The thing I find most shocking about the Romney "47% won't vote for me" tape is they, the Romney team, KNEW it was out there, a ticking time bomb, and PROCEEDED in denial, choosing to rely on the power of of their fund-raising machine to overcome this moment of confession. That machine will certainly be put to the test now.
That's not what this article is about, however: it is about the actual nature of the confession itself and the larger implications that are revealed in its analysis.
[When I started my book, "The Stoic" (which will be finished after this political year is put to rest), it was after the realization that, in each of us, there is a battle raging between our objective and subjective viewpoints on the world, between our materialistic and spiritualistic sensibilities, that could be articulated, clarified and reconciled, to a certain degree, by a philosophical analysis of both realms of our existence. It is an extraordinarily high concept to execute at a personal level which has made its completion...complex, to put it as nicely as possible.
Complex: but there is a much more accurate 5-letter vulgarity that also suffices (which one of the five letter vulgarities breaks along gender lines, I've found.) I chose to take up writing the book willingly and it's become my cross to bear: while I don't feel oppressed by the endeavor, I do notice it is there. (Just an explanation on why it's taking so long to complete "The Stoic".)
I, necessarily, digress. And compulsively.]
The title of this article is a fragment of a quote, I want to say it's from Nietzsche, "I looked upon the abyss and the abyss looked back." The meaning of it, as I take it, is the examination of our reality comes at a price and that price becomes reflected in our ongoing viewpoint of the world. We all do it, we all consider our lives and our place in the world, find whatever firmament we can and then set the issue aside for more practical matters. Often we never reconsider the unsettled issues, and consider them resolved, though our lives continue to erode that firmament until we find ourselves untethered to the world that surrounds us. This is the abyss coming to find us and forcing us to look upon it again.
And we really don't like doing that, let's be honest with each other.
I actually feel sorry for Mitt Romney. There is no denying he said that and no doubt he meant what he said. He just doesn't actually believe what he said, no one does, he said it for political advantage and that's the crux of the problem: the idea that what you believe is irrelevant to the objective world, is somehow counter-productive to your ambitions, has become rampant in our culture and the concept that a person must choose a material OR a spiritual lifestyle, has supplanted the struggle for an integrated life containing both.
But that's what we are, spirit and substance, and denying one for the "benefit" of the other is folly and ultimately leads to self-destruction.
So I'm resisting the urge to pile on Mitt and demonize him as a disconnected "1%er" because it goes deeper than that. He needs to reconnect to his faith, the spirituality we all understand and struggle to reconcile to our actions, and realize the strongest bond we all share is that battle within ourselves to bring our spirit into the world, doing so boldly and without restraint.
Because that's the boat we're all in together.
That's not what this article is about, however: it is about the actual nature of the confession itself and the larger implications that are revealed in its analysis.
[When I started my book, "The Stoic" (which will be finished after this political year is put to rest), it was after the realization that, in each of us, there is a battle raging between our objective and subjective viewpoints on the world, between our materialistic and spiritualistic sensibilities, that could be articulated, clarified and reconciled, to a certain degree, by a philosophical analysis of both realms of our existence. It is an extraordinarily high concept to execute at a personal level which has made its completion...complex, to put it as nicely as possible.
Complex: but there is a much more accurate 5-letter vulgarity that also suffices (which one of the five letter vulgarities breaks along gender lines, I've found.) I chose to take up writing the book willingly and it's become my cross to bear: while I don't feel oppressed by the endeavor, I do notice it is there. (Just an explanation on why it's taking so long to complete "The Stoic".)
I, necessarily, digress. And compulsively.]
The title of this article is a fragment of a quote, I want to say it's from Nietzsche, "I looked upon the abyss and the abyss looked back." The meaning of it, as I take it, is the examination of our reality comes at a price and that price becomes reflected in our ongoing viewpoint of the world. We all do it, we all consider our lives and our place in the world, find whatever firmament we can and then set the issue aside for more practical matters. Often we never reconsider the unsettled issues, and consider them resolved, though our lives continue to erode that firmament until we find ourselves untethered to the world that surrounds us. This is the abyss coming to find us and forcing us to look upon it again.
And we really don't like doing that, let's be honest with each other.
I actually feel sorry for Mitt Romney. There is no denying he said that and no doubt he meant what he said. He just doesn't actually believe what he said, no one does, he said it for political advantage and that's the crux of the problem: the idea that what you believe is irrelevant to the objective world, is somehow counter-productive to your ambitions, has become rampant in our culture and the concept that a person must choose a material OR a spiritual lifestyle, has supplanted the struggle for an integrated life containing both.
But that's what we are, spirit and substance, and denying one for the "benefit" of the other is folly and ultimately leads to self-destruction.
So I'm resisting the urge to pile on Mitt and demonize him as a disconnected "1%er" because it goes deeper than that. He needs to reconnect to his faith, the spirituality we all understand and struggle to reconcile to our actions, and realize the strongest bond we all share is that battle within ourselves to bring our spirit into the world, doing so boldly and without restraint.
Because that's the boat we're all in together.
