The purpose of consciousness

The purpose of consciousness is to optimize the fulfillment of all our drives.

The drives are all over the place. E.g., there is a drive to just lie down flat “and enjoy life” (pure nothing to do), and there is another which want us to do “great deeds” “and thereby enjoy life”. We want to make others happy, but we want to win. Consciousness is there to organize these various drives in a whole. So, e.g., “do good work” and then just loll around (“rest”, “recreation”) — this makes both the drives satisfied with your leadership.

The meaning of life

The question of “the meaning of life” arises only when one is unhappy. When one is happy, one brushes off the question.

In general, brooding about life is entering a morass. And thinking would not bring you out of it. You need to become happy (for some entirely different reason) to get out. So, the desire or the disinterest in this brooding should be considered a question of chemicals.

impatience (a dream)

In dream, I learnt an anecdote “about Napoleon”. Supposedly, once on the street he asked a woman which place it was. The woman replied, “[just] because we are running late, it does not behove us that we keep questioning about stages like the common man!”. This reply (in French couplet) became famous!

It is apparently a mixture of something Napoleon says in his dialogues in St. Helena, and something Nietzsche says. Napoleon came from a modest background. So, he was asked if he had known (on his way to power) where he was going. Napoleon said something like, “people of our class don’t do things according to a plan — they just move forward in the only way open to them”. (I will put the exact quote here when I read the book.)

And Nietzsche:

Ein Versuchen und Fragen war all mein Gehen: — und wahrlich, auch antworten muss man lernen auf solches Fragen! Das aber — ist mein Geschmack:
— kein guter, kein schlechter, aber mein Geschmack, dessen ich weder Scham noch Hehl mehr habe.
„Das — ist nun mein Weg, — wo ist der eure?“ so antwortete ich Denen, welche mich „nach dem Wege“ fragten. Den Weg nämlich — den giebt es nicht!
(Zarathustra)

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„Wenn der Weg von dir klar ist, dann bist du wahrscheinlich auf dem Weg eines Anderen.“ (Carl G. Jung.)

talking lends reality

It is talking — or more exactly, thinking about talking — which creates permanency for stupid things.

For many things, resolve upfront: I’ll never talk about this.

Longing and arriving

There is pain in longing, but this pain is a blessing, for it spurs one on.

There is happiness in arriving, but this happiness is a sorry thing, for it goes with a death. An engine in you is now lost.

a maxim: Learning implies transformation

Learning means transformation.

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Notes:
Since the mass-men cannot change (it hurts them), they cannot learn anything either.

Do everything cheerfully

“When the ship lifts, all bills are paid”. (Heinlein)

If you have decided to do something (i.e., you are doing something), do it cheerfully. It is like taking orders well. Of course there are objections – what is without objections? Don’t let them unbalance you.

One needs to order one’s spirit at both the large and the small scale. Remaining cheerful “despite objections” is creating order at the small scale. Cheerfulness is natural.

on sexual arousal

Even under the situations I despise clearly (e.g., pornography if it not specially ugly), the stimulus leads to a certain degree of sexual arousal. The arousal is not clear or clean, for the idea that I despise it is right there too, but it is there.

The response to such stimulus is probably subconscious. The “meaning” attached to such activities, is, however, work of the conscious mind.

So, the only way to resolve the above contradiction is for the conscious mind to say (when the arousal rises in such situations): yes, it is there, but it is illegitimate, so I am not going to pay any attention to it. This — saying “get lost” to the stimulus, and letting it fade away uncared for – is not difficult, at least after practice!

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We feel a special type of care for the young of all animals. This feeling is wholly subconscious, even though our conscious mind thinks otherwise. A special type of concern for women is likewise wholly subconscious too, and perhaps the only reason we don’t have this feeling for females of all animals is that our conscious mind would find it too ridiculous. That is, the conscious mind is able to control the limits of the subconscious feelings. We need to put the limit where it suits us best. (See also.)

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Notes:
“Er reagirt auf alle Art Reize langsam, mit jener Langsamkeit, die eine lange Vorsicht und ein gewollter Stolz ihm angezüchtet haben, — er prüft den Reiz, der herankommt, er ist fern davon, ihm entgegenzugehn.” “He reacts to every kind of stimulus slowly, with the slowness which long caution and a self-conscious pride have cultivated in him — he examines the stimulus as it approaches and has no intention of going to meet it”. –Nietzsche, Ecce Homo.

Probably all animals feel a special care for the young of all animals! Eckermann recounts his observations of adults birds helping arbitrary birds (other species) when the young birds were in need. (Goethe and Eckermann: 8th October 1827. Bottom third of the page.)
https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/eckerman/gesprche/gsp3067.html