Self Reflection in the Modern Age

[John DoeParticipant 743]

Paradoxically, I am going to start a conversation about an abstract topic with an empirical study I only heard of.   I had a friend, who was a chemical engineer, who told be about a study regarding brain matter in modern children.  In the study it found that children who were exposed to/used large amounts of electronic devices had larger quantities of grey matter that white matter.  Those who grew up without a great exposure to electronics had a proportional ratio of both.

Why is this important?  Grey matter is related to quick/reactive/impulsive/base/etc. thinking.  White matter is related to slow/self-reflective/etc. thinking.   Get the picture?

I am under the impression that the generation before me (I am 25) will have little ability for self reflection and this in turn will harm their ability for creative/analytical/critical and various other forms of thinking.  I think the generation prior to mine (mine probably is included though) will be fit only for slavery.  We will know no different.  The inability to question, or even seek understanding, will limit us more than the technology we create can free us.  Philosophy/Religion/Science will be struck a critical blow by a generation who seeks little understanding of them.  Silicon trinkets cannot save us.

 

Now, I do not want to get to off subject, but I know somewhere along the line someone is going to bring up descarte philosophy of self reflection.  I believe this accepted “philosophy” is what partially tarnished and limited the act of self reflection, therefore leading to today’s issues in several respects.

A philosophy based on skepticism is only reactive in nature, therefore it is always subjective in one form or another.  Blind belief is contrary to self reflection, but blind skepticism is also.  To react to oneself is absurd.  To react is a form of intellectual slavery always limiting us in one form or another.

Thinking is a form of movement.  We observe movement.  To acknowledge movement is to acknowledge the self, but it is also to acknowledge all else that moves.  “I think therefore I am” is a limited form of self reflection that limits us to our own egos while contradictorily trying to see past them.

Debate/Discuss

[peterfaParticipant 833]

René’s point was trying to find a starting point for modernity. Modernity has a high standard for a truth statement, which is that you shouldn’t assert something while assuming it. You need to prove everything absolutely. The problem is that it’s too rigorous and even René made a mistake. He should have said, “I think, therefore thinking exists.”

Modernity did help produce methodological science so we have strong evidence to make a truth claim about the natures of things, which is why we put a man on the moon.

Because of the sterility and miserable conclusions, people turned to drugs in the sixties and other movements which led into New Ageism and postmodernity. Postmodernity is an escape from the prison of modernity in that my reality is mine and yours is yours, but don’t you be pushing your views on me. It states that all truth claims are really vying for power. I’m trying to take power over you if I assert something in reality absolutely.

You’re talking about some very important points. You’re absolutely right on track. Our next generation is allergic to boredom and suffer from anhedonia. They are increasingly narcissistic and entitled. The status quo is growing and they are forgetting how to think. As you point all of this out, you’re damn right.

Our culture is a culture free of pain. We have drugs, entertainment, and all sorts of pain killers. It’s to the point where it’s downright silly. This whole “microaggression” crap comes to mind. It’s like, “Suck it up, buttercup.” So what if someone insults your religion. It happens to all of us. Grow up. We’re forgetting what it means to be American and becoming soft, squishy, sheep, dependent on our government for our wellbeing. That’s a horrible life, if you ask me.

I think it was Aristotle who said, “A life unexamined is not worth living,” and Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” and Ravi Zacharias said, “A faith unexamined is not worth having.” I agree with all these statements and they speak about life in it’s most raw form. This is adventure.

Self-reflection is the only defense against personality disorders. I used to wonder if I had a personality disorder, because a person with a personality disorder would convince themselves that they didn’t. I pondered this for a while and I have these conclusions:

• The pain of nature will always be there to help because that sobers you up and jars you out of your delusions
• Personality disorders do not reflect on themselves. That’s how they perpetuate
• Modernity is flawed. There’s a better system but it takes responsibility, getting dirty, engaging reality and taking risks

With this I decide I do not likely have one, but if I do, I’ll just have to leave it up to nature to help me work through it. Nature will certainly provide me with the pain I need. Hopefully I’ll have the courage to do it when it’s time.

If you think the future is bleak, you’re in company, because I agree. My perspective is terribly pessimistic. I know how to fix it, but look at how things are going to go. It’s not likely that my ideas which historically work (where I got them), will come to be.

[harpo-my-“SON”Participant 2410]

Pascal  that’s  amazing your description of the next generation.  I am witnessing that generation now  they are lost to simple pleasures. They  would not be made happy  to win the lotto. they would run through that  fortune and not feel anything after its gone. Nothing but their own fame has any meaning to them. I could be wrong and I am quiet often but from my own experience I have to say true self reflection comes with the realization of ones own mortality.  I  was told very early on that we are all human and we all will die someday. I believed it but refused to think about it until enough close friends and family passed on. Then while thinking the question:   whats really left of them but our memories? and What will be left of me but the memories of those who knew me?   These two questions I believe caused  me to self reflect in depth for the first time. This may not fit in with this discussion but is my personal observation about my own self reflections.

I was bound to be misunderstood, and I laugh at those who misunderstand me. Kind mockery at the well intentioned, but unfettered cruelty towards those would be prison guards of my creative possibilities. This so as to learn as much from misunderstanding as from understanding. Taking pleasure in worthy opponents and making language fluid and flowing like a river yet pointed and precise as a dagger. Contradicts the socialistic purpose of language and makes for a wonderful linguistic dance, A verbal martial art with constant parries that hone the weapon that is the two edged sword of my mouth.

[peterfaParticipant 833]

Mortality is known as a huge wake-up call to people. I was acquainted with my own mortality as a little boy in second grade when our cat died. I pondered the meaning of death and I did not like the implications. I thought about it throughout my life. It has driven me to think about many things. I suppose your right that a great motive is the fear of death, to find it’s inevitable. It causes deep thinking and self-reflection. The arrogant believe they are immortal. Death is not for them.

[RoyDalParticipant]

Good thread, well thought out posts.

By the way, batcave is right about IT guys surviving layoffs. I’ve seen it happen a few times. Like it or not, the company needs people who can actually do things.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[Author]

Posts