Post Existential Crisis

[Tengo_Nada]

@Xunzian

@Tengo Nada

I guess that is a fairly practical way to look at things. Do you think that changing the way we look at things changes the way we experience them?

I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know that I can’t leave the human perspective. That means that the symbol whereby I recognize a thing and the thing itself are effectively synonymous. I can’t separate the two so unless there is a very good reason to try and pretend that I can I should treat the symbol and the thing as the same. Indeed, the ‘good reason’ for trying to separate the two usually arises because one is trying to substitute a symbol. They believe something but know (through markers like cognitive dissonance and the like) that their belief is faulty in some way, so they create a silly construct that lets them bridge that gap.

The trick is that in order for how we experience something to change we actually do have to change the way we look at it. It is pretty easy to lie to ourselves and say we are viewing something differently than we actually are.

What is the symbol and what is the thing itself when we are talking about something like work? The symbol; how we perceive the work. The thing itself; how we experience the work on a day-to-day basis? And that trying to alter the symbol,the perception, is cognitive dissonance at work, a silly construct?

[Xunzian]

@Tengo Nada

What is the symbol and what is the thing itself when we are talking about something like work? The symbol; how we perceive the work. The thing itself; how we experience the work on a day-to-day basis?

Are you asking me or are you posing a system? I don’t think we can separate what we perceive from the thing itself.

I think that both how we experience work on a day-to-day basis as well as the work and its own excellences, coupled with other things like how we conceive the company/organization that we are working for/with are all very important things.

And that trying to alter the symbol,the perception, is cognitive dissonance at work, a silly construct?

Well, I think that cognitive dissonance arises when what we are taught to think/society thinks we ought think is separate from what we actually think. The Japanese have the twin concepts of “tatemae” and “honne” or “reality as you are expected to believe it is” and “reality as you personally believe it is”. In Japanese culture, neither of these are given preference, they are both equally valid representations of reality. While the Japanese embrace an extreme form of this (hence the need for the words) the idea transcends cultures and is more a part of the human condition. Cognitive dissonance usually arises when one’s honne and tatemae are in direct conflict. Sometimes it is better to favor tatemae others it is better to favor honne. The trick is to distinguish which situations call for what approach.

[gib]

@Ey_Theists

Intrigued by the responses I will get, I must ask this question.

Have you come to embrace our “meaninglessness” after an existential crisis? Or do you simply block the realization out of your mind and live on aware of this, however trying to live (not in denial) but as if it is not so?

Personally, I am in between both. Although I have come to the " " of the existential crisis.

I find agnosticism to be a safe and sure haven. When it comes to questions of the meaning of life or the purpose behind the creation of the universe, we are delving in waters far too deep for us. That’s not to say there even is a meaning or a purpose, but simply that the question is too deep for us to even know whether there is or isn’t one. There may very well not be, but who are we to say? Thus, like Socrates, the only thing I know is that I know nothing.

Given that, I find myself able to suppose that perhaps there is a meaning or purpose after all, but one which will forever be beyond my grasp, and the grasp of anyone. I guess this is a way of ‘blocking’ the realization of meaningless out of my mind, as you put it, but given my reasons for being agnostic, I can’t really say I’ve realized anything in the first place - not for certain anyway. Thinking this way brings me a bit of comfort, and not to mention a humbling sense of aw which I feel the universe is due.