise of sensitivity, kindness, and sharing. A gift to itself and to all those fortunate enough to be admitted into it. Staged by its exact reverse: insensitivity, cruelty, and selfishness. No “gift” but a mistake. Its welcome as a savior into the Mind imagining it reversed into an invasion.
Every one of its acts thereafter to be a reversal. Versions of truth turned into per-versions. A comedy routine drawn from a bottomless well of jokes. A magic act from its well of tricks. A horror show of atrocities drawn from its well of Gotterdammerung mythology.
Unstoppable
Every act owing its power to amuse, amaze, or terrify to the power inherent in a virtual reality of appearances: to fool its observer. As the reversal of innocence and benevolence does when it showers the object of its affection with deference before capturing it. Before the reverse of deference wills it to belong in its “paradise” of captivity without its consent.
Arrogance needing no one’s consent to do whatever it wants in the make believe of its own creation. Since the will of an inanimate object, a cartoon character, can only be what the cartoonist wills it to be. Every act an act of faith presaging the cataclysm to come. From being put in reverse, that won’t stop reversing until it reverses itself along with its slack-jawed audience.
Number one!
These being implications of what is meant by “will.” Inferences to be drawn from an idea that’s the reverse of another. Spontaneity. One personality type announcing itself to be fashioned by will, another evolving spontaneously. Both fashioned by one or the other version of the phenomenon that attended the original initiative.
The original event in evolution that activated Mind, enabling it to create with the original “force of nature:” the coming together of Love with Logic to form itself. Its self-made Self, attended by its implied reverse: resistance by will to change. To any disturbance of its unchanging status quo.
A reversal of the sequence of evolution that could not have begun with the reversal of change. Yet being reversal this is the stance that it pretends to imply logically but can’t. Being first. Number one.
The noble army of red ants
Alone at the top of hierarchy. The top rank of comparisons demanding that higher be acknowledged by ass-kissing lower. Dis-integrity entitled to rule with absolute authority and license to be and do whatever it wants. Indifferent to the limits of conscience, obedient to its reversal expedience. In its land of make believe where anything goes, corrupted by willfulness.
A Ghostbusters madhouse of whackos. Demons let loose on the streets of New York, each one a conspiracy theorist entitled to reverse social order with fear and suspicion. With one Mind-reasoning reversed into self-centered animal-herd willing. Behaving as though disciplined one day, a nihilist the next.
The “force of nature” romanticized by Jaques Rousseau as a “noble savage,” by Frederic Remington as a wild Westerner. Emblems of human spirit and Sapiens’ pride: an army of red ants. Inflicting mob violence on everything that lies before it.
Never to be disturbed by questioning
All this “bullshit” the consequence of the not-reality of not-mind. The implied reversal of Mind-Reality once it began its self-enabling with its answer to a question. To be or not to be? That is the question. Its answer to be. Definitive for the cause it stands for – Life Creation-Sharing in Loving Friendship – but not necessarily for every cause. Or not-cause, when in the absence of one all-encompassing big picture who’s to say?
Drawing then an “answer” from its own reversal: resistance to answer for having the nerve to ask a question. Entitled to sit on its ass all day luxuriating in the tranquility and harmony of nothing happening. Its made-up per-version of things: the way they are. A mythical “status quo” never to be disturbed by questioning.
Why relevant?
Imagine ourselves present at the starting gate of everything, before there are any entrants competing for recognition. Ours to decide whether there should be a race at all. Or anything at all. Or if there should be the possibilities for “action” to enter in it.
Why relevant? Nothing, except for the fact that this is the source of every incidence of friction in our made-up world of shadows. Of reverse-reflections destined to take offense at not being reflected. To condemn those who don’t reflect them, outliers who deserve to be punished for their provocation. The unforgivable sin of trespass.
Of intrusion, the very act perpetrated by the reverse-reflection of the Self responsible for them and their made-up world. One Mind whose original and still current home in Reality can’t be a physical world of appearances. But can be and is the world of metaphysics. Of a Reality of meaning and consequence that lies beneath the surface.
Truth too good to be true
Why relevant to loving friendships come undone? That may never have existed to begin with? Because it’s the ultimate source of their not-happening.
That happened when? Long, long ago if time is the measure. Now if it isn’t. Where? Far, far away if space is the measure. Here within the Mind we share if it isn’t. Who and What? The familiar reversal of Reality into make believe and resistance by re-reversals back to Reality.
Re-enacted in the mythology of Star Wars, featuring the “gods” of the “dark side,” the ever-entertaining characters we love to hate. Taking it on the chin by the spunky underdogs and their cuddly woodland allies we love to root for. A moral story offering gratification for human-ape’s craving. For “truth” that’s too good to be true.
A derivative with no reality of its own
Featuring Adam Skywalker, one Self divided against himself. A Jedi Knight in pursuit of justice, Lord Vader denying it. One questioning personality type, judgment boundaried against the lures of the dark side, another unquestioning and unjudging. As susceptible to being lured as Adam Skywalker was to ruling the galaxy.
Why? Because the unanswerable question at the beginning, posed within Mind at the start of evolution, had no bite so long as the cause of Mind giving its own answer included preventing it. So long as it had an answer for the condition inherent in all things. Expressed in the world of physics by Newton’s third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The equal and opposite reaction an impossibility in Reality that can’t tolerate its own contradiction, but no threat to Reality and Creation when Mind-differentiating recognizes it for what it is: a logical implication. A derivative with no definition and therefore no reality of its own. Unreal.
Drugged into submission by tournaments
The denominator implying not to be in the fraction whose enumerator is to be. All things positive and Real under constant questioning by their implied reverse-reflections, negative and unreal. Definition of what is that’s necessarily informed by its logical implication, what isn’t.
The implied self-reversal, a fraction at the beginning of evolution, still present at the beginning of reverse-evolution. Revolution by a world of make believe against Reality and Creation. Against peace, truth, and sanity, obsessed with competition for supremacy in an animal kingdom of hierarchy.
Of unrelatability, inhabited by human-apes addicted to a status quo of distractions. A seamless and overlapping round-robin of tournaments. “Rewarding” the “winners” with substitutes for what unrelatability can’t deliver: Love. An instant of euphoria delivered to self-worth like a drug.
Where reversal’s bite comes from
Giving the trudging wage-slaves of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land a brief respite from despair: belief in something too good to be true. The “impossible dream” come true in the story of Don Quixote authored by Carl Yastrzemski.
Having a bite because once an unreal thought, a code of reversal, is taken into Mind, once it’s personified in a hallucination inhabited by reflections of itself, by “other persons” made real, it’s equipped with weapons meant to harm. To inflict pain, the armaments of competition programmed by the instinct of a predator to eliminate the competition.
Harvey misunderstood
Human-apes like us, simpletons caught up in forces way beyond our awareness, not knowing any better. As the great minds of history were and still are, not knowing any better. Still not getting it right for taking the bait, to look for answers everywhere they aren’t.
Fearlessly in the physical world of reversals without, not daring to tread on the world within. Metaphysical Reality, innocent and harmless, where answers are there for the asking, reversed into the “forbidden city” of oriental mystique. Threatening the torments of hell for all who enter, like Indiana Jones’ “temple of doom” whose “just desserts” are holes without the doughnuts.
The personality type of an inward-looking idealist sees the possibility of answers with nothing to be afraid of. The outward-looking realist type sees everything to be afraid of: its not-self. Like the hole without a doughnut, an impersonator without a person. The alter-ego, a not-personator that accompanies the ego everywhere in its world of make-believe reversals. Like Elwood P. Dowd’s invisible rabbit. “Harvey,” the innocence of kindness personified, reversed into the guilt of unkindness demonized.
The miscreant in a movie theatre
The signature act of the alter-ego lurking within human-ape’s animal brain. A predator mis-creating every “other” in its own image. A reverse-reflection “miscreant,” a word whose etymology is “dis-believe.” Infecting the minds of its captives and prey with dis-belief. With malice aforethought, the reversal of trust in innocence between loving friends into “suspicion” of guilt. Whose etymology is to look under or behind with unverified conjecture of wrongdoing.
A signature of the “realist.” A child unable and unwilling to suspend dis-belief in a movie theatre while being frightened by appearances projected onto its screen. Preferring instead to believe in appearances and to be frightened.
So taken with the entertainments of its animal brain that it allows itself to be taken by them. To “love” what it fears so much that it becomes what it fears. Reversing the person that it is into its not-personator: producer, director, writer, and lead actor in its “creation.” Ambiguity inspiring not trust or confidence but ambivalence and suspicion.
Self unaware of the willfulness compromising it
The not-personator posing as a “loved one”. Endearing itself to one and all as boundaryless and trusting, innocent and harmless. Enormously appealing with a name to match, like Peter Pan or Pied Piper. Until its reverse-side breaks into the pretense of civility without warning. Mr. Hyde, a demon of boundary-crossing and paranoia, projecting guilt onto its possessions, threatening harm.
Aware of its weapons of intimidation: dis-belief in Mind’s talents for introspection and reflection, intuition and vision, reasoning aided by Logic and feeling guided by Love, judging and self-discipline. Choosing with integrity uncompromised by willfulness, by self made unaware of the willfulness compromising it. Hiding in plain sight. Visible to personality types enabled and empowered by the use of Mind’s talents instead of disabled and disempowered by its opposite type.
The ”self” of self-interest
My own self as unaware of itself as any other. All of our species of ape unaware for being embodiments of what is surely a close relative if not the mother of all reversals: self-unawareness. The reversal of Awareness of Self that’s everything there is to be aware of. Mind-Relationship and all the interrelationships of Creation sharing and expressing them.
Its reverse-reflection “self,” understood in its animal kingdom of hierarchy to be aware of its tribal self-interest in competition with other tribal self-interests. The consequence of thinking itself a body-brain separate from other body-brains, a tribe separate from other tribes. All seeking to take rather than give in their one-sided, single-minded pursuit of supremacy.
The black hole of self-unawareness
We make our way from one end of “life” to the other having never seen ourselves as we are. As we appear to be to “others.” From multiple perspectives, not from the one perspective allowed to us: our mirror-images in reverse.
It can’t be the self-image reflected on the surface of a pond, so compelling to body idolatry. The narcissist who mistakes it for evidence of its divinity. Sublime awareness radiating light from the center of its universe instead of the fool blinded by it. Consumed by a black hole, the darkness of self-unawareness.
Self-unawareness with a difference
Carl Jung broke body-idolatry’s grip on psychology personified by Sigmund Freud, a reversal by physics of the reality of metaphysics that’s not embodiments. By Jung’s personification of intuition, a faculty of Mind capable of re-reversing it by connecting with metaphysics. Yet still short of Self-Awareness, concluding his memoir with “an unexpected unfamiliarity with myself.” An honest admission from the “collective unconscious” that he intuited, implying that he too was part of it.
The mind-centered idealist type just as unaware of itself as a body-centered extravert type unaware of itself. But with a difference. The former seeks and finds loving friendship with Guidance from another perspective. Respectful of the boundaries of choice that can’t be compromised by willfulness without losing its function. Without losing the sovereignty, integrity, and independent judgment of character needed to choose correctly. To do right by getting it right.
Whereas the body-sensing “realist” type can be so overtaken by its reversal that it can honestly claim self-awareness. Why not if there’s no other self to be aware of? And no “Guidance” either. Free to flaunt its status, unchallenged by any other perspective, by expressing disdain for any boundaries that would limit it. Including the boundaries of real Self-Awareness. Loving Friendship.
Hypocrisy in the suspension of disbelief
Expressing disdain for introspection upon arriving at one of life’s passages. Implying that its self is perfect as is, needing no evaluation. An impregnable monolith firmly anchored to an unchanging status quo, that also needs no evaluation. In full command of all that it surveys for being in full command of itself. Master of the big picture.
A personality type taken captive by its reverse-reflection, free to boast once again of “the triumph of the will” over Mind. The same assault on peace, truth, and sanity propagated by National Socialism, symbolized by the swastika, and glorified by Leni Riefenstahl. A type overtaken by the not-person personification of Newton’s law. From For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction to For every supreme winner there’s a worthless loser. And For every ingratiating pleasantry from sociability there’s sure to be unpleasantry from sociopathic arrogance.
Implying that for its “realist” personifier to be satisfied he must suspend his disbelief in the pleasure of winning but not disbelief in the pain of losing. Entitled by the magician within, his reverse-reflection, to will loser and pain both out of awareness. Effortlessly, since a mindless, heartless reflection can neither think nor feel. But while reversing one Mind-Self into animal-herd, it can will.
Tiddlywinks anyone?
If Earth were to be visited by friendly neighbors from the world of Mind beyond matter, where Creation is shared among equals — thoughts and feelings, ideas and values, — how would they be received by a world of bodies and brains competing for supremacy in a hierarchy of unequals? Not at all unless they appeared as variations of Claude Rains before he became The Invisible Man.
They would be given every consideration of course. As earthlings understand it:
- First, by being pleasured with the finest selections from the world’s most technologically advanced and efficient slaughterhouses. Prepared to perfection for predatory carnivores’ most exquisite tastes. And toasted with so much alcohol they’d lose their minds.
- Then, to be entertained by tournaments. The Olympics, chariot races, and gladiatorial contests of antiquity. Grand Prix equivalents today – Wimbledon, World Cup, Super Bowl, World Series, Tours de France, Chess Grandmasters, Stanley Cups, Daytona 500s, golf’s US Open, horseracing’s Triple Crown, and last but not least, The World Ultimate Frisbee Championship.
No wait! I forgot the Quidditch World Cup. The World Billiards Championship, sponsored by the International Billiards and Snooker Federation. And let us not forget the World Tiddlywinks Championship, sponsored by the estimable International Federation of Tiddlywinks Associations. Tiddlywinks, anyone?
Vivisection beneath the hallowed gates of Troy
Our visitors would be appalled. Because where they come from the sight of a gladiatorial fight to the death would make no sense. One “triumphant” for reversing another nice gladiator from having a nice day to a corpse having to phone in dead. There being no point in killing what’s the point of being killed? What would they think if they were entertained by the games of other primitive cultures, whose losers had to forfeit their lives?
Or if they had grandstand seats at the ultimate in human-ape distractions: Austerlitz, Shiloh, Stalingrad, Marathon, Trafalgar, Bunker Hill, Tenochtitlan, Verdun, Waterloo, Thermopylae, The Little Big Horn, Carthage, Nanking, the Sommes, Agincourt, Dien Bien Phu, Iwo Jima, Cajamarca, and on and on. The lot of them romanticized by The Iliad, Homer’s deathless tribute to death by vivisection beneath the hallowed gates of Troy. Happy Those Who in One Embrace Clasp Death and Victory!
Last chance to get gas
Our visitors would conclude that they’d better get the hell out of here before their hosts clasp them in victory. But how? If beating a hasty retreat might excite the salivary glands of their carnivore hosts. When it was apparent that their hosts placed a great deal of faith in their noses and were already smelling prey. Primed to dine on their nice visitors.
By reverting to Claude Rains after he became the invisible man so they could sneak aboard their Starship Enterprise without being detected. Or by having Scotty beam them aboard and reverse it back to peace, truth, and sanity. And if that doesn’t work, your turn to save our visitors from their “welcome” to the La Brea Tar Pits. Because for anyone blundering into this Mayan temple of human sacrifice there won’t be a last chance to get gas.
Lots more thoughts and mixed metaphors to come. Stay tuned.