Enlightenment

Who am I? What am I? What is my shtick? Such questions were going through my mind earlier. Not in form of questions tho. I was thinking of the type of person I am, how I fit into the crowd, and what I do - consciously or not - to, well, distinguish myself from what first impressions might exist.

It does however not matter. Thinking, or saying, that "my mind exists on a higher Level than yours" - well, it's a thing we all kind of do have the right to say because our individual perspectives make it so that others don't necessarily get things the way we individually do. Whether or not we're right about it - yea - that's the spicy part.

Anyway. I tend to think that I owe you backstory so you have an idea of how I get to eventually write the things that you'd care about. If that's in any way important to the plot.
But eventually the stories get windy and clear segues and transitions ... well. I'm used to them showing up eventually. Sometimes it's just a distraction. Whatever. For here I have this convenient situation then, that I can for once tell myself that I have to practice cutting to the point; Seeing that a logical transition ... ugh. I mean, there is one - an incredibly simple one - but this combines with the thing I was just "saying", along with all the other stuff I could have written about, where ultimately all of this stuff ends up being context to what I'm basically concerned about.

So - the story to the point, becomes an appendage to the point. Basically.


Enlightenment. This topic I basically just got started on previously. So, now it comes out a bit clearer. This idea of what we see or what we can tell, what our image provides, what we can do within the confines of our own mind - and eventually also how God can and does interact with that ... ~issue~ ... where sure, the lacking also becomes a topic there.

Here we could say that God could technically also have a lacking, but it's situationally impossible for Him to be in one such condition. Anyway. We don't have the benefits of omniscience, but we can partake of it. And now why is it - you would ask - that "this bastard" wouldn't just let us have it?
Well - what would it solve?

If you're thinking in terms of problems that we have in this world - as part of the way it functions - it could solve a problem that was put there in the first place. And the way I see it, Omniscience doesn't help us with our interpersonal issues. If we all had it, we're like ... back to square one. And according to the Sandman with a lot more visceral carnage.

But yea. Learning or thinking of the individual complexity is one way to visualize this in a more direct way. But this is like a spotlight also. And yea - to some extent, the more capable your mind is, the more the 'scope' of someone with a less developed mind would eventually begin looking as a spotlight also. And this is what we eventually get in the medical sector, a lot. The people working there not only need to know what they're doing, they also see a lot throughout the days. So, this means that medical staff has this aura of "all knowing benevolence" - as within the sector they're working in, this may very well be true. And even if the nurse doesn't know how to help you, there's got to be someone somewhere. Well - at least that'd be the idea I suppose.
So, "less developed" can be seen in absolute terms, but to make everyone feel better I assume it's also fair to focus on the relativity. So, when it comes to stupidity for instance, there's the one part that's a cognitive impairment such as by a mental disability - but there's also the other part where one might just be ... uhm ... "thinking in different spheres". And I think that's also where some of my sensitivity comes from. I want to believe that we all essentially mean well, and that if our spheres aligned, sotospeak, we'd end up on the same page. But the concept of selfishness kind of ... throws a wrench in that.

And maybe we can also ... uhm. I mean, I believe this also lends itself to a perspective onto scams. The "good" scammer/con-artist/business-person produces a narrative in which they themselves appear as a form of savior. This can be direct by just flooding you with facts until you say to yourself "OK, you're the expert" - or by perhaps painting a dim picture of reality that would require a charismatic leader to take control and "get shit done".

And yea, it's a known fact, that scammers will use unbelievable stories so that those that could or would see through the scam are being filtered out. What they're left with are people who can integrate the provided narrative into their own worldview without getting suspicious of anything.


And yea, perhaps it is for just that reason that I like ... going a bit against the grain. To so ... rip the band-aid off ... right from the start.

I mean, a little while back I found myself flabbergasted at the impression that people would take solace in me doing dumb shit, because they themselves can feel more secure about the dumb shit that they've done. And sure enough ... that's kind of how society functions.
But now I feel we're a lot closer to understanding ... it more personally. I don't know why I'm feeling what I'm feeling.

But anyway ...


So, 'the' Enlightenment, as 'we' (westerners) like to call it, was similarly a period in which we might say some curtains came down. The understanding that the sciences work - trust in the rigor of academic studies and the scientific method - all that and possibly more contributed to at least an outlet of curiosity - which in turn led to an increase ... yada yada. Beside the point. But reality now became a playground for the mind also. The very simple way to extend beyond the limited horizon of our own. To just look around, basically.
And to see that ... there's more. So, we're back to the complexity part here. And, I feel like we need to distinguish the two.

So, there's like ... "deep" enlightenment - which is concerning the complexity of things - and there's "broad" enlightenment - which is concerning the ... uh ... "general state of things". As a human mind - or a sector of concern.

So, to see that there's more - to see that a steam engine doesn't run on magic but on physics for instance. To see a mechanism do what it does. This "deep" insight had, so my point, in turn the "broad" effect of some kind of paradigm shift that would increase our levels of understanding. So - an enlightenment in the truest sense. An illumination of previously dark aspects of our worldview.


And I guess because we like to use shortcuts and are conditioned to compare everything to ourselves we overlooked the complexities of the bonds that held our originally very simple societies together. And naturally - this strictly self-preservational thinking doesn't work in an environment where more co-operative attitudes need to be employed. So, there's still work in progress - forces are hard at work to not make the dream come true - and this I would say goes far beyond politics. This is more primal, more fundamental than that.

And there's also something about consumerism and service culture that's ... actually bad. I mean, we learn to rely on others for our issues - while our privilege determines how far on the givers or takers side we are on that. And the thing about privilege is ... I see mine as a God given right. So, I wouldn't want to trade mine away. Which is weird, because ... it's somehow ... it's woven into my story.

But not just mine.
But yea. Privilege can be ugly. It's sad to see privilege going to waste - or so: People not appreciating what they have - but on the other side ... there's the issue that you can't - let's assume - change the gap. Without giving away what you have. And so it's difficult to deal with this inability to act on how you feel about a situation. So, I suppose that this makes it easy to turn into a cruel asshole. Say a naturally defensive attitude unto people who are objectively beneath you.
But then there's also the "alt" version thereof - so, we're basically speaking of a spectrum between two extremes. On the one version is the 'rationalized' good path - say, OK, you have a family you can't just ... leave to the streets. To really move something, the effort must be a collective one. So on and so forth. On the far end of that there's also the optimism that in grand total there's a net gain from the investments that are being made. And while here this is seen as a general thing, on the other end of the extreme it's basically just greed, selfishness - however we want to flag it.

Anyway. Where were we? Ah, I didn't want to delete this part on consumerism and so I roughted it out and ended up ... somewhere.
OK.


And I feel we also need a term for this "other" Darkness. So, how about "the Otherdark"?

Hmm ... so, one advantage of english over german is, in this context, that the lesser grammatical complexity makes it so that the ordinary word is usually more universal. So, "Otherdark" works as a word that constructs its own meaning - whereas in german one has to settle on a grammatical form of the word 'other' (Anders) that would properly convey the intended meaning. So - "Andersdunkel" doesn't work that well in german. The grammatical forms have more weight.
I assume it would take time for it to sink into the collective consciousness as a term with individual meaning. I mean ... that we can do too.


"Das Andersdunkel is nochmal anders dunkel."


Not that people wouldn't understand it. It's just ... hmm. Do I care?
Nah.


Oh, Enlightenment.

So - I suppose we now have a better understanding of the term in a neutral context - I would argue. And where was I going to go with this? Or was that it?

I mean - so, spread awareness of the "Broad" concept of Enlightenment. Check.
So, here we speak of ... "our general place in the world" perhaps. I guess my personal angle is mostly informed by growth. So, on and on I feel a bit perplexed when looking back, thinking of how clueless I was. Hmm ... something ...


I don't know. Whatever. Another time. Maybe.