Matt3737

Thank you!

You invited Katniss to prom just to make me jealous didn't you??? Bastard.

There was one, sure, and she is the only reason I stayed in school. Each of the four high schools I attended suffered from deficient funding, uninspiring teachers, examination-based learning, basic classes (few honors and no AP classes), overpopulation, and students who were mostly either delinquent, abrasive, or unmotivated (I did a statistical project on one of my schools to figure out why grades and test scores were really low). College changed my impression a bit - the people are generally nicer and the professors more inspiring - but I still feel somewhat stifled, especially in light of the personal and intellectual Wonderland higher education was made out to be while I was growing up. I acknowledge that it's my problem and am revising my expectations of what college is/should be in order to resolve it.

There are a few lines from the song Even Shadows Have Shadows by Eyedea that sum everything up nicely. The entire song is awesome, but here's the most relevant bits:

Every form of art isolates us from humanity
But it's provoked against being force-fed
So fuck education for a decade and three years
of headaches from my peers
'Cause now I realize I could've learned more on my own
They taught me everything I needed to know except my soul
which is everything I need to grow,
everything that keeps me whole.

Details are in a PM; it was too cluttered for a visitor message.

Hi, Matt,

I just wanted to drop by and ask a yes/no query, given your (seemingly) thorough understanding of philosophy. I recently re-read Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" and "Lila: An Inquiry into Morals" and was wondering whether his work is taken seriously. I am trying to resolve some conflicts with professional academics, epistemology, and science as motivational tools and revisited his novels on that basis; on further thought, however, I did not know if his metaphysical framework is novel and respected or narcissistic and dismissed, as it shares many elements with Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Pirsig's derision of professional academic institutes certainly doesn't win many people over, but I am more interested in whether his model stands up to criticism. All thoughts are welcome and I appreciate anything you have to offer.

I just want to get in your head, bro. I'm sure you'd have some followers...but that might actually be the scary part.

You should have a member blog.

Heh. I did not know you actively read blogs.

I have used the mythological symbols we discussed in class discussion several times this week. The crossroads and creation myths in particular; poets I am studying seem obsessed with life, death, and the space that allows them.

thank you ^^

No, I'm not. What I'm trying to get at is that someone who is so clearly incapable of deciding what is best for themselves cannot be relied upon to make the best decisions for others.

Correction: I referred to a man's willingness to die over his choice of traditional garb as zealotry. The example itself is peripheral in importance; it is only there to convey the idea that someone holds onto their dogma so firmly that they are willing to commit violence over the trivial matters that it dictates. I am saying that if someone is so willing to carry out an act of destruction over something so minor, they cannot be entrusted to capably meet the basic demands of public work, i.e. maintaining the rights of the people, keeping them alive and healthy.

He is arguing that people should be more willing to take definitive stances on moral subjects based on factual information, as provided by scientific endeavor.
The ethical framework around which science is based is concerned primarily with epistemological authenticity more often than moral consistency.
I'm not arguing against moral frameworks, I am saying that rigid adherence to a rigid framework with no regard to how it affects one's surroundings is dangerous, and prevents one from making decisions which best protect the freedoms and well-being of a people.

[video=youtube;Hj9oB4zpHww]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj9oB4zpHww[/video]

You have a good memory. It is definitely true that I enjoy the idea because of its expression in Gandalf and others, but what really captures my interest is ascendancy. Growth, expansion, evolution, and, when necessary, revolution are all topics frequently in my mind. Wizards/shamans, as I understand them, accomplish these things through magic - expressing a will/mind capable of either deep cognitive reappraisal (i.e, transformative advice) or transcending tangible restraints to overcome obstacles (fireballs for nasty goblinses, Thee-Shall-Not-Passes for angry Balrogs, invisibility for anxious escapes, and so on). The malleability of magic strongly appeals to me, I think, because I tend to view life and its contents through a similarly shifting lens. I suspect being a Ni-dominant is partially to blame for all of this, but I digress.

I did know that Tolkien popularized "dwarves", but did not know that it was considered erroneous, for the same reason. Language itself fascinates me as the iteration of possibility unfettered (within reason), the manipulation and recombination of symbols that turn into thoughts that turn into tangible products like, say, poetry and the atomic bomb. (That the two came from the same source - imagination - never ceases to amuse me.) The English language, however, is rather weird and I don't know how natives learn it the first go around. I had the benefit of learning it alongside Russian and French when young, else I might not have learned it at all.

Thanks man. I appreciate it, really do.

Problem is, a man once said: "The way to hell is paved with good intentions". And the way is being paved pretty well so far, here, in the middle east.

Wow, thank you. I certainly did not expect such a thought-out response. I will parse through it and comment as thoughts arise.

Are there any texts I can use to pursue the subject? Myth is interesting because of the recurrent themes expressed across the globe, but I never quite know where or how to start decrypting it.

Anyway, I find the psychopomp very similar to the role of a therapist, and have used it multiple times as a descriptor for why I wish to become one. I believe Carl Jung even referenced it in some of his works.

Hey Matt,

I just wanted to drop by and say thank you for introducing me to the concept of the psychopomp. I've had to write a lot of meet-and-greet, introductory things for classes this semester and have used that theme extensively throughout.

Hope all is well.

That's pretty much what I do these days. I'm hooked on the first Dragon Ball Z Budokai. I limit myself to my old video games so I don't get too sucked in. And I've been reading in Spanish because I have to learn Spanish for school.

What do you play?