Desires, Fears and the Self

Throughout history, the many were controlled by the few. It is no different now. As practiced today, democracy gives you the illusion that you choose who'll control you. But even your choices are controlled. How? Through your desires and fears. YOUR DESIRES. Only they are not really your desires; you are being persuaded to believe that your desires are yours whereas they serve to feed the power that controls you by agreeing to satisfy those desires that weren't even yours in the first place. And your fears? You are fed daily with fear-inciting information so that you'll give power to those who'll save you from imminent danger. (Watch the 4-part BBC documentary, The Century of the Self.)

There are those who believe that people are basically good, and they should be free to express themselves. This theory emphasizes the importance of personal growth and happiness, which usually yields selfish individuals who are easily controlled. Having been overwhelmed and enslaved by their desires with the blessing of the political leadership and corporations, individualists looking out only for themselves are ideal consumers. These children raised to believe they were God's gift to mankind, having all the rights and no responsibilities, were told they could do as they wished. And the little spoilt brats grew up to be big spoilt brats. You might be acquainted with such individuals continuously complaining about their parents, spouses, children, jobs and what not while their lives can be characterized by extreme superficiality, constantly seeking self-expression and happiness with their "I, me and myself" attitude. They can't understand why their children turn to drugs, suicide, eating disorders, and why their overwhelming inner emptiness crawls up on them eating away their lives. They go from one happiness course to another, from one teaching of positive thinking to another in the hope that this will end their suffering. But as Arthur Miller said, "the problem is not to undo suffering, it's not a sign of illness - but to make it form our lives instead of avoiding anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call happiness - it's too much an attempt of controlling man rather than freeing him, of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the ideology of this age, which is power-mad."

Teachings of how to always be happy, to never feel negative emotions are attempts to turn one into a two-dimensional cartoon, a simpleton unable to cope with stress, or to feel real compassion and empathy. Seeking only individual happiness while flaunting with tolerance is lip service to being connected, to being part of the greater community of life on earth. In fact, sending love and light and "praying" that God, the universe, ("anyone but me") help the needy - while leaving these suffering others in their shit - is the pledge of the "happies'" insensitiveness. By the way, there is nothing wrong in seeking happiness; attempting to exclude everything else, is wrong.

The Buddhist solution to avoid suffering is to abolish desire altogether, in which case you can't be controlled, just as the inhabitants of the cemeteries cannot be controlled. Although Buddhists are wonderful people, their goodness is not due to their lack of desires, but rather, to Buddhism's other teachings. If you are controlled through your desires, then perhaps liberation has to come from a different worldview than either being turned into a happy machine or a hermit.

The other view is that you are a cog in the wheel of society; you are dumb, stupid, and evil, which also allows those in the power to control you, but now, with a justification. Herbert Marcuse held that it was wrong to control people. Leaders control because they are afraid of what they believe to be the dark side of human nature - the aggressiveness of the mob - and also, to profit by fulfilling people's desires. Marcuse believed that people's aggressiveness was the expression of empty prosperity - a superficial society without deeper values or knowledge.

Those disgusted by the cynical capitalistic exploitation become either fanatically religious - they turn to fundamentalism, fanatic despotism, or they embrace left-wing idealism. The fanatically religious exchange one control for another; organized religion has always controlled the flock through fear, and while preaching to lead modest lives, in exchange for eternal life, or some other spiritual value, the religious leaders obtained the earthly possessions of their believers. These riches then were used for luxuries, or to create an army, or both - depending on the personality of the spiritual leader.

Those who embrace an idealism hold it until they have a chance to come to power, and then they become capitalistic exploiters, or sell out their idealism in order to be elected. When elected, they learn the "facts of life" which is the inevitability of giving concessions (a piece of the ideology here, a piece of the ideology there) in order to remain in power. That's the price of democracy. So far in history, idealism was only practiced in small groups/communities and only for short periods of time (this or that revolution) and in the end, it all turned sour anyway.

People are irrational. Controlling them was the solution of the fear of irrationality (and the greed for power). Of course, it is easier to control people than to educate them. However, if you were only rational, you would be in trouble. Consider, for example, emotion: when we try to justify an irrational act, we resort to explaining it as emotionally driven. Politics, religion, and even our foremost desires are considered to be emotionally motivated, and hence, irrational. However, emotion (which is irrational) cannot be separated from rationality, but is part and parcel of rational behavior and proper decision making, as has been pointed out by the neurologist Antonio R. Damasio in his book, Descartes' Error. Damasio demonstrates that if the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is damaged (the brain site associated with strong instinctive feelings of emotional connection), then the patient may seem to be totally rational, fully intelligent, yet his behavior is irrational, his decision making erroneous because he does not feel, does not react to emotional stimuli. This surprising conclusion that rationality to be rationality has to include the irrational, is not unlike the logical implication of the necessity to include the indefinite in any definition as posited by the Holophanic Loop Logic.

The power-mad succeeded to turn you into a puppet with a string because you didn't know how to avoid it. Why can you be controlled? Why don't you have freedom of choice? How to achieve freedom of choice? How to not be defined? Holophany can teach you how to think, how to reason. It won't teach you what to think. Holophany can awaken your inherent empathy and compassion (which is inherent in each every one of you), and it can provide the means whereby your life can be meaningful.