rsp@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Steve Price) (03/30/88)
RE: The continuing rambling debate about being an individual vrs.
being a member of a group.
Who said this was a true/false, either/or question?
I happen to be a male. That makes me someone's son. I happen to
to be the father of two boys.
What should I say if someone asks me, "Are you a son OR a father?"?
Being human (BEING in general) is a great mystery of infinite depth.
I can't reduce its complex awe by trying to use sloppy linquistics
like forced either or choices (reductionism). We (a group term) are
all simultaneously individuals and members of infinite groups.
(Actually we just ARE. In English, Russian, Sanscrit, Hebrew, etc.
there are logical descriptions of categories into which reality is
divided. Different languages divide it differently. Different worlds
'exist' in different language/cultures.)
It does no good to argue that the groups are merely linguistic
inventions. That implies that only palpable material things
or measurable energies are real (materialism). I think linquistic
conventions have a form of reality also. (Religion, politics,
philosophy, literature, music, mathematics, science are all very
largely linguistic or mental constructs. I believe they all are
real, even if the objects they discuss may be "imaginary".)
By the way, all "individualists" who want to take a radical reductionist
position will have to stop using English or any other existing human
language, even in their dreams. The group will get you otherwise.
I am also amused by people giving me advice to "be yourself". I was
not aware I had a choice.
There is a funny built-in "strange-loop" in that advice. Someone
else is ordering me or advising me to stop making some personal
choices I have been making IN ORDER TO BE FREE TO MAKE PERSONAL
CHOICES. Funny!!!
If I decide to wear my hair like John Lennon in 1968, someone says
"No be yourself!". Well who else can I be? So if I listen to a
friend and decide to shave my head, I will be following a new
source of inspiration, my friend's opinion. But here is the
neat part: I am still making the choice. I decide to follow the
advice and change my view of Lennon's hairstyle. I always decide.
And I can change my mind. I know, I do it constantly.
Steve Price
pacbell!pbhyf!rsp
(415)823-1951
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