It seems to me the only real security in this world is found in a code you can “cling” to–a word taken from one of our Presidents more memorable and unintentionally candid phrases.
You can’t depend on people. They will let you down, and they will die.
You can’t depend on material things, as they are in constant movement. Fortunes are both made and lost, although large ones seem relatively durable, which is presumably why the rich spend a lot of time protecting their wealth, which is understandable. It is also unfortunate, as it enables an alternative to a life of real risk, and the corresponding need to develop a moral code.
I would say you can’t even depend on God, at least in the short term. Are prayers always answered? If I pray to live forever on this Earth, will it happen? If I pray that nothing bad ever happen to me until I die of old age in my bed, can I be sure that will happen? Has every soldier in war who prayed for safety made it through alive and in one piece? Of course not.
As I see it, this world does have structure. There is a sort of “God’s Law”, or Divine Providence, or “Will of Allah”. This structure is founded on the basic process of perception, in how we relate to others.
As I see it, our task is to build others, and in so doing build ourselves, such that we can live happily. One could call this love, although I tend to eschew the term as over-loaded with baggage. Yet, can we make of love a commandment? I don’t think so. There are times when you are so hard pressed that love is the last thing on your mind.
Love is a type of aggression in the battle of life. It is an expansion. It is for times of plenty, where plenty is defined according to how qualitatively rich you are. For some, they can live in utter poverty, and still have plenty of love to share around. For others, they can live in the lap of luxury and think only of themselves.
The root of qualitative expansion is a sense of safety. Safety, in turn, depends on a secure defense.
Psychologically, I believe the most robust fortress possible can be built from the rejection of self pity, perseverance, and constant perceptual motion, all of which values are well familiar to anyone who reads what I write.
On my arm, I have a tattoo which says, in initials, “Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses, and never quit”. Those are contained in what I call the Qualitative Cross, where the vertical axis represents Quality (roughly what I called Li a few posts ago) and the horizontal represents Quantity, or Chi.
This tattoo is a sort of protective amulet. When I want to quit, I remember that quitting in a noble cause is simply not allowed. It is against the rules. It doesn’t matter how hard the slog is: that is the rule. This is of great defensive advantage.
Likewise, when I find myself involuntarily counting the reasons I should feel sorry for myself, I limit the scope of my possible dialogue by removing whining, complaining, and excuse making (that set of three, by the way, was given to John Wooden and his brothers by their father, who must indeed have been the remarkable man Wooden said he was). Then I just sort of look through my emotional “body” for traces of resentment and rejection of what is, and cautiously isolate them as contaminants.
Perception is how you overcome roadblocks. It is how you overcome crappy thinking. Creation, you see, is a type of perception, too. It is seeing what could be there, but isn’t, yet. This keeps you moving, and gives you the direction in which to move.
Most evil in this world comes from lacking a core. It was Ibsen, I think, who pointed out that when you peel an onion, there is nothing in the middle. Unlike, say, peaches, there is nothing in there. There is no seed to further growth.
Likewise, evil is lacking a defense. It is lacking a core principle, which is valued more than life itself, and which thereby makes life bearable and even pleasurable.
Sadism, then, on this reading–and I am in part thinking out loud–is simply operating from a realistic assessment of defenselessness, and deciding that the best defense is a good offense. Rather than using love, though, the evil person will use power. Rather than feeding on love, they feed on fear.
I think that’s close to the truth. Stuff to do.