A book is nothing without factual context. One needs to reflect properly before digesting any given amount of information. Paying attention to our desires, how we choose to live, the people whom we are using and how you are using them is crucial when to comes drawing proper conclusions. What is our relationship with our environment? How is the information we amassed over time makes up who we are and how this new information comes to fit it?
Most of the books I've read are contra to my own views. I believe this is the wisest of all practices since we are given the opportunity to see how the other side presents its arguments. It enables is to frame a different world that operates on a different perspective — almost like a different universe. Most importantly, it enables us great control against our own biases that easily overtake our every single thought with every given chance. Our brains you see, like to confirm our beliefs, not act against them.
For example, when reading the Bible you will feel as if someone is describing an autobiography while setting up a Sims universe. This is also evident from Marx's Capital. The miracles, the assertions, the beliefs, the dreams, the elaborate planning, the specific rules are overwhelming. Thing is, those views have nothing to do with the real, daily world. They don't fulfil fundamental moral questions a child can ask such as, "How and why you cat kills for fun" or "Why is everyone at the end looks out for themselves". Why and how our altruism ultimate aims for our own benefit? When a book appears as a manifesto, a recipe about the world, one can easily identify the fallacies of the author. Most, if not all books, are manifestos of given perspectives.
Society is filled with myths, stories of grandeur that aim to hijack our perception from the raw, blatant truth. This is expected since a group owes to abide by some kind of cohesion in order to survive. We live within this conundrum every day yet we like to envision something better. Our minds are incapable of grasping the complexities of our environment so we resort to hasty summaries. This is like asking your 10-year-old computer to play high-end 2017 games. At best it will abbreviate complex graphics into vague, opaque shapes and the experience will be misleading. Our environment has been shaped beyond our capacity to rationalise it and with every attempt we make, we fall short. We are the 10-year-old computer. Happiness, hope and dreams are so highly overvalued because there is a great shortage of these commodities due to the vague overgeneralizations about the actual workings of our environment. This is also why most books provide us with what we want to hear and not what is actually going on around us.
One can only adopt. Shape-shift at every given situation. Everything is in a constant flux and our lives are just too narrow for us to grasp the entire picture. Reading books that oppose our views gives us a handicap over our limited grasp of the world. Why an eternal deity created us? Who and why created that deity? Why meaning bothers us so much? Why is everyone striving to gain gold and not sand? Why value manifests from nothing but our vague fantasies about how the world should work? We know the answers but we are too afraid to admit and act upon them. A context is already in place that pushes us to act towards the view of the majority. Atheism, Capitalism and Anarchy are detested so much for this very reason. One has to withdraw from the generally accepted perspective in order to entertain these thoughts and act upon them.
I am an atheist and a capitalist because I can't afford to be something else based on what I have read. Anything different is like asking a leopard to be an eagle. There are rules in the cosmos that have shaped specific parameters — from the way we think about things to the way we execute our behaviour. One either adapts or perishes. Don't get me wrong, I question highly the workings of the scientific method a well and specifically how new information gets to be introduced as the de-facto truth. One cannot be vigilant enough. This is why it is so helpful not to take anything at heart and rather constantly evaluate the information we are reading.
Objectively, every single one of us is a polyatheist — a living, moving heresy. There is at least one god we don't believe, one version about how the world works we just can't embrace. Same applies to Capitalism. From the way we pick our partners (different valued qualities) to how we choose to be rewarded from our labour. Nothing ever can be equal. The universe prohibits it. This is how these ideas of Atheism and Capitalism manifest themselves from my perspective and how they describe much of what is going on around me. This is also how science can only give us a glimpse of the world based on a specific perspective. There are no (or limited) counterarguments to these ideas for the basic reason that anything different aims to upset the very laws of nature. Constant change, the only thing that applies 100% in our cosmos, dictates how some ideas are superior to others.
A book is depended on its reader, not so much the writer. The language, the ideas, the way our emotions are invoked with every page, dictate how our thoughts about the world will be shaped. Keeping an open mind is nothing without having context. Read as much as you can from those whom you disagree with and you are guaranteed to have an edge in your daily life. All books are good books. The best ones though are those that provide us with opposing perspectives.
This post reminded me of a visit to one of my college professor houses. He had some very "interesting" books on the shelves and when asked he responded it was so he could get both sides of the story.
Upvoted and followed.
Respect to your college professor.
It's something that has stuck with me but is easier said than di done
Dude, I love that you are still the contrarian guy i used to know. I don't totally agree, I like to read a lot of different stuff not only to confirm my views but to learn more and expand my universe in order to have better views.
But yes, the echo effect can be very dangerous to people as well as societies...
Recommend me a book!
The Red Queen: Sex and the evolution of human nature
What a riveting read and good piece of writing, I would love to aspire to such conviction, May I ask what are views in the context of reading poetry or prose as an individual reader enters into it with the presumption that it is open to interpretation and thusly the nature and context of the poem or story is woven together with the ego of the reader?
For me poetry is nothing more but a mirror for our emotions. It almost resembles masturbation.
I was genuinely asking and trying to start an educational discussion,However, I do apologise if your emapathy or emotional intelligence may be somewhat jarred, but i am quite offended and bloody surprised that someone who seems to have an educated opinion could respond with such a thin and completely ignorant comment. To help you learn: any use of language is a form of expression, and expresses part of yourself for others to take and make there own opinion, like a conversation, and frankly I have made my opinion and will be researching the originality of your articles, btw are you a fraud?, I don't want to assume so I thought I should just try to understand why you would be so disgustingly horrible and stupid.
I am ignorant in regards to poetry. I just told you what I think. I don't pretend to know or respect something just to make a discussion. That would be hypocritical from my part.
All my articles ar original. Simply, I have no respect for poetry.
poetry does not apreciate respect, and fully understand that you can have your opinion, your articles are still a good read and i always enjoy contestation against my views but in a debatory manner, all in all keep up the good work and i will be looking forward to reading some of your other articles x
The problem with poetry, as I see it, is that is too vague and indeed requires what we call today "empathy" from the reader. I simply do not agree with the term "empathy". It is a non-word for me much like "interesting" and "nothing". These words don't mean anything and rather the reader transforms them into meaning by reflecting their own predispositions.
thankyou for your opinion, There are many forms of prose and poetry and some have great storytelling and rhythm that encourages deeper intelligence and communication ability which has worked wonders in language therapy. Some people (maybe the majority) read poetry for entertainment and i think it is a much better way of exploring lucidity in our world than LSD
Nice article! Thought provoking.