No other ‘group’ in history shares so many traits in common as humanity. One of these traits is consciousness, basically a subjective reflection of observations from the outside world. Subjective, that is the keyword here.
Imagine this next scenario.
Setting: A typical high school, during an Arts & Crafts lesson. Friday afternoon, last day of the week, everybody anxiously looking forward to the coming weekend. From the scratching of the pencils against the paper, you can hear there’s some drawing going on, but few of the pencils are hold by students who are seriously focusing on the assignment.
Instead, most you’ll hear is some random, happy chatter from the fifteen, nearly sixteen year olds.
Silently, I’m working on my own assignment, (totally failing at) drawing a scene from a movie. Although I’m not even aware I’m paying attention to it, I’m overhearing a conversation between my two neighbours, a guy and a girl.
“You surely do blink a lot, did you know that?” the guy says casually, as though it had only just caught his eye.
The girl seems shocked.
She turns to me, who went unnoticed up until this moment.
“Torino, is this true?” she asks, hesitantly. “Do I really blink that frequently?”
What kind of question is that? I thought to myself, astonished. So that’s how I replied.
“How should I know?” I told her. “I’m not staring into your eyes 24/7!”
It might’ve come as a surprise to her, but as it happens, I have never made a habit of staring into everyone’s eyes the whole day. I most certainly don’t notice when someone blinks.
This small event illustrates the point I’m trying to make in this blog. Because people make subjective reflections of observations from the outside world, they assume these observations are true. Because they’re aware of the fact that they blink, everyone else must be too. Just because they believe the fact that they’re eating a sandwich is important, doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the rest of the twitter community thinks likewise. Only because they think they have something interesting to say in a blog, doesn’t mean the rest of the world necessarily agrees.
Everyone who sings, who writes, who draws. They’re all pretty self-centered for thinking they’re good enough to share their ‘talents’ with the world. All these social network sharing sites; DeviantArt, Blogspot, Tumblr, Twitter.
Of course, I know what you’re thinking. You’re different. You’re the one exception to the rule, because you – rationally – know better. You’re willing to admit most people don’t actually care about what you have to say, think, feel or write. Come on!! You know better.
What brings you to get out in this world and interact with everyone? Because it makes you feel good. It makes you feel good when people appreciate your writing, when they say you’re pretty, or a good singer. When they like you and act nice to you.
Still not convinced?
Prove it to me. Prove that this is not true. Give me one example of a truly selfless act. Prove to me that you aren’t as selfless as the people I described in this blog. Tell me about one completely selfless act you made.
I dare you to.
Signed,
Torino & Griffith
Can you please give credit to the persons who thought of this before you? Nietzsche already pinned down the whole selfless thing; and Scheler already argued that the argument from analogy is wrong.
ReplyDeleteAre you suggesting all thoughts are original? Are you suggesting we're wrong, simply because someone already wrote down more or less the same before us?
ReplyDeleteI would credit Nietzsche if I literally copied what he said. I would credit Nietzsche's work if all I did was rephrasing what he said.
But that's not the case.
We're illustrating how this happens in the smallest events during the day.
Not everybody has read Nietzsche, especially not youngsters. If this simplistic though direct and clear way of telling teaches them something, why not?
Of course I'm not saying all thoughts are original, on the contrary. That is why you should give credit to the people, who thought of them before you. I know you are not literally copying Nietzsche's and Scheler's work, but I do know your copying their ideas. It would only be fair, if you would give them the credit they deserve.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I know not everybody has read Nietzsche, but if your aim is to teach people something, you should also give them the opportunity to investigate the ideas further, and what would be a better way to do that, than to give credit to the original thinkers of the ideas?
I am not saying anything about right or wrong, I'm just saying that it would be fair to Nietzsche and Scheler to give them the credit they deserve.