Propagating the illusion of an external LOC is the greatest sin of bureaucracy. Take academia. What field should be more suited to an internal LOC than scholarship, where spergs pursue their individual research interests as they want, wherever they may lead?
In theory, at least. In practice, it trains you to be constantly subject to the requirements of unaccountable others - peer reviewers, examiners, hiring committees, grant committees, tenure boards. At each stage in one's career, the institution is carefully calibrated to accustom its members to every development of consequence being entirely at the arbitrary discretion of others.
Does this mean the LOC is external? No, of course not; as you say so clearly, the LOC is never truly external. Free will is built into physics at the most basic level of reality.
But the institution excels at tricking people into *thinking* that the LOC is external. It's no accident that the mental health of academics is infamously abysmal.
Same logic applies to government agencies, large corporations, and as you say, the military.
Love the insight here. The authority with which you can assert "Free will is built into physics at the most basic level of reality" is especially satisfying.
I mean that's just, like, my opinion, man. But I find it more parsimonious and satisfying to posit that quantum fields choose their outcomes, rather than that they are e.g. a symptom of an infinite number of alternate realities.
As always, I admire the clarity and efficiency of your language model, even though I'm not exactly fluent in that tongue. And yet, conducting a simple find-and-replace of "LOC" with "soul", and we're mostly talking the same game. I just believe we sometimes need a little outside help to remember this very important rule.
Absolutely. There is much agreement that goes unnoticed. I would go so far as to say if you account for variation in preferred language we agree about everything important for what happens here on earth, with the implications of the differences only pertaining to what happens after death.
Perennialism is perennial for a reason. It describes reality. The language with which truth is expressed is merely an aesthetic decision, albeit one that can highlight certain aspects.
💬 to commune with a mind that was groping towards a way of communicating its brush with ultimate reality through the narrow keyhole of human language 👌
Insightful and timely essay! I remember hearing someone speculate whether the effectiveness of anti-depressant medications (which are typically only effective short-term) was largely the byproduct of shifting one's LOC, even if only slightly, from external to internal. As in, "here's something I can choose to do to manage my own mental health," and that perception of agency cuts into the learned helplessness that characterizes major depression. So if that hypothesis is correct, it's the change towards an internal LOC that really works.
I have realized my own default is external, rather than internal, LOC, so I have to be vigilant to conscientiously reject that framing and choose to do things to prove that external LOC framing wrong. Thanks for the reminder!
We all need that reminder every once in awhile. Very easy to get wrapped up in whats going on around you, always very beneficial to recenter on what you can control. How's the serenity prayer go? "God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." Pretty much this exact point.
I don't know, I think that might just be the sense imprinted upon you by multi-billion dollar propaganda campaigns. People seem to love frank discussion when they encounter it, there's just a vast apparatus of moneyed interests elevating the savior mindset via some confluence of systems and conspiracy.
Propagating the illusion of an external LOC is the greatest sin of bureaucracy. Take academia. What field should be more suited to an internal LOC than scholarship, where spergs pursue their individual research interests as they want, wherever they may lead?
In theory, at least. In practice, it trains you to be constantly subject to the requirements of unaccountable others - peer reviewers, examiners, hiring committees, grant committees, tenure boards. At each stage in one's career, the institution is carefully calibrated to accustom its members to every development of consequence being entirely at the arbitrary discretion of others.
Does this mean the LOC is external? No, of course not; as you say so clearly, the LOC is never truly external. Free will is built into physics at the most basic level of reality.
But the institution excels at tricking people into *thinking* that the LOC is external. It's no accident that the mental health of academics is infamously abysmal.
Same logic applies to government agencies, large corporations, and as you say, the military.
Love the insight here. The authority with which you can assert "Free will is built into physics at the most basic level of reality" is especially satisfying.
I mean that's just, like, my opinion, man. But I find it more parsimonious and satisfying to posit that quantum fields choose their outcomes, rather than that they are e.g. a symptom of an infinite number of alternate realities.
As always, I admire the clarity and efficiency of your language model, even though I'm not exactly fluent in that tongue. And yet, conducting a simple find-and-replace of "LOC" with "soul", and we're mostly talking the same game. I just believe we sometimes need a little outside help to remember this very important rule.
Absolutely. There is much agreement that goes unnoticed. I would go so far as to say if you account for variation in preferred language we agree about everything important for what happens here on earth, with the implications of the differences only pertaining to what happens after death.
Perennialism is perennial for a reason. It describes reality. The language with which truth is expressed is merely an aesthetic decision, albeit one that can highlight certain aspects.
TIL the term perennialism, thanks John!
💬 to commune with a mind that was groping towards a way of communicating its brush with ultimate reality through the narrow keyhole of human language 👌
😉😊
barsoom.substack.com/p/im-already-bored-with-generative
That's the kind of consilience you can find every day at Deimos Station!
😂 No grounds to animadvert soever: you're a man of your word! Granted 😁
Insightful and timely essay! I remember hearing someone speculate whether the effectiveness of anti-depressant medications (which are typically only effective short-term) was largely the byproduct of shifting one's LOC, even if only slightly, from external to internal. As in, "here's something I can choose to do to manage my own mental health," and that perception of agency cuts into the learned helplessness that characterizes major depression. So if that hypothesis is correct, it's the change towards an internal LOC that really works.
I have realized my own default is external, rather than internal, LOC, so I have to be vigilant to conscientiously reject that framing and choose to do things to prove that external LOC framing wrong. Thanks for the reminder!
We all need that reminder every once in awhile. Very easy to get wrapped up in whats going on around you, always very beneficial to recenter on what you can control. How's the serenity prayer go? "God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." Pretty much this exact point.
If true, and I suspect it is, then the same effect could presumably be obtained by having a frank discussion about LOC.
Saviour pill vs frank discussion: the latter doesn't seem to stand a chance in popular mind 🤪
I don't know, I think that might just be the sense imprinted upon you by multi-billion dollar propaganda campaigns. People seem to love frank discussion when they encounter it, there's just a vast apparatus of moneyed interests elevating the savior mindset via some confluence of systems and conspiracy.
Cynically/malevolently imprinted, sure. Nonetheless, a reality we unfortunately find ourselves immersed deep in 🤷
Thank you.
The last paragraph should be printed and plastered on every place it can be seen, repeated in every meeting, gathering and conversation. It is gold.
Ok 👍