Norms for the Anomic, Blacksheep Survival Guide, A Valentine for Nihilists
Nihilism finds its earliest and most perfect expression in, of all places, the Old Testament in the book of Ecclesiastes. The underlying theme us " All is in vain." Everything is meaningless. Quite a compelling argument. The preacher in the story goes on to say that Learning is Meaningless. Because "he who increases his wisdom also increases his sorrow." Also compelling...and instructive in a way I doubt the preacher meant. I always look for corollaries...the other side of the coin, the equal and opposite. You don't always find it, But sometimes you do, its always worth the effort to see if you can. And the corollary in this instance is beautiful.s
It isn't always seeking to learn something that brings sorrow. Sorrow comes of its own accord, there is no escaping it. However, if you care to, you can find that more often than not sorrow can become wisdom. If sorrow is the price, then sorrow is the down payment as it were. Wisdom is the process by which sorrow, or pain is ameliorated. Like the nacreous layers surrounding an irritating piece of sand in an oyster. This is why pearls are equated with wisdom. Or to put it another way, its like a form of personal alchemy where you turn shit into gold.
There is something downright fungal about the darker side of human nature. Down in the dank darkness of the human psyche where all dreams and expectations go to die and all is rot and decay...it all breaks down and becomes the basis for new life, like nature itself, nothing is ever wasted. Every scar is a story if not an actual lesson. Nearly every period of trauma and turmoil in my life had left me changed. I'd had to expand my world view, LIFE view, in order to encompass and incorporate the damage. And when it didn't change me, it would rot and fester and the circumstances would continue to be revisited until the change, when it would come, would be so radical as to constitute a death and rebirth. Christ, it's sooo ugly.
More to the point, those periods of "dark night of the soul" when the pain is so bad and help seems so far away...that is when the real work is being done. I discovered as a poet, that is was during those times that I was most prolific and wrote my very best pieces. Terrible living makes great art. Don't seek it out for its own sake, but use it to its fullest advantage when it comes.
Anger, rage, also has its own use. It is the engine that provides motivation, properly harnessed it tightens focus to laser like precision. Improperly channeled, it will burn you out and possible burn your house down while its at it
I recommend the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. One of the things he says is that "if you want to give a gift to someone, offer the Tao. Because it is through the Tao that sins are forgiven." There are several paralells between what Christ said and what's in the Tao Te Ching and even in the Old Testament,especially Ecclesiastes...leading me to conclude that whatever his other attributes were, Christ was heavy with the Tao (pronounced like Dow,) making him an even more excellent teacher.
Even human sexuality is not much of a surprise. It may seem morbid in the extreme to re-enact sexually traumatic experiences, but it provides a degree of control to the victim who had been denied it previously.
What is the difference between masochism and machismo? A single "s."
There is a tie between masochism and stoicism. An element of self defense. The thought being "what can you do to me that I don't do to myself recreationally?" And also provides an ironic twist, gallows humor, to genuine hardship. Because there are some things that are just not nearly as much fun as a really good beating.
Lastly, The alienation that you may feel. I figured this one out when I was in prison and it has held me in good stead. Its hard being a black sheep. You have few who validate your existence as you understand it, you don't move with the flock, you get in everyone else's way, they are all in your way. So you work your way out to the edge of the flock, to the fringe. Living away from the flock its hard. Essentially all the support you have is the courage of your own convictions.
It is here that you encounter anomie, the state of normlessness. It is in this situation that many people wind up taking their own lives. Its like psychosocial free fall. There are some people who have beautifully, even seductively illustrated this point with their own lives. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, Robert Johnson, Bruce Lee,Marilyn Monroe, even more recently Kurt Cobain. The bright lights that flared so keenly then burned out forever. These are the Icarians. They, like Icarus, flew too high, too fast, and then fell tragically.
If they have a lesson for us, it is to do what you love, love what you do. Listen to what they say...but don't live as they did. They are teachers. Not role models. What their lives illustrate is the beauty and destructive nature of this thing called "freedom."
Dolphins die when separated from their pods (dolphin groups) in the open ocean. They require the support of their pod and the context it provides them. People are similar. Some people are able to exist outside of the confines of society, they are the ones who have transitioned from Misfit to Outsider to Free Spirit or Native Outsider. Its not necessary to actually live in the howling wilderness, but mentally and spiritually they do. More than that, they thrive there, nourished by the Great Mother and the bounty of the universe. They are able to find not just sustenance but are nurtured by something outside of society and beyond cultural mores. At home in the hinterlands, they can survive and are at home ANYWHERE. Like Saint John the Baptist, living in the desert, eating locusts and honey.
There are preoccupations that trouble mankind that are older than Man. Social norms and mores are useful, but not sacred the way they are to most others. There is a historical, even prehistoric, awareness that how we are now is how we have always been and are likely to be. There is nothing sacred about the institutions of our past, or present...these are all just extensions of our human nature. To recognize our human nature is to recognize those portions of our nature that are in fact pre-human, animal nature in other words. In OT Eccl. "All that is is all that ever was, what was is all that ever will be, and there is nothing new under the sun." In the Tao Te Ching "The name that can be named is not the eternal name." Meaning that eternal truths transcend language and culture. If mankind were extinguished, it would be the descendants of rats and cockroaches musing over these exact issues because it would be as true for them as it is for us now.
There is also the fallacy of "the greater good" which makes it permissable to sacrifice an individual or a minority for the benefit of the majority, or that Society is the expression of the Greatest Good. As you are no doubt aware, Nazi Germany, Aparthied South Africa, Jim Crow South in the United States, Iran and Peoples Republic of China post-respective Cultural Revolutions were all Societies that demanded sacifices for the Greater Good. Not a single one were the better for it.
You may never be welcomed with open arms wherever you are, because you may always be Other in the world of Us and Them - but if anyone could ever recognize that the multitude are being guided toward a slaughter house, its you, the Free Spirit. Given your status of Native Outsider, you are uniquely positioned to study and judge mankind - not unlike Kahlil Gabron's The Prophet. After all, you can't be both a bird and an ornithologist (a quote, can't recall where I heard it from.)
Being in society but not of it, like St John the Baptist, you are the voice in the wilderness. You are the Promethean, as opposed to Icarian. Rather than flaming out needlessly after shining so brightly, you come back to earth , bringing fire from the Gods. Bearing a message. Separate from humanity, you return to it...not because you need its touchstone to provide you with context for your own survival, but to help ensure THEIR survival.
Their is one thing more you can count on. Your act of love will be returned in the harshest way possible. Christ said "cast not your pearls before swine, for they will turn on you and rend you and trample your pearls." Which is damn harsh considering that it is the swine that you are trying to save in the first place.
They may bind you to wood (Christ, St.Peter, Odin - who bound himself, but okay) or to a boulder (Prometheus) and violate your flesh or your bones (with a spear for Christ and Odin, St Peter had his legs broken more or less at his own request, but okay, Prometheus had his liver eaten out by a eagle/vulture/gryphon). Christ and Peter were punished and sacrificed on the altar of political expedience. Odin was made a sacrifice of himself to himself in return for greater knowledge, understanding and power(...but okay.) Prometheus was punished by the Olympians for defying their wish that mankind be kept in darkness. It is the same story repeated time and again. The only sacrifices for the greater good that ever mean anything are self sacrifices. History remembers their names: Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. J.F.K., Malcolm X.
Of course it rarely actually goes that far. Just don't expect being a voice in the wilderness to be easy. Whether or not you are loved for what you do is not NEARLY as important than being motivated to do what you do out of LOVE. Here in America we especially seem to specialize in making Pariahs out of Heroes...but they used the to do the same thing in ancient Greece: Miltiades, Socrates, Themistocles, etc.
I hope you may be able to find yourself somewhere in this continuum and maybe something of your future if you haven't already seen it.
If you feel yourself unnatural to the point of being diabolical, then I would remind you that there is room for you in the world and an important role to play which you are clearly more than qualified for. Machiavelli was regarded the same way when all he did was delineate how real people actually do politics and accurately chart human nature. I don't think the comparison hurt his feelings that much, though he never achieved the success he deserved.
It is the misfits of society who stand to offer the greatest service to society of them all. And may they do it without being nailed up or having vultures tear their livers out. Love and Peace.
Don Quixokie
Post Script: Lest I mistakenly give the impression that every visionary life lived outside the flock leads to eventual extinction either at your own hands or at that of a howling mob, I must apologize and explain that this is not the case at all.
Granted these are examples from popular culture (kinda) they each exlempify that it is possible to live a full life as a visionary and on your own terms and still finish with respect and pride. I heartily suggest everyone acquaint themselves with their works and be the better for it.
Tom Waits - who has covered every perspective from that of the bum in the gutter, to the howling doomsday prophet, to the soldier yearning to come home, to the foreign affairs reporter. He's been every man. He's one of my favorites.
David Bowie - early transvestite, chronicler of his times, whacked out visionary in all the best ways, prognosticator for the future. Now a respected statesman. Justly.
John Waters - nowhere can enough be said about him. Proud pioneer of "bad taste" in truth prophet of our culture and future history. To get my full meaning, watch "Female Troubles." He too is a distinguished statesman. The John Cabot Lodge of Bad Taste.
Leonard Cohen - Who coined the phrase "Beautiful Losers" which accurately describes those of you who I hope to have touched with this blog. He has cleaved to the very heart of what is so hurtful and beautiful about being human. " Susanne" and "Hallelujah" are some of the finest work than humans can offer. He, as near as I can tell, when not performing is, or has lived, a monastic existence as a Zen Master. He's not just a teacher, but a fine role model.
Learn children.
It isn't always seeking to learn something that brings sorrow. Sorrow comes of its own accord, there is no escaping it. However, if you care to, you can find that more often than not sorrow can become wisdom. If sorrow is the price, then sorrow is the down payment as it were. Wisdom is the process by which sorrow, or pain is ameliorated. Like the nacreous layers surrounding an irritating piece of sand in an oyster. This is why pearls are equated with wisdom. Or to put it another way, its like a form of personal alchemy where you turn shit into gold.
There is something downright fungal about the darker side of human nature. Down in the dank darkness of the human psyche where all dreams and expectations go to die and all is rot and decay...it all breaks down and becomes the basis for new life, like nature itself, nothing is ever wasted. Every scar is a story if not an actual lesson. Nearly every period of trauma and turmoil in my life had left me changed. I'd had to expand my world view, LIFE view, in order to encompass and incorporate the damage. And when it didn't change me, it would rot and fester and the circumstances would continue to be revisited until the change, when it would come, would be so radical as to constitute a death and rebirth. Christ, it's sooo ugly.
More to the point, those periods of "dark night of the soul" when the pain is so bad and help seems so far away...that is when the real work is being done. I discovered as a poet, that is was during those times that I was most prolific and wrote my very best pieces. Terrible living makes great art. Don't seek it out for its own sake, but use it to its fullest advantage when it comes.
Anger, rage, also has its own use. It is the engine that provides motivation, properly harnessed it tightens focus to laser like precision. Improperly channeled, it will burn you out and possible burn your house down while its at it
I recommend the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. One of the things he says is that "if you want to give a gift to someone, offer the Tao. Because it is through the Tao that sins are forgiven." There are several paralells between what Christ said and what's in the Tao Te Ching and even in the Old Testament,especially Ecclesiastes...leading me to conclude that whatever his other attributes were, Christ was heavy with the Tao (pronounced like Dow,) making him an even more excellent teacher.
Even human sexuality is not much of a surprise. It may seem morbid in the extreme to re-enact sexually traumatic experiences, but it provides a degree of control to the victim who had been denied it previously.
What is the difference between masochism and machismo? A single "s."
There is a tie between masochism and stoicism. An element of self defense. The thought being "what can you do to me that I don't do to myself recreationally?" And also provides an ironic twist, gallows humor, to genuine hardship. Because there are some things that are just not nearly as much fun as a really good beating.
Lastly, The alienation that you may feel. I figured this one out when I was in prison and it has held me in good stead. Its hard being a black sheep. You have few who validate your existence as you understand it, you don't move with the flock, you get in everyone else's way, they are all in your way. So you work your way out to the edge of the flock, to the fringe. Living away from the flock its hard. Essentially all the support you have is the courage of your own convictions.
It is here that you encounter anomie, the state of normlessness. It is in this situation that many people wind up taking their own lives. Its like psychosocial free fall. There are some people who have beautifully, even seductively illustrated this point with their own lives. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, Robert Johnson, Bruce Lee,Marilyn Monroe, even more recently Kurt Cobain. The bright lights that flared so keenly then burned out forever. These are the Icarians. They, like Icarus, flew too high, too fast, and then fell tragically.
If they have a lesson for us, it is to do what you love, love what you do. Listen to what they say...but don't live as they did. They are teachers. Not role models. What their lives illustrate is the beauty and destructive nature of this thing called "freedom."
Dolphins die when separated from their pods (dolphin groups) in the open ocean. They require the support of their pod and the context it provides them. People are similar. Some people are able to exist outside of the confines of society, they are the ones who have transitioned from Misfit to Outsider to Free Spirit or Native Outsider. Its not necessary to actually live in the howling wilderness, but mentally and spiritually they do. More than that, they thrive there, nourished by the Great Mother and the bounty of the universe. They are able to find not just sustenance but are nurtured by something outside of society and beyond cultural mores. At home in the hinterlands, they can survive and are at home ANYWHERE. Like Saint John the Baptist, living in the desert, eating locusts and honey.
There are preoccupations that trouble mankind that are older than Man. Social norms and mores are useful, but not sacred the way they are to most others. There is a historical, even prehistoric, awareness that how we are now is how we have always been and are likely to be. There is nothing sacred about the institutions of our past, or present...these are all just extensions of our human nature. To recognize our human nature is to recognize those portions of our nature that are in fact pre-human, animal nature in other words. In OT Eccl. "All that is is all that ever was, what was is all that ever will be, and there is nothing new under the sun." In the Tao Te Ching "The name that can be named is not the eternal name." Meaning that eternal truths transcend language and culture. If mankind were extinguished, it would be the descendants of rats and cockroaches musing over these exact issues because it would be as true for them as it is for us now.
There is also the fallacy of "the greater good" which makes it permissable to sacrifice an individual or a minority for the benefit of the majority, or that Society is the expression of the Greatest Good. As you are no doubt aware, Nazi Germany, Aparthied South Africa, Jim Crow South in the United States, Iran and Peoples Republic of China post-respective Cultural Revolutions were all Societies that demanded sacifices for the Greater Good. Not a single one were the better for it.
You may never be welcomed with open arms wherever you are, because you may always be Other in the world of Us and Them - but if anyone could ever recognize that the multitude are being guided toward a slaughter house, its you, the Free Spirit. Given your status of Native Outsider, you are uniquely positioned to study and judge mankind - not unlike Kahlil Gabron's The Prophet. After all, you can't be both a bird and an ornithologist (a quote, can't recall where I heard it from.)
Being in society but not of it, like St John the Baptist, you are the voice in the wilderness. You are the Promethean, as opposed to Icarian. Rather than flaming out needlessly after shining so brightly, you come back to earth , bringing fire from the Gods. Bearing a message. Separate from humanity, you return to it...not because you need its touchstone to provide you with context for your own survival, but to help ensure THEIR survival.
Their is one thing more you can count on. Your act of love will be returned in the harshest way possible. Christ said "cast not your pearls before swine, for they will turn on you and rend you and trample your pearls." Which is damn harsh considering that it is the swine that you are trying to save in the first place.
They may bind you to wood (Christ, St.Peter, Odin - who bound himself, but okay) or to a boulder (Prometheus) and violate your flesh or your bones (with a spear for Christ and Odin, St Peter had his legs broken more or less at his own request, but okay, Prometheus had his liver eaten out by a eagle/vulture/gryphon). Christ and Peter were punished and sacrificed on the altar of political expedience. Odin was made a sacrifice of himself to himself in return for greater knowledge, understanding and power(...but okay.) Prometheus was punished by the Olympians for defying their wish that mankind be kept in darkness. It is the same story repeated time and again. The only sacrifices for the greater good that ever mean anything are self sacrifices. History remembers their names: Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. J.F.K., Malcolm X.
Of course it rarely actually goes that far. Just don't expect being a voice in the wilderness to be easy. Whether or not you are loved for what you do is not NEARLY as important than being motivated to do what you do out of LOVE. Here in America we especially seem to specialize in making Pariahs out of Heroes...but they used the to do the same thing in ancient Greece: Miltiades, Socrates, Themistocles, etc.
I hope you may be able to find yourself somewhere in this continuum and maybe something of your future if you haven't already seen it.
If you feel yourself unnatural to the point of being diabolical, then I would remind you that there is room for you in the world and an important role to play which you are clearly more than qualified for. Machiavelli was regarded the same way when all he did was delineate how real people actually do politics and accurately chart human nature. I don't think the comparison hurt his feelings that much, though he never achieved the success he deserved.
It is the misfits of society who stand to offer the greatest service to society of them all. And may they do it without being nailed up or having vultures tear their livers out. Love and Peace.
Don Quixokie
Post Script: Lest I mistakenly give the impression that every visionary life lived outside the flock leads to eventual extinction either at your own hands or at that of a howling mob, I must apologize and explain that this is not the case at all.
Granted these are examples from popular culture (kinda) they each exlempify that it is possible to live a full life as a visionary and on your own terms and still finish with respect and pride. I heartily suggest everyone acquaint themselves with their works and be the better for it.
Tom Waits - who has covered every perspective from that of the bum in the gutter, to the howling doomsday prophet, to the soldier yearning to come home, to the foreign affairs reporter. He's been every man. He's one of my favorites.
David Bowie - early transvestite, chronicler of his times, whacked out visionary in all the best ways, prognosticator for the future. Now a respected statesman. Justly.
John Waters - nowhere can enough be said about him. Proud pioneer of "bad taste" in truth prophet of our culture and future history. To get my full meaning, watch "Female Troubles." He too is a distinguished statesman. The John Cabot Lodge of Bad Taste.
Leonard Cohen - Who coined the phrase "Beautiful Losers" which accurately describes those of you who I hope to have touched with this blog. He has cleaved to the very heart of what is so hurtful and beautiful about being human. " Susanne" and "Hallelujah" are some of the finest work than humans can offer. He, as near as I can tell, when not performing is, or has lived, a monastic existence as a Zen Master. He's not just a teacher, but a fine role model.
Learn children.
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