We have reached the end of another full cycle of me going through my philosophical foundations. Here we end with wisdom and wisdom is both the goal and the beginning. So the whole issue of philosophy the process and a new beginning from time to time.
Every now and then it comes up in my head the issue of collective wisdom. I have no great respect for it to be honest. What constitutes conventional wisdom most of the time is things I would disagree with by nature. I am pretty contrary most of the time when people say something I am already thinking of counters and the opposite point of view. I am already becoming the antithesis to any thesis.
I guess my belief is built on finding wisdom through discussion and debate. I despise the sheep mentality that accepts what people say I should need and want. I know what I need and want and I don’t really need someone to tell me that. What I need and want more is the collective wisdom to tell me how to get it, not define it.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
The wisdom of need is based on hunger for that which is needed. Something inside calls for something and no amount of collective wisdom can define that. The wisdom of others may give you options if it is truly wise. But it can never tell you what you really need. That has to be defined by you.
Wants (Freki):
What we want can only be governed by ourselves as well but does have to be placed through the filter of collective wisdom only in so far as does what we want to harm someone else. Which as any decent human being would not want to do anyway? Unless by not harming others, continued harm befalls yourself, but that idea would only be applicable to needs not wants.
Reason (Huginn):
This is where our own reason might butt heads against collective reason. If something is reasonable it seems to me that collective wisdom would accept it but this is not always the case. Passion rules reason, but that is popular wisdom not necessarily the most rational course for each person. Only the individual can truly know that and only if they involve reason in the process of there decisions. Otherwise. As Russell points out above, this is usually the moment where some individuals stand against conventional wisdom and rightly so.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Collective wisdom is not always wise. It offers a general guideline but not always the best course of action for each individual. Because of this wisodm also says to be a little contrarian and challenge the conventional wisdom – which I do – often. It is simply wise not to always accept collective wisdom until it can prove to be wise in my specific situation.
Conclusion:
I suspect I will always be contrarian in my search for wisdom. I just don’t think the conventional and collective mindset is always good for me. I find just accepting what everyone thinks is wise to be difficult. I feel far more strongly that Bertrand Russel has the right of it so I accept his wisdom on this.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The scattered Grey showers continue. That said, I am getting more of a handle on them. The triggers are pretty well known by now and I know how to deal with most of them. Mostly, I have been thinking, researching and meditating on what The Grey is?
I don’t know if I am right about this but The Grey seems to be more of a state between feeling nothing and being depressed. If that makes any sense. it is a protective state to keep me from feeling the sadness of depression but it still has the element of depression that is ‘loss of interest. The other quality it has is that I do not give one shit about anyone else. I am wondering if this is a counter safeguard my mind goes into when I have hit my psychological limit of not taking care of myself and being more concerned about others than myself. So The Grey puts me in a state where I am completely self-centered but not sad; but also restless and bored. I hope I am wrong because that sounds like a state of mind I wouldn’t wish on even my enemies. Dangerous and reckless.
I suppose the alternative is to be sad, tired and/or burning angry.
In other news:
I am totally frustrated with the job hunt right now. No one is even calling me and that is probably the product having lost so many contacts. Every job I have gotten I have known someone and applying blind is difficult. If the fuckers at my church hadn’t fired me, I might have had a connection there with someone else to get another job or at least I could put it on my resume as my last job. It really puts a hole in my resume. It might be Ok in another year or two but I don’t have a year or two.
Love is frustrating as well. I have identified that my wife and I have a trust-love but Miss Salty and I had a passion-love. The problem is I want both. My INFJ idealism kicks in and says why can’t you have a high level of trust and passion in a love relationship. I was thinking about my series Rogue Wizard and there is the same theme. Lunette (passion) / Amber (trust). It is all over the place with me and having only one or the other just makes it difficult for me inside my head.
Writing seems to be the only solace I have these days. The Blog, my books in their raw form do provide some sense of stability in my head. The other thing is the weights, hiking and getting healthier. There is a part of me that just wants to dive into this and disappear. My own world in my head is far superior to the real one.
I am still adjusting my thoughts and emotions to my lack of any faith in any god. I have no imaginary friend to talk to and that is liberating on the one hand but it means a level of self-reliance I have not experienced before and it is scary intoxicating.
I am not fond of the cards I am holding right now. I still am obligated to play the hell out of them though until the next shuffle. Hopefuly that is soon. I miss clear skies and having a strong hand.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Last week the discussion centered around anarchism where I basically stated that I consider it the morally purest and yet most naive idea about government – that is it is best not to have one. In that post (link), I also stated that the government, if we are going to have one, needs to have certain qualities. This whole idea and the three things I said government needed to have comes direct5ly from my readings of John Locke and the practical application of his principles by two Toms – Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. These were in my mind the beginnings of practical classical liberalism which sees its incarnation in the United States of the late 18th century.
It is from these men that much fo my own libertarian philosophy is derived from. Granting people as much freedom as possible is actually a key to prosperity. I suppose I do look a little romantically toward the founding of my nation and then look at the current state of things a go – what the serious fuck. The enlightenment founding fathers were probably the first men to really ask the question of how to have an effective but small government with the maximum amount of liberty and actually put what they wanted more or less in place.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
Through these gentlemen, I come back to my three things needed to do this:
Recognizing that the citizens are the boss, the government is the servant, not the master.
Having a great concern to defend the rights of individuals, in fact, it should be made as one of the central duties of government.
The citizens should have the means to overthrow said government if it attempts to violate the two above.
As the anarchist reminds us, we don’t need government, but we are probably going to have one, so what we need is safeguarding against tyranny and totalitarianism.
Wants (Freki):
The kind of government then that we want gives us the three above conditions. It starts with the Idea of ‘We the People’ establishing this government and granting it powers and then limiting them. It makes sure the rights of the citizen are spelled out and gives restrictions and limitations on what the government can do in regard to those rights. Mostly protect them but not interfere. It also should protect the means to overthrow the government if it becomes tyrannical. Weapons stay in the hands of civilians.
Reason (Huginn):
Led by Paine and Jefferson and using Locke’s principles all three were maintained in a constitution that granted powers to the government by consent of the governed. It created a bill fo rights that the government could not strip from the citizen regardless of democratic action. One of those rights the right to keep and bear arms for the very event and purpose of revolution against tyranny.
Wisdom (Muninn):
What was created was a very wise government that was small. The problem is as we go along this constitution and the principles behind it are regarded as a tradition rather than law. This seems to have the same effect as when the Roman republic began to see its traditions erode and tyranny became more possible.
Much the same is happening in the United States right now as the Constitution must be evoked by those who are willing to back it up with force and there seems to be less and less of those people. I am not one of them but I am also not an idiot. No government lasts forever. But the principles of liberty, life, the pursuit of happiness and property ownership, need to remain regardless.
Conclusion:
As I consider my reading list for next year I am thinking Locke, Paine and Jefferson need to be among them. I need to apply my libertarian principles and my sense of practicality to the modern issues fo how to maintain freedom in the face of two parties that seem hell-bent on restricting or limiting rights which they have no authority from the people to limit. Making sure people can act in self-reliance is a worthy quest.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
I want to go on record a saying the philosop[hy behind anarchism is morally pure because it is the only philosophy of government that gets rid of the two things that make government suck the most – control mechanisms and the removal of individual rights. Without a doubt, I do not argue with anarchists that their philosophy is good, just and perfectly thought out. It is political idealism as its finest.
That said it is so idealistic that it will never happen. Much life socialism has an idealistic view of economics but fails to account for the economic realities of the law of scarcity and that human beings are motivated by self-interest so taking that way you get a system that limits human achievement, option, and freedom. You basically also will find yourself taking rights from people, not granting them under a socialist system.
Anarchism does something similar – it doesn’t take into account another part of human nature that has evolved in us. We are inherently tribal. Tribalism has allowed human beings to band together against common problems or foes as long as the human race has been around. it is part of our psychological makeup and it is why everyone will never accept anarchy as a form of government. There will always be the state no matter how it is set up. As soon as people organize and set up a system of dealing with problems or issues, what they set up is ‘government’.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
That said, I think the anarchists should keep advocating anarchy for one simple reason – it keeps us with the realization that the government doesn’t have to be involved in everything. There is no need for the government but if we are going to have it it should do something we can all mostly agree it should do. We need if anything, when the government is inevitably set up it, should be constructed in such a way it serves humanity, not the other way around. This is why most governments fail because they make slaves out of the populations under them and the tension for freedom is created that leads to their eventual downfall.
Wants (Freki):
So what we want is a government that serves us by: 1) recognizing that the citizens are the boss, government is the servant, not the master, 2) Having a great concern to defend the rights of individuals, in fact, it should be made as one of the central duties of government, and 3) the citizens should have the means to overthrow said government if it attempts to violate the two above.
Reason (Huginn):
While I can marvel at the ethical purity of anarchism given the above needs and wants, I have become practically a classical liberal libertarian. Not because I think having government isn’t immoral like the anarchist, but because I think it is inevitable that government will exist because of tribalism. So if the government is rationally inevitable, it stands to reason that we keep it as small as people will allow and with the least amount of power necessary. So far as I know the level of government of classical liberalism is the smallest that has been in history accepted by people. So it is practically viable and yet also respects individual rights and if done properly protects rights.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Wisdom finds itself in upholding the moral goodness of a particular philosophy but realizing the practical realities of experience and what human beings will actually do or accept. For me, classical liberal philosophy is the best compromise between the.purity of anarchism and the reality of human tribalism. Anarchism, however, does bring to the wisdom table the constant reminder of trying to find a way to let people live in freedom and without coercion, Well, at least as much as human tribalism will allow.
Conclusion:
I like anarchists, even when they argue with me about this, but I have also frustrated them by saying I agree that they are morally the purest philosophy I have found in studying political science. Then the discussion turns practical and they have to concede another point – when have human beings accepted anarchism as anything other than a short transitional time between governments? They never have.
Next week I hit libertarianism and I will be dealing with classical liberalism or more appropriately why I am one.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Of course in the middle of the triumph of achieving a goal, The Grey would have to make an appearance and the problem is it is not one single thing causing the issue but several scattered showers of shit I would rather not deal with; but there it is. There have been all kinds of scattered Grey showers this week and I haven’t been able to control them all the time which has led to some sleepless nights and emotions that have been less than happy ones.
It actually started the day after I achieved my one-year blogging goal with the simple thought of – ‘yeah that’s great, but you still don’t have a better job yet.” I hate moments like that because they seem to take all the joy of succeeding at something away from me in a second. I shell up and just exist. I need a new job it’s true, but blogging every single day without fail is an achievement, I know and anyone who blogs knows it is. It’s just The Grey has a tendency to crop in after I have a high moment.
If this wasn’t enough, I am working one day and over the speakers, it becomes clear that they have at long last changed the loop of songs to something new. Cool right? Except that now twice a day it seems I hear the song I don’t want to hear. “All of Me” by John Legend. It’s not that I think it is a bad song, it’s damn skippy good. It is also connected emotionally to Miss Salty in a very strong way and then the whole memories shit of that relationship comes up and I want to cry. Yeah, 6’4″ 275 lbs. weightlifter crying at work. So The Grey kicks in as a protective measure and I try to ignore the song. But later catch me singing it and thinking about her. What the Fuck? This is why I avoid this song in the first place, and now I can’t avoid it at times.
So, I finally get a day off and I go to bed the night before and I have a dream. Yeah, it’s about The Dirty Pig. Nothing big or symbolic just him making fun of me and laughing. Him doing his thing of doing things for his own entertainment and throwing me under the bus to that end. I used to be able to control my dreams a little, but as I grow older that ability seems to be lost. I think I still have enough ability to keep the ‘night terrors’ I used to have a bay. If they come back, that will not be good.
I wake up and then I had to get up for a bit. Kind of alarmed my wife as it is unusual for me to let my insomnia get me out of bed. The whole extreme anger thing is high with him. Hard to control. But then there is my old friend/enemy – the Grey and I head back to bed and fall asleep.
My personality type makes me emotionally intelligent. Sometimes called ’empathic’ and it’s pretty high in me. The curse is that strong emotions in others or in songs or from my past experiences get supercharged because of it. The Grey has developed in me as a counter to that. When things get too negatively strong, it kicks in to keep me sane. Cool huh? But the downside is I don’t give a shit about anyone else in those moments. I have also noted that The Grey occurs more frequently when I am not taking care of myself as far as self-love. Loving myself keeps the emotional balance better, but I have to really work at that as it is much more natural to help other people than myself.
The other defense is introversion, but that isn’t good for me either. Part of self-love is receiving love and you can’t do that by yourself. This what led to the problems of last year. My wife was penciling me into her busy schedule and I wasn’t a priority. The church was taking a lot out of me and not giving much back in terms of emotional support and school wasn’t the outlet for my attention like it had been. Along comes Miss Salty who absolutely understood this and BAM – affair, breakup, getting fired, near divorce, life turned upside down.
The problem is I am absolutely terrified of letting someone else in right now. Miss Salty leaving me and The Dirty Pig betraying my trust and leading the other friends I had at the church to fire me have all given me current trust issues off the chart at times. I function all right with people, but let them into my life to love and be loved by them? – yeah, no thanks. Got my family, a couple close friends and that is it. My wife helps a lot, but we both have to work and she is extroverted so she has to get away from the apartment or she would go nuts. That leaves me alone.
The other downside is I get along better with women than men. Men are comrades in arms but it takes a self-confident guy to be a friend that I trust.. I always feel men are competing with me rather than trying to be a friend. If you are that insecure, yeah, I don’t like you; because I know you’re going to brag about shit in front of me and I don’t do that. I don’t need to because I am pretty secure in my masculinity. I don’t have to prove my manhood to anybody. Only one other guy on the planet gets that right now and that is why we are best friends. Most men can’t handle that so they shy away for me or our relationship is the joking sarcasm of guys doing the same job and dealing with the same shit.
So women are easier to get along with for me. You can imagine how this is a downside. Today in the western world, 1) showing a woman some attention, 2) understanding her emotions and 3) being self-confident in your own masculinity equals flirting. Like, it comes naturally to me and that has lead to being flirted with back in return more than once. Pre-affair this was just fun and a way to play around that broke up the monotony of life. Women made my life more bearable with this flirting with boundaries thing.
Post-affair? You draw your own conclusions but I have some women now that it is purely professional much like I act with guys. But my natural tendencies are still there and so subtle I don’t often realize I am doing it. Getting close to another woman as a friend is just difficult and undesirable given recent events.
So, I am left with my one friend who lives far away who thankfully calls me every few days to check on me and my wife. My wife and I get along and she now very much understands that you can’t just pencil me in to be my lover/friend. I have to be much higher on the priority list than that because I am high maintenance when it comes to internal emotions.
That’s the bitch about being INFJ. Perfect personality my ass. Yeah, from an external point of view, we function and don’t appear to need human interaction as much, we navigate emotional situations well outwardly and get along pretty much with anybody. The price tag of those positives is high internal emotional costs. We pay every part of that cost ourselves for the benefits others enjoy. No human is strong enough to take that all the time and so the trade-offs are: 1) We disappear for a while, 2) it gets to a point of overload, so we develop coping mechanisms (aka for me The Grey) or 3) Eventually we explode and do something tremendously stupid or risky. It’s a ticking time bomb that needs to have minutes added to the clock by #1 and 2 or #3 is inevitable.
On top of it all, today (October 5th, 2019) is the 25th anniversary of my father’s death. Yeah, that always is a grey shower no matter what I do. I still miss him.
But I keep walking. Ravens on my shoulder and wolves at my feet. My coat and cloak pulled tight against the storm. No rest for the weary or the wicked. The showers will eventually end and I will be that much stronger for walking through them.
Still Walking,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The cold hard reality of justice is that you may never receive it. Ever. No matter how much you desire it or want to think you deserve it, justice may elude you. It this injustice of life that causes people to think if a final cosmic justice after death where the scales are balanced and everyone gets what they deserve. Every type of life after death mythos has this in it in some way. The problem is that there is no evidence that this will ever happen. It might be something hoped for, but it is likely to be all nonsense and wishful thinking.
When people ask me what I believe, I tell them that I have no active belief in any god of any type. That makes me for all practical purposes an atheist. I occasionally conceded it would be nice if deism was true, but believing in a creator cause is a far cry from all the other claims of theism of any kind. Including any form of a goddess, that holds a scale in her hand one hand and a sword in the other and is blindfolded. That is mythology.
The sad real truth is many people will never receive justice for what has been done to them and in some cases, you have to be content with it. Notice, I didn’t say forgive because in my opinion forgiveness should not just be given toward injustice. Forgiveness being encouraged is often simply an excuse for those who have the power to get away with wrongdoing and abuse. A man who sexually abuses and rapes his daughter should have his dick cut off; not be forgiven.
There are other ways to get peace about things that happen to you, forgiveness needs to be carefully measured and viewed in the light of contrition from the person who did the harm in the first place. Without contrition and restitution upfront, forgiveness is not deserved in my opinion. Justice is a better option until those things take place.
Justice can take many forms and merits a discussion in regards to philosophy outside of any final afterlife balancing of the scales. So…
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
To illustrate my meaning here, I will use my own unpleasant experience with and desire for justice to take place toward The Dirty Pig. I need justice in this regard as I know like so many others who have wronged me, they haunt me like ghosts to this very day. I never get over them and that is simply how I am. I learn to cope but it never sits right with me ever. The only exception has been when I learned later that karma or the universe had bitten them in the ass in much the same way. The leadership of my former denomination that was instrumental in my downfall from my second church is a good example as later I learned their own bad actions caught up with them and they too were discredited.
I need something similar to happen to the Dirty Pig for my conscience’s sake. Such justice allows me to smile and truly walk away and not look back.
Wants (Freki):
I want justice in regard to The Dirty Pig as well. Pardon me if I think people who are fake and false friends should be seen for it. That an honorless person should be exposed as being honorless. That people who have a trail of broken friendships they no longer saw as useful to them or that were necessary to shuck off to cover their own ass should face the consequences of being narcissistic self-righteous assholes. Yes, pardon me for think justice should be enacted on people who are sanctimonious jerks who use people to entertain themselves. Sorry, I don’t just want to see it with the Dirty Pig, I want to take the sword from lady justice and use it myself.
Reason (Huginn):
All that said with my wolves howling for justice, the raven of reason caws and reminds me I may never see it, or be the one who holds the sword, and I need to be ready for that. I need to be content that it may be someone else he has wronged (there are many of us) that brings down the old boar known as The Dirty Pig. In such a moment I need to be content with simply toasting that bringer of justice’s good fortune. I may also have to accept that he may die having never received justice. Then my contentment will come from toasting in contempt of his memory and I won’t be alone in that regard.
Wisdom (Muninn):
The raven of wisdom caws – patience. Yeah, I can do that. Mostly one day I know he is going to need friends and because he has thrown so many of us away as no longer worthy, he will be lacking in that regard. The potential and probability for poetic justice are very high given his behavior and patterns. He also isn’t as smart as he thinks he is and that means he has the potential to make a mistake with the wrong person who will show him for what he is. Yeah, I wait and watch. My fury can stay smoldering and focused on the right time to act.
Conclusion:
In the last two years, I can say three traumatic events have happened in my life. I loved and lost Miss Salty. I nearly got a divorce from my wife. Someone I thought was a good friend turned his back on me. He lied to me and used someone I loved and a congregation I loved to get his own version of honorless justice to prove he was the kingfish. He slandered me, lied about me and stabbed me in the back. In doing so he demonstrated his lack of honor, friendship and concern for anyone but himself. Of the three it is the only one I am still angry about and want justice for. But, I realize patience and keeping myself open to the many forms justice may take is necessary.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Having a minor in economics apparently puts me above the common man who has an opinion about economic matters. It does, however, add to my frustration level as Rothbard’s quote resonates with my soul quite a bit. I find a few things frustrating about people’s ignorance of economics. Mostly how this ignorance is used against them.
Economics is part of my overall philosophy because some of my virtues are connected to business: Self-Reliance, Industriousness, and Hospitality all of more direct economic issues so knowing something about how economics actually works helps me have more for my ravens to say about those decisions involving those virtues.
Because of the law of scarcity, for instance, I know that there are some things in life not available to everyone, so if you want them you have to earn them. It gets rid of a sense of entitlement which, to be honest, is one of the most detrimental things a person can have as part of their personality makeup. Economics is often called codified common sense and so it is a valuable tool in my philosophical toolbox.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
I suppose my need for economic knowledge in relation to philosophy surfaced with some of my decisions when I first went back to school and decided on my major. I knew I wanted something that was in demand and marketable but also flexible. The one thing I had noted over the years, as technology and knowledge change, so does how business is done and those who can adapt thrive. The need for flexibility and marketability long term was an issue of the Law of Demand.
Wants (Freki):
On the flip side, the kind of job I wanted is an issue of the Law of Supply. What’s available. was an issue. The thing was that Political Science opens that up by one simple thing – I could always be in administration and that is everywhere. Not to mention that just having a Bachelor’s degree from a university that is real-world instead the plastic bubble of religion opens up even more.
Reason (Huginn):
So my current struggles beg the question of which law deals with the fact that I am struggling to find a job and the economics of hidden costs and unintended consequences of economic policies might be a factor. the simply truth is that if someone hires me that has a good benefits package my being older is going to cost them more money even if that benefit is simple health insurance, the premium for me will automatically be higher.
Wisdom (Muninn):
This leads to the wisdom that I need to be ready to give up some raw salary to compensate for that. It is something I will give up because I would still come out ahead of where I am now. Economics helps me realize that flexibility is called for.
Conclusion:
Personally, economics being part of my overall philosophy has been something that has had a calming effect. I don’t get bent out of shape when an employer does certain things but I rather ask what the economic issue might be. Sometimes I have to ask why they don’t consider economics but people are people so they don’t always have economic knowledge and that includes people in charge.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
One of my overarching philosophies is the philosophy of minimalism. That is the question that this adds is very simple – do I need this or does this bring me joy? if the answer is ‘no’ then minimalism says that you get rid fo it. Now, this does not just apply to things like furniture and clothes, but also relationships, health, fitness, and just about anything else that this question can be leveled at.
One of the key issues is what you are spending time on. All things take up time and the minimalist question is whether or not the time should or should not be spent. is the time spent necessary and does it bring happiness? If not, why are you spending them on this whatever it is?
Behind the statement “Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens First” is the wisdom and reason of ravens who are looking for things that better manage time and get rid fo time wasters. This is minimalism at its best.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
The issue of need is always a sticky issue as what a person’s needs are can be far more than food or clothing, but also relationships and other things that allow a person to function. There is a crossover between needs and wants but the question of do I need this to function as a human being is the starting point of being minimalist and how I spend my time.
As an example, my work wardrobe is the same and I actually have four copies of it. Why? I spend zero time deciding what to wear for work. That time is better spent on other things like writing, and actual preparing for work. I need to have clothes for work, but nothing says I need to have something different every single day so I save time by having it pretty much the same. You could also accomplish this by having three to four preset outfits for work that you just rotate through.
Wants (Freki):
The second part of the question involves the wolf of want. Does this bring me joy? Does it make me happy? I think this part is more about all the other things besides stuff. Relationships, in particular, are here because some relationships are not only not needed, but they are negative and time wasters. You might find more time if you just drop some of them and improve your attitude because you are not being drained.
For myself, my relationships are few right now but I would have to say very much necessary and they do provide some comfort and support so they do indeed provide from my happiness. My issue is new relationships as I am much more cautious about being sucked into a relationship that is going to take more than it gives. I spent a lot of time as a minister fostering relationships that were unnecessary, simply because it was expected and let me tell you I don’t want that anymore. From a loyalty standpoint, family and friends are a different matter. All other relationships, however, have to be carefully considered in the matter of how much time is required to maintain them.
Reason (Huginn):
I find reason is more helpful in assessing needs. I can usually apply a pretty simple reasonable question; ‘have I used this in the last year because I needed to use it?’ and suddenly whether or not I do need it is pretty apparent. I also can say this for relationships. Work relationships are needed, so they stay on my lists but I am cautious about how much time I spend on each one.
Wisdom (Muninn):
The question of joy is a wisdom question because it doesn’t just involve a question of happiness but love, heart, and spirit. There is more to joy than your own joy too. ‘Does you having this thing give someone else joy?’ is a valid question. I have a few things like that because other people gave them to me in trust that I would honor the spirit in which they were given. Other things are just junk moving from one house to the next.
Long term thinking also hits this because I have a few other things that I know would give me joy if the context was right. They may not be currently giving me joy but if things change I know (keyword ‘know’) they would.
Conclusion:
Minimalism plus time management is a healthy combo for the wolves and ravens. But minimalism properly practiced gives you more time to do other things and that is simply a fact. It focuses my time on what is important and that is key to achieving my goals.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Just a reminder that Of Wolves and Ravens will be the second post on Mani’s Day from now on instead of on Tyr’s Day.
The last time I wrote on the virtue of Love, I engaged the topic of love based on Robert Heinlein’s definition which is love is mutually essential happiness. I still hold with that which is why turning this idea of mutual essential happiness toward the idea of self-love is personally difficult. Because it basically amounts to the simple fact that if you do not view loving yourself as essential then you will never be happy even if you love someone else and they in return love you.
I know this from painful experience as my lack of self-love led to a lot of problems with loving others. It creates an imbalance NOT because self-love is at one end of the scale and loving others at the other end of the scale. It is actually that self-love is the central fulcrum point on which all other loves are balanced and if the fulcrum isn’t solid the rest will collapse.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
I hope that the above understanding of self-love demonstrates the need we all have for it. For me, this revelation showed why things went bad and why they also went so bad once they did. This is the difference, When your self-love is good, then you consider your love for others as trying to balance all the rest but the central love of self will not be sacrificed while doing it.
When you don’t have that, you are like a juggler that keeps taking on another object to juggle and never considers if they can handle another one. There is no self to maintain so you just keep loving others more and more until it flips to self-loathing and then you focus on that and forget you are juggling. You can’t keep all the balls in the air at that point and they start to fall until you just say ‘fuck it’ and sit down letting them crash all around you and you don’t care anymore. That’s what happened to me.
Wants (Freki):
This is why I personally spend a lot of time thinking about how to love myself. Loving others comes naturally to me; loving myself is work but essential work I want to do. Taking the time to ask the simple question of ‘If I take on loving this person, will it help me love myself or hinder me loving myself? Is this love a benefit or a burden too great for me to carry?” When things are balanced, you are not juggling, but carefully considering if things between yourself and the others you love are balanced on self-love.
Reason (Huginn):
Rationally there is also the fact that loving others and finding that person whose happiness is essential to your own keeps you from narcism. Loving yourself at the expense of all others needs to be guarded against. Narcism is probably the basis of all evil shit in the world. Loving others is rationally necessary to keep yourself from that path, but it has to be balanced on the fulcrum of the love of self.
Wisdom (Muninn):
Balancing the love we have for others while maintaining the central fulcrum of the love of self is the issue here. We need both to be happy. Whenever I feel unhappy, I realize now either something is out of balance or my love for self has slipped.
Conclusion:
Going back through all my discussions on love, I have to get back to the beginning idea that Love is the combination of Courage, Honor, and Truth. Love takes these and combines them into a very powerful force. A force that leads us to be happy in this world and that happiness’ essential ingredient is self-love that allows us to keep all our other loves balanced. It is this understanding of love that now guides me and so far the only issues it raises is about whether certain relationships are essential to my happiness. The most essential of these is the one with myself.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
In the rotation, I deal with eastern philosophy directly once, but to be honest there is a lot of Taoism in my philosophical viewpoint. Particularly the idea of balance or what the Taoist would call yin and yang. The chart below kind fo displays the basic difference.
One might say the whole concept of Wolves and Ravens represents Yin and Yang, but it isn’t that simple because in Taoism some things in my philosophy cross the lines to the other side and some of the things might be considered on both sides depending on how they are applied. For me, you might say the Wolf of Need and the Raven of Reason are Yang, but the Wolf of Want and the Raven of Wisdom (which involves a lot of intuition based on experience) are Yin.
If I take anything from Taoism it is the idea of the balance of life. Of keeping things level instead of overdoing one thing at the expense of the other. The parallels to this idea are in truth in every philosophical system I can think of as well as a large chunk of the nature of each mythology.
Probably this is found in two other notions: 1) Order (or Law) vs. Chaos (or Liberty) and 2) Good (benevolence) vs. Evil (malevolence). A Taoist would try to strive for a balance between these and be truly neutral about both of them. I tend to be more Chaotic but neutral about the question of good and evil. You might say I boil it down to the issue of law vs. liberty and lean heavy on the side of liberty, but the whole good and evil question might be invalid. I say ‘might be’ because I am still thinking and meditating about it. The one thing is that I am deliberately unbalanced right now from a Taoist point of view in regards to law vs. liberty. Mostly because I can see how the law is far easier connected to doing harm in the name of good intentions. Whereas to me liberty brings about a respect for the humanity of the other persons in the world which often benefits all.
I would say at that point the Taoist and I reach a fork in the road and I wish them well and then take the fork in the road that says ‘liberty is better than law’. That said, balance in other aspects of my life is influenced and reflects an understanding of Taoism. Balance is a constant consideration of mine.
To the Wolves and Ravens:
“Feed the Wolves, but Listen to the Ravens first.”
Needs (Geri):
The need for balance is illustrated in what happens when the balance is not maintained. I can speak from painful experience of the consequences of not maintaining the balance between self-love and loving others as an example. Too far on self-love and you become a narcissist and too far in the love of others makes you a living martyr that eventually leads to self-destruction. Neither is desirable and the balance keeps you functioning both in the love of self and others without the extremes of either. The need for balance is pretty clear from a preservation standpoint.
Wants (Freki):
A proper balance is also wanted. It leads to greater success. I have known many men and women who their life was their work and in the end, they never enjoyed once the fruit of their labors. Because they didn’t know how to relax and enjoy the fruit of their labors, their health suffered. On the flip side, I have known people who gave themselves over to hedonism without working at all. Their laziness leads to poverty and quite frankly a lack of honor. The ultimate expression of this is the thief who lives on the labors of others. The one who learns to balance work and enjoyment will be the one who is truly successful and that is something I definitely want.
Reason (Huginn):
Reason comes into these things as you have to think about things fairly regularly to observe if balance is being maintained. Balance doesn’t come easily or without a lot of thought behind it.
Wisdom (Muninn):
I would say Taoism as a philosophy has a lot of wisdom to it, but I would evaluate things ma little differently as far as what needs to be balanced. That said, the principles are very universal and wise at the same time and I have no trouble listening to them and applying those I think leads to wisdom.
Conclusion:
I suppose Of Wolves and Ravens is indeed my own form of Taoism. Balancing need and want with reason and wisdom. But there is an imbalance built-in to that – listening to reason and wisdom first. A little asymmetry is good for us actually so that is something else to consider. Next week is western philosophy and I think there is a debate there that is about asymmetry that will be good to look at when considering this.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
The Grey Wayfarer 