Our Greatest Enemy (Part I).

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:21 am

This is a bit rambling, but bear with me, I'd like to discuss the idea I bring up ...

"Let me tell you why I loathe George W. Bush.

Let me speak to you of The Beast.

I believe humans came from animals. That we are an animal, just a better one. We have sentience, sapience, the ability to learn and apply the knowledge, then pass it on to be reused by future generations. We have questioned the world, the workings both physical and intangible, and learned from it. We have not only explored, but created. Taken meaninglessness, and given it meaning, and we have the ability to understand the meaning we give it and pass it on to others. This, I call Humanity. The creative and questing impulses to understand ourselves, understand the world, to modify the world.

The Beast, then, is the ugly part of Humanity, for we have not found total enlignenment, total evolution, from sapien to superior - nor can we, in the clutches of the Beast. The Beast is like an animal, with the intelligence of a man.

When someone says that to be inhuman is a good thing, they speak of the Beast, the denial of Humanity. I believe that to be Human is a laudable goal, and that many of us fail in that undertaking, to some degree or another.

I don't mean to cast it as duality, for it is not. These are not two opposing but balanced forces, that must exist to contrast each other.

The Beast ... The Beast is the devouring darkness in all people. It is the tendency towards power and dominance over people and things. It is the gravitational pull towards the easy path of least resistance. It is the quiet voice, telling us to not worry about the future, to not care about five years, five decades, five generations from now. It is the drive to seek comfort and stability, to accept these as bribes for iniquity, inequality, exploitation, ignorance - don't ask about those things, here, enjoy your fast food and mass media. It is the idea that you can do anything except disrupt the status quo. Not just the fear of the darkness, of the unknown, but the withering, crippling fear of things new and different and strange and unknown, beyond any measure of reasonable caution. The drive to rape - to use and use and use, to use the world and to use each other, to use with a destroying and self-destructive ignorance or disregard for capacity for use, to seek profit and comfort at the cost of the world and the future, aggregated and given more power by the herd instincts of us our ancestors... It's Us Vs. Them, and They are everything in our way, or preventing us from that next "tiniest shred", be they the world or eac other - an endless and destructive opposition, a self-righteous force - it promotes ignorance, it promotes the surrender of Humanity, the humanity I spoke of before, to stagnant ideals and mindless entertainment, to stale routine, for the sake of comfort.... mindlessly groping forward, blind and hungry and devouring ... built up from the shadows of us all, a darkness, a blight, upon Humanity and the rest of the world.

It is also a force beyond any of us, because it resonates with itself, creating a sort of collective will. Why will capitalism and communism fail? Why do democratic systems tend towards oligarchy or totalitarianism? Why is the world of constructs (not the physical world, but society) so unfair, inoppertune, and iniquitous? Because individual people might be upright and strong and human, but many aren't, and as a whole, we are largely guided less by Humanity and more by the Beast.

As I said - The Beast is a part of us all. While some people suffer less from the effects of the beast.... others are almost wholly owned and operated by it. John Kerry was simply a politician, a slouched and weak man. George W. Bush, though - in his beady little eyes, I can see the Beast, the Monster, cackling with glee. Lurking in the shadows of the boardrooms of megalithic business, behind the petty iniquity and large injustices ... in the black heart of our president, our media, our economy, our legislature, our courts ... watching. devouring.

cackling with glee.

social entropy favors the beast, and we, as a society, are allowing it to convince us ... that rather than fighting It ... it is the noble goal to be embraced.

depressing, isn't it?"

... Please, I know I started it off being "why I hate Bush", as a Rant, but then it became more philosophy, about Humanity and The Beast. I don't want to rewrite it to take out the Bush stuff, but can we discuss the ideas it mostly brings up - Humanity vs. the Beast - instead of Bush-bashing and Bush-supporting?

And yes. I know I'm a bloody cynic.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:45 am

Dear LiveJournal,

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:50 am

Actually, yes, this is cross-posted from my journal.

I'd be interested in you explaining how that somehow denigrates my point, however ...

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:52 am

What point? You have no facts. No basis. It's all about how you feel. It quite literally IS a journal entry. You have no point, it would seem.

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:58 am

No facts?

/me smiles smirks

Blaze, I'd like you to show me any sort of metaphysical argument that does have "facts", and not just observations, which I DO have. I have all of human fucking history seeming to support my observation.

And yes, I have feelings about it.

I'm sorry I didn't take the time and energy to disentangle my feelings about the observations from the observations and just present them, but that doesn't somehow mean I'm not actually bring up an observation I've noticed and mused upon and am asking for the thoughts of others on.

It just makes it easy for you to brush off discussing it.

But, much as it galls me, I must admit you do have a point, to an extent - "observation" would have been a better term than "point".

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:06 am

I'm not saying you're wrong or it lacks value or anything. I was merely commenting that it IS a journal entry.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:08 am

It's as easy to brush off as all the other needlessly elaborate, idiotic rants about how PoliticianXYZ is the devil, basically just mental indigestion leading to the mind throwing up a little in its mouth, the result of gulping down way too much spicy (hate-flavored) ad hominem venom way too fast. Impact usually seems a little more profound if the venom in question comes from the left, like what you might read plainly spoke in editorials and columns or with some token vailing effort in the rest of most newspapers. Extra bonus points for ease of brushing when Bush is the subject of the conjecture of the identity of the antichrist.

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:22 am

/me introduces his face to the palm of his hand

You totally missed the point where I said it wasn't a rant about "how PoliticianXYZ[Bush] is the devil", didn't you?

I mean, Blaze, sure, I could see him not being able to parse that out, but I would have expected more of it from someone as smart (if misguided.

) as you.

Let's say you don't like PersonABC[Bob Doe]. You start off an article about how you don't like [Bob Doe], because he is representative of Insert Concept Here[let's say, Johnianity]... you don't like Bob Dole, because he is a strong Johnian. So you use that to get into talking about why you don't like Johnianity, which then takes up the bulk of your article, which then circles around to the end to say, "and the reason I don't like Bob Doe is because he is such a Johnian, and that is why being a Johnian is bad."

Is that article then an ad hominem attack against Bob Doe, or is it using Bob Doe as an avenue into an indictment of Johnianity?

... Actually, writing this post, I can see that the 'loop around' more turns it into an attack on "Bob", instead of just bringing up your dislike of "Bob" as an avenue to get at a condemnation of "Johnianity" ... but the condemnation of "Johnianity"/ The Beast of Humanity was the intent of my post - that and to discuss the accuracy / negativity or positiviity of my observation... Hm.

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:26 am

I mean, Blaze, sure, I could see him not being able to parse that out, but I would have expected more of it from someone as smart (if misguided. ) as you.

Where did I agree with Deacon on anything but it being more of a commentary than an idea?

peter-griffin · Post by **peter-griffin** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:32 am

Humanity has ascended, and its society evolved, without question so much as dictation of "fact." SF, you can say that we're standing in our own way, but it may have looked that way all along. Human society and civilization has never needed a proverbial push forward from itself ever before; it has, by its own mechanism, furthered and advanced itself. This terrible stagnation because of creature comfort that you so speak of may seem like a roadblock on the way to "perfection," on the way to escaping the evil of what is in fact our very nature, but yet our goal as a species has been largely to make life that much easier; it has been a driving force that will probably never cease. Your quest to rid yourself of "The Beast" leads you on a path fueled by elitism or greed or contempt for what we are now - in essence, hatred - and therefore you end up with the core elements of our more "simple" aspect.

Humans will always be humans. We will always want more; it is an insatiable hunger that you may denounce but is nonetheless the driving force behind every single decision you make, even if it paradoxically is to defeat the very thing that drives you. We will always want beauty, something that fits our fancy just because we so happen to like it. We will always love our culture and personal beliefs because they are comfortable, logical, ours - though yours may differ from mine, they are both, from a personal standpoint, correct, comfortable, logical. We will always want, whether it is a want to be more distinct from non-sentient life, or a want to raise oneself up from "carnal" desires, or a want to not want - humans will ALWAYS want, and regardless of what it is they desire, they cannot escape that very core element that has driven them since their simplest days to become what they are now and ever will be. We will always want, and whatever it is that we want can always be labeled as a target of greed, of a simplistic, bratty Beast who will go to any means necessary to get the source of its infatuation and desire.

long paragraphs makes me cool am i rite??

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:38 am

Where did I agree with Deacon on anything but it being more of a commentary than an idea?

Ugh... You're right. I'm being an idiot. My brain's mostly shut down at the rest is on autopilot. So I'm going to go to bed, but first, ernestly say -

I'm sorry, Blaze. That was dumb of me.

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:41 am

That's ok. I didn't say I agreed with you either.

peter-griffin · Post by **peter-griffin** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:42 am

Hey, fucker. Make a rebuttle before I go to sleep.

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:47 am

Blaze: Well then, say why you disagree! Is my observation wrong, or am I wrong to condemn it to that or any extent? Hmm?

Peter: No. I don't have the cognitive functions to parse and process your post and then construct a proper and thought out reply. The mental resources and acuity are just beyond me at this moment. My vocablurity (heh, that's a typo, but "the ability to big and quite connotated words, or alternately or conjunctively euphemisms, to obfuscate one's meaning" ... I think I'm going ot start using "vocablurity" when people are really spinning some free-range bullshit) ... anyway. My ability to reply may be shot, but my command of the english language is still quite fine, thank you very much and goodnight.

Deacon · Post by **Deacon** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:16 pm

[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="431171"]You totally missed the point where I said it wasn't a rant about "how PoliticianXYZ[Bush] is the devil", didn't you?[/quote]
I must've been distracted reading:
[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="431158"]George W. Bush, though - in his beady little eyes, I can see the Beast, the Monster, cackling with glee. Lurking in the shadows of the boardrooms of megalithic business, behind the petty iniquity and large injustices ... in the black heart of our president, our media, our economy, our legislature, our courts ... watching. devouring.

cackling with glee.[/quote]

This thread isn't to disagree with you. It's to say that you're wrong.

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