This is a comment I left on the post by Touay P, entitled “Are leftists ignorant, or evil, or both?” It exploded into a full-fledged essay, especially in its footnote, so I decided to turn it into a post.
[Leftist’s] ignorance is primary. Everything they do is a consequence of that.
The ignorance, which comes from the lack of a proper education and/or the effects of counter-education against facts and reason, leaves them unable to deal with reality, which is what it is and does what it does and doesn’t care one way or the other what they want.* Therefore, they feel (not think – they’re unable to do that; also, never say “feel” when you mean “think,” words have meanings, and meanings matter) that if they can only exert control over the things that won’t yield to their wishes then they can make those wishes come true.
But beneath the grasping at control lies a horrible fear that is also a result of ignorance: reality doesn’t allow them to get what they want, and that terrifies them because they have no idea why and, due to their ignorance, no cognitive tools to figure it out. This is the most primal of fears – fear of imminent death. Not achieving what they want, they feel that they are failing at survival. They feel that way because the failure seems to have no source and no cause; it seems to come from nowhere and is ever present. They don’t – they can’t – understand it so, like a two-year-old who hasn’t yet learned how to deal with blocks that won’t stack, they explode in a tantrum which, unfortunately for those of us who can think, is extremely dangerous because they know enough to be able to lash out in violent ways rather than merely screaming and crying like the two-year-old.
So, never having learned how to deal with reality (ignorance), they’re utterly terrified because at the root they feel like they’re failing to survive (going to die), therefore they scrabble for any kind of control over their lives and try to impose their will on reality and all the rest of us.
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*Take some time to try to develop a deep understanding of what apathy, particularly in this case the universe’s apathy, truly is at the most fundamental level.
THE UNIVERSE. DOESN’T. CARE. ABOUT. YOU.
It’s not the sort of not caring that kind of turns its nose up and walks on by. That’s not really apathy at all. It’s contempt, which is one way to care about something. No, the universe has no attitude whatsoever toward you. It can’t, because it has no capacity whatsoever to do so. It knows not, therefore it must care not.
Let that really, deeply sink in. It’s that full realization that makes life precious and gives it purpose. In the face of the greatest possible absence of even mere recognition of your existence, you can create your character and build your life anyway. The unending entirety of insentient nature doesn’t even know that you are, let alone care that you are. Yet Here. You. Are.
The vital flip side of the universe not being oriented to help you is that it is also, necessarily, not oriented to oppose you. Reality isn’t seeking to stop you, it isn’t seeking anything. It can’t. Your only obstacles are nothing more than just the way things are. So they’re not really obstacles at all – nature doesn’t put things in your way, it just puts things where they are. They’re just the pre-existing conditions to be dealt with. They happen to have been here first.
Of course, you could give up and say that nothing matters. And that’s true, nothing does matter. To the universe.
But things do matter, infinitely, to you. Things can only matter to someone, to some sentient being. That’s you. And here you are.
Don’t let your light against the infinite blackness go out. Use your amazing mind to do whatever you can, however you can. Once done, nothing in that infinity can ever make it not have happened. You will have been.
7 replies on “Ignorance and the Universe’s Apathy”
Great! Now I feel even less significant! Time to go out and blow something up!
So you’re saying that you mean nothing at all to your family, your friends, your employer, your coworkers. Nothing at all to yourself.
You’re saying you’re a nothing. That’s the exact opposite of what I’m saying. But if you truly believe that, well…
Michael, it is my way of dealing with the absurdity of the universe we live in. Your right, it doesn’t matter to the universe. But as big and powerful as it is, we all have something it doesn’t. Humor. Heck the universe blows things up all the time but it doesn’t enjoy it! LOL.
BTW, I have had a 16″ Newtonian for more than 20 years. So, yeah, I have some understanding of the universe. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Ah, sorry for not getting the joke. lol
Yes, I learn more about the incredible beauty and majesty of the universe almost every day.
Well said.
Progressivism speaks only to the childishly selfish. Our educational system piles on by supporting those in that state by teaching Marxism. And they’re starting that indoctrination at younger and younger grade levels. By the time they’re old enough to [theoretically] have an adult conversation, most are too far gone and can’t hear nor respect facts and reality. That’s my take anyway.
I’m not saying that progressivism speaks only to the childishly selfish, I’m saying that some people inevitably end up progressives because that’s the only way they can think (or whatever you want to call what goes on in their feckless minds).
And they’re not selfish, they are so completely dependent on others for whatever meaning they can staple to their existence that they dare not do anything counter to their collective. That’s the opposite of selfish. Their only identity is via the group. They’re the most selfless people on earth – they literally have no self.
Marxism is a result, not a cause, of this incoherence. Can’t think (“Why can’t I succeed at living?”) -> desperate search for efficacy (“I must succeed at living – how?”) -> identifying with a collective (“Hey, there are lots of me!”) -> seeking a rationalization for doing that (“Why does it feel like this will work?”) -> Marxism (or other collectivist nonsense-ism, “Because other people are meanies!”). It’s a self-fulfilling process, to be sure, because the collectivists go on to destroy the minds of the next generation, beginning the cycle anew, but collectivism goes all the way back to brute tribalism in ancient man, when being a part of the tribe was actually the best way to ensure one’s individual survival. The mistake was made by the first person to believe that the tribe was some kind of entity that exists on its own – a collective, which is really just an abstraction that makes thinking more efficient. From there it was just a matter of time to Plato, then to Kant, then toMarx, then to Antifa.
I would buy that as the overall theme, but when you break it down to the individual level, these people are always looking to be taken care of. I would categorize that as both childish and selfish. So it depends on your vantage point.