Something Jan Said

Something Jan said comes to mind. It was during the 80s or 90s, and he pointed out, in words like these: A distinction of the 20th century is that for the first time in history, peoples have no where to go. 

Logic and moral purity

The point is not that Tim Cook is refusing to help the government access info on a phone. The point is not that he says this refusal will protect personal privacy and make it harder for hackers to infiltrate other phones. 

The point is not that the government is saying Cook's actions are motivated by the goal of increasing market share. 

Kind of the point is that this logic reveals moral purity as a human standard of logic. Who cares what his reasons are, if in fact his actions prevent say, Chinese hackers from accessing American government agencies, again. 

These examples always abound. The idea that a defect in moral purity, the presence of human inconsistency, will invalidate an argument is not the point. This demand for moral purity has sent people to the guillotine and toppled governments. But this is not the point.

The point is that a demand for moral purity is forceful -- because of the narrowness and universality of binary logic. Everything must be in one of two camps, right or wrong, moral or not so much, good or bad. No inbetweens, no shades of life, no personal experience informing judgments. 

Jan Cox tried again and again to convey this reality to his students. Binary logic is integral to ordinary human thinking in our world. It is the only way mere words can grasp on in a rippling reality. And of course, binary thought builds a brighter tomorrow for the masses, regardless of whether you find it insufficient personally right now. 

A Canned Hunt

No surprises, and no effort really, in a canned hunt. The prey is tame, the game is fenced in.  You know there will be a limited number of options, that you will win a prize is a foregone conclusion. Freedom, real exertion, the possibility of the unknown -- these things are excluded in a canned hunt.

I refer of course to one's own skull, and the black and white marbles rolling around in it. Binary thought. That's all I mean. 

Pinpointing a part of progress

What does the progress of humanity mean? If you are familiar much with the writings of Jan Cox, you may remember his observation that life is evolving, and that the job of a real revolutionary (his sometime term for those on the path) is to evolve faster than the overall general progress. This progress, lifting all, is justly called mechanical. Perhaps in a public forum I should add that the source and the destination of this progress is unknown, even, possibly, to one who regularly sees above the crowd. Our point here is what the crowd sees, and how that is evolving. 

So this headline today in the Guardian:

Antarctica :150,000 penguins die after giant iceberg renders colony landlocked

My reaction was a (momentary) wince of grief. It was imaginary, I am not in Antarctica. But this reaction is becoming more common among the components of humanity. This reaction motivates. It may or may not produce immediately visible results. But more commonly experienced this kind of reaction, what mine was, changes the way Humanity as a whole may handle their world. And how do I know it is becoming more common??? 

It was headline in a major newspaper.

The wages of thought

On our peculiar planet where thinking, the source of all external progress, is also that from which, (this is seen more clearly in eastern thought) some quiet distance must be retained for any accurate assessments, of anything, the word robot is not inappropriate to describe people. 

This is never noticed at the public level. And yet, what can it mean that in a recent debate between US politicians (politicians!) the accusation of being robotic in speech was leveled against one panel member. Of course, pots and kettles. The interesting thing is:

The audience noticed. 

Pots and kettles and barbecue utensils. Of course. What it means I don't know. That it is significant, I suspect. 

Socks in a Dryer

Tossed, tumbled, tied,  apparently doing a good or bad, job, apparently following a higher good, or trying, and
clueless as of course socks must be.
.
This characterizes the world of man, especially in the modern, intellectually developed, arena of life.

It may not be all there is, but to appreciate fully, this stage, is necessary. If you are a citizen of the west, you start here. The progress possible may be greater than that available to other circuited men and women. But without seeing the accuracy of this picture, and remembering it, a lot, well,.....

Jan Cox wouldn't perhaps mention this, but he could see the eyes of his audience. If you find this depressing, you are simply not doing it right.  If you really see it, you get there is nothing that can be taken personally. What could it matter what color of sock you are.

Who and What, We Are

Who we are must surely be connected with what we are a part of. This article talks about speculation regarding galaxy formation. Jan Cox stressed that the sincere seeker always pushed both for self-knowledge and knowledge of the world (he used the word cosmology.) Both are necessary for personal evolution and I suspect he would have approved of the idea these paths converge: psychology and cosmology. And we are always facing the unknown.