Reflections on life and intellect

[timeaonline]

Music allows the passions to enjoy themselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

[timeaonline]

Wherever the religious neurosis has appeared so far, we find it connected with three dangerous dietary prescriptions: solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence, – but without being able to say for sure which is the cause and which is the effect and whether in fact there is a causal relation at all. This last doubt seems justified by the fact that another one of the most regular symptoms of the religious neurosis, in both wild and tame peoples, is the most sudden and dissipated display of voluptuousness, which then turns just as suddenly into spasms of repentance and negations of the world and will: perhaps both can be interpreted as epilepsy in disguise?

Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

[timeaonline]

A few words on nationalism

'Not to be stuck in any homeland, even the neediest and most oppressed – it is not as hard to tear your heart away from a victorious Homeland.' It’s a courageous idea of Nietzsche from the 19th century, not even mention it’s message nowadays, with the flourishing nationalism.. Where did the idea come from that being a patriot is spiritual, even moral commitment? The same way, do we also need to commit for a lifetime to a corporation? After all the two works on the same principle: for our mental or physical effort, salary / hourly wage is paid. There is a corporate value system, even behavior and attitude expected from us; logo, slogan, culture are carefully built to create a strong bound. A state is not much different.. We pay taxes and contributions that are rewarded with pension, health care and education system (in fortunate occasion). The country’s written and unwritten laws, we must meet; and with anthems, flags and a sort of ‘national consciousness’ this solely economic tie is to be transformed into deep national identity. But while the ‘corporation culture’ remains between the walls of our office, the national state’s expectations flows deep into our private life, into our most intimate personal choices. Why do we accept this? Why a national community or artist, a compatriot should have greater value compared to a foreigner? Did we reach the level where human values and virtue are measured by nationality?!

[timeaonline]

We have to test ourselves to see whether we are destined for Independence and command, and we have to do it at the right time. We should not sidestep our tests, even though they may well be the most dangerous game we can play, and, in the last analysis, can be witnessed by no judge other than ourselves. Not to be stuck to any person, not even somebody we love best – every person is a prison and a corner. Not to be stuck in any homeland, even the neediest and most oppressed – it is not as hard to tear your heart away from a victorious Homeland.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

[timeaonline]

Morality

In my previous article ‘Individual peace doesn’t add up to collective’ I tried to investigate the conflict around being true to ourselves instead of repressing our motivations but also be ‘moral’, a functioning part of the society at the same time. I was (still) struggling to find an answer how individuals, who are free from a suppressed self-expression cannot form a healthy, well-functioning society. That individual peace with one’s self doesn’t add up to a collective peace. And whether moral or social pressure really helps to keep harmony on a long-run. If we play around with Freud’s observations, moral pressure is not more than immature-traditional conventions, which unnecessarily sentences the natural instincts and aspiration of a person to prison. Therefore these imposed rules should be exterminated, freeing up the soul, which would lead us to the principle of free and full expression of all our ambitions, i.e. complete chaos.. But C. G. Jung, founder of analytical psychology, proposes a very interesting idea: Morality was not brought down from the Mount Sinai in the form of stone-tablets and forced on people, but rather it’s a function of the human soul which is as old as mankind. Ethical principles are not forced upon us by some external force, after all they are all in us. Not the laws but the moral essence of it, without which the coexistence of human communities would be impossible. We can detect morality at every stage of human development. Morality – in that pure sense – is the instinctive regulator of all actions, even in animal groups, according to Jung. ‘Necessity’ which naturally sets the rules of coexistence and reciprocity is more convincing and effective than all moral statutes together. However, moral laws apply only within the confines of a ‘together living’ group of people. Beyond these borders, their power is terminated. With the massive culture and media coverage, we succeed in forcing the same moral principles to huge masses. But at the same time, failing to create legacy for these moral laws in the ‘free space’ beyond the borders of independent societies.

[timeaonline]

A bit easier, with a bit more laugh, joy and humor..

Our life is not a jail, not a school to excel in all subject, neither fate-assignment nor suffering only, how Buddha thought. It’s like playing a game..

This is how we need to take it. A bit easier, with a bit more laugh, joy and humor.

[timeaonline]

Having kept a sharp eye on philosophers, and having read between their lines long enough, I now say to myself that the greater part of conscious thinking must be counted among the instinctive functions, and it is so even in the case of philosophical thinking; one has here to learn anew, as one learned anew about heredity and "innateness." As little as the act of birth comes into consideration in the whole process and procedure of heredity, just as little is "being-conscious" OPPOSED to the instinctive in any decisive sense; the greater part of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly influenced by his instincts, and forced into definite channels. And behind all logic and its seeming sovereignty of movement, there are valuations, or to speak more plainly, physiological demands, for the maintenance of a definite mode of life For example, that the certain is worth more than the uncertain, that illusion is less valuable than "truth" such valuations, in spite of their regulative importance for US, might notwithstanding be only superficial valuations, special kinds ofniaiserie, such as may be necessary for the maintenance of beings such as ourselves. Supposing, in effect, that man is not just the "measure of things.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

[timeaonline]

The truth is..

Why the ’truth’ is so important for us? Isn’t it comfort or happiness that we strive for? Awareness of the truth is seldom part of that.. But then why we search it so desperately?

The wife investigates on the edge of madness the secrets of her husband. She suspects that she might be cheated, not sure though. She wants evidence. Proactively choses the painful learning instead of a smooth and comfortable ignorance. But why?

The joy over self-justification is greater than the pain over a wound of infidelity. Self-justification is more prevalent than the most painful suffering.

However, fighting for other’s justice doesn’t overwrite so noble the difficult steps we have to take for truth. Indeed, even the tiniest hardship serves as valid reason to dodge the uncomfortable duty of justice. So our quest for truth is not some lofty virtues that we should be proud about or even proclaim, just voluptuous pleasure from the justification of our own ego’s certainty.

[timeaonline]

Oh, what are you anyway my written and painted thoughts! It was not long ago that you were still so colorful, young and malicious, so full of thorns and secrets spices that you made me sneeze and laugh – and now? You have already lost your novelty, and I am afraid that some of you are ready to turn into truths: they already look so immortal, so pathetically decent and upright, so boring! And was it ever any different? So, what subjects do we copy out and paint, we mandarins with Chinese brushes, we immortalizers of things that let themselves be written – what are the only things we can paint? Oh, only ever things that are about to wilt and lose their smell! Only ever storms that have exhausted themselves and are moving off, and feelings that are yellowed and late! Only ever birds that have flown and flown astray until they are tired and can be caught by hand, - by our hand! We only immortalize things that cannot live and fly much longer, only tired and worn-out things! And I only have colors for your afternoon, my written and painted thoughts, perhaps many colors, many colorful affections and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds: - but nobody will guess from how you looked in your morning, you sudden sparks and wonders of my solitude, you, my old beloved - - wicked thoughts!

Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

[timeaonline]

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw: Man and Superman

[timeaonline]

From true heart only

Psychological studies prove that children clearly sense the truth or lie in an act. They endure if the parents punish them in their anger. They did crap and in the heat of the situation, a slap bursts out. This is true and sincere. On the other hand, they suffer from unspontaneous cold-blooded punishment: the parents stifle their anger in the moment and snakingly whisper: ‘you will see what you get when we are at home…’. And at home the kid get punished cold-bloodedly. That, they cannot endure. The aggression that comes after the temper cools down, without true, spontaneous anger, the kid doesn’t understand. The peak of the emotional outburst exploded, the tense situation is over, what is the reason for the punishment now? Positive actions are not better either. The maternal affection of a bitter, lonely woman is not real love but emotional blackmailing. The hypocritical good deeds and self-sacrifice is not joy for the children. They always feel if a sacrifice doesn’t come out of true love and caring. All good deeds, charity and self-sacrifice are in vain; if they don’t come from the heart, they don’t worth anything. Let us always be honest and true to ourselves. Whether in our anger or in our kindness. The root always makes his way out. Suppressed anger tortures and suffocates the same way as hypocritical good deeds.

[timeaonline]

Woven of our fate

What the poet believed as random threads of faith, the mere coincidence of possibilities, had interwoven into law on the loom. We are unable to understand the instances of the moment, cannot see through the occurrence of the events in our lives, they only seem like a tangled set of scenes. Because we have no power in our hands to influence the wonders and strikes of life. But as time passes, looking back to the past, we can discover motives in the woven, although the complete pattern unfolds only by the end of our lives. The motifs that we weave again and again into our life-homespun originates from us, from our personality. The main pattern of our fate is us, the soars and pitfalls of our character.

[timeaonline]

I looked up from under the evening at the gear wheels of the skies - from glistening threads of chance the loom of the past was weaving law, and again I looked up at the sky from under the vapours of my dreams and I saw that the fabric of the law was always bursting apart somewhere.

Attila József: Consciousness

[timeaonline]

Guilt is the fear of losing love

Sigmund Freud

[timeaonline]

Man dies spiritually if he stiffens his convictions and thoughts and is unable to change them any longer. A relationship lasts also only as long as the couple is on the way, heading from somewhere to somewhere, and dies when they stop developing further, just repeating themselves. (from Peter Popper's thoughts)

[timeaonline]

Sin

'You know, there is no mercy, No need for sorrow, Be, what you should be: a man, Grass will grow after you. The sin won’t be easier, No need for weeping, That you are the proof of it At least, you should be grateful.' What is the sin of the author of the poem? That he was cheated, that he believed in people or that he lied? Or that he had to endure all these without succeed in his role, without pursuing his fate? The author, Attila József was a misunderstood and unacknowledged poet in his life time. The difficult and poor childhood was followed with failure and rejection in his professional life. His love was one sided. Later he was suffering from schizophrenia, and died under tragic circumstances at the age of 32: his death or suicide is still debated.  Humans are most characteristically distinguished from animals by their intellect: the realization of our existence is integral part of our lives. We are conscious about our life and that it’s something precious that we owe responsibility for. We see higher meaning in our very existence. We have a mission-sense, aspiration to fulfill our fate. This intellect helps though all difficulties. Any suffering we can take upon ourselves, even gladly, if we see purpose in it.  And this is also the source of the most unbearable pain in our lives: when we lose the meaning of it. If we don’t see the mission in our existence, if no to fate to fulfill is awaited for our personality. This is the most difficult to endure. And since it’s only us that accountable for its fate, this gives the deepest guilt.   And perhaps this is the real sin, from a higher perspective: failure of fulfilling one’s real, intended fate. All the talent, character, opportunity that we have in our lives we got with a reason. Neglecting it, hiding it, mocking it, is the real sin.

[timeaonline]

You know, there is no mercy, No need for sorrow, Be, what you should be: a man, Grass will grow after you. The sin won’t be easier, No need for weeping, That you are the proof of it At least, you should be grateful. Don’t accuse, don’t promise, To yourself, do not lie, Don’t surrender, but don’t conquest. To the crowd, do not link. Stay uncalled-for, The secrets, do not seek. And this humanity, Like you are, do not despise. Remember, how you choked And beg around in vain. You became false witness At your own trial for truth. You called for father, imploring, Or just a man, if there is no God. And found only wicked children In Psychoanalyst whys. You believed in light words, To paid comforters, And you see, never, Never a person trusted your vision. They loved you by their lying,  your lying killed your loving. So now, the loaded gun, Put at your empty heart. Or cast out all doctrine, And hope for true love, Because dog-like, you would trust In all man, who trusted you.

József Attila: Tudod hogy nincs bocsánat Translation to English by timeaonline