Form: Full Essay
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Self Authoring – Stoicism Is the Anvil of The Self
(Stoicism in Scientific Terms) Self Authoring and Journaling are the best training you can give yourself – other than basic physical fitness. I promise you. Why? Because we evolved our minds to search for possibilities optimistically. So its very easy to say stupid things to yourself in the madness of the moment; and much harder to write down stupid things in organized prose; and much, much harder to read stupid things you’ve written in organized prose even a day later. So journaling rapidly teaches you the frailty of human contemplation and forecasting. It teaches you intellectual honesty. This is why, prior to the leftist destruction of education, we were all taught to keep a diary (journal) of our thoughts – once we have any to journal that is. 😉 Self authoring is simply setting goals for yourself for life, the year, and the day. And reviewing them. And revising them. That’s it. If you add two checklists to your life goals (“seven habits”) so that you satisfy your full self’s needs. And a set of “virtues” (you must select from the virtues you want, not assume all virtues will help you), then this is effectively a project plan for your life, that provides you with mindfulness. If you read Marcus Aurelius, do so with the intent of learning how to write to yourself. His book is the best living example of an exceptional man’s use of thinking about his thoughts of the day, by writing them down. You must write honestly. Most of us will write very simple things. We are not Marcus Aurelius, Emperor. We are mere Warriors for the Working Day. And you must not worry about the structure of your prose – punctuation or sentence structure or spelling even. That will come with practice. All plans are created only to assist you in thinking and measuring yourself, as well as insulating you from the opinions and coercions of others. However, the best strategic plan is opportunism in pursuit of your goals, and searching for and creating opportunities for the achievement of your goals. And so any plan is merely the default opportunity you plan to seize unless a better opportunity for a different plan surprises you. I work (like Napoleon) by doing an exhaustive amount of research then making a dozen or two plans, and then doing whatever will advance the majority of those plans, so that by accident of iteration, one of the twelve plans (or more) will work out. This is too computationally difficult for many people so keeping it simple is better for them. You have to discover your own equilibrium plan, revision, and opportunity – by trial and error. Now, I find that fb and my web site, and emails to myself work as a good journal for me and I just mark private stuff private (for me only). The reason is that when I write in public I am even more honest with myself than when I write to myself in private. This is a trick of personal psychology. All of us are different. I have a lot of confidence and so I don’t mind being public. Others won’t be. And the only way to ensure that you are not talking madness to yourself (letting the elephant run away with the rider), is to write it down and review your progress. You wouldn’t believe how much your mind will lie to you on behalf of the Elephant if you do not keep a journal on the directions of the Rider. But the fact remains – you are able to master yourself (agency) by practice if you are willing to spend 90 days practicing. After a year you will find you are dependent upon using the writing to feel you are thinking clearly and organizing your thoughts. When you have an idea and immediately feel the draw to ‘write it out’ and organize your thoughts then you are engaged in Self Authoring, and the training is complete. It’s only application after that. If you do this you will need no self-help books, no great philosophies, no religions, no teachers, other than to read a book that expands your knowledge now and then. There is no secret to the Ritual of Self Authoring, and questioning information as to whether it improves your goals or not. No one else’s opinions or attitudes matter. Events do not matter. All that matters is your gradual progress to your virtues and goals. -THE VIRTUES- EXCELLENCE Excellence is striving is to be better than the day before, never giving in to the voice that says, “That’s good enough.” Instead, listen for the voice that says, “Now that’s awesome!” ASSERTIVENESS Unapologetically go after what you want in life. Be assertive and let the world feel the full weight of who you are. Live with passion … without being a jackass. COMPETITIVENESS ( … ) COMMITMENT Do what you say you’re going to do without excuse. Suit up, show up everyday, and give your best effort. TENACITY Tenacity is the ability to stick it out and never give up, to keep going when things are tough and there is no end in sight. This is the only way to live a life of contentedness because regret only happens when we give up. FITNESS ( … ) VIOLENCE ( … ) COURAGE Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the strength to move forward in the face of fear. Courage is perhaps the most vital virtue to develop. When we feel the fear and do it anyway we develop courage. MINDFULNESS ( … ) LOYALTY Staying true to yourself and standing by someone else’s side when they face adversity is mastery of loyalty. Never giving up on someone, no matter how hard it gets, for as long as it takes: that is the true measure of any great relationship. RESPECT The respect you show to others is a reflection of your self respect. For this reason, respect is something you do for yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with others, but you simply value yourself enough to give others respect. HONOR Honor is respecting those over you and acting in a way that is deserving of respect from those under you. Honor is the reputation and alliance that you earn from those you serve and those who serve you. AUTHENTICY Being true to yourself isn’t easy. Pulling off the mask that hides your flaws and living in the fullness of who your are creates a contagion that gives others the courage to do the same. COOPERATION The most important virtue for success is the ability to cooperate. If you can’t play well with others you’re going to get kicked out of the sandbox. Learn to cooperate and you’ll be successful. TEAMWORK ( … ) HONESTY You are only as good as your word. If your word isn’t worth anything, then you have lost a piece of your soul. Being honest is difficult, but it is the bedrock of character. A house is only as strong as its foundation. INTEGRITY Integrity is the solidarity of our virtues; it is the quality by which we live out our values and prioritize our principles. It is the culmination of character in action. To act with integrity is to be a good man. HUMILITY Humility is the leadership quality of taking the brunt of the blame when things go south and giving away the majority of the credit when things go well. The leader who practices humility will never ask anyone to do what they themselves cannot do. Humility is leading from a position of service. PRUDENCE Prudence is the capacity to face reality squarely in the eye, without allowing emotion or ego to get in the way, and do what is best for the team. TACT Be honest, but be tactful. Remember there is another human being on the other end of your words. Strive to live by the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” EMPATHY Empathy is the ability to put aside your ego, step into someone else’s shoes and experience their emotions. When we do this, we create connection. The number one emotional need we all have is for connection. COMPASSION The ability to step outside of yourself and perform an act of selflessness: this is the foundation of compassion. To be compassionate is to value others above yourself for the sole purpose of contributing to the greater good. GRACE Grace is giving something to someone who hasn’t earned it, doesn’t deserve it and yet we give it anyway. Simply put, grace is giving someone dessert even though they didn’t eat their vegetables. FORGIVENESS When we forgive we are giving up our right to collect on a debt. “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind,” said Gandhi. When I no longer have the need for revenge, then I have forgiven. KINDNESS There is strength in kindness. A simple smile, a kind word or even an arm on a shoulder can change someone’s life for the better and thereby change the world … Kindness is your super-power. GENEROSITY Maya Angelou said, “People won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” Be generous with how you treat everyone … they will feel amazing and so will you. GRATITUDE Did you know you can’t be resentful and grateful at the same time? Try it. To be truly grateful is to consider all the gifts you have been given and to understand that no matter what, there is always something for which to be grateful. PATIENCE There is no truer act of love than patience … just ask anyone who has raised a two-year-old. ADAPTABILITY “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome” is the mantra of the United States Marine Corps. Adaptability is the ability to be flexible to change and gain the advantage in any situation. Things that aren’t adaptable break … things that aren’t adaptable don’t survive. CONTENTMENT Dissatisfaction is the misconception that you need more than what you already have. Contentment is a mind-set: it’s choosing not to look at lack but see the abundance that already exists. -
Self Authoring – Stoicism Is the Anvil of The Self
(Stoicism in Scientific Terms) Self Authoring and Journaling are the best training you can give yourself – other than basic physical fitness. I promise you. Why? Because we evolved our minds to search for possibilities optimistically. So its very easy to say stupid things to yourself in the madness of the moment; and much harder to write down stupid things in organized prose; and much, much harder to read stupid things you’ve written in organized prose even a day later. So journaling rapidly teaches you the frailty of human contemplation and forecasting. It teaches you intellectual honesty. This is why, prior to the leftist destruction of education, we were all taught to keep a diary (journal) of our thoughts – once we have any to journal that is. 😉 Self authoring is simply setting goals for yourself for life, the year, and the day. And reviewing them. And revising them. That’s it. If you add two checklists to your life goals (“seven habits”) so that you satisfy your full self’s needs. And a set of “virtues” (you must select from the virtues you want, not assume all virtues will help you), then this is effectively a project plan for your life, that provides you with mindfulness. If you read Marcus Aurelius, do so with the intent of learning how to write to yourself. His book is the best living example of an exceptional man’s use of thinking about his thoughts of the day, by writing them down. You must write honestly. Most of us will write very simple things. We are not Marcus Aurelius, Emperor. We are mere Warriors for the Working Day. And you must not worry about the structure of your prose – punctuation or sentence structure or spelling even. That will come with practice. All plans are created only to assist you in thinking and measuring yourself, as well as insulating you from the opinions and coercions of others. However, the best strategic plan is opportunism in pursuit of your goals, and searching for and creating opportunities for the achievement of your goals. And so any plan is merely the default opportunity you plan to seize unless a better opportunity for a different plan surprises you. I work (like Napoleon) by doing an exhaustive amount of research then making a dozen or two plans, and then doing whatever will advance the majority of those plans, so that by accident of iteration, one of the twelve plans (or more) will work out. This is too computationally difficult for many people so keeping it simple is better for them. You have to discover your own equilibrium plan, revision, and opportunity – by trial and error. Now, I find that fb and my web site, and emails to myself work as a good journal for me and I just mark private stuff private (for me only). The reason is that when I write in public I am even more honest with myself than when I write to myself in private. This is a trick of personal psychology. All of us are different. I have a lot of confidence and so I don’t mind being public. Others won’t be. And the only way to ensure that you are not talking madness to yourself (letting the elephant run away with the rider), is to write it down and review your progress. You wouldn’t believe how much your mind will lie to you on behalf of the Elephant if you do not keep a journal on the directions of the Rider. But the fact remains – you are able to master yourself (agency) by practice if you are willing to spend 90 days practicing. After a year you will find you are dependent upon using the writing to feel you are thinking clearly and organizing your thoughts. When you have an idea and immediately feel the draw to ‘write it out’ and organize your thoughts then you are engaged in Self Authoring, and the training is complete. It’s only application after that. If you do this you will need no self-help books, no great philosophies, no religions, no teachers, other than to read a book that expands your knowledge now and then. There is no secret to the Ritual of Self Authoring, and questioning information as to whether it improves your goals or not. No one else’s opinions or attitudes matter. Events do not matter. All that matters is your gradual progress to your virtues and goals. -THE VIRTUES- EXCELLENCE Excellence is striving is to be better than the day before, never giving in to the voice that says, “That’s good enough.” Instead, listen for the voice that says, “Now that’s awesome!” ASSERTIVENESS Unapologetically go after what you want in life. Be assertive and let the world feel the full weight of who you are. Live with passion … without being a jackass. COMPETITIVENESS ( … ) COMMITMENT Do what you say you’re going to do without excuse. Suit up, show up everyday, and give your best effort. TENACITY Tenacity is the ability to stick it out and never give up, to keep going when things are tough and there is no end in sight. This is the only way to live a life of contentedness because regret only happens when we give up. FITNESS ( … ) VIOLENCE ( … ) COURAGE Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the strength to move forward in the face of fear. Courage is perhaps the most vital virtue to develop. When we feel the fear and do it anyway we develop courage. MINDFULNESS ( … ) LOYALTY Staying true to yourself and standing by someone else’s side when they face adversity is mastery of loyalty. Never giving up on someone, no matter how hard it gets, for as long as it takes: that is the true measure of any great relationship. RESPECT The respect you show to others is a reflection of your self respect. For this reason, respect is something you do for yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with others, but you simply value yourself enough to give others respect. HONOR Honor is respecting those over you and acting in a way that is deserving of respect from those under you. Honor is the reputation and alliance that you earn from those you serve and those who serve you. AUTHENTICY Being true to yourself isn’t easy. Pulling off the mask that hides your flaws and living in the fullness of who your are creates a contagion that gives others the courage to do the same. COOPERATION The most important virtue for success is the ability to cooperate. If you can’t play well with others you’re going to get kicked out of the sandbox. Learn to cooperate and you’ll be successful. TEAMWORK ( … ) HONESTY You are only as good as your word. If your word isn’t worth anything, then you have lost a piece of your soul. Being honest is difficult, but it is the bedrock of character. A house is only as strong as its foundation. INTEGRITY Integrity is the solidarity of our virtues; it is the quality by which we live out our values and prioritize our principles. It is the culmination of character in action. To act with integrity is to be a good man. HUMILITY Humility is the leadership quality of taking the brunt of the blame when things go south and giving away the majority of the credit when things go well. The leader who practices humility will never ask anyone to do what they themselves cannot do. Humility is leading from a position of service. PRUDENCE Prudence is the capacity to face reality squarely in the eye, without allowing emotion or ego to get in the way, and do what is best for the team. TACT Be honest, but be tactful. Remember there is another human being on the other end of your words. Strive to live by the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” EMPATHY Empathy is the ability to put aside your ego, step into someone else’s shoes and experience their emotions. When we do this, we create connection. The number one emotional need we all have is for connection. COMPASSION The ability to step outside of yourself and perform an act of selflessness: this is the foundation of compassion. To be compassionate is to value others above yourself for the sole purpose of contributing to the greater good. GRACE Grace is giving something to someone who hasn’t earned it, doesn’t deserve it and yet we give it anyway. Simply put, grace is giving someone dessert even though they didn’t eat their vegetables. FORGIVENESS When we forgive we are giving up our right to collect on a debt. “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind,” said Gandhi. When I no longer have the need for revenge, then I have forgiven. KINDNESS There is strength in kindness. A simple smile, a kind word or even an arm on a shoulder can change someone’s life for the better and thereby change the world … Kindness is your super-power. GENEROSITY Maya Angelou said, “People won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” Be generous with how you treat everyone … they will feel amazing and so will you. GRATITUDE Did you know you can’t be resentful and grateful at the same time? Try it. To be truly grateful is to consider all the gifts you have been given and to understand that no matter what, there is always something for which to be grateful. PATIENCE There is no truer act of love than patience … just ask anyone who has raised a two-year-old. ADAPTABILITY “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome” is the mantra of the United States Marine Corps. Adaptability is the ability to be flexible to change and gain the advantage in any situation. Things that aren’t adaptable break … things that aren’t adaptable don’t survive. CONTENTMENT Dissatisfaction is the misconception that you need more than what you already have. Contentment is a mind-set: it’s choosing not to look at lack but see the abundance that already exists. -
COMPARISON OF DIMENSIONAL MODELS OF PERSONALITY – AND POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL BASIS
COMPARISON OF DIMENSIONAL MODELS OF PERSONALITY – AND POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL BASIS
Now, as someone lower on the spectrum, I can appreciate the sort of madness of those higher on the spectrum than I am by seeing through the madness to the insight. This guy reminds me a lot of Chris Langan. Both of whom correctly intuit an abstract pattern of constant relations but who leap from a logical to a physical relationship. (and both of whom claim scientific proof of the existence of god. sigh…. )
However, whether the physicality is true or not (i think in the abstract it’s useful for the purpose of investigation) I think he’s correct on the dimensions of personality and their relations to brain structure. Just how those structures cooperate is far more complex (I assume.)
—– Crazy Autistic Prose Follows —–
THE CARTESIAN THEORY: Unification of Eysenck and Gray GEORGE HAMMOND Note: This paper was published in 1994 in New Ideas In Psychology Vol. 12(2), pp. 153-167, Pergamon Press
Abstract- This paper advances a new and comprehensive theory of the biological basis of the Structural Model of Personality. The Cartesian geometry of the brain is proposed as the origin of the Structural Model. Eysenck’s personality model is identified with the Cartesian structure of the brain. A decussation in the Papez loop serves to unite Gray’s personality model with Eysenck’s model providing strong experimental support. The theory explains the Big-5 model in psychometry which is cited as a direct empirical confirmation. The Cartesian Theory advances that the Structural Model of Personality, contrary to prevailing opinion, is an axiomatic “hard science” structure.
I. INTRODUCTION: A PRIMER IN THEORETICAl PHYSICS FOR PSYCHOLOGIST
The author is a theoretical physicist although he has spent a decade working in psychology. For this reason it is necessary to bridge the interdisciplinary gap between physics and psychology by explaining what is meant by “Cartesian Theory”, why it is “axiomatic”, and to explain the novel idea that psychometric structure should be identical to brain structure as this theory proposes.
In physics the word “Cartesian” means, and only means, an “orthogonal three-axis structure”. The name derives from DesCartes’ mathematical studies. DesCartes is also the author of numerous philosophical tracts, but those works do not relate to this discussion. Cartesian structure is unique in that it is found that real space is Cartesian, the first axiom of classical physics. The Cartesian structure of space causes the common rectangular shape of objects to be the most prevalent structure in science. The bonding orbitals of the atoms themselves are Cartesian which imparts a Cartesian structural influence on all material substance. The Cartesian structure of space imposes a physical law that all mechanical systems have three degrees of freedom, which explains the shape of a house, a car, an airplane; it is the first principle of all zoological formation and axiomatically predetermines the anatomy of man.
The human body is a three-axis Cartesian structure (Fig. 1a). In the CNS Figure 1,a,b,c,d,e,f,g the spinal cord is the first axis (neuraxis), and the Medial and Central fissures the second and third axes; the latter two yielding a primary four-lobed brain geometry. This basic Cartesian geometry is derived from the first three (Cartesian) cleavages of the egg in embryology (Fig. 1b).
Of interest here is that each of these Cartesian axes exhibits a major functional neurological differentiation, one on each axis; namely, the Triune neuraxial formation (stem-limbic-cortex), the Bell-Magendie, and the Sperrian. This three-axis differentiation could produce three independent psychometric factors. thus we have at the outset, an axiomatic Cartesian neurological structure associated with possibly three independent psychometric factors.
It happens that the reverse situation already exists in personality theory. Eysenck’s three uncorrelated psychometric factors may be visually represented by a Cartesian geometric structure (Cartesian coordinates). This simply because the location of a point in space is taken to be the standard example of three independent variables thus it is that we have psychometric geometry linked to brain geometry.
Now, we may also derive a further structural result from this. If the four main lobes of the brain (L-R motor and sensory) are the seat of four contrasting personalities, we see that the contrast between the diagonally situated lobes represents an extremum. We therefore predict personality conflict to be a diagonally organized neurological process. This indeed turns out to be the origin of Gray’s neurologically based personality theory.
Gray’s theory is a neurological connecting structure that links directly the diagonally situated lobes of the brain, and causes, in addition to Eysenck’s three “normal” psychometric axes, a set of “diagonal” psychometric axes of personality conflict (personality syndromes), once again geometrically identical with their causal brain structure (Fig. 4). This constitutes of course, a powerful experimental confirmation of the Cartesian theory of the brain. Finally, it turns out that Eysenck’s three dimensions of P,E,N, and Gray’s two dimensions of AnxD and ImpD, are none other than the five factors of the celebrated Big-5 Model in personality psychometry, yielding a unitary psychometric confirmation of the theory.
While the established facts are clearly sufficient to advance that the Cartesian Theory is “axiomatic”, there are some who will wonder about the ultimate biological chain of causality. In this regard I will here present an illuminating heuristic argument. We may presume that in the primitive brain one of the first logical operations was coordination of the machine in space. This is a Cartesian operation (cf., pitch, roll, and yaw) and we might assume that the organism simply utilized the isomorphic structural relation of its brain to the surrounding Cartesian space to effect this. The R-brain controlled R-turns, the L-brain L-turns, the front brain down turns, etc. Data relating head and eye steering movements (LEMS) with Sperrian lateralization are likely evidence of this. As the primitive brain evolved into the complex that it is today, mechanical navigation became logical navigation and finally psychological navigation so that today the four lobes of the brain are the location of four “personalities” of man. Personality structure and indeed personality conflict, has simply evolved from man’s primitive mechanical steering system.
Now, a speculation such as this is, of course, absolutely unessential for the present theory and I include it only as an interesting heuristic argument which is more or less representative of a large class of circumstantial data of this kind.
Having now established a bridge between the fundamental structural principles of classical physics and those of personality structure, we turn to a necessarily faster paced and more formal exposition of the Cartesian Theory. it is to be remarked here that what follows is an extremely summary treatment of the theory; little more than a theoretical note announcing its discovery. Hopefully a detailed exposition will be possible later on. I am indebted to New Ideas in Psychology for undertaking the publication of an unusual scientific work and particularly to two of their reviewers who first raised the issue of the 5-Factor theory. Had they not done so that significant development might still lay uncovered.
II. The Cartesian Theory of Anatomy
This theory is based on the authors observation that all vertebrate animals possess Cartesian symmetry. In the embryo this is marked by the neuraxis, the bilateral symmetry, and the sulcus limitans (dorso-ventral symmetry line, D-V), the latter separating the motor and sensory plates in the embryo. The work of Roux (1888), Driesch, Spemann, Schmidt, and others early in this century established that macroscopic anatomical geometry is derived from the simple Cartesian cleavage of the egg (Fig. 1b). This Cartesian geometry of mitosis and embryology then is the origin of the Cartesian symmetry of the brain, evidenced in the intersection of the neuraxis, the Medial fissure, and the Central (Rolandic) fissures of the brain- the three Cartesian axes of the brain.
The entire body is a Cartesian construct. The core of this structure is the spine which is three-axis symmetric. The skeleton is a Cartesian structure, including the quadrupedal locomotion system of all higher animals. All of the fundamental systems of the body are Cartesian: The vestibular system, the oculomotor system, the visual cortex as evidenced by quadrantanopia, the quadrature of the circulatory system, the cerebellum, the primary musculature, the Cartesian symmetry of the teeth, the sutures of the skull (bregmatic fontanel), etc. (Fig. 1).
Historically, the first of the three Cartesian divisions of the brain to be identified by neurophysiologists was the Bell-Magendie dichotomy situated astride the Central fissure. Over 100 years later it fell to Roger Sperry to identify the neuropsychological function of the second axis, the celebrated L-R axis. Despite the fact that it is the oldest known structure in the brain, the attachment of a neuropsychological label to the neuraxis itself has been slow in developing and perhaps the best-known terminology and most comprehensive theory of this structure is Paul MacLean’s Triune Brain (MacLean, 1973) (Fig. 2). Armed with these well-documented theses we turn now to the field of psychology to search for the possible psychological correlates of this Cartesian neurophysiological structure.
III. The Eysenckian Personality Model
The oldest theory of personality is that of the Four Humors advanced by Hippocrates 25 centuries ago and Eysenck has stressed the relation of this historical model to his empirical result (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1969, p. 13). A general convergence of current research trends towards this result has recently been advanced by Merenda (1987). Implicit in the Cartesian Theory of course, is that these four historical personalities now find a scientific basis in the four lobes of the brain. Moreover, Freud’s celebrated Structural Model consisting of the Ego, SrEgo, Id, and Libido is identified by the present author with this result (Fig. 6).
Eysenck’s empirical personality model (Eysenck 1947, 1952, 1970, 1976, 1981, 1990, 1992b) is one of the most cited theories in contemporary personality literature and is, arguably, the leading theory in the field. The model consisting of three psychometric dimensions named Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism (E,N,P) is well known as a three-axis orthogonal theory. Eysenck (1967) has also advanced a biological model identifying the neurological basis of the psychometric result.
Eysenck’s theory is immediately reconciled with the Cartesian Theory by identifying E,N,P with the three Cartesian axes of the brain outlined in Section II (Fig. 2). Fig 2 A large literature on lateralization of emotion (Silberman & Weingartner, 1986) indicates that the +N, -N spectrum (positive vs. negative emotion) is identified with Sperrian lateralization. Extraversion is identified with the Bell-Magendie dichotomy, support for this coming from Brebner (1983), Brebner and Cooper (1974,1978), and Stelmack (Stelmack & Plouffe, 1983). Stelmack has indicated that “the case can be made” that E is associated with the Bell-Magendie dichotomy itself.
Psychoticism is identified with the remaining Cartesian axis (the neuraxis). Both Claridge (1981a) and Gray (1981, p. 272) have suggested a vertical neurological integration as the basis of P and this fits with my own opinion that it represents a vertical pathology along the axis of MacLean’s Triune Brain.
Eysenck’s neurological model is also reconciled with the Cartesian structure of the brain. His model identifies E with cortical arousal and N with Limbic activation (Eysenck, 1967). Eysenck recently states “the theory linking Arousal with the E dimension is relatively novel, whereas that linking N and the limbic system has a long history” (Eysenck, 1990, p. 249). While the Cartesian theory indicates simply lateralization of the limbic system for N, it now explains the “novel” identification of cortical arousal with E. the Bell-Magendie dichotomy is most visible in the cortex (the motor-sensory strip) which would lead to an identification of E with cortical function. It is also interesting to note that the neuraxial modulation via the ARAS, the third element of this model, might be related to P.
Summing up then, Eysenck’s well established E and N dimensions are clearly correlated neurophysiological, according to contemporary data, with the first two Cartesian axes of the brain. Of particular note is that the obvious criticism of Eysenck’s theory for not including Sperrian lateralization (Powell, 1981, p. 69) has been handily solved in the process. The support for P is still largely a case of identification by default, but not entirely by any means, and this is attributed largely to the fact that it is a relatively recent development in Eysenckian theory and still undergoing development (Claridge, 1981b; Eysenck, 1990, 1992b).
IV. Eysenck’s Quadrature in Social Attitudes
Historically, Hans Eysenck’s personality model is derived from his research in social psychology, particularly his two-axis model of social attitudes (Eysenck, 1944). He proposed and has subsequently established (Eysenck, 1951, 1954, 1975; Eysenck & Wilson, 1978) that there is a second axis (T), orthogonal to the well-known Left-Right political axis (R),in social attitudes.
Despite Eysenck’s insistence that the primary mooring in social attitudes must be the historical L-R axis, there is the undeniable appearance of a diagonal theory, rotated 45 degrees from his model. Adorno’s theory is a famous example of this (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson & Sanford, 1950). This theory consists of a single diagonal dimension (Eysenck & Wilson, 1978, p. 4; Ray, 1986, p. 157) which I shall call the “left diagonal”. Both diagonals make an appearance in Ferguson’s (1939, 1973) well-known result; discussed at length by Eysenck (Eysenck, 1954, 1971; Eysenck & Wilson, 1978). A summary of this normal vs. diagonal controversy is given by Brand (1981, p. 22) who points out that this same peculiarity appears in personality psychometry as well as in social attitudes.
As a matter that might shed some intuitive light on the relation of “normal” to “diagonal” structure, I will mention my belief that Eysenck’s model is the origin of the Bicameral/Two-Party System (BI/2P), and that my analysis of the Roll Call voting record in the U.S. Congress has detected the existence of a diagonal “X” pattern in the voting statistics. This suggests that while social structure is normal, social conflict is diagonal, as it were.
Now, an axiomatic Cartesian theory, if proven true, would manifestly indicate that Eysenck’s social attitude model cannot be anything other than a direct social manifestation of his personality model. This indicates the existence of a third axis, likewise, in social attitudes. Eysenck has successively tried to show that the personality dimensions E, and then P, underlies the social dimension T (Ray, 1986, pp. 167-168). The existence of a third axis then, would indicate that they both probably do and that the P component of T is actually the third axis, while the E component is probably then, his time honored second axis. this would complete the suspected identity, indicated by the Cartesian theory, between the Structural Model of Personality and the structure of social attitudes.
The established existence however, of a diagonal structure in both social attitudes and personality theory has been introduced here specifically for the purpose of providing a general backdrop for the introduction of Jeffrey A. Gray’s diagonal personality model. In the next section it is then demonstrated how the Cartesian Theory of the brain unifies his diagonal model with Eysenck’s model, thus yielding a powerful experimental confirmation of the correctness of the Cartesian Theory itself, which serves to unite them.
V. The Unification of Eysenck and Gray
Gray’s personality model (Gray, 1970, 1972, 1981, 1982, 1987a, 1987b, 1987c, 1988, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c) is referred to as an alternative to Eysenck’s theory, the difference being a 45 degree rotation from Eysenck’s model. Gray’s theory is based on two decades of experimental research on Anxiety with a recent, and by comparison, rather tentative proposal concerning the origin of Impulsivity (Gray, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c). The thrust of Gray’s research however, is that his diagonal theory represents a structure that is closer to biological causation than Eysenck’s theory. Gray states: “A number of arguments suggest that the axes labelled ‘anxiety’ and ‘impulsivity’…have a better claim to…biologically real lines of causation than any other…including the original rotation used by Eysenck” (Gray, 1987a, p. 352). On the other hand we have Eysenck’s opinion of Gray’s theory: “Interesting and important as Gray’s contributions have been on the physiological side…correlational studies suggest that the picture Gray gives is essentially wrong…on the whole it would seem more appropriate to relate (his biological theory) to (Introversion) rather in line with my own earlier theories” (Eysenck, 1990, p. 248). Judging from this, at both the biological and psychometric levels, a normal and diagonal model are well entrenched in the literature and in fundamental disagreement. As a further disturbing observation, it is noted that neither of these established theories deals with the now immense topic of Sperrian lateralization (Powell, 1981, p. 69). It is at this point that the Cartesian Theory happens on its first major success. Gray’s theory is seen as the neurological structure that controls interaction and conflict, diagonally, between the four principle lobes (L-R motor and sensory) of the brain, which underlie Eysenck’s model (Fig. 4). Figure 4 Now, Eysenck has shown that the distribution of E and N is isotropic and normally distributed (Burt, 1941, p. 438; eysenck, 1947, pp. 50 and 59) (Fig. 3b); while Gray advances that “Anxiety” is a sum of E and N (Gray, 1970). Taking Anxiety = |E|+|N| we have a polar diagram of personality strength (Fig. 3c). Fig 3
From the quadrupole distribution of this figure, we see how a diagonal conflict structure arises from eysenck’s normal dimensions of E and N. Conflict is implicated, both from the bipolar structure of the dimensions and from the classic social Left-Right conflict which exists on the horizontal axis. Moreover, at the biological level, we now have a four-lobed brain structure which is suggestive in itself of a diagonal neuropsychological extremum. All of this suggests that Gray’s model must consist of a diagonal neurological link connecting the diagonally opposed lobes, or personalities, of the brain. Gray’s biological model consists of the septohippocampal system (SHS) controlling Anxiety, a behavioral activation system (BAS) underlying Impulsivity and a Fight/Flight system yielding a new third dimension, suggested by Gray as possibly Eysenck’s P (Gray, 1987a, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c). Here I will simply state that the Cartesian Theory indicates that any dimensions normal to the E-N plane has to correlate with Eysenck’s P whether controlled by a Fight/Flight or some other neurological system. Regarding the BAS, the Cartesian Theory indicates that there is a far more fundamental neurophysiological origin of Impulsivity than “goal oriented motor programming” (BAS) as recently advanced by Gray (1991a, 1991b, 1991c). In fact, it is a decussation in the SHS that indicates that it is the SHS once again, which Gray has spent 20 years developing, that not only controls Anxiety, but in a diagonally symmetric mode of operation, actually controls both Anxiety and Impulsivity.
The SHS (Gray, 1991a, p. 275) (Fig. 5) consists of a comparator located in the hippocampus. this compares periodically the real world of sensory input to a predicted or expected world generated by sensory input traversing the Papez circuit. If the comparator detects a significant deviation from expected events it activates a neurophysiological state of Anxiety as a reactive mechanism. the theory is well established in the literature and has a broad foundation in experimental neurophysiology. The SHS is centered in the fornix which connects the dorsal sensory area (hippocampus) to the ventral motor region (hypothalamus). the SHS is also bilaterally symmetric. We immediately see heretofore a D-V and L-R geometry in Gray’s SHS. The four endpoints of this “X” as it were, being the left and right hippocampi and the left and right mammillary bodies; the septal area being the center of the “X”. In short, the four arms of the fornix appear as the likely neuroanatomical candidate for the diagonal connecting structure which would underlie Gray’s diagonal personality model (Fig. 4).
A direct examination of the neurocircuitry of this system confirms that this is the case: The SHS contains a significant decussation. this decussation takes place in the Papez loop, between the hippocampus and the mammillary bodies, most of it probably in the supramammillary decussation but some of it probably in the body of the fornix or even the septal area. Swanson and Cowen state: “the dorsal subiculum projects through the descending column of the fornix to the mammillary complex where its efferents end bilaterally” and “The pre- and/or parasubicular input to the mammillary complex terminates bilaterally in both the medial and lateral mammillary nuclei,” and finally “it is presumably through these…mammillary projections that the ‘return loop, of the so-called Papez circuit is completed” (Swanson & Cowen, 1977, pp. 64, 71, and 82).
This is irrefutable evidence of a decussation in the Papez loop. Simply put, the right hippocampus projects significantly to the left mammillary body, and vice versa for the left hippocampus. While this is a decussation in the forward half of the Papez loop, in order for the loop to be diagonal, there must be a decussation in the return half of the circuit. Classically the return half of the Papez loop is through the cingulate cortex. the left and right cingulate cortex of course is cross connected at all points by the corpus callosum. a major crossed return path is therefore readily available.
Now how does this decussation in the Papez loop diagonally connect the four major lobes of the brain? Gray tells us that the SHS needs sensory input on the state of the environment and motor input concerning the nature of motor programs or plans (Gray, 1987a, pp. 298-299). the first is input from the entorhinal area in the dorsal sensory half of the brain, and the second is input to the cingulate cortex in the ventral motor half of the brain. But the motor-sensory (Bell-Magendie) division is one of the two Cartesian axes. the other axis is the bilateral (L-R) symmetry of the SHS. A prediction then, made by traversing the Papez loop diagonally is a prediction based on the comparison of multimodal input from the diagonally situated lobes of the brain. It is because of this that the generated prediction is an expression of diagonal personality interaction and as a result, it is seen that the comparator in the L-hippocampus controls Gray’s Anxiety dimension while the comparator in the R-hippocampi controls Impulsivity. the mystery of Gray’s long missing Impulsivity lies in the fact that his SHS contains a decussation.
In several places gray (1987a, pp. 333 and 335, 1988) mentions the findings of Rieman, Raichle, Robins, Butler, Herscovitch, Fox and Perlmutter (1986), using PET scans of human panic attack patients, as a strong piece of evidence supporting his theory. While rieman found higher activity in the SHS, “unexpectedly” according to Gray, this activity is found to be much higher in the R-hippocampus. Now, panic attack is a high E, high N syndrome, as are the phobias, and therefore lie on Gray’s Impulsivity axis. Rieman’s finding is seen therefore not only to confirm Gray’s theory generally, as he claims it does, it strongly confirms this major prediction of the present theory, in particular.
In summary then, Gray tells us that there is a comparator which compares reality with expectation, but it turns out from the Cartesian Theory that expectation depends upon four opinions. The four personalities defined by the intersection of Eysenck’s E and N axes are shown by the cartesian theory to reside in the four primary lobes defined by the intersection of the Medial and Central fissures of the brain. These four lobes input highly processed multimodal information into the four extremities of the Papez-Gray fornical system and there is a strong diagonal component of circulation in this system. Thus it is that the generation of expectations is composed of a diagonal balance of opinion between the diagonally opposed lobes, or personalities, of the brain. Gray’s diagonal system is the mediator of personality conflict and as such, is a functional corollary to the underlying Eysenckian structure of personality. Finally, it is seen, that it is the Cartesian principle of structure which unifies these two heretofore conflicting models and gives the resulting unified model the status of an axiomatic theory, the first such theory in the history of psychology.
VI. THE 5-FACTOR THEORY
Recently, there has been a surprising movement in personality psychometry toward a 5-Factor model (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Costa, McCrae, & dye, 1991; Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Thronquist, & Kiers, 1991). this movement has left theorists, notably Eysenck, in some consternation (Eysenck, 1992a). In a urprising development then, it appears that the Cartesian theory is to provide the resolution to yet another scientific conundrum. The Cartesian Theory in unifying Eysenck and Gray, says that there are three neuropsychologically based axes in the Structural Model proper (Eysenck’s P,E,N) and that there are two allied neurologically based axes of personality conflict, relating the diagonally opposed lobes of the Structural Model, in the E-N plane (Gray’s Anxiety- AnxD and Impulsivity- ImpD). By simple addition then, we have 3+2=5 neurologically based dimensions associated with the Structural Model of Personality. Gray’s neurological discovery has taken us into the realm of diagonal personality dimensions in Eysenckian 3-space, according to the Cartesian Theory.
The problem is that Gray’s dimensions are not exactly personality dimensions like P, E and N. They are personality conflict (or syndrome) dimensions. Since personality reactions depend not only on predisposition (personality) but also on exposure (see Eysenck, 1947, pp. 45-51 on multiple causation), the correlation with E and N is expected to be less than .707 (the cosine of 45 degrees), say something around .5. It is probably this reduced correlation that has lead personality psychologists to presume that these factors beyond E,N,P are also orthogonal. In fact they are not, they are symmetrically and moderately, correlated with E,N,P. As Eysenck points out, Costa and McCrae (1992) show a correlation of c=- .49 with N and o=+.43 with E, and further that he thinks a is simply “the obverse of P” (Eysenck, 1992a). While the correlation of c/-N and o/E are not symmetrical they are of the right magnitude, for us to make the identification between the 5-Factor model and the Eysenck-Gray unification listed in Table 1. This identification is based not only on the correlations reported but also on a comparison of the description of these factors of o, c, and AnxD, ImpD (see Costa & McCrae, 1992; Gray, 1970). Having found this origin of the 5-Factor model we explore a bit further. Eysenckian 3-space contains not two but in fact four “diagonals” (Fig. 7).
This indicates immediately that Eysenck’s 3-Normals plus the 4-Diagonals, represents the general solution of the Structural Model, 3+4=7 general factors. The 5-Factor model is then the special case where the four diagonals are collapsed into two fictitious diagonals which lie in the E-N plane (Fig. 8). Fig 8 In this regard, it is of considerable interest that Zuckerman has found that the 7-,5- and 3-Factor models are the most significant (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, & Camac, 1988; Zuckerman et al., 1991). Zuckerman then, has actually identified the general solution, as well as confirmed the existence of the robust 5-Factor model. Finally, we note that Gray has recently tilted his two basic diagonals out of the E-N plane into the third dimension (Fig. 9) which argues very strongly for the 7-Factor model as the general solution. This development ends the controversy of 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 16 dimensions in the Structural Model. The answer is “axiomatically” three. Three personality dimensions plus four diagonals of conflict (personality syndromes) make up the Structural Model (Fig. 7). All psychometric models must be projections or redactions of this General Solution and there are half a dozen or more. In principle the Cartesian Theory has explained, reconciled and confirmed all of the existing psychometric models of personality. In conclusion, while the 7-Factor model is indicated as the general solution, we don’t know how robust it is, and it may be that the 5-Factor theory is so much more robust that it will turn out to be a more useful clinical tool. However, for the purposes of this paper, it is the resolution of this multifactor problem and the explanation of the Big-5 result, which lends considerable support now, to the empirical proof of the Cartesian Theory advanced in this paper.
VII. Conclusion
In the opinion of the author the first conclusion of this paper can only be, that the long-awaited scientific discovery of the Structural Model of Perrsonality has finally occurred. We finally have an answer to the simple question “Where does the Structural Model come from?”. The answer to that question is “The Cartesian structure of the brain”. The scientific model turns out to be the three-axis empirical result established by Hans Eysenck and now brilliantly confirmed by Gray’s experimental research. Looking back at a more urgent age of psychological research moreover, this scientific discovery is seen to confirm the historical incidence of the Structural Model. The equivalence of the Freudian and Eysenckian models is thus suggested in Fig. 6. Figure 6 One cannot leave off, however, without mentioning the impact that the discovery of the Cartesian basis of the structural model is going to have on other fields of research and how other fields of research are in turn, going to help confirm the Cartesian Theory, The Cartesian basis of the BI/2P system has already been mentioned in section IV. In addition the author has researched the notion that the Four Gospel Canon of the Bible is in fact the theological identification of the Structural Model. Indeed, the Cross of Christianity itself is quite likely the symbolic representation of the Cartesian structure of the mind (Hammond, 1988, 1989). The effects of this discovery on science, religion and government can be expected to be far reaching.
Note added in proof- As this paper goes to press, the author has discovered that Raymond b. Cattell’s 7-second order factors, as numerically reported by Krug & Johns, mathematically and rigorously confirm, the 7-Factor General Solution advanced in Fig. 7. this significant development is reported in an upcoming paper by the author; coauthored by Professor Peter F. Merenda (URI). An interim report of this discovery is available from the author upon request.
Acknowledgements- The author wishes to thank Professors Hans Eysenck, Michael W. Eysenck, Paul D. MacLean, Jeffrey A. Gray, Chris R. Brand, Marvin Zuckerman, Robert M. Stelmack, Raymond B. cattell, and Peter F. Merenda past president of the New England Psychological Association, for their helpful comments, during the recent years of a decade of research of this theory.
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Source date (UTC): 2018-07-07 14:22:12 UTC
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THE THIRD VERSION OF MAN (Nietzsche in Anglo Scientific Language) By Daniel Gurp
THE THIRD VERSION OF MAN
(Nietzsche in Anglo Scientific Language)
By Daniel Gurpide
Jul 31, 2017 8:27pm
–“My humanity is a constant self-overcoming.”–Friedrich Nietzsche
THE THIRD VERSION
Nietzsche’s message was one of evolutionary change, of man’s progress toward full consciousness. He taught that the whole value and meaning of a man’s life lies in his participation in this progress – in his contribution to it.
Man should not be merely himself and conform to his own ‘nature’. He should still seek to give himself a ‘super-nature,’ to acquire a superhumanity: that superhumanity that Judeo-Christian monotheism’s vocation is to prevent him acquiring.
The idea of attaining superior consciousness is one of breeding upwards to the superman. It is furthermore the idea of the self-determined being: self-ordained to take integral charge both of the world and of himself, and to give them a new meaning, a new destiny. The discipline of philosophical anthropology has coined the term Third Man to denote this concept.
[CD: the aristocracy: a search for agency: transcendence. To leave the animal man behind. Yet, this is the feminine and abrahamic strategy: “Do not leave us behind, we will drag you down.”]
FIRST VERSION
Seen in this light, the First Man would be identified with the evolutionary process leading to the development of the characteristics that distinguish hominids from other primates: hominisation. His appearance would coincide with the invention of language, the development of hunter-gatherer bands and the use of magical shamanism, which would allow him to mimic the evolutionary strategies at work in the surrounding environment – and in this way to compensate for the instinctual deficiencies caused by his ethological plasticity.
SECOND VERSION
Several hundred thousand years on, sometime after the last glaciation, there would emerge for the first time what can be described as the Second Man. He is the inventor of the Neolithic Revolution, of agriculture, and consequently of sedentariness and the first human demographic explosion; the founder of cities and urban life, of politics, religion, the division of labour, and the development of so-called ‘pyric technology’ (implying energy production technologies based on combustion: wood, coal, oil, etc). It is the world of the Spenglerian Hochkulturen – ‘High Cultures’ or civilisations.
Depending on the way the Second Man reacted to the challenges of that time, one might then distinguish between:
1. Societies that refused or ignored any sort of historical transformation, thus heading more or less deliberately towards irrelevance and extinction. Examples might include the Australian aborigines and the non-Negroid native populations of sub-Sahara Africa (Pygmies, Khoisan).
2. Cold societies that tried to petrify early achievements in the form of endless repetition. As with the famous Aranda of Levi-Strauss, ‘faithful to their tradition’, such cold societies have become fossils of their ancestors’ history. They no longer evolve except as result of external and contingent ‘events,’ under the pressure of external factors. They are at the mercy of any environmental variation that is not previewed in their programme. In brief, they cannot survive except under the condition of not meeting again the train of history from which they alighted. This is the case of most sub-Saharan and Amazonian cultures: they became the ‘object of history’ – of other cultures’ history – once they came into contact with them.
3. Tepid societies that were active but unwilling ‘preys of history,’ such as the Far Eastern, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and pre-Columbian civilisations (*). The classic example is Japan, with a history marked by external influences which were simultaneously welcomed, rejected, and originally transfigures into what finally became Japanese culture – from the introduction of Buddhism in classical times to the Meiji Restoration after the end of the Shogunate.
And finally,
4. Hot societies: these became ‘subjects’ or ‘agents’ of history. Generated by the Indo-European Revolution, they took full charge of the historical dimension of man and have come to express its heroic and tragic character with a project of collective destiny that was consciously assumed.
In this broad picture, a final point should be made regarding the particular role played by the birth in the Middle East of an historical tendency – represented mythically by the separation of Abraham and the founding of Israel, and prolonged in a complex way by the other monotheistic religions. Jewish-Christian monotheism introduces a split within post-Neolithic society: while remaining immersed in history, it rejects the effects of the Neolithic Revolution, not this time from a practical standpoint – like cold societies – but from a moral standpoint. It finds driving force in the promise of an eschatological ‘end of history,’ and in constant ‘demystification’ of history’s creations – in particular through reversal of the concept of the divine. From instrument and projection of human creativity, and pride in the process through which the Second Man becomes master of himself and of the world, the divine turns into a ‘transcendent’ condemnation and relativisation of human adventure.
The religion of the Bible’s essential effect – if not its express intention – amounted to obstructing man’s capability to fully realise the powers of freedom and creative autonomy arising from humanisation itself, powers that were historically reinforced by the Neolithic Revolution and the development of great cultures.
Precisely at the time the Indo-European revolution attained its maximum power and expansion, this messianic tendency – based on the moral rejection of history and civilisation – infiltrated the Roman world and reached a point of synthesis through the so-called ‘Constantinian compromise’, giving birth to ‘the West’. Step by step, it repressed the original European colective unconscious and corrupted the European culture of the time, transforming it into something hybrid. From the two souls living in Europe’s chest since that moment, the Jewish-Christian is evidently that which today, in its secular and more radical form, celebrates global hegemony.
(*) It is difficult to disentangle the twisted skein of contacts, exchanges, and influences that tepid cultures originally received from without. Some have hypothesised a role of primer for Indo-European influences and groups by way of imitation, competition, or re-elaboration. For example, Indo-Aryan influences on Chinese culture, and through the latter on Japan; or the complex pattern of contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia on the one hand and, on the other, the different waves of invaders that from Central Europe on several occasions spilled into over the Near East. More uncertain are those hypotheses that suggest a connection of this type with the pre-Columbian empires. There are also hypotheses, more scientific in this case, about the existence of a ‘hyperborean’ Indo-European civilisation which had influences on an almost planetary scale.
DG
Source date (UTC): 2018-06-27 10:16:00 UTC
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CHRISTIANITY AND THE WILL TO POWER by Jeff Urizen As Nietzsche correctly stated,
CHRISTIANITY AND THE WILL TO POWER
by Jeff Urizen
As Nietzsche correctly stated, this world is the will to power, and I’d add, it’s a will to power over the physical world. Pagan religion was merely an expression of how much control nature in its rawest Form had over man.
When man began to master over nature he developed a man centered religion.
Our will to power is controlled by hormones in our brain. When we rise up in power we get a serotonin boost. When we want to avoid falling back down the Hierarchy we experience disgust. Disgust sensitivity is the tool we evolved to rise up in power. Christian disgust was an attempt, an altruistic attempt, to forcefully raise the people up the dominance Hierarchy to better rule over the other subspecies and races. It gabe a strategic advantage. Christian disgust is just the human response to being around that which you perceive as being less powerful and more under the control of nature and not your own will.
Christianity then reached its zenith and gave birth to the next phase of our ascendence into power which is liberalism, being free of all consequences, free of the limitations of truth, free of the limitations of definitions, completely free of responsibility to the material World.
This phase is a divine phase and that is why liberals rightly defend their religion by being disgusted by race and nations, which are seen as merely limitations and thus restrictions on man’s quest to dominate the limitations placed on him by the physical world.
Liberalism isn’t degenerate, it is the removal of obligations so that the genes can search for new areas of Conquest without the limitations that the obligation of reproduction would place on them. The right side of the brain detects and defends against predators while the left side of the brain searches for prey.
The left is not meant to defend it is is meant to Conquer and so you can’t hate the left for being what they are because essentially they are like Christ, childless martyrs of the pursuit of knowledge of the father, the field, the universe. The right isn’t the enemy either, it must defend its genetic base and must insist that all others do the same so that the most fit genes can ascend, and so the right must prevent all attempts to ascend the Hierarchy which are not based strictly on merit or which come at the cost of the genetic base.
The next logical step in this ascendancy is to enter a synthetic stage where we either become robot consciousness or we become a new species that feeds on all those below it. The elite become a new race unidentifiable to the race of the public, and we become their pets as their favorite past time while they search for the next physical limitation to transcend which is the earths biosphere, and our next goal is to inhabit other planets.
Genes exist to replicate and thus they will subjugate and stand upon all that which prevents this.
Preservation of a race is merely a safety mechanism, a security blanket, allowing the higher orders to take risks and offset losses on the people, and therefore all the left and the right are serving in their divine purpose and pursuit of divinity.As Nietzsche correctly stated, this world is the will to power, and I’d add, it’s a will to power over the physical world. Pagan religion was merely an expression of how much control nature in its rawest Form had over man.
When man began to master over nature he developed a man centered religion.
Our will to power is controlled by hormones in our brain. When we rise up in power we get a serotonin boost. When we want to avoid falling back down the Hierarchy we experience disgust. Disgust sensitivity is the tool we evolved to rise up in power. Christian disgust was an attempt, an altruistic attempt, to forcefully raise the people up the dominance Hierarchy to better rule over the other subspecies and races. It gabe a strategic advantage. Christian disgust is just the human response to being around that which you perceive as being less powerful and more under the control of nature and not your own will.
Christianity then reached its zenith and gave birth to the next phase of our ascendence into power which is liberalism, being free of all consequences, free of the limitations of truth, free of the limitations of definitions, completely free of responsibility to the material World.
This phase is a divine phase and that is why liberals rightly defend their religion by being disgusted by race and nations, which are seen as merely limitations and thus restrictions on man’s quest to dominate the limitations placed on him by the physical world.
Liberalism isn’t degenerate, it is the removal of obligations so that the genes can search for new areas of Conquest without the limitations that the obligation of reproduction would place on them. The right side of the brain detects and defends against predators while the left side of the brain searches for prey.
The left is not meant to defend it is is meant to Conquer and so you can’t hate the left for being what they are because essentially they are like Christ, childless martyrs of the pursuit of knowledge of the father, the field, the universe. The right isn’t the enemy either, it must defend its genetic base and must insist that all others do the same so that the most fit genes can ascend, and so the right must prevent all attempts to ascend the Hierarchy which are not based strictly on merit or which come at the cost of the genetic base.
The next logical step in this ascendancy is to enter a synthetic stage where we either become robot consciousness or we become a new species that feeds on all those below it. The elite become a new race unidentifiable to the race of the public, and we become their pets as their favorite past time while they search for the next physical limitation to transcend which is the earths biosphere, and our next goal is to inhabit other planets.
Genes exist to replicate and thus they will subjugate and stand upon all that which prevents this.
Preservation of a race is merely a safety mechanism, a security blanket, allowing the higher orders to take risks and offset losses on the people, and therefore all the left and the right are serving in their divine purpose and pursuit of divinity.
Source date (UTC): 2018-06-11 12:47:00 UTC
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Aryan Myth, Abrahamism and The Beginning of The European Cultural Neurosis
ARYAN MYTH, ABRAHAMISM AND THE BEGINNING OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL NEUROSIS by Daniel Gurpide The Indo-Europeans introduced not only practical techniques for the appropriation of the physical and biological world but also, above all, a new technique for organising socio-political and juridical relationships. It developed concepts such as ‘genos,’ ‘polis,’ and ‘imperium’—in their classical, medieval, or modern translations—and this constituted the difference that came to define Indo-European identity when confronted with other populations, cultures, and civilisations. Such a way of organising society derived from a particular Weltanschauung. This world view, expressed in all fields of human activity, gave birth to a cosmogonic myth, around which Indo-European man understood, explained, and organised the universe and history. Its unique character is better perceived when contrasted with the mentality and culture of the Book of Genesis. The latter narrative, in its religious and secularised forms, continues to obsess contemporary Western civilisation. What is most striking when studying Indo-European cosmogony is the solemn affirmation, found everywhere, of man’s primacy. Indo-European cosmogony places a ‘cosmic man’ at the ‘beginning’ of the current cycle of the world. It is from him that all things derive: gods, nature, living beings—and man himself as historical being. In the Indian world, the Rig Veda names him Purusha; his name is Ymir in the Edda; and, according to Tacitus, he was called Mannus among continental Germans. For the Vedic Indians, Purusha is the One through whom the universe begins (again). He is ‘naught but this universe, what has passed and what is yet to come.’ In the same fashion, Ymir is the undivided One: and by him the world is first organised. His own birth results from the meeting of fire and ice. Kalidasa’s poem Kumarasambhava—one of the summits of Indian poetic reflection on the traditions of the Vedas—marvellously explains the allusions of the Indo-European cosmogonic myth. The opposition between Purusha (cosmic man) and Prakriti (which corresponds, approximately, to natura naturans) is revealing. Through being able to see without depending for this on Prakriti, Purusha is at the origin of the universe. Since the universe is but indistinct chaos, devoid of any sense or significance, it is only by means of the outlook and word of cosmic man that the multitude of beings and things may emerge—including man fully realised as such. Purusha’s sacrifice is the Apollonian moment at which is affirmed the principium individuationis—‘cause of all that exists and shall exist’—until that time when the world will crumble: the Dionysian end that is also the condition of new beginning. The universe does not derive its existence from something not part of it. It proceeds from the being of cosmic man: his body, his gaze, his word—and his consciousness. There is no opposition between two worlds—between created being and uncreated being. On the contrary, there is incessant conversion and consubstantiality between beings and things, between heaven and earth, between men and gods. In such a Weltanschauung, the gods are themselves a quarter of the cosmic man. They are superior men in the Nietzschean sense; in a certain way they perpetuate the transfigured and transfiguring memory of the first ‘civilising heroes’: those who brought humankind from its precedent stage—and truly founded, by ordering it into three functions, human society, Indo-European society. These gods do not represent ‘Good’—neither do they represent ‘Evil.’ Insofar as they represent sublimated forms of the good and evil that coexist, as antagonists, within life itself, they are both good and evil. Hence, each presents an ambivalent aspect—a human aspect. This explains why mythical imagination tends to split personality: Mitra-Varuna, Jupiter-Dius Fidius, Odin/Wotan-Tyr, etc. In relation to present humankind, which they have instituted as such, these gods correspond indeed to their mythical ‘ancestors’ and ideal models. Legislators, inventors of social tradition, they remain present, are still active. However, they also remain subject to fatum: destined in a very human way to an ‘end.’ In brief, we are referring not to creating gods, but rather to creatures—human gods who are, nevertheless, organisers-orderers of the world: ancestral gods for current humankind; gods who are great in both good and evil and who place themselves beyond such notions. On Olympus, says Heraclitus, ‘the gods are immortal men, whereas men are mortal gods; our life is their death and our death their life.’ What are labelled ‘Indo-European people’ correspond to a society which came to the fore at the beginning of the Neolithic Age and whose cosmogonic myth was organised by a new perspective gained at this historical juncture—a perspective allowing reflection on the prior belief system and its revolutionary reinterpretation. If belief in a ‘supreme being’—not to be mistaken for the one god of monotheism—was common to ‘primitive humankind’—that is, to the human groups who lived at the end of the Mesolithic Age, the Indo-European cosmogony is a reformulation of that idea—or rather a discourse that explodes and overcomes the language and the ‘reason’ of the preceding period. It is legitimate to consider that, for the Mesolithic ancestors of the Indo-Europeans, the supreme being has become none other than man himself; has become, more precisely, a ‘cosmic projection’ of man as holder of magic power. Similarly, one may conclude that this particular Indo-European idea of the supreme being was not shared by the other human groups who descended from the Mesolithic Age. The classical Middle East has ‘reflected’—imagined and interpreted—the same set of Mesolithic beliefs in a manner diametrically opposed to the one taken by the Indo-Europeans. The Judeo-Christian Bible—summa of the religious Levantine Weltanschauung—stands at the antipodes of the Indo-European vision. Yahweh has not extracted the universe by subdivision and ‘dismemberment’ of himself. He has created it ex nihilo, out of nothing. He is not the coincidentia oppositorum: the ‘Undivided Self,’ the place where all relative oppositions meet, melt, and surpass themselves. He is not simultaneously ‘being and non-being.’ He is being only: ‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3:14). Entirely alien to the world, Yahweh is the antithesis of all tangible reality. He is not an aspect, sum, level, form, or quality of the world. ‘The world is entirely distinct from God, its creator,’ the First Vatican Council of 1870 reminds us. Consequently, since the created universe cannot be identical to the creating god, the world lacks essence. It has existence only. More precisely, it is a being of ‘inferior degree’—imperfect. Indo-European polytheism is the complementary ‘reverse’ of what might be defined as mono-humanism or pan-humanism: man is the law of the world (anthropos o nomos tou kosmou) and the measure of all things. In contrast, Jewish monotheism appears to be the conclusion of a process of reabsorption: reduction to unity of a multiplicity of non-human deities (personified natural forces) operated by Elohim-Yahweh. In short, it is the outcome of a mental speculation that also leads the plurality of things back to a single principle; not man, in this case, but matter and energy: ‘nature.’ From being the one and only god, non-ambivalent, Yahweh evidently represents absolute Good. It is understandable that he often shows himself to be cruel, implacable, jealous. Absolute Good could only be intransigent against Evil. What is less logical is the biblical conception of evil. Not deriving from absolute good, evil should not exist in a world created from nothing by a god who is ‘infinitely good.’ The Bible tries to solve the problem by explaining away evil as the consequence of the revolt of certain creatures—notably Lucifer—against the authority of Yahweh. Hence, evil seems to be the refusal of a creature to play the role assigned by Yahweh. The power of evil may at times seem considerable. However, as compared to the power of good (Yahweh), it is nothing of the sort: the final outcome of the struggle between Good and Evil is never in doubt. All problems, all conflicts are already solved before they take place: history is pure decay, the effect of the blindness of impotent creatures. In this way, from the start, history is devoid of sense. The First Man—the first humanity—has blundered in giving in to a suggestion from Satan. In consequence, he has declined the role Yahweh had assigned to him. He has picked the forbidden apple, and entered history. Creator of the universe, Yahweh has also played—in relation to the ‘current’ human society—a role entirely antithetical to that played by the Indo-European sovereign gods. Yahweh is not a ‘civilising hero’ who invents a social tradition. Rather, he constitutes an omnipotence that opposes Adam’s ‘fault’—the sort of human life the latter wished to enjoy: a post-Neolithic urban civilisation—implicitly referred to, in the Book of Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel. However, long before this, Yahweh had refused the land’s produce offered by the farmer Cain, and ‘had regard [only] for Abel and his offering’ (Genesis 4:3–5). Abel is not a farmer; rather, he is but a nomad who has abandoned hunting and survives from carrying out razzias. He extends the Mesolithic tradition into a new society—born of the Neolithic Revolution—and rejects the new way of life. Subsequently, the mission of Abraham—the nomad who had deserted the city of Ur—and that of his descendants, will be to negate and reject, from the very interior of the world, any form of post-Neolithic civilisation, since its very existence perpetuates the memory of the ‘revolt’ against Yahweh. After Abraham, Moses maintains this commitment. Just as the people of Israel were able to escape captivity in Egypt, the whole of humanity is called upon to escape the ‘captivity’ of history. The law of Yahweh, handed down at Mount Sinai, is presented as the means of rescinding, once and for all, Adam and Eve’s transgression. Man, in relation to the ‘god’ of the Bible, is not really a ‘son’; rather, he is a mere creature. Yahweh has made him, as any other living being, just as a potter models a vase. He has made him in ‘his own image’ (Genesis 1:27) in order to have his steward on Earth: the guardian of Paradise. The power man holds over the world is a power by proxy: a power entrusted to him that he may use only on the condition he not use it fully. Adam, seduced by the Devil, challenged the role that Yahweh had wanted him to play. But man will forever remain God’s servant (‘And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified,’ Isaiah 49:3). The superiority of man over beast is as nothing—for all is vanity. ‘All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again’ (Ecclesiastes 3:20). Man, according to the teachings of the Bible, has to remember unfailingly that he is dust; that historical existence has the sense only of that implicitly ascribed when history is actively rejected. ‘Roman’ Christianity, born with the Constantinian arrangement, was from the start an attempt to establish, within the ‘ancient’ world transformed by Rome in orbis politica, a compromise between the Indo-European Weltanschauung and the Judaic religion, adapted to Roman imperial civilisation by the alleged efforts of Jesus. The one and only god became, through dogmatic ‘mystery,’ ‘one god in three persons.’ The old trinity that the Vedic Indians called Trimurti has been integrated and, broadly, these ‘persons’ have assumed the three functions of Indo-European society, now in an inverted, spiritualised form. As creator and sovereign, Yahweh nevertheless continues to reject the dual aspect of reality: evil is the exclusive province of Satan. The new name ‘Deus Pater’—‘eternal and divine father,’ revered by the Indo-Europeans—is substituted for the old name given by the Bible. Yahweh is father only of his ‘second person’: a son sent to Earth to play a role opposed to that of ‘founding hero.’ He is a son who decides to become alienated from this world in order the better to show a way to the world beyond, and who, if he renders unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, does this only because to him what belongs to Caesar is of no value at all. He is a son, finally, whose function is not to ‘make war,’ but to preach a jealous peace that will benefit only the ‘men of goodwill’—the adversaries of this world—those to whom is reserved the only nutrient of eternity: the grace administered by the third ‘person,’ the Holy Spirit. Man, as a creature—and as a created being—is the serf of God’s serfs: ‘excrement’ (stercus, as Augustine of Hippo put it). However, at the same time, he is also the brother of the incarnated son of Yahweh, which ‘almost’ makes him a son of God—provided he knows how to will and deserve it, something that depends on the grace the Creator administers according to unfathomable criteria. The day shall come when humankind will be definitively and eternally divided between the saints and the damned. There is a biblical Valhalla: the Celestial Paradise, but it is now reserved for the anti-heroes (In To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), Erich Fromm observes: ‘The [Christian] martyr is the exact opposite of the pagan hero personified in the Greek and Germanic heroes. . . . For the pagan hero, a man’s worth lay in his prowess in attaining and holding onto power, and he gladly died on the battlefield in the moment of victory’). The others belong to Hell. This compromise has for centuries moulded the history of what is called ‘Western civilisation.’ For centuries, according to the deepest affinities, ‘pagan’ and ‘Levantine’ man has been able to see—in the ‘one and threefold’ god—his own respective divinity. This explains the numerous confusions that have always characterised historical Christianity. The coexistence of two antagonistic spiritualities—often confronting one another, even in the hearts of the same individuals—eventually crystallise into a veritable neurosis of the European mentality. Today we can confidently state that the Constantinian ‘arrangement’ arranged nothing, and that the day the motto ‘In hoc signo vinces’ was proclaimed had detrimental consequences for the Greco-Roman and Celto-Germanic world. Until recently, the Church of Rome particularly, and the Christian churches in general remained, as organised secular powers, attached to the appearances of the old compromise. However, in more recent times they began to recognise the authentic essence of Christianity. Hence, Yahweh, finally casting off the mask of luminous and celestial Deus-Pater, was rediscovered and proclaimed anew. In 1938 Pope Pius XI declared: ‘Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [i.e., Christians] are all Semites.’ However, long before the churches reached that point, ‘profane’ (demythicised and secularised) Christianity, i.e., egalitarianism in all its forms, had found its path according to biblical truth. This was marked by the rejection of history; the proclaimed will to ‘step out of history’ in order to return to ‘nature’; the tendency to reabsorb human specificity into the ‘physical-chemical’; all determinist materialisms; Marcuse’s condemnation of art on the grounds that by integrating man in society it would betray ‘truth’; finally, the egalitarian ideology that wants to reduce humankind to the anti-hero model: the chosen one, hostile to any specific civilisation in that he wishes to see in it nothing but unhappiness, misery, exploitation (Marx), repression (Freud), or pollution. All this has invariably restored—still continues to restore today, at that precise moment when a new technological revolution is inviting us to overcome old ‘forms’—that motionless, ‘eternal’ (if there ever was such) Judaic vision: an unequivocal ‘No’ to any present pregnant with a future. Saying ‘Yes’ to history—ever-becoming, ever re-proposing new foundations—implies assuming new forms and content. Saying ‘Yes’ is creation, the work of art. ‘No’ exists only by denying any value to such work. The Indo-European cosmogonic myth reassures us that saying ‘Yes’ is always possible. In a different world, arising from the ruins of the old, the mission of ‘civilising heroes’ is eternal, and it assumes, serenely, the splendid and tragic destiny of one who creates, gives birth to himself, and accepts, as condition of any historical adventure, of any life, the idea of his own end.
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Aryan Myth, Abrahamism and The Beginning of The European Cultural Neurosis
ARYAN MYTH, ABRAHAMISM AND THE BEGINNING OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL NEUROSIS by Daniel Gurpide The Indo-Europeans introduced not only practical techniques for the appropriation of the physical and biological world but also, above all, a new technique for organising socio-political and juridical relationships. It developed concepts such as ‘genos,’ ‘polis,’ and ‘imperium’—in their classical, medieval, or modern translations—and this constituted the difference that came to define Indo-European identity when confronted with other populations, cultures, and civilisations. Such a way of organising society derived from a particular Weltanschauung. This world view, expressed in all fields of human activity, gave birth to a cosmogonic myth, around which Indo-European man understood, explained, and organised the universe and history. Its unique character is better perceived when contrasted with the mentality and culture of the Book of Genesis. The latter narrative, in its religious and secularised forms, continues to obsess contemporary Western civilisation. What is most striking when studying Indo-European cosmogony is the solemn affirmation, found everywhere, of man’s primacy. Indo-European cosmogony places a ‘cosmic man’ at the ‘beginning’ of the current cycle of the world. It is from him that all things derive: gods, nature, living beings—and man himself as historical being. In the Indian world, the Rig Veda names him Purusha; his name is Ymir in the Edda; and, according to Tacitus, he was called Mannus among continental Germans. For the Vedic Indians, Purusha is the One through whom the universe begins (again). He is ‘naught but this universe, what has passed and what is yet to come.’ In the same fashion, Ymir is the undivided One: and by him the world is first organised. His own birth results from the meeting of fire and ice. Kalidasa’s poem Kumarasambhava—one of the summits of Indian poetic reflection on the traditions of the Vedas—marvellously explains the allusions of the Indo-European cosmogonic myth. The opposition between Purusha (cosmic man) and Prakriti (which corresponds, approximately, to natura naturans) is revealing. Through being able to see without depending for this on Prakriti, Purusha is at the origin of the universe. Since the universe is but indistinct chaos, devoid of any sense or significance, it is only by means of the outlook and word of cosmic man that the multitude of beings and things may emerge—including man fully realised as such. Purusha’s sacrifice is the Apollonian moment at which is affirmed the principium individuationis—‘cause of all that exists and shall exist’—until that time when the world will crumble: the Dionysian end that is also the condition of new beginning. The universe does not derive its existence from something not part of it. It proceeds from the being of cosmic man: his body, his gaze, his word—and his consciousness. There is no opposition between two worlds—between created being and uncreated being. On the contrary, there is incessant conversion and consubstantiality between beings and things, between heaven and earth, between men and gods. In such a Weltanschauung, the gods are themselves a quarter of the cosmic man. They are superior men in the Nietzschean sense; in a certain way they perpetuate the transfigured and transfiguring memory of the first ‘civilising heroes’: those who brought humankind from its precedent stage—and truly founded, by ordering it into three functions, human society, Indo-European society. These gods do not represent ‘Good’—neither do they represent ‘Evil.’ Insofar as they represent sublimated forms of the good and evil that coexist, as antagonists, within life itself, they are both good and evil. Hence, each presents an ambivalent aspect—a human aspect. This explains why mythical imagination tends to split personality: Mitra-Varuna, Jupiter-Dius Fidius, Odin/Wotan-Tyr, etc. In relation to present humankind, which they have instituted as such, these gods correspond indeed to their mythical ‘ancestors’ and ideal models. Legislators, inventors of social tradition, they remain present, are still active. However, they also remain subject to fatum: destined in a very human way to an ‘end.’ In brief, we are referring not to creating gods, but rather to creatures—human gods who are, nevertheless, organisers-orderers of the world: ancestral gods for current humankind; gods who are great in both good and evil and who place themselves beyond such notions. On Olympus, says Heraclitus, ‘the gods are immortal men, whereas men are mortal gods; our life is their death and our death their life.’ What are labelled ‘Indo-European people’ correspond to a society which came to the fore at the beginning of the Neolithic Age and whose cosmogonic myth was organised by a new perspective gained at this historical juncture—a perspective allowing reflection on the prior belief system and its revolutionary reinterpretation. If belief in a ‘supreme being’—not to be mistaken for the one god of monotheism—was common to ‘primitive humankind’—that is, to the human groups who lived at the end of the Mesolithic Age, the Indo-European cosmogony is a reformulation of that idea—or rather a discourse that explodes and overcomes the language and the ‘reason’ of the preceding period. It is legitimate to consider that, for the Mesolithic ancestors of the Indo-Europeans, the supreme being has become none other than man himself; has become, more precisely, a ‘cosmic projection’ of man as holder of magic power. Similarly, one may conclude that this particular Indo-European idea of the supreme being was not shared by the other human groups who descended from the Mesolithic Age. The classical Middle East has ‘reflected’—imagined and interpreted—the same set of Mesolithic beliefs in a manner diametrically opposed to the one taken by the Indo-Europeans. The Judeo-Christian Bible—summa of the religious Levantine Weltanschauung—stands at the antipodes of the Indo-European vision. Yahweh has not extracted the universe by subdivision and ‘dismemberment’ of himself. He has created it ex nihilo, out of nothing. He is not the coincidentia oppositorum: the ‘Undivided Self,’ the place where all relative oppositions meet, melt, and surpass themselves. He is not simultaneously ‘being and non-being.’ He is being only: ‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3:14). Entirely alien to the world, Yahweh is the antithesis of all tangible reality. He is not an aspect, sum, level, form, or quality of the world. ‘The world is entirely distinct from God, its creator,’ the First Vatican Council of 1870 reminds us. Consequently, since the created universe cannot be identical to the creating god, the world lacks essence. It has existence only. More precisely, it is a being of ‘inferior degree’—imperfect. Indo-European polytheism is the complementary ‘reverse’ of what might be defined as mono-humanism or pan-humanism: man is the law of the world (anthropos o nomos tou kosmou) and the measure of all things. In contrast, Jewish monotheism appears to be the conclusion of a process of reabsorption: reduction to unity of a multiplicity of non-human deities (personified natural forces) operated by Elohim-Yahweh. In short, it is the outcome of a mental speculation that also leads the plurality of things back to a single principle; not man, in this case, but matter and energy: ‘nature.’ From being the one and only god, non-ambivalent, Yahweh evidently represents absolute Good. It is understandable that he often shows himself to be cruel, implacable, jealous. Absolute Good could only be intransigent against Evil. What is less logical is the biblical conception of evil. Not deriving from absolute good, evil should not exist in a world created from nothing by a god who is ‘infinitely good.’ The Bible tries to solve the problem by explaining away evil as the consequence of the revolt of certain creatures—notably Lucifer—against the authority of Yahweh. Hence, evil seems to be the refusal of a creature to play the role assigned by Yahweh. The power of evil may at times seem considerable. However, as compared to the power of good (Yahweh), it is nothing of the sort: the final outcome of the struggle between Good and Evil is never in doubt. All problems, all conflicts are already solved before they take place: history is pure decay, the effect of the blindness of impotent creatures. In this way, from the start, history is devoid of sense. The First Man—the first humanity—has blundered in giving in to a suggestion from Satan. In consequence, he has declined the role Yahweh had assigned to him. He has picked the forbidden apple, and entered history. Creator of the universe, Yahweh has also played—in relation to the ‘current’ human society—a role entirely antithetical to that played by the Indo-European sovereign gods. Yahweh is not a ‘civilising hero’ who invents a social tradition. Rather, he constitutes an omnipotence that opposes Adam’s ‘fault’—the sort of human life the latter wished to enjoy: a post-Neolithic urban civilisation—implicitly referred to, in the Book of Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel. However, long before this, Yahweh had refused the land’s produce offered by the farmer Cain, and ‘had regard [only] for Abel and his offering’ (Genesis 4:3–5). Abel is not a farmer; rather, he is but a nomad who has abandoned hunting and survives from carrying out razzias. He extends the Mesolithic tradition into a new society—born of the Neolithic Revolution—and rejects the new way of life. Subsequently, the mission of Abraham—the nomad who had deserted the city of Ur—and that of his descendants, will be to negate and reject, from the very interior of the world, any form of post-Neolithic civilisation, since its very existence perpetuates the memory of the ‘revolt’ against Yahweh. After Abraham, Moses maintains this commitment. Just as the people of Israel were able to escape captivity in Egypt, the whole of humanity is called upon to escape the ‘captivity’ of history. The law of Yahweh, handed down at Mount Sinai, is presented as the means of rescinding, once and for all, Adam and Eve’s transgression. Man, in relation to the ‘god’ of the Bible, is not really a ‘son’; rather, he is a mere creature. Yahweh has made him, as any other living being, just as a potter models a vase. He has made him in ‘his own image’ (Genesis 1:27) in order to have his steward on Earth: the guardian of Paradise. The power man holds over the world is a power by proxy: a power entrusted to him that he may use only on the condition he not use it fully. Adam, seduced by the Devil, challenged the role that Yahweh had wanted him to play. But man will forever remain God’s servant (‘And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified,’ Isaiah 49:3). The superiority of man over beast is as nothing—for all is vanity. ‘All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again’ (Ecclesiastes 3:20). Man, according to the teachings of the Bible, has to remember unfailingly that he is dust; that historical existence has the sense only of that implicitly ascribed when history is actively rejected. ‘Roman’ Christianity, born with the Constantinian arrangement, was from the start an attempt to establish, within the ‘ancient’ world transformed by Rome in orbis politica, a compromise between the Indo-European Weltanschauung and the Judaic religion, adapted to Roman imperial civilisation by the alleged efforts of Jesus. The one and only god became, through dogmatic ‘mystery,’ ‘one god in three persons.’ The old trinity that the Vedic Indians called Trimurti has been integrated and, broadly, these ‘persons’ have assumed the three functions of Indo-European society, now in an inverted, spiritualised form. As creator and sovereign, Yahweh nevertheless continues to reject the dual aspect of reality: evil is the exclusive province of Satan. The new name ‘Deus Pater’—‘eternal and divine father,’ revered by the Indo-Europeans—is substituted for the old name given by the Bible. Yahweh is father only of his ‘second person’: a son sent to Earth to play a role opposed to that of ‘founding hero.’ He is a son who decides to become alienated from this world in order the better to show a way to the world beyond, and who, if he renders unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, does this only because to him what belongs to Caesar is of no value at all. He is a son, finally, whose function is not to ‘make war,’ but to preach a jealous peace that will benefit only the ‘men of goodwill’—the adversaries of this world—those to whom is reserved the only nutrient of eternity: the grace administered by the third ‘person,’ the Holy Spirit. Man, as a creature—and as a created being—is the serf of God’s serfs: ‘excrement’ (stercus, as Augustine of Hippo put it). However, at the same time, he is also the brother of the incarnated son of Yahweh, which ‘almost’ makes him a son of God—provided he knows how to will and deserve it, something that depends on the grace the Creator administers according to unfathomable criteria. The day shall come when humankind will be definitively and eternally divided between the saints and the damned. There is a biblical Valhalla: the Celestial Paradise, but it is now reserved for the anti-heroes (In To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), Erich Fromm observes: ‘The [Christian] martyr is the exact opposite of the pagan hero personified in the Greek and Germanic heroes. . . . For the pagan hero, a man’s worth lay in his prowess in attaining and holding onto power, and he gladly died on the battlefield in the moment of victory’). The others belong to Hell. This compromise has for centuries moulded the history of what is called ‘Western civilisation.’ For centuries, according to the deepest affinities, ‘pagan’ and ‘Levantine’ man has been able to see—in the ‘one and threefold’ god—his own respective divinity. This explains the numerous confusions that have always characterised historical Christianity. The coexistence of two antagonistic spiritualities—often confronting one another, even in the hearts of the same individuals—eventually crystallise into a veritable neurosis of the European mentality. Today we can confidently state that the Constantinian ‘arrangement’ arranged nothing, and that the day the motto ‘In hoc signo vinces’ was proclaimed had detrimental consequences for the Greco-Roman and Celto-Germanic world. Until recently, the Church of Rome particularly, and the Christian churches in general remained, as organised secular powers, attached to the appearances of the old compromise. However, in more recent times they began to recognise the authentic essence of Christianity. Hence, Yahweh, finally casting off the mask of luminous and celestial Deus-Pater, was rediscovered and proclaimed anew. In 1938 Pope Pius XI declared: ‘Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we [i.e., Christians] are all Semites.’ However, long before the churches reached that point, ‘profane’ (demythicised and secularised) Christianity, i.e., egalitarianism in all its forms, had found its path according to biblical truth. This was marked by the rejection of history; the proclaimed will to ‘step out of history’ in order to return to ‘nature’; the tendency to reabsorb human specificity into the ‘physical-chemical’; all determinist materialisms; Marcuse’s condemnation of art on the grounds that by integrating man in society it would betray ‘truth’; finally, the egalitarian ideology that wants to reduce humankind to the anti-hero model: the chosen one, hostile to any specific civilisation in that he wishes to see in it nothing but unhappiness, misery, exploitation (Marx), repression (Freud), or pollution. All this has invariably restored—still continues to restore today, at that precise moment when a new technological revolution is inviting us to overcome old ‘forms’—that motionless, ‘eternal’ (if there ever was such) Judaic vision: an unequivocal ‘No’ to any present pregnant with a future. Saying ‘Yes’ to history—ever-becoming, ever re-proposing new foundations—implies assuming new forms and content. Saying ‘Yes’ is creation, the work of art. ‘No’ exists only by denying any value to such work. The Indo-European cosmogonic myth reassures us that saying ‘Yes’ is always possible. In a different world, arising from the ruins of the old, the mission of ‘civilising heroes’ is eternal, and it assumes, serenely, the splendid and tragic destiny of one who creates, gives birth to himself, and accepts, as condition of any historical adventure, of any life, the idea of his own end.
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DO RACES EXIST? —“Races don’t genetically exist”— I don’t generally want to
DO RACES EXIST?
—“Races don’t genetically exist”—
I don’t generally want to debunk this argument, because it’s intellectually insulting to even have to and it brings Island 120 wannabe idiots out of the woodwork.
(a) it’s pseudoscientific nonsense that takes advantage of human statistical and genetic illiteracy. People don’t like feeling stupid and played, or being corrected when they’re stupid and played, even if they’ve been played for a very long time. And they have been played for a long time – by nearly all social ‘science’ from boas, marx, freud, frankfurt’s counter-enlightenment through perhaps the 1990’s. Boas, marx, freud and Frankfurt school comprised the majority of the ashkenazi scientific-counter-enlightenment against Darwin, Pareto/Durkheim/Weber, Spencer, Menger, Maxwell, and Poincare. The pseudoscientific trend was reversed due to advancements in genetics and brain imaging, and the subsequent lack of repeatability of nearly all social ‘science’ – meaning nearly every publication in social science was and most remain false.
Conversely, Stereotypes – of which races are a category, are the most accurate predictor in the ‘real’ social sciences. Which is counter to identity-politics messaging. Stereotypes must survive constant daily empirical testing, by individuals, and that is why they are so accurate: they survive constant testing.
(b) Just as we differentiate from chimps by only 3% genetically, and the rest is ‘noise’m a great deal of our genome is ‘noise’. Intelligence for example requires a large number of genes to express, with most variations harmful, appearing as ‘noisy’ in the data; and a large number of genes control our endocrine systems and therefore rates of development and gender-trait biases in development. And while those traits are many, they are a tiny bit of variation in the genome – as such BROAD statistical analysis of ALL traits vs NARROW MEANINGFUL traits simply serves mislead – to lie: to justify the falsehoods; and;
(c) it’s unproductive to debate people, since all life is and must remain a biological competition and sortition to defeat the evolutionary Red Queen, and people are not arguing their intuitions rationally but on behalf of their political demands for increasing collective allies (left, female, r-selection strategy), or separating into specialized allies (right, male, k-selection strategy). In other words, It’s all just genes speaking, not sense – which is why we’re susceptible to such sophisms. In other words, we’re just using language to shame, gossip, and rally as a proxy for evolutionary violence.
(d) under Nationalism groups can pay the costs of their underclasses and therefore they limit them – thereby assisting all of humanity in betterment. Under globalism (imperialism), groups can outsource the cost of their underclasses and therefore expand them at the host’s expense. In other words, bad governments that export underclasses are just conducting war by genetic rather than religious, economic, or military means.
A SMALL NUMBER OF AXIS OF SPECIATION
There are a small number of very important axis in differentiating human beings by physical, behavioral, and intellectual traits:
(a) rates and depth of sexual maturity;
(b) symmetry or asymmetry of gender expression (which matters a lot when it comes to brain structure),
(c) and because of a+b, verbal acuity (data hints that we sacrifice capacity for verbal ability – which follows the trend of sacrificing some physical traits for cognitive traits, which appears necessary given that every gram of brain is eleven times as expensive as every gram of muscle.)
WHY RACES EXIST: DEMONSTRATED BEHAVIOR
1 – Races exist as observable differences in morphology (physical); Most of which either increased neotonic evolution (finer), or reversed neotonic evolution (stronger) by changes in rate and depth of sexual maturity.
2 – They exist in demonstrated traits (distribution of abilities and behaviors), (meaning emotional, psychological, and intellectual) and;
3 – They exist in demonstrated kin selection in association and reproduction, with crossover still under 15%, which is largely at the extremes where the ratio of available mates of similar status is asymmetric.
4 – They exist by self sortition, in that groups tend to sort by neighborhood, by friends, by mates, by work, by voting block;
5 – They even exist at scale in the coloration of demonstrated social economic, and political classes, for the painfully unpleasant fact that neotonic traits are always and everywhere preferable to their opposite, and as such we ‘sort’ into classes (or castes) by neotonic differentiation. We still ‘pair off’ reproduce in a Nash equilibrium that continuously reinforces the classes limiting rotation except for slight up and down out of the middle.
6 – for those of us in the intellectual and upper middle or upper classes the differences are marginal, largely because we are reproductively, economically, and informationally independent of others, and the cost of those differences is lower within kin groups. However, for the vast majority, they are dependent upon reproductive, economic, and informational utility of working with near kin who is as equally ‘socially undesirable’ or ‘limited in productive capacity’ or ‘limited in out-group reproductive desirability.
We develop with different levels of clannishness (kin selectivity) and different levels of disgust response. A conservative (male bias) quite literally feels genetic distance as ‘disgust’, and opportunities to cooperate only as valuable as they are in advancing the competitiveness of the group in the long term. A progressive (female bias) quite literally feels any chance of conflict with fear, and all opportunities for cooperation with others as potentially beneficial.
The fact that two species can interbreed or two species not interbreed, or the distinction between species and breeds (races) is for the purpose of classification. And homo sapiens were pretty clearly in the process of speciation again, when trade, domestication of plants and animals, and finally metallurgy reversed it. We have been developing very quickly over the past 2m years, and frighteningly so once we developed language.
EQUALITARIAN NATIONALISM OR UNEQUAL CASTE IMPERIALISM
We get the opposite of what we think we’re seeking.
This is why WE CAN ONLY CHOOSE between NATIONALISM where by we produce small equalitarian, homogenous polities, and EMPIRES where we produce many hierarchical classes. No matter what you do we do or we want, evolution (selection) will do its job and devolution its job. We will sort into large castes, or sort into small nations.
The data shows that large caste systems increase underclass reproduction and imprison demographic groups in competitive deprivation (relative poverty), while small national systems decrease underclass reproduction and liberate demographic groups from competitive deprivation (relative prosperity).
MARKET VALUE
Races exist – they are a stereotype. Stereotypes are the most accurate measure we have to work with. We are exceptional judges of STATUS, meaning sexual, social, economic, and political market value.
We call this market value “class”.
We each vary in value in each of those markets.
We will, forever, out of evolutionary necessity, SELECT for optimum possible sexual, social, economic, and political market value.
It is what it is.
Source date (UTC): 2018-05-10 08:19:00 UTC
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Rationalizing Myers-Briggs (MBTI), Big5, and Propertarianism
RATIONALIZING MYERS-BRIGGS AND BIG5 (AND PROPERTARIANISM) (Repost from 2016) 1) —“The Myers-Briggs rests on wholly unproven theories”— Well, it rests on observation of demonstrated motivations. So does all of psychology, and all of sociology, both of which are demonstrably pseudoscience created as pseudosciences by Boaz, Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, Freud, Cantor, Adorno’s Crew, and Mises, as an alternative to Darwin, Spencer, and the Marginalists in Economics. In fact, it appears that almost everything written by each of these authors is a fabrication of wishful thinking correspondent with reality. Right now we are in the process of overthrowing keynesianism because of its externalities. Hayek suggested that the twentieth century would be remembered as a new era of mysticism (which we call pseudoscience today). He was right. But all that said, the MBTI rests on a subset of observed preferences in behavior. These preferences exist, and are demonstrated in the work place. 2) —“The Myers-Briggs provides inconsistent, inaccurate results”— So does a Big5 of 30-100 questions. A 20 question IQ test is however, pretty predictive. What does this mean? It is easier to measure intelligence, harder to measure neuroticism(big5), and harder yet to measure work behavior. The results are inaccurate because (a) there are too few questions, (b) most people don’t fit into an exact block but around the edges of one (c) the ‘dimensions’ being tested are difficult to test – and most importantly to test ‘positively’ (meaning without asking the survey taker to be too self critical.) The problem is that for a test of this nature to produce accurate results it must consist of something on the order of 600 questions, about one sixth of which detect lies, or uncertainties. MB is ‘good enough’ that over time one can take the simple test, evolve greater undrestanding of one’s self, and ‘narrow down’ one’s score. On the other hand the Big 5 judges these properties: a) Openness (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious) b) Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless) c) Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved) d) Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. analytical/detached) e) Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident) These are DIAGNOSTIC categories that DO correspond loosely to what we understand may be brain functions. It should be fairly obvious to people that these spectrum can easily be mapped to the MBTI (See Attached table). And this table will tell you all that you need to know: i) MBTI Does not test for neuroticism – which we can consider good or bad. I consider it good because there is no way to spin it ‘good’ in all cases. But I believe this is one reason for variation between the two procedures. ii) There is very high correlation between: Extroversion-Introversion /Extroversion (.7) and Sensing-INtuiting/Openness, (.7) ….and less but still significant correlation between Thinking(criticizing)-Feeling(empathizing)/Agreeableness (.4) and Judging-Perceiving/Conscientiousness. (.5) As I understand it, the difference between Big5 and MBTI models is that TF and JP are heavily influenced by Neuroticism(insecurity vs confidence), and this is not accounted for in the brevity of the MBTI test. Ironically the MBTI axis of Judging(organizing) – Perceiving(Iterative) probably MORE predictive and useful than the Conscientiousness measure, since I am fairly sure the Big 5 model is incorrectly diagnosing what is an important part of our division of cognition. I always pair myself with and INTJ. Why? I will absolutely figure it out, no matter what it is. The INTJ will absolutely positively get it done, no matter what, and I won’t. This method of thinking is not directly visible in the Big5 So the truth is that GIVEN THE CORRELATIONS and given that we are testing for very subtle differences, it is EXTREMELY hard to claim that the MBTI fails without saying the Big5 also fails. Except that the MBTI teaches you to understand how to work with people in a division of perception, cognition, knowledge and labor, and the big5 teaches you what is WRONG with people in some strange freudian utopia where there is an ideal type of person. And it is this fundamental totalitarian error of Freudianism that is buried in the Big5: the ideal type: one-ness. Universalism. Equality. Ideal. Whereas that was not the hierarchical division of labor that was central to the western tradition and central to Neitzsche’s work. Realistically it is the difference between the consumer model that is good enough for everyday work, and the professional model that requires precise measurement in order to perform medical operations. What I dislike about the Big5 is it’s hypothesis of a perfect (Feminist) individual. MBTI doesn’t do that. It just tells you how people are, and assumes you can tell the differnece between the secure and insecure becuaes they don’t wanna tell people using a consumer product that mostly they are insecure. When actually, using something like MBTI long enough will reduce a LOT of your insecurities. iii) The Dichotomy Model proposed by Jung is false. We have at least five if not six or seven major axis of personality that affect our behavior – which I won’t get into right now. But what does that mean? We’ll find out in a minute… BUT! This simplistic error of dichotomy helps us understand why personality testing is difficult, and why the simplified version of MBTI is ‘pretty good’. Humans really are terrible comparing more than a two dimensional representation of anything. We evolved to compare one thing with another. But most of our intellectual advancement has been the product of learning how to compare increasingly complex things. So if we can graph two functions on a plane we can visualize them. If we can take slow motion video of a horse running we can analyze what it’s really doing rather than guess – something which stumped artists for all of history until the era of photography. Statistics is rife with aggregates that falsely inform us. Left and right are insufficient models for analysis of politics. two dimensions are insufficient to capture all but four simple axis. Three dimensions can create a better nolan chart. It takes three dimensions and some work to create a class diagram. For those with rudimentary understanding of economics as a study of equilibria, supply demand charts are hard enough. but what about multiple supply demand charts? We have to create models at that point using software, because we cannot visualize the results. For those who are involved in Austrian economics, look at the difference between Hayekian triangles: how he worked to create a model of intertemporal production cycles. This is the problem when we talk about five or more dimensions of personality: we cannot represent them simply. Each personality trait represents a spectrum – a line with different variables, at each end of which are points of failure. And modeling multiple dimensions how they appear as demonstrated behavior is pretty difficult. So, lets imagine a bunch of tall tubes standing on end, arranged in a circle. We fill each with liquid measuring each of the 5+ personality traits. Now, even if marginal difference in behavior between the extremes is only say on a scale of ten on each one (and I think it’s more than that), that’s a lot of combinations of personality types available to us. But we could however, instead of combinations state ratios (intersections), or basically a truth table (binaries). And this is what MBTI tries to do. Produce binaries where there might be many in between, just so that we get ‘close enough’ to start working with people. The reason to do this is because the average human mind just cannot really manage to do more than that. Now back to our ‘tubes’, lets take our circular stack of tubes and draw a horizontal plane through all of them in the middle. This is the way that Big5 looks at personality measurement. But we can draw many planes at many angles, in order to treat some properties more or less importantly than the others. This is how MBTI looks at measurements: that each plane we draw, if we draw 16 of them, will produce an ideal type that we can use to understand others. So in this sense, MBTI USES 16 IDEAL TYPES that you empathize with, AND BIG5 USES ONE IDEAL TYPE and a lot of properties that you have to rationalize. Once you see this, and grasp that they are measuring 4 of the same properties, this makes sense. MBTI is a mass market teaching tool. And it works. As a ‘professional’ I use my own categories. 3) —“The Myers-Briggs uses false, limited binaries”— This is a ‘feature’ not a bug. The reason MBTI is successful is that PEOPLE CAN USE IT, and you can take it over and over again and start to understand yourself and others. 4) —“The Myers-Briggs is largely disregarded by psychologists”— So is IQ. So is Nature vs Nurture. And Freudian psychology was an non-empirical pseudoscience constructed by introspection and guesswork just like Jung’s – and arguably remains so outside of experimental psychology. It is cognitive science not psychology we follow today. Unfortunately, I’ve used pretty much every model on the market, and while I DO use a more predictive model, which produces graphs of the four major personality traits, (blame avoidance being my favorite), MBTI fits the GOOD ENOUGH model for 90% of the world’s work force. And that’s why it’s good. ‘Cause 90% of the ordinary folk in the world can learn how to use it until something better comes along. 5) WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO SEE INSTEAD? I prefer: I) moral biases: feminine(left)/balanced(libertarian)/masculine(conservative), II) altruistic-trusting/balanced/not-trusting-selfish, III) extraversion/balanced/introversion, IV) autistic-analytic/balanced/empathic-solipsistic, V) rigid-organized(closing things off)/balanced/ intuitive(preserving options)-irresponsible, VI) endurance-patience/balanced/frustration-impulsivity, VII) paranoia-fearfulness/balanced/confidence-steadiness, VIII) verbal IQ in .5 std deviations from 100. (scale of -5 to +5 because more or less is irrelevant.) With those 8 measurements I am pretty sure we can lock down almost everything about a person. -
Rationalizing Myers-Briggs (MBTI), Big5, and Propertarianism
RATIONALIZING MYERS-BRIGGS AND BIG5 (AND PROPERTARIANISM) (Repost from 2016) 1) —“The Myers-Briggs rests on wholly unproven theories”— Well, it rests on observation of demonstrated motivations. So does all of psychology, and all of sociology, both of which are demonstrably pseudoscience created as pseudosciences by Boaz, Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, Freud, Cantor, Adorno’s Crew, and Mises, as an alternative to Darwin, Spencer, and the Marginalists in Economics. In fact, it appears that almost everything written by each of these authors is a fabrication of wishful thinking correspondent with reality. Right now we are in the process of overthrowing keynesianism because of its externalities. Hayek suggested that the twentieth century would be remembered as a new era of mysticism (which we call pseudoscience today). He was right. But all that said, the MBTI rests on a subset of observed preferences in behavior. These preferences exist, and are demonstrated in the work place. 2) —“The Myers-Briggs provides inconsistent, inaccurate results”— So does a Big5 of 30-100 questions. A 20 question IQ test is however, pretty predictive. What does this mean? It is easier to measure intelligence, harder to measure neuroticism(big5), and harder yet to measure work behavior. The results are inaccurate because (a) there are too few questions, (b) most people don’t fit into an exact block but around the edges of one (c) the ‘dimensions’ being tested are difficult to test – and most importantly to test ‘positively’ (meaning without asking the survey taker to be too self critical.) The problem is that for a test of this nature to produce accurate results it must consist of something on the order of 600 questions, about one sixth of which detect lies, or uncertainties. MB is ‘good enough’ that over time one can take the simple test, evolve greater undrestanding of one’s self, and ‘narrow down’ one’s score. On the other hand the Big 5 judges these properties: a) Openness (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious) b) Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless) c) Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved) d) Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. analytical/detached) e) Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident) These are DIAGNOSTIC categories that DO correspond loosely to what we understand may be brain functions. It should be fairly obvious to people that these spectrum can easily be mapped to the MBTI (See Attached table). And this table will tell you all that you need to know: i) MBTI Does not test for neuroticism – which we can consider good or bad. I consider it good because there is no way to spin it ‘good’ in all cases. But I believe this is one reason for variation between the two procedures. ii) There is very high correlation between: Extroversion-Introversion /Extroversion (.7) and Sensing-INtuiting/Openness, (.7) ….and less but still significant correlation between Thinking(criticizing)-Feeling(empathizing)/Agreeableness (.4) and Judging-Perceiving/Conscientiousness. (.5) As I understand it, the difference between Big5 and MBTI models is that TF and JP are heavily influenced by Neuroticism(insecurity vs confidence), and this is not accounted for in the brevity of the MBTI test. Ironically the MBTI axis of Judging(organizing) – Perceiving(Iterative) probably MORE predictive and useful than the Conscientiousness measure, since I am fairly sure the Big 5 model is incorrectly diagnosing what is an important part of our division of cognition. I always pair myself with and INTJ. Why? I will absolutely figure it out, no matter what it is. The INTJ will absolutely positively get it done, no matter what, and I won’t. This method of thinking is not directly visible in the Big5 So the truth is that GIVEN THE CORRELATIONS and given that we are testing for very subtle differences, it is EXTREMELY hard to claim that the MBTI fails without saying the Big5 also fails. Except that the MBTI teaches you to understand how to work with people in a division of perception, cognition, knowledge and labor, and the big5 teaches you what is WRONG with people in some strange freudian utopia where there is an ideal type of person. And it is this fundamental totalitarian error of Freudianism that is buried in the Big5: the ideal type: one-ness. Universalism. Equality. Ideal. Whereas that was not the hierarchical division of labor that was central to the western tradition and central to Neitzsche’s work. Realistically it is the difference between the consumer model that is good enough for everyday work, and the professional model that requires precise measurement in order to perform medical operations. What I dislike about the Big5 is it’s hypothesis of a perfect (Feminist) individual. MBTI doesn’t do that. It just tells you how people are, and assumes you can tell the differnece between the secure and insecure becuaes they don’t wanna tell people using a consumer product that mostly they are insecure. When actually, using something like MBTI long enough will reduce a LOT of your insecurities. iii) The Dichotomy Model proposed by Jung is false. We have at least five if not six or seven major axis of personality that affect our behavior – which I won’t get into right now. But what does that mean? We’ll find out in a minute… BUT! This simplistic error of dichotomy helps us understand why personality testing is difficult, and why the simplified version of MBTI is ‘pretty good’. Humans really are terrible comparing more than a two dimensional representation of anything. We evolved to compare one thing with another. But most of our intellectual advancement has been the product of learning how to compare increasingly complex things. So if we can graph two functions on a plane we can visualize them. If we can take slow motion video of a horse running we can analyze what it’s really doing rather than guess – something which stumped artists for all of history until the era of photography. Statistics is rife with aggregates that falsely inform us. Left and right are insufficient models for analysis of politics. two dimensions are insufficient to capture all but four simple axis. Three dimensions can create a better nolan chart. It takes three dimensions and some work to create a class diagram. For those with rudimentary understanding of economics as a study of equilibria, supply demand charts are hard enough. but what about multiple supply demand charts? We have to create models at that point using software, because we cannot visualize the results. For those who are involved in Austrian economics, look at the difference between Hayekian triangles: how he worked to create a model of intertemporal production cycles. This is the problem when we talk about five or more dimensions of personality: we cannot represent them simply. Each personality trait represents a spectrum – a line with different variables, at each end of which are points of failure. And modeling multiple dimensions how they appear as demonstrated behavior is pretty difficult. So, lets imagine a bunch of tall tubes standing on end, arranged in a circle. We fill each with liquid measuring each of the 5+ personality traits. Now, even if marginal difference in behavior between the extremes is only say on a scale of ten on each one (and I think it’s more than that), that’s a lot of combinations of personality types available to us. But we could however, instead of combinations state ratios (intersections), or basically a truth table (binaries). And this is what MBTI tries to do. Produce binaries where there might be many in between, just so that we get ‘close enough’ to start working with people. The reason to do this is because the average human mind just cannot really manage to do more than that. Now back to our ‘tubes’, lets take our circular stack of tubes and draw a horizontal plane through all of them in the middle. This is the way that Big5 looks at personality measurement. But we can draw many planes at many angles, in order to treat some properties more or less importantly than the others. This is how MBTI looks at measurements: that each plane we draw, if we draw 16 of them, will produce an ideal type that we can use to understand others. So in this sense, MBTI USES 16 IDEAL TYPES that you empathize with, AND BIG5 USES ONE IDEAL TYPE and a lot of properties that you have to rationalize. Once you see this, and grasp that they are measuring 4 of the same properties, this makes sense. MBTI is a mass market teaching tool. And it works. As a ‘professional’ I use my own categories. 3) —“The Myers-Briggs uses false, limited binaries”— This is a ‘feature’ not a bug. The reason MBTI is successful is that PEOPLE CAN USE IT, and you can take it over and over again and start to understand yourself and others. 4) —“The Myers-Briggs is largely disregarded by psychologists”— So is IQ. So is Nature vs Nurture. And Freudian psychology was an non-empirical pseudoscience constructed by introspection and guesswork just like Jung’s – and arguably remains so outside of experimental psychology. It is cognitive science not psychology we follow today. Unfortunately, I’ve used pretty much every model on the market, and while I DO use a more predictive model, which produces graphs of the four major personality traits, (blame avoidance being my favorite), MBTI fits the GOOD ENOUGH model for 90% of the world’s work force. And that’s why it’s good. ‘Cause 90% of the ordinary folk in the world can learn how to use it until something better comes along. 5) WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO SEE INSTEAD? I prefer: I) moral biases: feminine(left)/balanced(libertarian)/masculine(conservative), II) altruistic-trusting/balanced/not-trusting-selfish, III) extraversion/balanced/introversion, IV) autistic-analytic/balanced/empathic-solipsistic, V) rigid-organized(closing things off)/balanced/ intuitive(preserving options)-irresponsible, VI) endurance-patience/balanced/frustration-impulsivity, VII) paranoia-fearfulness/balanced/confidence-steadiness, VIII) verbal IQ in .5 std deviations from 100. (scale of -5 to +5 because more or less is irrelevant.) With those 8 measurements I am pretty sure we can lock down almost everything about a person.