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How can we find that resonant synchronization?

coberst

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Oct 16, 2007
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336
How can we find that resonant synchronization?

I am of the opinion that we all have a number of personal resonances (talents?) that if discovered give great emphasis to our life’s satisfaction. Those individuals who discover and exploit such a personal resonance can find great self-satisfaction. If that particular resonance strikes a social resonance then the accompanying social display of appreciation can add to the personal satisfaction to the individual.

I think a successful artist is a good example of what I speak. The singing artist who happens not only to discover a particular musical talent and, if that talent is in accord with a public musical taste, that individual would reap great personal and economic satisfaction. The actor or painter, or any of many possible talents that are appreciated by the public would serve as examples of what I mean by resonance.

Few individuals discover and display a talent, a personal resonance that can truly excite public appreciation. Those who do display such a resonance are truly rewarded. However, I am not particularly interested in those few but I am interested in considering all the rest of us who have resonances (talents?) and especially all those that remain undiscovered by ourselves.

It seems that society and all its institutions are focused upon making everyone of us efficient producers and consumers. Nothing prepares us for self-discovery when such discovery is not supportive of a drive to produce and consume. I think that most social pressure from birth to death is directed at the drive to make us effective producers and consumers.

I chose to use the word “resonance” rather than talent because I think our sense of the meaning of the word “talent” will distort the point I wish to make. “Talent” is such a ‘produce and consume’ word. In fact we have little vocabulary available when discussing what I mean.

At mid-life when our career ambitions dim and our family are cared for is the time that is available to us to begin to de-emphasize the world of ‘production and consumption’ and begin exploring the world of the intellect directed as an end-in-itself’. Our intellects have been so totally directed as a means to an end that we will have some difficulty thinking of knowledge and understanding that is considered as an end-in-itself.

Our first encounter with resonance, as the word is normally used, might have been when we first discovered on the playground swing that a little energy directed in synchronization with the swing’s resonant frequency would produce outstanding movement. What a marvelous discovery. We might make similar marvelous discoveries if we decide, against all that we have learned in the past, that the intellect can be used as an end-in-it-self.

I also think that if a person reaches mid-life without having begun an intellectual life that person will be unlikely to begin such a life. It appears to me that if we do not start such an effort before mid-life we will never have an intellectual life. After our school daze are over it might be wise for a person to begin the cultivation of intellectual curiosity even though there may not be a lot of time available for that hobby.

Get a life—get an intellectual life!
 

antireconciler

it's a nuclear device
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Perhaps there is an art form suiting each of us, and that developing it and investing in it produces great cultural rewards for a community. Also, though, there are many endeavors more worldly which aim to use intellectual resources to create not necessarily a richer culture, but a richer standard of living in a more physical way.

For example, is it better for me to invest my energies in my own points of social resonance in the arts, or is it better to invest my energies from an apparently more practical concern of what would be best for my community physically, such as if I were to invest myself in the sciences or engineering?

To invest one's self completely in the sciences and engineering seems a waste. Could you not have given the world something of greater value?

And yet,

To invest one's self completely in the arts seems a waste. Could you not have given the world something of greater value?

What is the right answer?
 

coberst

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Oct 16, 2007
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336
What is the right answer?


For me the right answer is to focus on disinterested knowledge and allow my inner awareness to determine what I need for self-actualization.

Instrumental knowledge is interested knowledge.

Instrumental knowledge is the life blood of a value system that places the maximizing of production and consumption as “Number One”.

Disinterested knowledge is the un-knowledge, it is the non-instrumental knowledge. Disinterested knowledge is an alien and clumsy word in a society that places maximum value on production and consumption. Disinterested knowledge is not a catalyst of production and consumption but it is the catalyst of creativity. Disinterested knowledge is the mixing bowl of creativity.

Creativity is the synthesis of the known into a model of the unknown. The value of the unknown is yet to be determined. Creativity requires a comfort with the unknown.

Disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term 'disinterested knowledge' as similar to 'pure research', as compared to 'applied research'. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

In our consumer society, disinterested knowledge is seldom a matter upon which institutional education will waste time. Disinterested knowledge is the province of the self-learner. I think of the self-learner of disinterested knowledge as driven by curiosity and imagination to understand.It is noteworthy that disinterested knowledge is knowledge I am driven to acquire because it is of dominating interest to me. Because I have such an interest in this disinterested knowledge my adrenaline level rises in anticipation of my voyage of discovery.

“When God wanted to create the world, the conservative angels, with tears in their eyes, shouted to Him, ‘Lord, do not destroy chaos.”—Mark Van Doran
 

antireconciler

it's a nuclear device
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How ... do I have value except through what I offer ... ?

coberst, your response is so wonderfully idealistic and I know it is completely right, but it's hard to accept. I love it and I hate it, and you are a sage and a jerk for saying what you have. SUCH a jerk. Unforgivable. It's going to kill me. Hope you got what you wanted ...

I don't know how to get out of this thinking. I don't know how to live without paying for it, and without guilt. Who am I without guilt? Aren't I kind of sick? I'm like a robot ...
 

coberst

New member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
336
How ... do I have value except through what I offer ... ?

coberst, your response is so wonderfully idealistic and I know it is completely right, but it's hard to accept. I love it and I hate it, and you are a sage and a jerk for saying what you have. SUCH a jerk. Unforgivable. It's going to kill me. Hope you got what you wanted ...

I don't know how to get out of this thinking. I don't know how to live without paying for it, and without guilt. Who am I without guilt? Aren't I kind of sick? I'm like a robot ...


An oligarchy controls public policy in America. The oligarchy consists of those who manage the great wealth of American institutions. This oligarchy designs our educational system to graduate good producers and consumers and does not desire independent thinkers.

CA (Corporate America) has developed a well-honed expertise in motivating the population to behave in a desired manner. Citizens as consumers are ample manifestation of that expertise. CA has accomplished this ability by careful study and implementation of the knowledge of the ways of human behavior. I suspect this same structure applies to most Western democracies.

A democratic form of government is one wherein the citizens have some voice in some policy decisions. The greater the voice of the citizens the better the democracy.

In America we have policy makers, decision makers, and citizens. The decision makers are our elected representatives and are, thus, under some control by the voting citizen. The policy makers are the leaders of CA; less than ten thousand individuals, according to those who study such matters. Policy makers exercise significant control of decision makers by controlling the financing of elections.

Policy makers customize and maintain the dominant ideology in order to control the political behavior of the citizens. This dominant ideology exercises the political control of the citizens in the same fashion as the consuming citizen is controlled by the same dominant ideology.

An enlightened citizen is the only means to gain more voice in more policy decisions. An enlightened citizen is much more than an informed citizen. Critical thinking is the only practical means to develop a more enlightened citizen. If, however, we wait until our CT trained grade-schoolers become adults I suspect all will be lost. This is why I think a massive effort must be made to convince today’s adults that they must train themselves in CT.


“Thomas R. Dye, Professor of Political Science at Florida State University, has published a series of books examining who and what institutions actually control and run America. to understand who is making the decisions that affect our lives, we also have to understand how societies structure themselves in general. Why the few always tend to share more power than the many and what this means in terms of both a society's evolution and our daily lives. they examined the other 11 institutions that exert just as powerful a shaping influence, although somewhat more subtle: The Industrial, Corporations, Utilities and Communications, Banking, Insurance Investment, Mass Media, Law, Education Foundation, Civic and Cultural Organizations, Government, and the Military.”
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