There is a philosophical presumption that we exist, not as we seem to others but as a piece of elemental stuff which has its own uniqueness. This life force is what we must drill down and find in an effort to seek some sort of peace.
The life we live, in the gaze of others, beholden to others, seeking the acknowledgement of others is false since it posits an image that is distorted by the gaze and the contamination of too many presumptions, made my others. Each distillation of who we are is distorted by all kinds of assumptions usually based on incomplete information and therefore itself distorted.
How can we, as individuals find solace if we feel and seek the confirmation of others who themselves are bedevilled by the same sort of misinformation about themselves.
It's grotesque, the distortion piled on more distortion when all the time there is a grain of us which lies at the base of who we are.
Of course we are not just a point of light, a single element we are also the result of that combative engagement we call living. The living process has implications. The innocent baby becomes embroiled in the process of survival and it's this process which runs through the animal kingdom, "know thy enemy". The interaction of one species with another determines, through the power of evolution who is fastest, who the most powerful, who has the better disguise. There is no case for the individual, no case for not keeping an eye out, no case for philosophical judgement only a route to the nearest tree or hole to bolt into when threatened.
Mankind, through the process of civilisation has produced a sort of hide a way, a security blanket to feel a sense of comfort, where time can be set aside to contemplate. Of course amidst all this self preservation one has the Achilles heel of death, normally through longevity, and unheard of in the rest of the animal kingdom, except perhaps for the Wale. The issue of life and death, where life is taken as a gimme and death, an unknown, from which we invariably run scared.
Our mental capacity, not having to spend it's time providing survival, can luxuriate on the issues of where do we come from and where are we going after death. The added issue of what we do with our time on earth and how we define that time in terms of what we arbitrate as 'good time' or 'bad time' leads us into all kinds of side streets and back ally's and is a conundrum.
Perhaps it would be better to accept who we appear to be and congratulate ourselves that we have got so far as to even have an opinion.
Sent from my iPad
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