6. Anxiety

The second attempt to meeting a thing in infinite disposition is to let it present itself to us. Here we would encounter a thing freely, without disposition. One would look up and see a cloud, and instead of thinking 'a cloud' one would simply see 'it'.

Many philosophers have written about anxiety, and truly there are few more humbling and terrifying experiences out there than observing all the meaning attached to things being hastily dilapidated around us. In this mood, where things are stripped and ethereal, there is effectively no world. The being therefore, who used his image as a tool for navigating this world, finds this once valued ego-image tool nothing more than a now unwieldy piece of rudimentary machinery.

Whereas the crisis has people filling the unending void with their new endeavors, anxiety places the being in the center of this void. Here gravity is much different from anywhere else. The meaninglessness of things, and their downright silliness, cuts them from the ground where they may float freely. Finding oneself surrounded by things, suspended and revolting at the meaning once ascribed to them is certainly an uncomfortable thought. Our previous endeavor to crush a thing under infinite definition is now reversed upon us. Now, surrounded by meaninglessness, things inflate and close in on us. The cloud we once saw would simply be 'it', but without word. A thing growing in size, imposing on us, descending, nearing, and finally crushing us with the weight of it's most naked identity: "a thing, and nothing more."
Anxiety towards the being itself results from the fading of ego-image boundaries in the deeply exposed disposition. This is the same anxiety that we experience in the fading of significance to things around us, only here, the object is the being its-self.

4. Crisis

Imposing is the stance of sharing correctness, large and small. A chef quietly cutting an onion for instance, imposes his understanding of the correct way to chop an onion to the kitchen. In the same way, Gandhi imposed his view of India upon the entire world during the Indian independence movement. Regardless of size, or moral and political alignment, Imposing simply deals with the power of one's influence.

While such a mood lends itself to movement and expression, the commitment to the ego-concept  required for the mood contains consequences. Because the imposing being has a will to change things, he has a concept of how things ought to be. This concept is of course, embedded in his ego-image. And because the concept of 'how things ought to be' is existing within the imposing being, there is necessarily at least one concept well defined within the being.

Naturally, the being which declares himself one way or another partakes in a limiting activity. For him to be everything after declaring himself one way sets his being up for contradiction. For instance, politically the being cannot include within his ego-concept both statements: "I Dislike inequality" and "I Like inequality", without being contradictory. Softer limits to the ego-concept by definition exist otherwise, such as through the preference of one thing over another, however they exist clearly, and necessarily, in  contradictory statements.

The more rigid the definition, the more correctness provided to the being, the harder the limits on what the being. Our most imposing beings share a certainty about the correctness of their ego-image, as well as tight limits surrounding their ego-image, i.e. what they are.

The certainty of being, and the limits which follow, eventually cause a crisis within the being. The crisis here, isn't to be confused, limited, nor labeled for 'mid-life' or 'near-death' and other such crises. 'The crisis' which I am naming here represents the backlash at the limits set on the being. Here the goal is expansion. At it's most feeble form it resembles the expansion into the collection of material things. It is however, otherwise seen socially in the expansion into new friend circles for instance, or the searching for someone to love us, or the expansion into a sudden new hobby, or the setting of new goals. This is seen everywhere in action, we can see our friends struggling to expand from their exhausted ego-images by moving to new, often flamboyantly colored fields for image harvest. This very engulfing of new things into the ego-image is the manifestation of the crisis.

3. Impose

We create an image, as if it were an object, to place our being in relation to the world. Without this image, or self-concept, there is only a being, anxious, relation-less, and purposeless. To the ego, this is unacceptable. Hence we must create a self-concept (Ego-image) to orient ourselves to avoid the unacceptability of being without relation.  Some may call this identity or a wider version of what we refer to as personality.

From patterns emerge habits and traits, which in turn form the image. From that, we can develop pre-judgments; prejudices, likes, dislikes, and onwards to all matter of things like goals, maxims and existential commitments. The being sees this collection as it's-self. The image results for the being in question.

"In question" is the opposite of solidified image. More specifically, to be in a state of "in question" is to oppose the certainty in one's image. This state I call Exposed, for here the being isn't shielded by his certainty, he is exposed to all influence, he is flexible.

3.1 Defining, Pleasure, and Congruency

At any point in time, a being may only present a few aspects of his being, the remainder he may re-present. In one of his most honest and quiet of moments for instance, man is resting. He presents with complete honesty what he is: a man resting, or perhaps snoring. By referencing to his representation, a being can become larger than himself. In the same way that a man may point to a flower and claim he made it grow, a being may point to his past and claim that it is himself. The same applies to the future, however because of our limited control over the future, we are here especially vulnerable to mis-representation, and therefore a dishonest self-concept. I warn against definition through future accomplishments.


As the image is constructed across time it comforts the ego. The very existence of self as a concept allows us to contemplate and assess ourselves. We may see: "here is my honesty, my patience, my adoration for peanut butter." The ability to conceptualize, and thus understand or explain ourselves is the first comfort provided by the existence of a self concept. The second, is the very existence of the self-concept, as it opposes the condition of otherwise being- and nothing more. As the image is further reinforced and hardened, we become increasingly attached to it. Becoming more confident of the correctness of our self-concept. Indeed we take great pleasure in moments of congruency between an actual event and our image. In the event that we speak the truth, are patient, or enjoy peanut butter, we compare the actual to the image. When the ego speaks: "The event and the image are congruent." we feel good and correct about ourselves. The issue is then raised, do we enjoy things for the manor in which they reinforce our identity, or do we enjoy things in themselves?

While rewarding to the ego, congruency is not necessary for individuals. Indeed, who can say that they've never experienced a moment of nostalgia when describing themselves?

A perfect congruency can only happen in extraordinary times when we cannot fathom past and future in relation to ourselves. The problem with words like 'congruency' and their negation is that the positive always describes so pathetic an island, while the negation claims the ocean. To make sense of this, congruency in representation must be viewed relatively. As any image is likely to call upon things from past, present, and future, the present image may not represent the entire image. If we were to call such representation dishonest, we would have to place such a descriptor on all images and self-concepts. Because describing all humans as dishonest in absolutes terms both devalues the word of honesty, and is plain rude, I choose against this path. Instead, consider congruency as a spectrum, one of it's extreme's being the present, and the other extremity is the first encounter with the thing describing the being. Incongruency here means describing a being with something outside of the being's experience.

To strive for congruency is similar to striving for any other ideal: The desire to sustain the unwieldy goal dissolves the possibility to acheive it. Trapped is the perfectly congruent man, since he cannot dream of himself in the future, nor fantasize of his past. His life is ever present, leering at him from across the table. Because such an honest guest is hard to bear, we cannot stare for very long. We reach left and right for things at hand, things to clutter the table, block the view from the honest onlooker.

All these attempts for congruency, pleasure, and definition serve the same end: Increasing the being's confidence in his self-concept.  

3.2 Growing Correctness as the path to Imposing Directive.

As the idol is repeatedly defined, the being may observe it's self-object and become increasingly comfortable with it's existence. We grow more certain about what this idol is. When we are 'in question', we can readily answer by observing the pre-constructed idol. "Ah yes, I am wise cat, a word acrobat, and this and that." And as we answer more quickly, and grow more certain, we begin to see the first sign of imposing character; A sense of correctness about the ego-image.

Expression is born from the being's sense of correctness about his ego-image, and indeed all that it is and feels. Imposing is a powerful stance. It leads to the manipulation of our world. The ideals embedded in a person's ego-concept may include the creation of art, sex, love, intoxication, building, just as much as it may include ideals of uniform sober abstinence, and destruction. To impose is to demand a yield from things outside the ego-image. It is the will to change, edit, influence the outer world.

And indeed, what is 'will', but the imposing of one's own correctness upon the world and others?

On The Highest Organic Virtue

0.Begin, I say, by vomiting words and ideas shamelessly on your internet plate. You will not serve this dish to anyone.
Can you make a good dish with a base of vomit?

This time I observe virtue, and surely fear of


1. I am brought into the quest. The necessity for expression. Drawn to the very nexus of our human activity. The fuel of ambition, the 'Need-to things'. Here we stand in the stew of 'need to'. Not so much paralyzed as uninformed. Uninformed of our condition, of our 'need-to' things and it's 'why?'.

Why create things? Is this a worthy question to ask when observing art?

So we make it up.

Virtuous learning.
Learning

3.Willingness to grow by being influenced by others..../

Note on Expose

I claim nothing, I am everything, insomuch as I am potential.