Soundbyte Psychology

“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of time, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
~Paul Bowles, “The Sheltering Sky”, Chapter XXIV

To appreciate a thing, both the “local” and “global” forms of awareness are required (a rare admixture). The local is required to focus on a particular object, or scene, person or environment. This “thing” that is focused in on may be special, may just be some other thing or may just be the required point-of-focus for the moment. In order to appreciate it, however–to judge its value and personal significance–awareness of other times, other objects and other people is required.

Example: I’m a bit annoyed that I have to wait five more days just to find out the artist and title for this song I heard about an hour ago. That actually triggered the fact that I WILL get to know the title, that I’m listening to a radio broadcast across the Internet that aired in the U.K. yesterday, hosted by a woman over forty who would make seventeen year-old girls from forty years ago look ugly… and listening on a computer with more music on it than even existed a hundred years ago and with computing power greater than that of the computer that sent the first humans to the surface of the moon. Just three years ago I couldn’t have skipped around a radio program, and five years ago I couldn’t have listened to it days after it aired, and just fifteen years ago I couldn’t have listened to it unless I could pick up the radio signal from halfway across the globe.

Time. Space. Knowledge of value to base comparisons. A vast global awareness is required simply to appreciate the local awareness and not take it for granted.

I found the track, btw, and it’s free from both artists.
It’s the XI Remix of “On Your Own” by James Yuill:

Free. Another “new” thing that I appreciate.
Love the fact I can share it just as freely.

When listening to Madeleine Albright’s speech at The Forum 2000, I was struck that she placed “freedom” in opposition to “responsibility”. This is a repetition of a mistake I first saw in the writings of Victor Frankl. Both have collapsed the two concepts of “duty” and “responsibility” into a single idea, calling it simply “responsibility”. It is a radical failing at worst, an error in lexicon at best. Collapsing “duty” into “responsibility” removes the possibility of being responsible to yourself. If you are drowning, your responsibility is to save yourself. If you and a car full of people are drowning, then you have a choice to be responsible to yourself or be personally irresponsible and risk your own life for another. No choice is right or wrong, but either choice means being irresponsible to either the individual or to others. Responsibility is not purely social nor individualistic; it’s both.

Freedom exists in the realm of personal responsibility.
Duty exists in the realm of social responsibility.

Therefore it is “duty” that stands opposite to “freedom”. Both of these are forms of “responsibility”.

The body is a system, just as a corporation or classroom is a system. Integrity is the body of a system itself: the whole. It is strength, unity and form. Loss of integrity anywhere at all in the body is like a fracture, and in moments the entire body can shatter like glass. Some systems are stronger than others. Some shatter instantly with even a single fracture. A fracture becomes a wedge, the loss in strength from that part of the body causes other parts to work harder. This added work leads to stresses in the system. If the fracture is not healed, then the chances of the system failing only increase. With a human, there is integrity of the body and of the mind. With the body, we know integrity as health. With the mind, we know it by our consciousness. There is also social integrity. Social integrity we form with our word. We either do what we say or we don’t. Anywhere there is system failure risks failure in all systems a person is connected to.

This entry, as it relates to both sexes, pertains to a little under 80-percent of the population. The exceptions help form the proofs to these two rules of thumb: what guys desire most from girls is sex, what girls want most from guys is a relationship. Even in homosexual relationships, you will find the same tendencies in the dominant half and in the submissive. There are of course other priorities, but these are the list-toppers for each sex. The conundrum raised by this state of affairs is that, for a male, ‘any woman will do’ when it comes to sex. Seeking out and fulfilling the top priority for the male persona is easy. A quality relationship, however, is more difficult to come by. This creates an environment where the female persona is more competitive and territorial, as the resource that is their top priority is limited, whereas the male half can pick and choose hour-by-hour if need be. The competitive nature only escalates over time, increasing the amount of attractive females and reducing any need to hold on to any singular female when the population of those that can provide quality sex are increasing. This latter effect, to only add a greater spin to the cycle, causes more and more males to remove themselves from acts of committal and communication that would mark them as potential quality relationships. This is the current state of affairs that is escalating in leaps and bounds.

What we are best at we criticize ourselves the most on, whether out loud or in secret. This is a natural effect. We know the most about what we are great at. We have images, heroes and idols that we consider great. We are not them. The very knowledge that adds to our greatness provides us with equal knowledge of what all WE ARE NOT. Yet, others will tell us. It is a fact that they do not know any better, or they would know what you ARE NOT. They are not wrong, however. Neither are you. Neither are you right. You are great, but you are not everything. You never will be.

I’ve just signed onto a new service, or bought a new laptop. What’s the first things I do? I customize. This isn’t the norm. Most people do not customize their system, or even know it’s possible. This is in life as well as their technology. All systems translate across other systems. This costs them true expression of themselves, but the real danger pertains to infection. Viruses (memetic, genetic, computer) succeed and breed using generalities. Viruses that try to attack custom systems, because custom is not the norm, have difficulties spreading. They don’t reach the majority. No, it is systems operating on default settings that successful viruses attack. What thought form memes are infecting us right now?

Nocturnalism is classified as a disease. I first stopped sleeping at night in 4th grade. By my junior year in high school, it was a way of life. I love it. It is clarity. There is less of everything. The amplified reduction boosts productivity in everything. You can even cross a street more easily. Less mail, less distractions, less, less, less. I have enough projects and creative energy to last me for thousands of years. Productivity and effectiveness are two things I harvest and make use of. These drop like a rock whenever I’m required to operate in daylight, especially the early morning light. At night, some of the chemistry used in creating dreams is still triggered, adding all the more to my imagination. There is nothing else like it. Luna is my liege.

Nietzsche wrote (in “Things the Germans Lack”): It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book — what everyone else does not say in a whole book.

Much time is wasted on detail. Why? Because a mind that no longer hopes–a mind which is resigned and cynical–does nothing but question. As long as the conversation can be continued, then no action is necessary. It is laziness. Let me then welcome cynicism. Each of these posts aim for concision, stating in a short time my immediate thoughts and analysis in any given moment. These bytes will not cater to the lazy mind, but will instead serve as small treats for the minds that still inquire. Enjoy!