I think we today in this culture enforce ideas about the selfness of the self so overmuch (look inside yourself be yourself and for writers write first for yourself, all of which are ideas ive found increasingly nonsensical) b/c were using said myth to reinforce ourselves against the scary idea that our identities are defined entirely in terms of difference, in relations, resemblances, and non-resemblances (of course, resembling language, and, in some capacity, the structure of the material universe). prisoners locked in solitary confinement for long periods often find themselves enter a state of loss of identity: without anything with which to define themselves or their thoughts, they butt up against the blankness of selfs self-containment (relevant link: aeon.co/magazine/being-human/why-solitary-confinement-degrades-us-all/). We are selves only because there are things that are not the self, and our language and methods of socializing expose this: being yourself only makes sense if there is somehow a non-self or something that is not self that one can be, etc; when we talk about ourselves, we often evidence who we are in terms of the things we feel about: My job is X I love X person I believe in X My hobby is X; and countless other examples. This doesnt make identity somehow empty or vapid or less beautiful or vital--it means that, yes, being relational and non-egotistical and investing yourself in other consciousnesses / the strata of life are the best and most powerful things a human can do, is the only way to escape the great abyss of our lonely minds (our laughable skull-sized kingdoms), and that Yes, the mind is a part of the body, Yes, part of the strange, horrible beauty of the universe.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 16:19:12 +0000
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