And the “beat” of the rhythm is habit, is patterned behavior, is this is what I do on Monday and this is what I do on Saturday, and this is how we celebrate Christmas.
Seen negatively, this is how people “sleepwalk”, as among others Gurdjieff claims we do, through life. It makes us resistant to change.
But seen positively, it is a tonic, something healthy, something beneficial and protective to our mental health.
I really think one of the primary drivers in increasing rates of depression and other dysphorias and deep confusions is simply the pace of change in our world. AI is coming. Robots are coming. Hordes of people moving from here to there are changing cultures and making blurry what were once clear distinctions, and clear and generally accepted behavioral patterns.
I really think it is possible both to accept in the abstract the importance of tolerance and generosity, while recognizing in the concrete most of us are happy with our own. This is, OBVIOUSLY–but this still needs saying–not just a white thing. Pakistanis have recreated Pakistan in large areas in Britain. This is because they are happier that way.
Human needs and political ideology can and frequently are at odds with one another. And it is worth pointing out as well that most people who embrace utopian ideologies are emotionally disconnected in important ways from their own cultures, their own people, their historical ways, which in itself breeds an unhealthy obsession with their politics, since their ideologies and the people who share them have become their new home. And if their new home turns out to be a shithole–as I would argue it is, necessary, and for reasons which can be shown both historically, and as the necessary consequence of the logic going into the system–then they react pretty much the way the Left reacted when Trump was elected.
Leftism is a shitty home. It is a cultural wasteland, even if many cultural creators lack the vision to see it. The Left “progresses” through subtracting all the cultural habits, all the knowns, all the places and names and faces of our group, shared history, and has nothing to replace it with.
This is a recipe for fear, confusion and misery. This is very, very obvious to me.