What others think may harm or kill you, depending on chance. Your own delusions, however, are almost certainly to be suicidal.
The above is another brief excerpt from Stephen Vizinczey’s philosophical detour The Rules of Chaos, which contains many astute insights despite being limited by firmly materialist assumptions.
I refer to the passage to point out that the vast quantity of material published on blogs these days – including some of the material on this blog – deals exclusively with how the delusions of others may harm or kill us. Vizinczey reminds us that this is all fine and well, but when it comes to harm (or its opposite, one hopes), our thoughts are incalculably more significant than the thoughts of others could ever be. This applies especially to delusions.
It is no exaggeration to say that virtually everything the System thinks these days is intentionally designed to harm or kill us. The thinking of most people aligns seamlessly with the System, which means the thinking of most of the people around us is probably also harmful, regardless of intent. The roots of these detrimental modes of thinking extend down to errant and damaging metaphysical assumptions – the same sort of assumptions that limit Vizinczey’s insights in The Rules of Chaos.
Most people take metaphysical assumptions for granted. This worked to some extent in earlier stages of human consciousness when belief in the supernatural and the divine was innate. People did not have to think too deeply about their assumptions then and were more or less free to go with the flow of their respective communities.
Contemporary people can no longer indulge in this “luxury,” for lack of a better way of putting it, primarily because the metaphysical assumptions promulgated by those who rule our communities and societies are actively killing and spiritually destroying, leading most toward a state of abysmal despair and spiritual death.
Of course, the masses – who ingest and amplify the destructive metaphysical assumptions – are not absolved of responsibility when they take such assumptions for granted in the same manner earlier people were absolved of taking personal responsibility.
Unlike earlier people, contemporary man must take personal responsibility for his metaphysical assumptions. On the surface, such an obligation may seem like an external constraint or compulsion, but a deeper look reveals this “assumption” of assumptions to the movement of freedom.
Those who regard freedom as little more than Enlightenment-induced relativity poison yearn to return to days when assumptions could be taken for granted rather than “assumed.” At the same time, those who hold such yearnings fail to recognize that taken-for-granted metaphysical assumptions of earlier religious times were true but inevitably less free.
Why does this matter?
For the simple reason that metaphysical assumptions pointing to greater truths require greater freedom to personally “assume” – that is, to personally take on. Those who loathe freedom would benefit from understanding it as the assumption of personal responsibility for thinking rather than as a free license for limitless whim and desire indulgence.
The belief that assuming personal responsibility for one’s metaphysical assumptions is harmful and potentially deadly is rooted in fear. Unfortunately, fear offers fertile soil for delusions. Metaphysical assumptions cannot emanate entirely from consensus or other external factors anymore. To believe such is perhaps the worst self-delusion of all.
In the Rules of Chaos, Vizinczey also notes that "We have less control over others and more power over ourselves than we like to think."
We trick ourselves into believing that we are exercising freedom when we seek to control or have power over others, but we are only truly free when we exercise control and power over ourselves.
Throughout history, men have built themselves imaginary prisons, where their deepest longest longings for joy and adventure are barred from fulfillment by the iron gates of “impossibility.” The world is full of people whom no one put in chains but who bind themselves with frozen thoughts and fears.
And, more significantly, with frozen metaphysical assumptions!
A man whose mind conforms to the conditioned responses of daily life is a coward and a slave. To free himself, he must free his imagination, so that he may conceive the world as it is: a place where it is possible to be adventurous, that is, to be himself.
The matter of “conceiving the world as it is” represents the core of what metaphysical assumptions are all about, but this requires discovering what being “ourselves” really means within the context of Creation, not as Vizinczey’s assumptions presume, within the context of random meaninglessness and chance.
A man is free when he understands that every act is like the act of love.
I’m not sure what ultimate purpose the act of love serves in Vizinczey’s chaotic world of chance and randomness; however, the observation is true and reminds us of what should underpin our metaphysical assumptions and our personal responsibility for them, to say nothing of the utter necessity of recognizing and challenging our own delusions.
The above is another brief excerpt from Stephen Vizinczey’s philosophical detour The Rules of Chaos, which contains many astute insights despite being limited by firmly materialist assumptions.
I refer to the passage to point out that the vast quantity of material published on blogs these days – including some of the material on this blog – deals exclusively with how the delusions of others may harm or kill us. Vizinczey reminds us that this is all fine and well, but when it comes to harm (or its opposite, one hopes), our thoughts are incalculably more significant than the thoughts of others could ever be. This applies especially to delusions.
It is no exaggeration to say that virtually everything the System thinks these days is intentionally designed to harm or kill us. The thinking of most people aligns seamlessly with the System, which means the thinking of most of the people around us is probably also harmful, regardless of intent. The roots of these detrimental modes of thinking extend down to errant and damaging metaphysical assumptions – the same sort of assumptions that limit Vizinczey’s insights in The Rules of Chaos.
Most people take metaphysical assumptions for granted. This worked to some extent in earlier stages of human consciousness when belief in the supernatural and the divine was innate. People did not have to think too deeply about their assumptions then and were more or less free to go with the flow of their respective communities.
Contemporary people can no longer indulge in this “luxury,” for lack of a better way of putting it, primarily because the metaphysical assumptions promulgated by those who rule our communities and societies are actively killing and spiritually destroying, leading most toward a state of abysmal despair and spiritual death.
Of course, the masses – who ingest and amplify the destructive metaphysical assumptions – are not absolved of responsibility when they take such assumptions for granted in the same manner earlier people were absolved of taking personal responsibility.
Unlike earlier people, contemporary man must take personal responsibility for his metaphysical assumptions. On the surface, such an obligation may seem like an external constraint or compulsion, but a deeper look reveals this “assumption” of assumptions to the movement of freedom.
Those who regard freedom as little more than Enlightenment-induced relativity poison yearn to return to days when assumptions could be taken for granted rather than “assumed.” At the same time, those who hold such yearnings fail to recognize that taken-for-granted metaphysical assumptions of earlier religious times were true but inevitably less free.
Why does this matter?
For the simple reason that metaphysical assumptions pointing to greater truths require greater freedom to personally “assume” – that is, to personally take on. Those who loathe freedom would benefit from understanding it as the assumption of personal responsibility for thinking rather than as a free license for limitless whim and desire indulgence.
The belief that assuming personal responsibility for one’s metaphysical assumptions is harmful and potentially deadly is rooted in fear. Unfortunately, fear offers fertile soil for delusions. Metaphysical assumptions cannot emanate entirely from consensus or other external factors anymore. To believe such is perhaps the worst self-delusion of all.
In the Rules of Chaos, Vizinczey also notes that "We have less control over others and more power over ourselves than we like to think."
We trick ourselves into believing that we are exercising freedom when we seek to control or have power over others, but we are only truly free when we exercise control and power over ourselves.
Throughout history, men have built themselves imaginary prisons, where their deepest longest longings for joy and adventure are barred from fulfillment by the iron gates of “impossibility.” The world is full of people whom no one put in chains but who bind themselves with frozen thoughts and fears.
And, more significantly, with frozen metaphysical assumptions!
A man whose mind conforms to the conditioned responses of daily life is a coward and a slave. To free himself, he must free his imagination, so that he may conceive the world as it is: a place where it is possible to be adventurous, that is, to be himself.
The matter of “conceiving the world as it is” represents the core of what metaphysical assumptions are all about, but this requires discovering what being “ourselves” really means within the context of Creation, not as Vizinczey’s assumptions presume, within the context of random meaninglessness and chance.
A man is free when he understands that every act is like the act of love.
I’m not sure what ultimate purpose the act of love serves in Vizinczey’s chaotic world of chance and randomness; however, the observation is true and reminds us of what should underpin our metaphysical assumptions and our personal responsibility for them, to say nothing of the utter necessity of recognizing and challenging our own delusions.
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