Alienation of the mind or How Descartes was, naturally, right

I'm always fascinated when people use cold hard reason to arrive at a conclusion. Or how a world could be organized using pure logic. How Robinson Crusoe built his hut and kept track of time and cultivated his fields and how he somehow managed to think of everything. How Descartes came up with "I think, therefore I am" (doesn't seem like much, but it really is something to be able to prove man's existence through his mental capabilities). Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, bref all the ancient Greek philosophers who screwed up horribly when it comes to the laws of physics, but they set the foundations of democracy, of logic, of mathematics (what high school student hasn't heard of and learned to hate Pythagoras?). And they only used their minds. No repeated experiments and pocking around with trial and error.

Nowadays, when you look at people around you, when I look at myself, all of us, we just make a summary and a medley of what has already been said with a small twist of our own. Nobody comes up with an original idea anymore (unless you're in marketing... when it comes to making money, people can be really creative). Even the books that come out. Either they're the same old, same old detective novels with just a different flavor added to it, either it's one of those smutty romance novels, either it's a remake of an old classic. The truth is, once the wheel has been invented, what do the rest of us have left to contribute? Once 1984 and Catch-22 and Alice in Wonderland have been written, what more can you add (shut up, Alice in Wonderland is an amazing book)? And actually that is only the excuse that we give ourselves. That there's nothing more to add except commas and footnotes. If you want to innovate something, go into computer science and create the next generation of blue-rays or the successor of C++ (I actually have no clue about computer languages... I did some Pascal in 6th grade and never got a iota of what I was writing in my exams... also tried VBA recently and gave up after a couple of hours...). But this can't be it. After the wheel, you still have to build the car on top of it. And I refuse to believe that we are at the top of the evolutionary curve when it comes to social organization and political systems. Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to fix the world. I don't think I care enough for that. But I'd love to know if in theory it would be possible. A sort of communism without the weak link of the proletarian dictatorship.

Anyway, I know I'm not making much sense, but what I'm trying to say is that I admire people who can just shut out the outside world and immerse themselves in their minds and then come out of there with ANSWERS! Nowadays, things go so fast that it's nearly impossible to think. Everything is so loud, there's so much movement, there are so many things to do, that it is almost dizzying. And when you have a moment to yourself, you just feel so drained and exhausted that you don't want to think anymore. You just want to sleep and forget. Forget how the entire world is going to hell, forget how repetitive world events and people and life in general can be. Forget the routine. Just forget you exist (if "I think" equates with "I am", then a lack of thought would equate with an escape from existence or some sort of lack of existence for the moment being). But yesterday, a miracle happened. I decided to go to the library to read. I sat down in my usual sofa next to the windows. And it stopped. It all stopped. The noise, the movement, the dizzying crowds. It was just me, the sun and good old Faust. I could hear myself think. I was in peace. It was amazing. It felt as though time was standing still (guess that must be what it's like to have a conversation with Now). But anyway, to cut my babbling short, I think I need a break. Maybe move to the library for a while. Maybe take a trip somewhere just by myself. I need to spend some quality time with me, myself and I. I need to start existing. I need to think.

Quote of the month...sort of

Yes late again, but blah. Having to take classes in the summer makes one sloppy and uncaring of etiquette. So sue me!

The idea for this post initially came from the fact that today while desperately trying to study for my finance exam, I got stuck with the song "A Little Piece of Heaven" in my head.



And while this is a nice song by Avenged Sevenfold from a musical point of view, the lyrics do tend to give you a shiver down your spine. And this reminded me of something that I once heard (probably from Bunny, though I really don't remember if it came from him or someone else). It went something like this:

"The most disturbing thing about necrophilia is that there have been enough cases in the world for us to have a name for it."

And it's kind of true. We are so closed up in our own little "normal" world, that we end up imagining that people who would want to have sex with a corpse are rare abnormalities, statistical impossibilities of the type of Ed Gein (another lovely case of a reeeeeeaaaallly fucked up mind). But while trying to see if my fabulous sentence was actually a real quote or just random folk wisdom, I stumbled upon a forum thread on necrophilia. And there was this self-proclaimed necrophiliac who said:

"No, necrophilia isnt a mental disorder per se. The diagnostic criterias in DSM requires significant distress on the behalf of the paraphiliac. Altough necrophilia are a NOS-category so there are no formulated criterias so you have to translate from the other paraphilias diagnistic criterias.

So on what grounds are you claiming that necrophilia is a disorder? Are you using ICD-10? Or just having an opinion on an subject you dont know much about? If its the later i think you should rethink your view on the subject because as i said before even masturbation was seen as an disorder before (as late as 1972 with the book 'Human Sexuality' American Medical Association officially reversed its earlier standpoint that it was an foremost danger to human mental health).

And, im not harming myself and i dont accept your argument. Even (hypoteticaly) if my sexuality made me socialy isolated and so on, got me in prison or even mental institution thats not because of "disorders". It is because of societies narrow minded views on this subject and thats the problem, not me. You wouldnt argue that homosexuals that got in trouble when it was illegal had mental disorders would you?"

And there was one thing that struck me. This person sounded very much like the Marquis de Sade quote I posted a couple of months ago and which went like this:

"My way of thinking cannot be approved you say? Why should that be of importance to me! The one who adopts a way of thinking for others is nothing but a fool! My way of thinking is the fruit of my reflections. It is part of my existence. I am not the master to change it. Even if I would be, I wouldn't. This way of thinking that you blame so is the only solace I can find in life[...]. It is not my way of thinking who makes me unhappy, it is that of others."

So this makes me wonder. Where do you draw the line? What is acceptable and what is not? When do you fall into mental disorders and when is it that society is being too narrow-minded and is imposing conformity on its members. I mean, many things that we have believed in the past to be true are now considered abominations (like homophobia, racism and discrimination against women). And it's arrogant to think that we now live in a perfect society where we have nothing more to learn. But then in that case can we say that anything goes? Should we consider murderers, rapists and psychopaths as just another facet of the diversity in the world that should be accepted as it is? Well, according to Camus, freedom must include murder or it is not real freedom.

Anyway, these are heavy things to ponder on and considering how late it is, my babbling at this hour won't get me any closer to an answer. But there's just one more thing that I want to mention. Now I mean this in the most respectful way possible and my philosophy in life is pretty much that as long as nobody gets hurt, anything goes. But man am I happy that I mostly fit into what the majority of people would call "normal". For one of the first times of my life, I'm happy that I'm just like everybody else. Because, even though I might be missing out on some aspects of life (or maybe not...sex with a cold, unmoving body is not really my cup of tea), I would be scared shitless if I would have to go through the whole self-discovery phase and then try to find a place for myself in society (and fail most of the time). I've seen friends go through it and it does not look like fun. So this post goes to Lily-chan and Cris. The strongest people I know!