How Does it Work?

“How does it work?” is a good question. Be assured, it does have a way that it works. Apply the question to anything and begin to turn free-fall into flight.

Epictetus commented that “The beginning of philosophy is to know the condition of one’s own mind. If a man recognizes that this is in a weakly state, he will not then want to apply it to questions of the greatest moment. As it is, men who are not fit to swallow even a morsel, buy whole treatises and try to devour them. Accordingly they either vomit them up again, or suffer from indigestion, whence come gripings, fluxions and fevers. Whereas they should have stopped to consider their capacity.” 

What a profoundly “human” statement. Epictetus was a slave, yet he could still ask big questions and improve the condition of his own mind. Perhaps we are all slaves to the human predicament and will look to console ourselves with measures of self-mastery. The difficult question is, are we really in any position to control even our own internal capacities? Could it be the case that it is all luck?

Is the discovery of wisdom as difficult as Epictetus would have you believe? Things might not be all that complicated. Most of what a person needs in order to answer the important questions is available in the moment with just ones being in a world. One’s time might be well spent contemplating basic fundamental questions rather than attempting to consume complexities that perhaps no one other than the original author fully understands.

Some fundamental questions that one could spend a lifetime on and might surely benefit from are: “How does it work?”, “What is true?”, “What is freedom?”, “What is consciousness?”, “What is the next thing to do?”. Of course there are very many more good fundamental questions. 

In trying to answer these questions one will inevitably run into every controversy that plaques humankind. Your storyline will be punctuated by all manner of vociferous objection, which can lead to intimate knowledge of the insanity of the human animal at its most confused and violent. Often it is the case that the ire of the mob will be directed to single unlucky individuals.

Here is a book with a stamp on it that reads “discard”. This book happens to be recognized as controversial, and so was likely discarded on this bases. Perhaps the persons responsible for discarding this book are not fit to consume the content, and so vomited it up. One is left to ask the question “who’s problem is that?”. Is there knowledge that should be off-limits? And who decides?

The codes that propagate from books and elsewhere are what guide people, they are the maps that illuminate the territory. There are better and worse maps, and the consequences of putting blind faith in any particular map are serious. Misunderstood or poorly communicated maps are equally as dangerous. It is with codes that we influence each other about what is worth believing.

Are the codes even “real”? is another good question, and then also how does one learn to code? One of the most valuable positions a person can hold is that of decision maker. With reason one may judge responsibly and thus input good and useful code that promote stability and flourishing. Having examined first principles deeply will give one an anchor from which to begin to judge. Though, keep in mind that floods may arrive and sweep away both you and the anchor. You will be compelled to contemplate the nature of volumes and currents and trust in anchors.

With the audacity of “knowing” one will begin to pull levers, but will almost certainly underestimate the complexity of the world, and will fail. The down stream effects that even small manipulations have can be great. Potential is an incredibly powerful reality, understanding its implication can be paralyzing. One that can see the latent potential in everything will be humbled into a “minimal lever-pulling” default state.

When is it acceptable to use force? If communication is futile and reasons become absurd, will then coercive measures be used? The use of force will likely be inexplicable except in retrospect when “reasons” are fabricated.

We have to consider the possibility that we will never get what we want no matter how many levers we pull.

It isn’t unreasonable to expect a person to come to the conclusion that the world is balanced and that until wisdom is revealed that person ought to simply observe. Eventually the weight of potential combined with necessity will move the individual. With luck a reservoir of good influence will guide intuition.