Not So Good Neighbor

There are events that make my injustice nerve tweak like a madman.  Stories like a thief getting hurt on someone’s property, and suing the homeowner, the victim, for damages and winning.  Or like the infamously moronic McDonald’s spilling of hot coffee lawsuit.  I may be a little high strung, but at times, I just want to grab someone and scream, “Are you kidding me???”

Many times I listen to a story and shake my head, feeling helpless to satiate my desire to stop the momentum of bad ideas.  I want to intervene, or at least say something.  If you let trends establish themselves, they only get trendier.  The old adage, ‘give an inch and they’ll take a mile,’ rings true.  The more that unscrupulous people get away with, the more they try to take.  Power creates an appetite for more power.

When I hear stories of injustice, I want to get on a loud speaker and tell people what I think.  I have this human flaw called presumption.  I presume that I have some good ideas.  I presume that people like good ideas.  I presume that people want to listen to good ideas and do something about it.  It is a characteristic left over from childhood.  But then I remember that, even if good ideas are floating around out there, many people don’t want to hear them.  And many who do like good ideas, smile and nod, and then go watch their favorite TV show.  Good ideas would probably sound like a dull thud coming from the moon.  So what’s the point?  But sometimes these little stories make their way right into your own zip code, or even to your very street.  And when they do, something must be done.

Long story short, someone called Children Services on one of the nicest people on our street.  I was absolutely stunned.  It made me so angry, I stewed for days.  I stewed because if I would have opened my mouth at the time, I would have to do a lot of repenting later.  I decided, instead to write a letter to my neighbors.  It is a little scolding, but primarily, is attempting do something constructive.  When I have flaws in my thinking, I would hope that someone, with whom I have a relationship with, would bring it to my attention.  I intend to do the same with this letter.  That is the main impetuous behind my blog – fixing flaws in thought.  ‘Let us reason together…’

Here is the Letter:

Dear Neighbors,

It has come to my attention that recently, one of us has called children services on another one of us on this street.  I am appalled by this unnecessary action for several reasons:

First, I know the person in question (The callee).  They are not even close to someone who should have children services called on them.  I wonder how much the “caller” has even talked with the “callee”.  Do they even know anything about them?  If the caller had spent any time getting to know the callee, they would know how ridiculous it is to call on them.  Instead, the caller called from behind their closed doors.  How can you be a good neighbor by judging a person from afar?

Second, What if the callee did do something wrong (which they didn’t).  Why would the caller make a singular and speculative judgment?  A person’s life is a moving picture, not a snapshot.  Think back over the “snapshots” of your life.  Every one of us could be accused of criminal behavior.  Let’s not be unsympathetic to our neighbors.

Third, children services is for abuse.  Abuse is not a singular incident (which didn’t even happen, but was speculated to have happened).  Once again have courage, and get to know your neighbors instead of tattle tailing.

Fourth, as if the government were not already too involved in our personal lives, you have to invite them to our street.  The caller has put the callee, and our whole street on the radar now.  What is the government anyway?  It is people just like you and me and full of flaws and corruption.  But we constantly vote or “call” our freedoms away.  Can we not try to deal with our neighbors ourselves, like mature adults?  Then, if someone is unreasonable, take other measures?

Is our judgment so bad that we need babysitters?  Many people, like me, wish the government would not be so involved in our personal lives.  But ironically, citizens are a main part of the problem.  By making calls to report on neighbors, we are voluntarily giving up our rights to deal with issues.  We are giving away our freedom and power.  I wonder if this is how people in East Germany felt?  Plus, lets let the police deal with real and known problems.  They’re probably tired of all the calls themselves.  For example, someone called the police on me for driving a go-cart on school property.  The cop was kind and even apologetic.  He explained that he didn’t see a big problem, but had to come talk to me because some “nosy parker” wanted to spoil someone else’s fun.  It was a birthday party, at 2:00 in the afternoon.  No one and no property was being hurt.  What a waste of taxpayer money.  In addition, children services is overworked and understaffed.  This was a waste of their time.  They have many, many real and known issues to deal with.

Fifth, doesn’t that phone call invite a spirit of mistrust and tension among our neighborhood?  I would like to think that we are good neighbors.  Is calling children services, regarding a singular and speculative event, motivated by love and support or is it something else?  I don’t even know how to categorize it.  I would have a hard time feeding my enemy to the powers that be, let alone my neighbor.  What is next?  If I go too fast down our road, will someone call the police?  Will someone call on me if I don’t mow my lawn according to OSHA standards?  If my car leaks some oil, will someone call the green police?  If I lose my “German” temper and yell, will someone call the children services on me?  Why needlessly involve detached strangers in our affairs?  Why not try to solve our own problems?  Let us talk to each other.  Let us be neighbors.

Finally, I will always come to you if I have a problem.  Likewise, if I ever offend, let me know.  Also, if anyone has a need that I can fill, I will.  I would like to be a good neighbor.

Sincerely,

John Gunther

Groundwork 2

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Spoon boy: There is no spoon.

Neo: There is no spoon?

Spoon boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

The Matrix presents many great concepts that analogize reality, but this is not one of them.  The spoon conversation suggests notions that are built on Nihilism.  Do we exist?  If so, is reality just in our minds?  Do material things exist?  Are we just being lied to by some supreme being to believe that we exist?  It’s all very ironic because the very mechanism, i.e. thought and reason, one uses to conclude that Nihilism is correct, is itself discredited by the theory.

In high school, one of my favorite classes was Humanities, with Mrs. Zabilka.  Most of my teachers were dry and boring, but not her.  She engaged our group of presumptuous teenagers with insightful teaching, and challenging conversation.  One time she actually took us to an art museum.  What a profound experience.  We provided the gallery guards and Mrs. Zabilka with profound stress that afternoon.  The guards made sure to keep our mischievous eyes in view.  Mrs. Zabilka caught us smoking cigars behind the field trip school bus and didn’t turn us in after we promised to never do it again.  She was very gracious.

During the normal school day, we had her for split lunch, which meant, half of class was before lunch and half after.  We always beat her back to the room.  The door would be locked, so we would always present her with some type of crazy formation in the hall.  As she rounded the corner, we would all be laying on the middle of the hallway floor or doing handstands against the wall.  We would always get a great reaction of amazement and laughter as she would shew us into class.  The reason the door was locked was because we pulled some shenanigans in the room too.  One time, I got into her closet, put on her coat, and hid.  She returned to class without noticing that I was gone.  Suddenly, she stopped and said, “Where’s John?”  At that moment, I jumped out of the closet took her in my arms and danced with her.  She was a great sport!

Anyway, there was a kid in that class that bought into Nihilism.  He used to say, “I could walk through that wall if I wanted to."  We would defy him to do it, and of course he wouldn’t.  ‘Then you'll see that it is not the wall that bends, it is only yourself.’

A simple definition of Nihilism provided by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy…

Many people may not realize they are influenced by Nihilism, but they operate under its premises.  Whenever a skeptic finds him or herself backed into a corner in a debate, he or she inevitably resorts to the safe haven of relativity and Chaos.  In relativity, one can never “know” and never be wrong.  The irony is why ever come out of chaos and relativity to argue at all?  In Chaos, there is no need for argument, because in that place there is no good or evil.  There, we may not even exist.

On the other hand, it is apparent that any time we are self-aware or interact with one another, we engage in rationality, certainties, and meaningfulness.  They are what separate humans from animals and the sane from madness.  You can’t have it both ways.  Either you accept existence and argue about it, or sharpen your claws and go hunt gazelles.  Why spend hours and hours of time philosophizing, writing books, and debating over the fact that we don’t really exist and that there is no meaning.  It’s an absolute contradiction. 

Of course if you are of the postmodern persuasion, absolute contradictions can comfortably come out of the same mouth.  I’ve done it.  As a matter of fact, at times, it feels like my native tongue.  It’s great.  You can have your cake and eat it too, for a while anyway.  Eventually, it catches up with you.  Much of the reason for postmodernism is double-mindedness.  People want money and power, but don’t want to work for it.  People want to get drunk, but not have a hangover.  People want to have illicit sex, but not be lonely.  People want to eat whatever they want, but not be fat.  Ask the people walking around with oxygen tanks if you can have it both ways.

Many embrace total contradictions because they are alienated from moral absolutes and restraint.  One reason why moral absolutes and restraint are so distasteful is because most everyone, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing, has had a destructive encounter with authority figures who absolutely abuse morality and restraint.  These authority figures twist so-called morality into a means of control and exploitation.  As it is said, “…you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”  It’s a disgusting sickness.  I digress.

In essence, Nihilism says we don’t really exist, or can’t know if we do or not.  It’s hard to even talk intelligently about it without immediately contradicting oneself.  Of course, for the Nihilist, if we are nothing and are nowhere, then there is no rational starting point from which we would leave in order to be contradictory.  For example, if we were all idiots, we would all be normal.  But because most people are “normal”, only the idiots are idiots, because you can compare them against “normal”.  So, Nihilists don’t contradict themselves because they believe that they have nothing against which to measure themselves.  It’s like they are in a vast expanse of nothingness.  No wonder it is “often associated with extreme pessimism.” But, if one has a starting point, if we exist, there is something to discuss.

But let me further point out, I just wrote, “It’s like they are in a vast expanse of nothingness.”  But that is even a contradiction.  A nihilist believes that we are not.  We can’t even inhabit the place called “nothingness,” because we aren’t here.  Do you see what I mean?  It’s very confusing.  Who’s talking?  Who’s trying to convince me we don’t exist?

In addition, how can the notion of  “third person” exist?  If this world is all a projection from your or my mind, how can you and I both think about something that is not apart of us?  How can we disagree on something?  Why do third parties affect us without our control?

It’s like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonder Land.  Alice keeps trying to change her reality because thinks she is just dreaming.  Not so.  Alice discovers that she is in fact in another world.  Other agents do not fall under her control.  They affect her without her permission.  So to, we find ourselves.  We are not in control of everything out there.  More accurately, we control very little “out there”.  If someone bends a spoon and jabs it in your eye, you won’t be able to think it away.  It’s not your dream.  At the very least, we’re in someone else’s dream, and there is no escaping it.

At the age of 7 or 8, I remember getting literally sick to my stomach trying to fathom eternity.  I got very little comfort from my mother’s dismissive comments.  I remember feeling trapped in my own skin.  My mouth started to salivate uncontrollably, and I had a sudden urge to run somewhere and throw up.  I couldn’t breath.  I wished I could get out side of it all.  (I wonder if Billy Corgan felt the same when he sang ‘Despite all my rage, I’m still just a rat in a cage.’)  As my brain raced through the various rabbit trails I remember thinking that there was only one solution in order to escape: to not ever exist.  But that wasn’t possible.  I was there, and I was nauseous.  I didn’t have control over things.  “I’m stuck here,” I thought.  I’ve had to either deal with this world or distract my mind.

Evidently, others look desperately for explanations too.  Many will defy the apparent reality of first principles to feel better.  Existence and or the lack of meaning may appear to be too painful.  Therefore, they look through rationality, defy their conscience, and enter chaos in order to derive comfort from losing all meaning.  But, ironically, it takes rationality to think your way into irrational chaos.  When a mind wakes up at that uncertain young age, it’s stuck here to figure it out.

Some unwittingly accept Nihilism as a viable principle.  Some are very purposeful about lodging it into modern minds.  Either way, it is utterly ironic that the ability to even think enough to come up with the notion, contradicts the belief.  Nihilism has to work really hard and dodge several bullets to make the theory work.

I think C.S. Lewis says it best.  But you cannot go on "explaining away" forever; you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on "seeing through" things forever.  The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it.  It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque.  How if you saw through the garden too?  It is no use trying to "see through" first principles.  If you see through everything than everything is transparent.  But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To "see through" all things is the same as not to see.

It is apparent that we are here.  It does us no good to “see through” our ability to think in order to say that we have no capacity to think.

Other than the fact that Nihilism is irrational, there are other reasons to believe we exist.  Until next time…