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Time for quackposting! There is something like mana or chi or energy, The Force, whatever, I donât care what we call it. Emotional energy. You can feel it at major sporting events, and at literal riots. Itâs a kind of fire, or electricity, and it is both powerful and dangerous https://t.co/LLrbJQ2KFC
The idea that it can literally be used to *directly* alter physical reality is a step too far for me, I donât really buy that. I think itâs metaphorical, symbolic. You can directly use it to change the way people perceive you, & artfully redirect them. Well- some of the time, IME https://t.co/azAaZxv4fK
Looking thru gifs & saw this - itâs interesting to look at this from Kanyeâs âhaters are fans tooâ POV. Haters have an intensity & persistence that lovers can struggle to match. The emotional surge of raw anger, resentment, betrayal, guilt, shame... very powerful, very dangerous https://t.co/mqLM6o8kDm
I have, in moments of quiet and darkness, contemplated Going Dark. Power is delicious! You can win, like, all the fights, by playing dirty! But there is one problem with The Dark Side: and that is it is the Path Without Friends. And life without friends is not worth living https://t.co/UkkAF74DOg
I found myself wanting to set up a straw man along the lines of, âgrowing up in the 90s, I feel like I grew up in a world that denied the existence of mana - a world of cold calculation.â Even Marx kinda alluded to this: https://t.co/rLibyFOdvG
"The B, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations [...] it has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation."
And actually, thatâs the plot of FF7 too, isnât it? The Shin-Ra Corporation literally mining the life force of the Planet for power and profit. So many stories are all suspiciously about the same thing đ Campbell was on to something https://t.co/7yYDsRTEoO
Speaking of Campbell I really liked this point he had about âthe Aladdin caves of the subconscious, with jewels and jinnsâ. Thereâs something here about modern civilisation being guided by a sort of over-eager, myopic harm-reduction principle https://t.co/oMZvtjLEcs
Beneath the floor of the comparatively neat dwelling that we call our consciousness lie unsuspected Aladdin caves Here there be jewels and jinns, inconvenient or resisted psychological powers that we have not thought or dared to integrate into our lives
practically everything that exists in the human world is a manifestation of meaning(s). finite gamers play with inherited meanings, infinite gamers play with meaning itself. https://t.co/hbbXXkBK7p
I've come to take for granted that I've gotten pretty good at this â but the truth of the matter seems to be that getting to this stage seems to require passing through the belly of the whale, the dark night of the soul, the collapse of inherited meanings. It *is* dangerous stuff https://t.co/OuB1N87liE
True joy IMO is liberation from the shackle of narrow utilitarianism. And there's something scary about it! It requires a leap of faith. There is no safe way to be vulnerable (h/t Brene Brown). If you're thinking "how do I be happier without risking anything"... you're trapped https://t.co/6AXFPLnEpo
I remember reading versions of this quote and thinking that it seemed stupid. But it only seems stupid if you're operating from a foundation of narrow utilitarianism to begin with. The indoctrination runs deep, it's sewn intimately into the fabric of civilization itself https://t.co/ddUUG6vTFp
I think it's v common for people who get tuned in to this way of seeing to think "OMG I was blind but now I see", and then annoy everybody else with it. It's a cute sort of trap, & itself a funny-silly kind of clinging [anxiously] I MUST EXPLAIN THE TAO https://t.co/mctx6xnhcg
once you fail at that a few times, if you're lucky, you come to realize that it's like trying to force other people to be playful. it is itself not very playful. đ the tao is to be embodied, not explained. it's not going to go away because you didn't explain it to someone đ https://t.co/sDLp2d8sn5
Been telling a few friends lately (was the topic of my previous tinyletter) about my sense that feelings are under-appreciated, under-considered, under-articulated, misunderstood, misrepresented - & all of that is a massive bottleneck. To be in tune with your feelings is sublime https://t.co/i9DNKL9f5R
