Random Thoughts

An Aesthetic Meritocracy

I dislike the concept of superior physical appearance because it is almost entirely based on luck... of course you can dress nicely, style yourself... but I would prefer a world in which your external appearance was a manifestation of your personality and demeanor... the things that you can consciously morph into your ideal.

Unfortunately our biological responses dictate that it must be a major factor in aspects such as trust, lust, love.

Mdselctr: you're not so different from others, biologically
Mdselctr: as you are motivated by the same needs and desires
Mdselctr: the ties which hold people together are means of social exclusion

Unreasonable

Mdselctr: the big lie that everyone now seems to be living by is 'everyone has a different perspective'
Mdselctr: have you come across that one?
Grav: why is it a lie?
Mdselctr: it's a highly decorated justification
Grav: so how do you rationalize differences of opinion if you reject their existence?
Mdselctr: bertrand russel said it best
Mdselctr: The reasonable person adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable person tries to change the world to adapt to him. Progress is due to unreasonable people.

Daemons

You: What's your Myers-Briggs type?
Stranger: INTP.
You: I'm INTJ / INTP
Stranger: Sometimes I get INFP but I'm not a feeler.
Stranger: What's your favourite animal?
You: I can't think of one
Stranger: I like Pine martens.
Stranger: I could give a really weird answer(not sexual though).
Stranger: It's related to myers briggs.
You: Go ahead
Stranger: Basically you can analyse the traits of an animal to fit a humans personality.
You: So you're personifying the animals?
Stranger: Yeah, do you know Jung?
You: yes
Stranger: Do you know the anima?
You: no
Stranger: It's basically the female part of a males mind. The animus is the male part of a female mind
Stranger: Here's something you can check on wikipedia Daemons.
Stranger: Which is jung pychology meets animals.
Stranger: I'll give you a link.
Stranger: http://findyourdaemon.googlepages.com/home
Stranger: What do you think?
You: I am ambivalent
You: It is simultaneously unrealistic and an interesting concept
Stranger: You'd be surprised how many debate that in our community. It's a mental construct, not magic a way of forming your thought process.
You: What community do you speak of
Stranger: It's the daemon forum.
Stranger: But's it's locked at the moment and guests can't get in.
You: too many trolls?
Stranger: No we rarely get trolls.
Stranger: We had to lock it from Something awful.
Stranger: Who took things out of context.
You: It's one of those things where I would do it as a mental exercise but would be concerned if someone found out that I was doing such things (thinking I'm crazy)
Stranger: Well you don't have to tell anyone that's the beauty. It's a personal thing.
Stranger: Analysing your personality to find out who you are.
You: I'm introspective, but I'm not sure how this would help me
You: how has it changed you?
Stranger: Well it helped me realise I'm not perfect.
Stranger: I have faults but it's helped me realise who I am.
You: I don't think I want a secondary voice. I have enough trouble with just one brain
Stranger: Wait there's another site I'd think you'd like to see which has more information.
Stranger: http://www.daemonpage.com/
Stranger: This was how I found out about daemons.
You: Do a lot of people on the daemon forums end up as furries? (genuine question)
Stranger: NO!
Stranger: Alot of them aren't.
Stranger: Alot of people are as sceptical as you and it's taken very seriously and logically.
Stranger: http://daemonpage.com/forum/
Stranger: I don't know if the link will work for you though.
Stranger: Than you can browse for yourself, there is alot of debate in this forum.
You: I am put off by most of the posts I've read so far
Stranger: Why what have people said?
You: changing text color to indicate that the daemon is speaking
You: it is a bit too flamboyant and childish
Stranger: Well that's just people.
Stranger: And people do it for fun.
Stranger: Most forumers don't do it too often.
Stranger: And people who do it constanly aren't taken as seriously.
You: I'm having a hard time finding the skeptics
Stranger: If you don't like it, you don't like it, it's not for everyone.
You: I think the concept of self analysis is right but the approach is too... unscientific
You: That's not even the right word, it's more like it's too far-fetched
Stranger: Well it's not magic.
Stranger: It's splitting your though process and finding an animal form that suits your personality.

I dislike the concept of superior physical appearance because it is almost entirely based on luck... of course you can dress nicely, style yourself... but I would prefer a world in which your external appearance was a manifestation of your personality and demeanor... the things that you can consciously morph into your ideal. Unfortunately our biological responses dictate that it must be a major factor in aspects such as trust, lust, love.

While the the mind-body dualism may physically be disjointed to some extent, parts of our body outside of our central nervous system (such as our pancreas and other hormone-producing organs) affect our personalities as well. That being said, in a hypothetical world saturated with Ghost in the Shell-like body swapping technology, it is probably a trivial effort to emulate hormones and chemical balances to match our current personalities.

Lately, I've listened to a number of people who have argued that our ceaseless discontentment with ourselves and our achievements is a drive that is necessary for us to succeed in life. While I mostly agree with their sentiments, I also find it likely that we're being deceived into building ourselves into a prison of intractable social laws and new levels of possible disgruntlement. To quote Kaczynski (again),

'A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society. (This purposelessness is often called by other names such as "anomie" or "middle-class vacuity.") We suggest that the so-called "identity crisis" is actually a search for a sense of purpose, often for commitment to a suitable surrogate activity. It may be that existentialism is in large part a response to the purposelessness of modern life. Very widespread in modern society is the search for "fulfillment."'

I'll let you know once I've solved everything.