GuidoWorld

Uncle Ponzi and We American Lobsters

October 29, 2009 on 4:08 pm | In General | No Comments

I have heard that one can cook some forms of sea life such as frogs and lobsters without their even noticing that they are in danger. The theory goes that if you heat the water slowly enough they will adapt and not recognize that the water is getting warmer and they will eventually die without ever putting up a fight.

I think this is the perfect analogy for what is happening in the American and European economies. Slowly, the standard of living is falling for the majority of citizens. While there does to be some slight recognition of times being more difficult, there is plenty of propaganda producing an astounding amount of short term memory which makes the water seem only a little warmer and the kettle remains the best place to be.

The housing market and economy were in complete denial that they were in a boom to be followed by a bust. We went almost instantly from saying such concerns were misplaced fear tactics by doom and gloomers to coming out of the worst recession since the 30’s. We went from no real sign of a housing slowdown to a bounce off a four year decline in housing.

In a matter of a couple of months we went from a denial of an economic downturn to the bottom being in from a financial free fall. Because of this news spin we never truly experienced the recession. Sure we individually felt the recession but we did not have this feeling validated by the media and its statistics.

Currently our experience once again does not match up with what we are being told. To most it sure feels like a recession, but the statistics are saying the economy is rebounding at a strong pace. Today’s GDP number is being touted as being the best in a few years with one article I read stating that housing added to our GDP for the first time in four years. Come on how can that be? It was less than two years ago that people were laughing at me when I said that the housing bubble was going to pop, now it was in ndecline for four years.

The stock market has skyrocket since March. The Nasdaq 100 has led the way with a near 75% rise in seven months. This is the steepest incline since the Great Depression. If the Wall Street Bull market is back than how can we be in a recession?

Well, according to market experts the market always rises before the economy and unemployment is always the last thing to rebound. Therefore, according to Wall Street the economic caution you display due to your pain and unemployment will cause you to miss out on the beginning portion of the great new bull market. As the old saying goes, “all we have to fear is fear itself”.

Yet, the reality of the situation is that the standard of living of most Americans has been on the decline for the last few decades. A greater portion of wealth has been going to fewer and fewer hands and wages of the majority of citizens has fallen way behind inflation.

The kettle has been getting warmer for three decades and we are as complacent as ever in our little melting pot. Each recession only happens in the past tense and each recovery is a jobless recovery. People seem to forger this fact as the media heralds each recovery as the first jobless recovery. And each boom is hailed as being a stronger boom as the previous one.

How long can this go on? Well you tell me.

In many of my previous posts I’ve talked at length of the inherent weaknesses of modern Capitalism and the push for a global world order. Yet, we have been encouraged to be a society of believers, and that our society is good and morally superior to all other lands. This training of patriotism and fear of others makes it difficult for us to look at our society as being capable of purposely acting in ways not in our best interests.

I, for one, am very conscious of the fact that the water in the kettle is becoming increasingly hot. Our economy and our government for that matter have become one huge Ponzi scheme.

I don’t know about you but I can smell the lemon butter sauce on the stove next to us.

Jim Guido



The Drive Towards Intimacy

October 19, 2009 on 1:25 pm | In General | No Comments

I have stated on numerous occasions on this website my theory that man has a basic drive towards intimacy. The definition of intimacy I am using isn’t strictly sexual, but rather our desire to become closer to, more familiar with or connected to others, ourself and the world around us.

Our ability to be intimate isn’t restricted to people and objects but also includes things such as activities and areas of knowledge. One can become more intimate with others, oneself, nature, religion, spirituality, trivia, history and sports. The list of things which we can become intimate with is as endless as the number of things which interest us or attract our attention.

One of the benefits of recognizing intimacy as a basic drive is its potential of being a positive definition of human existence and our humanity. Most views of man and his goals have a tendency to be negative or based on negative perspectives.

The current and historical views of human nature and his goals are to be found in religion and the sciences. In these arenas the basic definition of man and his existence are generally lacking in fundamental optimism.

Man is viewed as being sinful and his life and sense of self are viewed as being illusions. More often than not human existence and our humanity is viewed as a problem or as something to overcome.

From Christianity to Buddhism the basis of life is pain and suffering and life itself is an illusion. Enlightenment and Salvation come to him who overcomes life and becomes detached from it. Whether one achieves this through preparing for the afterlife or through transcending the wheel of life (pain and suffering) the negative message of human existence is impossible to ignore.

At every turn were told to flee and overcome our humanity. All worthy goals are placed outside the realm of natural finite human experience. We are beckoned to look outside of ourselves into a universe of absolutes. Whether that absolute be god, spirit, the eternal, consciousness, the afterlife, the infinite, or the unconscious the goal to overcome life stays the same.

In Psychology and the sciences, as in religion, our humanity is a problem to be overcome. In Freudian psychology we are at best neurotics with repressed sexuality, or thwarted drives and unmet basic needs. Our only hope for some measure of joy is to sublimate our needs, not directly get them met, and minimize the damage caused by life’s traumas by getting in touch with the unconscious.

Intimacy neither denies nor reinforces these viewpoints or perspectives. Yet it does allow for the possibility of our not only accepting but also embracing of our humanity. Intimacy has no need to demonize our humanity or our experiences. Sure as one becomes more intimate with themselves or their world they may encounter past damage incurred through trauma or repressed desires. Yet, there is a huge difference between identifying pathology and basing one’s existence on it.

Psychology, Science, Religion and Spirituality all have a tendency to bewail the limitations of human experience and seek to overcome these limitations through the creation of eternal Truth, infinity, God, etc. My theory of intimacy, being based on real human experience, has a more balanced view of limitation.

Without limits there would be no human experience. All of my senses are senses because of their limitations. I can see something, because I don’t see everything. My finite existence is full of limitations, and is only possible because of these limitations. For a full exploration of the role and function of limitation on our experience of Intimacy read Chapter 7 of my book Exploring Intimacy in the Words section of this site.

The theory of an Intimacy Drive allows us to appreciate and understand our humanity and our day-to-day experience of life. Viewing our life from the perspective of a drive for intimacy allows to look at our life on its own terms while not having a need to overcome or idealize human life and experience.

Our drive to become more familiar with, at home and closer to life and its experiences is finite yet never ending. One will seldom if ever exhaust the knowledge and experience offered us through any area of interest. We can always gain a new perspective or add to our feelings of connection or closeness through an additional if not novel experience.

I could learn a lot about trees by gaining closer and closer inspections of its bark. Some experiences and knowledge would just be impossible from a distance (like small variations in bark, or the smell of the tree at different levels and during different seasons). Likewise I would become even more knowledgeable and familiar with the tree if I looked at slides of the tree cells under a microscope.

Ironically enough, one often becomes more intimate with something by gaining a more removed perspective of that which you are intimate with. Seeing the aforementioned tree from a neighboring hillside or from a hot air balloon would allow me increased intimacy of the tree. Without such a perspective one might not be able “to see the forest from the trees” as the old saying goes.

I do not feel that intimacy is our only drive, but it is a fundamental drive which propels into our lives. It is a drive which can provide a life with much meaning and satisfaction. And it is a drive which allows us to celebrate our humanity.

Like intimacy itself, discussions on intimacy are difficult to exhaust. I will donate the next few posts to expand on a few ideas presented today.

I once again invite you to read Exploring Intimacy on this site for free.

Enjoy.

Jim Guido

Castles in the Air: Part 2

October 8, 2009 on 12:21 pm | In General | No Comments

The following is the remainder of an essay I wrote some 30 years ago which I recently found while getting rid of old notebooks.

Studies of human infants appear to replicate in the individual what has happened in primitive societies. The infant, like primitive cultures, starts from chaos and slowly forges a sense of having a world, a cosmos.

At first it appears that a newborn is a float in a sea of undifferentiated sensations. Bombarded with sights, smells, sounds and sensations all without a distinct form or meaning. Eventually patterns emerge and a child is able to isolate and identify objects and sensations. At some point in time he becomes aware that he is separate from the world of sensorial objects which stimulate his perceptions.

The ability to isolate sensations and identify and focus on specific objects creates a world out of the formless sea of earliest life. Once the baby begins to overcome chaos with order, he begins to take pride in his ability to make associations amongst objects. Quickly he jumps from identifying his specific dog and stuffed bear, to understand the concept of dog and stuffed toy. The lamp becomes a lamp and the entire world of generalized objects opens up to his awareness.

Since the word often makes a thing spring into life for a child, often young children have difficulty separating the object from its name or the word used to identify it. This is the stage of word magic when the very naming of the object seems to create its existence. Until the word was learned, the object eluded his perception, but once the sound (word) found its association the object sprang to life.

The very possibility of having a world seems to be structured in language and the ability to have perceptions settle into differentiated objects. Like primitive societies the individual and his world come into existence out of initial chaos. Slowly we see snapshots of the world about us. Out of these snapshots we construct an organized world and universe. We seldom see an entire object, or a room and definitely not the entire planet or universe, yet our mind quickly learns how to fill out large pictures such as our room or house piecing together and filling out the voids left by separate and incomplete perceptions. This is how we sense, structure and live in the world.

The primitive felt meaning and the world very fragile things. The power of the Word was something revered by many cultures. Not only children, but early societies had a hard time separating a word from the thing named. The name of an object was not arbitrary but essential and in many cases the object came into being the moment it was named. People believed if you knew the correct name of an object you could call it into existence.

In ancient societies the object and its name were one. The naming of a child after a father or grandparent was not just a sign of respect and honor, but a way of insuring the continued existence of the name (person). This explains the fact that many cultures cite people living hundreds of years in their earliest history. As long as the name lived on so did the spirit of that person. A person only died when the chain of the name handed down from generation to generation got broken.

I mentioned these things to emphasize how central the quest for cosmos and the fear of chaos has been in the functional history of man. Man created the sacred as a way of giving life meaning and significance. Each increase in the realm of the sacred was an increase in the ordered world of meaning and a victory over chaos.

The desire and need to fabricate meaning through expanding the realm of the sacred continues in modern man. For modern man life can not be left on the level it is experienced. It cannot remain temporal, transitory and fragile. Life for most has to be grounded in purpose and meaning.

Ironically the more life was experienced and defined as a historical existence situated in real time and space, the more man relied on placing the essence of life beyond temporality. Both science and religion portrayed the same basic view of life. Even though life was experienced as temporal and finite, its essence is eternal.

Religion had Truth, God, the absolute, eternity and other trans-temporal superlatives. Science had law, Truth, infinity and its similar superlatives. In fact, the possibility of making a scientific or religious statement demanded both certainty and dogmatic truth. Neither science nor religion would view any temporal functional reality as worthy of credibility.

Rationalizing Pain

The struggle for survival has been a constant companion of human history since its earliest memories. His fight to survive his battles with the elements, drought, plague, animals, other tribes, ice ages, fires, etc. have caused man to suffer and left him puzzled and hungry to find explanations for life’s cruelty.

Man used to spend the bulk of his existence barely meeting his basic needs of food and shelter. Often the life of the average person was painful and fragile.

Man had to rationalize his pain, to find reason for existing. Without such reason man would find it hard to continue. Much of mythology and religion is focused on giving man hope and having him deal with pain and suffering. God and Truth are two ways of rationalizing pain and giving life meaning.

For ages pain and suffering have been prominent realities of human life. The search for meaning has likewise been a way for man to deal with his pain and suffering. In a world of incessant change it makes sense that man sought something constant to ground his life in.
This desire to find a non-changing basis for life gave birth to Truth and God. These ultimate and eternal truth’s gave man comfort and provided his life with meaning. Since the early mythic ages of man life’s purpose and meaning have been predicated on the eternal laws of God and Nature.

Life, Then and Now

Not many would argue with the belief that an individual goes through many stages of development. Actions, thoughts and activities deemed appropriate and beneficial at one age may be detrimental or restrictive in another. Mankind, like an individual, develops and grows through time. Where is mankind now in his development, and do his thoughts and actions match his stage of development? Are our lives filled with suffering and do we need absolutes to provide life with meaning?

I personally do not spend the bulk of my existence fighting to survive and do not experience my life as being predicated on suffering and pain. My life is not free of pain, but it certainly is not dominated by pain. I do not feel meaning fragile, but rather meaning is something almost impossible to remove from my experience.

In fact life is so saturated with meaning that I can look at a single event from a host of perspectives which all endow my life with meaning. I am free to see events from a biological, chemical, psychological, historical, economic, mystical, systemic, spiritual or anthropological perspective (just to name a few).

For millennia the possible arbitrariness of life was a source of vexation and despair for man. He looked to Truth and God to help him through the night. Yet, now I find then concepts of infinity, eternity and Truth to be sources of imprisonment and not comfort.

The very ideals that many found necessary to lesson the pain of man’s tenuous if not futile existence now feel suffocating. I find life to be a challenge and not a struggle or fight. I enjoy being temporal and find great pleasure in the finitude of experience. I like . being able to have choices and to see life from a host of perspectives. I find so much meaning in human experience that the arbitrary is no longer a demon. The fact that I a finite and will one day die gives my life meaning and significance. The thought of living forever or having an afterlife seems to make my time alive here seems to strip each moment of its importance and significance.

Castles in the Air

When we adopt a perspective we are giving meaning to our experience. If I take a ball and thrown it at a metal hoop extended 10 feet inn the air supported by a backboard little meaning is achieved. Yet, if I construct an entire game involving a complexity of rules, objectives and priorities I give the activity meaning and significance. If I give the activity which allows for success, improvement, creativity, and expansion I will have a better chance of funding this stimulating and rewarding.

I yearn to the the world from a host of perspectives. I want to experience the world, chemically, biologically, poetically and mathematically. I’d like to view and feel the world from the perspective of 16th and 17th century cosmologists and well as that of the 20th century astronauts.

I also want to build my own sand castles and have my children and grandchildren feel the world from my new forms of meaning. I want to give them the gift of enjoying and basking in our humanity and yearn to see and feel the world from their eyes.

Lived meaning is neither absolute or arbitrary. It is what it says it is, lived. Human life does not need absolutes or gods to become fulfilling and amazing. Every moment is both magical and real, full of meaning and capable of personal poignancy.

I enjoy a life of building castles in the air. No experience is fully captured by one truth or one reality. Absolutes and ideals cannot exist in our world, for our world is sensual and finite. This is not to say that one cannot use or be motivated by absolutes. Yet, being dependent on them seems to be such a waste of human potential and a restriction to the richness and quality of human experience.

Jim Guido