June
25, 2001.
Two
items have popped up separately in the Daily
News
here
of late which have a connection that could be profitable to consider by
those wanting to get things settled in their minds:
the
increasing respect given to actors, and the expanding role of
aural
communication in human life.
(Let
any new readers be advised that nothing ever appearing here
is
a criticism of man, nor a notation of him having, “gone astray,”
and
now living an unnatural & improper life.
The
activities highlighted are done so for the purpose of giving those struggling
to see beyond the reportable news
something
to chew on besides gum on their journey.)
At
the ordinary level, until recent times,
actors
were held in low regard,
and
restrained speech was considered the sign of a superior man,
but
now those in the acting profession are the world’s role models,
and
most envied,
and
taciturnity is suspect, and oft thought a sign of mental distress.
Historically,
the poor reputation of actors has been attributed to them living in unstable
conditions outside the mainstream of their society at the time;
un
landed, un titled, and always subject to uncertain employment,
(in
that they provided mere entertainment --
not
an essential service).
Once
men left their individual, pre verbal I,
garden-of-eden,
and
began to speak and live in groups,
drifters,
lacking the standard tethers to the community
have
suffered a bad reputation,
and
this covers not just actors, but all whose efforts offer but distractions
from the routine world of survival rather than
contributions
thereto: (painters, poets, musicians, prophets,
[although
in a stroke of genius. the last made their form of entertainment
seem more meaningful than the others
by
claiming it would teach you how to avoid death]).
Until
contemporary times, actors were viewed by the collective herd as n’er-do-well',
now
ordinary people proclaim them their heroes;
why
the shift?
And
as is always the case:
changes
in conditions alone explain it not,
for,
man-&-conditions are in fact a unified singularity.
The
change has come about through life now calling on
all
men to be actors,
and
requiring them to increasingly pretend that the affairs that
fill
much of their lives, have significance.
As
more & more of men’s activities
have
less & less to do with survival
there
is an expanding pressure for them to say
otherwise,
for
it is only via
words that this pretension functions.
In
the privacy of his own head, an ordinary man has a lurking,
low
intensity awareness that the interests that take up most of his
attention
today are without any real importance,
(in
the sense of being essential to survival),
but
so little of his time now is
directly taken up by the
physical
demands of survival
that
the center of his everyday existence resides in
the distractions,
and
an integral part of
them is
his
running commentary -- asserting
the contrary.
For
instance: ordinary men-&-minds
cannot
“enjoy” art without talking about it,
(same
with politics, and religion);
all
hobbies require that they be talked about as much or more than
they
are actually engaged in;
(discussions
regarding the art, science,
history
& philosophy of philately
are
as necessary to its pursuit as are stamps);
Vishnu,
Lucifer, Darth Vader, and Life-After-Death
survive
solely by grace of ceaseless gossip.
The
matter extends further:
men
are not only increasingly urged
by life to constantly:
talk
about, praise & promote
their
meaningless, (though harmless & necessary) pastimes,
and
in so doing they also subtly and simultaneously offer support to
the
increasingly meaningless persona life urges
on which is
understandably
necessary for them to continually
engage
in activities
which are meaningless.
The
only way that the insane can bear to be insane is by:
going
crazy;
no
one could tolerate living under the illusionary threat of,
The-wrath-of-God
without
pretending to believe that there is
a God,
and
no man could stand being the thing he seems to be
without
pretending to accept the thing as actually
being
what he is.
The
situation is closed-ended;
a
sown-up burlap bag;
a
most beautifully balanced fraud,
(from
that certain minority view of the independently minded few).
So,
the instant survey reads like this:
presently,
things are so arranged that life increasingly nudges
men into activities that have less & less direct connection to
anything
necessary for physical survival on this planet;
larger
& larger sections of his daily existence are given over to
affairs
about which he must incessantly speak
so
as to keep up his enforced, pretend interest therein -- and
the
mirage of what he mentally seems to be,
being
the most outstanding, but unacknowledged, example thereof.
The
son of a certain father said he wanted to be a painter,
(we’ll
call it that as a symbol for what is really being referred to),
and
insisted that to be one at a level of competence that met
his
requirements was all that mattered,
and
eventually his elder addressed the matter:
“If
you could have one or the other,
which
of these would you choose:
to
be able to finally paint in such a way that each and every time you did
so, your efforts gave you complete, private satisfaction --
or to have the way you now paint
suddenly
receive world wide acclamation?
The
voice of your ordinary thoughts will immediately give a
predictable
reply, but our family’s experience long ago revealed it for the empty shell
that it is, (germane our particular interest ).
All
frivolous endeavors must be liberally dowsed in words;
everything
from a man’s explanation of his religious persuasion,
to
the identification of his favorite team, type of music,
fashion
& food, but in so doing,
a
man is also offering constant, camouflaged support for
the
major hobby of all
ordinary people, (which is):
‘Let-me-tell-you-the-kind-of-guy-I-am’
-- a fact which
life
does not program people to notice,
nor
to recognize that their tongues are being urged
to such activity to help distract them from the vacuousness of the
subject matter,
(to
wit): the, 'I'
about which they seem to be speaking.”
Assuming
readers realize the symbolism of what is being said:
ask,
ponder & pursue for yourself, this:
if
you had one wish to be granted, and were a musician
with
the hunger to play with complete freedom from
anything
preconceived or tied to the past,
but
whose efforts never gave total satisfaction,
would
you choose to gain the ability to so improvise
to
your complete satisfaction -- but only
in your private playing,
or
instead have your present playing publicly recognized,
acclaimed
& envied by everyone with any interest in such activity?
The
brain of every person, part of this invisible, secret family,
is
faced with this ongoing choice, whether they realize it or not,
and
you miss the whole point and potential profit of the question
if
you listen to your automatic thought-voices
which
will offer a ready reply thereto;
there
is no reply to the question --
the
mere fact that such a choice is
crawling
all over the desire to achieve a new state of mind
is
itself
what is to be realized & understood --
not
some verbalized reaction to
the question.
At
some family reunions:
a failure of pretension is an
indication of superior comprehension,
and
a lack of reference to oneself, the sign of a man who knows.
J
To himself, a man seems
to have many selves,
and thus, much to say about
himself;
but this is a room made entirely of mirrors --
-- until you see it for yourself,
then you realize that it is
a room made of imaginary
mirrors,
and after that,
you are no longer capable of being fooled by anything.
For
you distant cousins, new to the get-together, here it is plain:
If you have the answer to any thing -- you
don't understand it.
(Code
named: fiat luxurio goobers.) |