The Meaning of "Listening": A Necessary, If Predictable, Sequitur.

If you can tell by my title, I know that it is a sort of stereotypical practice of those taken by philosophy to start out by defining some basics. So I will start with the obvious:

What is listening, really?

During my undergrad, I had the pleasure of studying under who is probably my favorite professor ever now. Having no consent to identity, suffice it to say he was a medieval literature teacher, one who's changed my life. Often during his lessons, he found it necessary to go over the etymology of certain words. One of these, as you might guess was "listen." The word, he said, originated from the infinitive "to list." This is the action a sailing ship performs when blown sideways in the breeze. The ship lists, or, tilts sideways in the flow of the wind. My professor continued to explain the parallel, that when you listen to someone, you typically turn or tilt your head to hear their words. In effect, you are submitting yourself to be open to an outside influence.

This very action is the key to communication. Anyone can move a rock, splash in a river, start a fire, even kill a person. But to communicate with another person? This, in the end, requires consent. This, in the end, requires some form of listening, to at least submit to the sound of another's voice. For communication to occur, language must be actualized, received, and then understood, even if it is not agreed with.

The transmission of ideas in communication was a common theme in my professor's lessons. As any English professor worth their salt, he likened it to sexual intercourse, and claimed the poets of old thought the same. Ideas are emitted to the mind of another but, to germinate into yet more ideas, they must survive and thrive in the psychological environment of the mind and join with others.

This communication, as I see it in this current moment, can serve two inclusive ultimate purposes: definition and inspiration. Ideas that are well-received are received primarily as inspiration; they generate more ideas and push the two communicators together more tightly. By contrast, ill-received ideas primarily function for definition; the receiver is now more aware that their conversation partner has a shape, if you will, that they are not compatible with. Hence, they drift farther apart. This is most likely on a spectrum of some sort, but I think this formula more or less decides the very basis upon which we relate to each other as human beings.

In my previous post, I said that I don't think humans listen enough. For the purposes of my discussions on my blog, I would say that I would like to define "listening" as the ability to be open to this transaction, at any time, so as to try to glean as much inspiring communication as possible. This is not to say that we should be swayed by every idea that crosses our path, but it is to say that we should welcome ideas for objective criticism instead of outright oblivion, reevaluating with any new form of information.

I feel the need to provide some example here. Racism is a putrid idea. It is an obnoxiously unsupported, destructive idea that is the unfortunate reason that many are discriminated against for no discernible reason. By saying this, you may think that I am dead set in my ways, and perhaps rightly so. In a sense, I am, as there is no evidence to ever point to our morality as human beings as being flawed in that it treats all humans equally.

However, despite my beliefs that all are created, and remain, equal, I would be open to hearing arguments for racism. Now I do not, in any corner of this universe, believe, at this time, that there is any scientific evidence or otherwise persuasive argument that should ever sway my beliefs on the subject, but I should be open to listen for multiple reasons. One, there may, in the most wild and nasty dreams we could ever conceive, eventually be a genuine argument to point to racism as a normative moral choice. Two, since I don't anticipate this being the case ever, I would like to understand the mind of someone who causes such disruption, so that I can perhaps help them see truth and, almost more importantly, recognize that they are still humans worthy of respect. In this way, I listen so that I can try to see the humanity that must still exist somewhere inside them and give them the same respect that my fundamental morality subscribes to: the equality of all.

On a personal note, I believe this because I am tired of the pointless aggression that either side of this debate gives to the other every single day across my country, and any other dragged down by it. I believe it is a simple fact that no progress will ever be achieved until we can come together in a civil discussion and figure things out. No one can be easily convinced of the humanity in another when that other shows them nothing but bitterness and hatred. The world is cruel enough without assigning our fellow humans an "it" status rather than the same terms we would use with our own family and friends.

At the same time, if discussion with those of a racist bent and others like them seems to be totally futile, there is no need to add fuel to a fire unless in mortal danger. It may be difficult, but we must always remember that people we deem hopeless are still people, but they simply refuse to listen. It is sad that they shut their ears to reason and camaraderie, but our answer should never be hostility.

Finally, I hope that I am on the right track with this line of thought. The listener always opens doors and never closes them. The listener seeks wisdom and understanding through as objective a lens as possible, and continues to show compassion for those in dissent. The listener is dedicated to a life of unity, peace, and communal evolution. No human need be an enemy, unless they make it their choice. Consider the sailing ship, which rocks gently with each ocean breeze driving it forward to new things.

I love you all.

A Megapreface: An Attempt at Return

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT HERE AS A RELIGIOUS DEMAGOGUE OF ANY SORT. MY GOAL IS TO EXPLORE SOLUTIONS TO A PROBLEM THAT I FEEL AILS MANY. I ADMIT THAT THESE ARE MY OPINIONS THAT I BELIEVE ARE BASED IN FACT. I HOPE THAT PEOPLE WILL APPROACH ME AND CHALLENGE MY THINKING SO THAT WE CAN ALL LEARN FROM EACH OTHER.

Hello, everyone. It's been a long time and I want to try to do this again. I'm going to try and do this as thoroughly and comprehensively as I can. It's been a few years and a lot has changed for me. I've learned many things, have better developed my heart and soul, and may have experienced something of a rebirth. So let's take it from the top:

The things I want to talk about are so broad and far-reaching that its hard to think about them without employing almost purely just one's imagination. I will admit, I don't know if I'm the best person to talk about these things; I will be extremely clumsy, talk about things out of order, reiterate a lot of things, but this is just to get my head on "paper" for hopefully more than one person to see. I believe that what I want to talk about is what humanity as a whole needs to survive this century. If you think this makes me sound like I think I'm some prophet, then I won't blame you if you turn your back right now. I feel these are things that must be said, and damn it, I'm an angry, lonely bastard for keeping this inside me so long.

Now As better philosophers do, I will try to approach the crux of this, knowing full well that I may change my thoughts on this at some point:

Humans don't listen.

It's true, in many ways. I don't want to shit on us right away, so I'll say quite objectively that we humans don't handle outside influence very well, sometimes even internal influence. And I understand, the idea is quite terrifying. Our hope, as animals, is to be able to stand self-sufficient, rigid and strong enough to weather any coming tide and come out on the other side just as solid, if not more so. That image of security, stability, and well-being is an attractive one that our baser survival instincts love to death, and why shouldn't they? Nobody likes pain. This is how we all should aspire to live at some point, right?

Yeah... too bad that's not going to happen.

Life, as Buddhists observe, is suffering. Sure there's fun to be had, laughs and love to enjoy, but ultimately time takes its toll. Friends come and go, family pass away, our own bodies begin to betray us as we grow old. You could be the richest human in the world, in charge of a medical science corporation that could guarantee you, at some point in our tech savvy future, something like immortality, and still time and tide would destroy you at some point. All things die; time and infinity are simply impossible foes. This is a truth that terrifies us to our very core, so we survive.

But I believe that this attitude is almost all wrong.

Memento Mori. Remember you must die. We survive in denial of this truth without taking a moment to realize that it is inevitable and that we have already discovered the best way to move forward: essentially, to listen.

An intelligent man named Charles Darwin proposed that life as we know it has survived impossible odds by way of evolution. This is to say that there was never a point in time where each organism on this planet was figured out in such a way that it could survive literally any environmental challenge and then stuck to it and lived forever. What the man said was that not the strongest, nor the most intelligent, but the most adaptable survive. Our intelligence as human beings has given us the gift of adaptability. We have only made it this incredibly far because we took the time to recognize our environment, take a more active role in our relationship with it, and use it to survive.

But we did more than that; we thrived.

You see, adaptability is like a form of listening. By submitting to the fact that we knew little, by listening to our own insufficiency, we were able to grow and enter several whole other levels of what life could be capable of. The major problem of the majority of our species today, is that we have lost the desire to listen. This affects us on physical, emotional, spiritual, communal... so many levels it's not even funny. If you genuinely think about it, this very issue is the cornerstone of why we face so many hard times now: We have a planet that is warming and flooding, nations around the world itching to point guns at each other, different colors of people that are once again eyeing each other with hatred and envy. The world focuses on opposition rather than cooperation and I am sick and tired of it on every single order of magnitude that I am exposed to it by on a daily basis and I am terrified of its ramifications for our future.

Finally, this is my proposal. This is my blog and I want to use it to quasi-philosophically explore the nature of listening at a fundamental level. My hope is that people can discover this blog and take away from it some element of listening into their own lives, in the quest to find unity with ourselves and each other, while growing together passionately towards a common goal: to thrive instead of survive, and show this unforgiving universe what life is capable of.

Thank you and I hope you will come to understand what I mean when I say I love you all.

Fear, Death, Evolution, and the Truly Connected Society

I think it is undeniable that we humans are the most advanced species on this planet. How did we get here?

Well, before human society, as you have all heard and thought about in the first chapters of your history and biology classes, perhaps, animals have been playing a game. This game, as you well know, is called evolution, survival of the fittest, natural selection, etc. Essentially, we all fought each other for resources, our abilities to survive clashed, favorable traits were selected for through their trials in the face of normal routines of hunting and existing or sudden devastating natural disasters. As you would think, watching your National Geographic programs, this life was and is barbaric, grueling, and appeals to our baser instincts. Our species died, a lot. A lot of people in this terrifying rogue-like MMO, without medicine or phoenix downs, were left bereft of life by earth, wind, fire, water, and beast, changed into feces and fertilizer.

As participants in the society we have today, we receive this information with a figurative deep sigh of relief. Why? Because we're past that! We're safe in our developed cities filled with law enforcement and beast-chewing highways! Yup! Humanity's as connected as ever with the internet and a sense of warm community!

...In reality, the game of evolution hasn't gone anywhere. We're just in a different league now.

Let me ask you, what's the difference between spearing a buffalo in the wild and taking some aptitude test that colleges will pay attention to? performing well at your job day after day? Well, admittedly a bucketful of innards to be cleaned out of the beast, but otherwise, nothing. You are fighting to prolong your life in both cases. You miss the buffalo, you either starve or die. You fail the aptitude test, you suffer a slow death, emotionally and possibly physically. You cannot provide for yourself easily and so sink into depression and hunger. You may possess life, but it is debatable whether you are really alive.

What this realization has done to my conception of society is made me realize further that our existences here are a sort of ultimatum. It's sad, because society promises community, a warm connection between you and your fellow human beings. You do agree its sad, don't you? Because, what this amounts to really, is, "make us enough money so you can collect your share and keep on surviving long enough to do more for us." Rampant capitalism has turned much of the view of a human being from a fellow human that one can connect with on the deepest levels to essentially a beast of burden, a cog. And within this evolutionary game, if one cog works better than another, the latter is trashed. And the standards only raise higher and higher...

Pictured (for Mass Effect players): the Human Race

Now what am I calling for here in lieu of the system I have described? Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. I simply think that this deserves some thought, as it's a pretty terrible irony. I don't think that every human should be babied to the point that it resembles the right-wing stereotype of socialism, yet I think that the current way things work severely devalues the human and does not engender any form of true community. It is not unlike the Christian doctrine of original sin, in which one is born with a debt on one's head. It's not fair and it expresses clearly that this society does not value the individual, only his industry.

True community amongst human beings only arises, I say, out of recognition and true sympathy and compassion and love between one fully realized human being and another (or those who are on the road to becoming such). Something must be addressed here, or at least there should be a place for those who don't wish to participate in this quasi-family of humanity, searching instead for the real one.

The Fully Realized Human Being

Who are you?


Those three words, so simple, elegant, even haunting, when considered to their full extent. Do you ever think about this question? What makes you, you? Is it the clothes you wear or the face? The hopes and dreams you may have? The stories that make up your life? Is it something along the lines of Cogito Ergo Sum, that your ability to think and the way in which you do it define your identity? I want you to really ponder this, and let this question sink in. Think or feel about it as you enjoy some quiet time.


Now, the purpose of this blog is most certainly NOT to debate the existence or nonexistence of a god, but I feel that this is applicable. When my father died, I had a crisis of faith and eventually renounced Catholicism at the age of 7. A few years later, my mother found enough time to show my brother and I something interesting: a philosophy called Buddhism. "AH, BUT THAT IS A RELIGION!" you may say, and I would agree with you with a lot of sects of it, but there are several secular forms of Buddhism that don't require some ritualistic religious activity. I am only going to explore some concepts that I found interesting, viewing it as a secular philosophy of life.


One of the first things I heard was a rather funny irony. Paraphrasing, the book we looked through observed that so many are so eager to explore and categorize and discover things about the outside, physical world, and yet almost none wish to even attempt to do so in their own internal "spirits". I don't necessarily mean ghostie souls of any kind; I'm more referring to just the concept of the self. That question of "who am I?" was really disturbing, because of the sheer dark amorphous cloud that then seemed to be my self. How do you answer such a question at such a young age? Well, I really had no idea, and still don't, but I can tell you that it made me really wonder other things that were really personal. Perhaps the other questions I asked myself are subquestions to this overarching one. 


I had to ask myself, what do I genuinely want in this only life that I have? This question could not be answered by a mere PS2 or awesome car someday, since I thought that the book on Buddhism we read had another valid point, that such material concerns are fleeting and don't really matter in the long run. No, the answer had to be something much more permanent, ongoing, something that really resonated in the deepest reaches of my heart and soul.

Ah, the sweet smell of Fight Club philosophy

I had some ideas. Having suffered so much at my young age, at the hands of fate and other fellow children, I knew that I didn't want to see others feel alone the way I did, which was interesting, considering I was a tad anthropophobic (fearful of people) due to my diagnosis of a light case of Asperger's Syndrome, and the way that that affected me. The way I recovered from that suffering, I felt I wanted to give such solace to others who suffered similarly, which is partially the reason I'm writing this blog at all.


I began putting so much thought into such questions, that, well, I don't know if I've learned all about myself, but I think I'm definitely on that path. I'm 19 now and I can say with certainty that I have a sort of dream for the way my life should play out and am only motivated now when the things that I must do feel conducive to such an end. There's things I want to accomplish in ways that I want to accomplish them. I have ideas and dreams and my friends have their own, and sometimes ours coincide. When they do, sheer magic can happen.


Why am I talking so much about myself? Because I think that going on the path to finding out who you are and what really motivates you, all of you, is essential to finding worthwhile friends and living a full life that you can be truly proud of. It's when I find someone who is similarly minded that I feel like my faith in humanity is not ill placed.

But I want you to consider something also. Think about the people who dedicated their lives to movements that they believed in every bit of their bodies. You have Gandhi, you have Martin Luther King Jr., you have Adolph Hitler. Now I realize you may have shat your pants at that last one, justifiably with the first look. I am merely commenting on how these people, good or bad, could bring such inspiration to affect the world around them on such a massive scale. Now I believe that efforts like Hitler's should be avoided, of course, and I think that that can be done when you consider this next idea.


Imagine that every human on earth could embark and succeed, even a little, in such self discovery. Imagine what would happen if such human beings, these fully realized, fully motivated people, could get together with their fully realized people of the same mindset. Imagine what could be possible. I honestly think that if society as it stands now had never evolved, and such things stated above in this paragraph occurred, we'd be living on Mars by now. Hell, I think that the problems we have right now would be ancient history and that our hypothetical selves would be laughing at the predicaments we, in real life, are living in now.


So, in closing, I just hope you think this is something that is worth at least a bit of thought. I'll say later why I think society is at odds with the process of self discovery, as it works now.

An Introduction: Why I just can't be quiet anymore

Why hello there. If you are reading this, you're probably surfing around this website, or however random blogs are discovered, and are looking for something interesting. Well, I made this blog simply because I am an English major at the University of Florida, and I feel that I'm just too distraught with "growing up" to do so silently.

You see, to make a long story short, which I may elaborate on later someday, my father died when I was very young, and my single mom has been overworked nastily ever since I can remember. As such, a certain attitude was born in me. I have no belief in God, so this is, to me, my only life, and knowing my father's sad history, and the way that he died without being able to be there for me as I grew up, I am obsessed with the idea of trying to live a life I can be satisfied with, with someone I love, etc. This is probably my only desire, honestly, is to live happily with a wife and kids that I can be with so we can all grow and live and love together. That's it. All of it.

Whereas my father's death birthed in me this long term dream, my mother's life has birthed in me a long term fear. She works as some sort of marketing executive, unofficially working weekends and handling the jobs of many of those under her, since she feels that they can't do their own. Since I can remember, I have barely been able to see her, or really connect with her, and therefore feel rather alienated. This is the fear that combats my dream, that the need of society for me to exist as some sort of horrible cog will prevent me from seeing my wife and my children, and essentially repeat the cycle of fatherlessness that I had to endure.

and the alternative looks like this...

So essentially, I feel that my life here at the U of F is a prelude to such a future, which thus deteriorates my motivation, as the rotting of some once shining beast. It's because I think too much and because I want to love too much in this life. I believe now, based on my assessments of the fears of others, that this society is just not good for us anymore, and that, potentially, we can become "fully realized human beings," as I would like to call them and will explain, who may be able to make this world the place that so many fight for. This blog is for me to just put down my damn thoughts for once, to preach to the digital ether, and hope perhaps that one day it may be filled with empathetic faces.