| Stuck in a Groove | 0 comments |
|
29 Jul 2007 @ 09:04, by John Grieve
Get out of the Eternal Recurrence
Stuck in a Groove
If you’ve ever had vinyl records you’ll know when you get a scratch on the surface of one, the needle will keep going back and forth repeatedly. And everyone knows what the phrase “stuck in a groove” means.
The philosopher Nietzsche had his theory of the “ Eternal Recurrence” which states that the same events occur again and again in our lives and history generally. This is just another version of the Buddhist idea of rebirth and reincarnation. There’s even been a Hollywood film about it called “Groundhog Day” where a misanthropic weatherman played by Bill Murray has to continually relive the same day over and over again. Even killing himself does not liberate himself from this situation. He wakes up everyday to the same reality and in the end he is only redeemed from this time-prison by learning to love and serve others.
Why do these stories and theories resonate with us? It is, I believe, because they are telling the same truth. That we are, in fact, stuck in a labyrinth of grooves.
In an earlier work I wrote about what I termed the “Law of Analogy” whereby because all reality comes from the same source, and is split into distinct levels, such as social, economic, political etc. it is possible to discern the same phenomenon at each different level and make analogous statements about them. I will now attempt to demonstrate what I have described above as “being stuck in a groove” by reference to these different levels.
Psychological Level
Jung invented the term “complex” for a knot of associated ideas, feelings, attitudes which he saw as the kernel of a neurosis. He invented also the word-association test to verify this idea and to uncover the complexes involved. He noticed that whatever word he gave as input to the client the latter would invariably respond with a word associated with the repressed material connected with his/her neurosis. Freud took up both the idea of a complex and also the word-association test and they termed this and similar aspects of neuroses and dreams as “repetition-compulsion” which is evidently connected with being in a groove; repeating the same thing over and over again.
Spiritual Level
The Buddhists and Hindus generally believe in rebirth, which if we take it literally, means that someone who does not achieve liberation (enlightenment) in one lifetime will be reborn into another lifetime after their death. Some Buddhists have a less literal interpretation of this belief and state that we all are reborn into every succeeding moment until we achieve liberation. Clearly, both of these are referring to repetition and being stuck in a certain state or experience.
Social Level
Eric Berne, in his book “ Games People Play” shows that many of us are stuck in the continual performance of what he terms “games”. These are alienated psycho-social activities based on what he calls their “life-scripts” but which we can clearly see are connected with their respective individual complexes and neuroses, referred to earlier. Volumes have been written on Berne’s concept of “games” but it is worth drawing attention to two points which he makes. The first is that “games” are an avoidance of intimacy. Also that they are repeated over and over again throughout a person’s life, until that person gains some self-awareness or even some sort of liberation and acceptance of intimacy.
It is possible to repeat this analysis at the economic and political levels and show that the economy produces and reproduces itself (with very little change) on a daily basis. As does the political situation despite the appearances to the contrary of parties gaining and losing power, revolutions and coups etc. These areas of human life are also “stuck in a groove” and there is very little new under the sun of this civilization.
What is to be done
To every stuck situation there is something that unsticks it. The antithesis to “games” is intimacy. The antithesis to rebirth is union or intimacy with the Source (God). The antithesis of economics is the abolition of money and the instituting of free supply based on the maxim “from each according to her talents, to each according to her needs” which is based on universal love. The antithesis of politics is the withering away or abolition of the State and the return of society to a situation based on networks instead of hierarchies, and mutual love and respect based on kinship (both of blood and spirit) and family.
Just as the problem is analogous at the different levels, so is the solution. Sexual reproduction is, or should be, based on love. Intimacy, which is another form of love, is the answer to games. Union with God, mystical love, is the answer to our spiritual problems. Wherever we look and see that we are stuck the answer to it is the same; Love.
I do not know whether all or any of this be possible, but I do know that “womanity” and “humanity” ever since we left that paradise garden which is our collective memory of the pre-civilised state, have dreamt of such things. The desperate situation the world is in now, with destruction following from our alienation from nature, women, men and God getting ever closer, brings with it the hope that love will prevail over egotism and selfishness and manage to save us all.
|
|
Category: Articles
0 comments
Other entries in Articles
14 Jul 2008 @ 09:06: My Philosophy in a Nutshell ---- Part 1
3 Jun 2008 @ 09:12: Phi, the Pentagon and Self-Similarity
23 Apr 2008 @ 09:25: Pascal's Triangle, Self-similarity and Phi
13 Apr 2008 @ 09:47: Phi is the constant of Self-Similarity
9 Apr 2008 @ 09:25: CyberEnlightenment, "Political Correctness" and Fascism
7 Apr 2008 @ 10:59: Dialectical Analysis of the Sudoku Puzzle
29 Mar 2008 @ 09:32: The Social Unconscious,Civilization and Sexuality
25 Mar 2008 @ 10:01: Book of Aphorisms and Commonplaces
3 Mar 2008 @ 12:50: Taoism and Confucianism : Part II
3 Mar 2008 @ 12:47: Taoism And Confucianism: Part I
|
