Friday Magick

Okay. So I am writing this later… and drunker… than I meant to be writing. But so what. I’ll Manage.

So, I started the week by talking about Warren Ellis’ Injection and my own desire to create an injection. I moved on to talk about quests and the primacy of the process over the goal. And I finished off by talking about coping mechanisms.

So where is all this leading? The world is broken. The world is broken and it is poisoning us as we attempt to live within it. And by the world, I mean the paradigm- the culture- in which we swim. There is nothing wrong with planet Earth, no matter how much our anthropocentrism might lead us to believe otherwise. yes, we are damaging the current ecological equilibrium, but the planet and the ecosphere can manage our disruptions just fine. We might kill off large mammals, but so what? The same thing has happened five times previously. How many large dinosaurs exist now? The largest living dinosaur is the ostrich or something similar. The Eath and its biosphere will manage our shenanigans just fine. We’re screwed, but that’s another matter.

So, when I say that the world is broke, what I mean is that the cultural system we have set in motion is killing us and failing to serving our needs as the people who enact and perpetuate that culture. And the problem lies in the nuts and bolts: in the process and the coping mechanisms.

I’ve heard people argue that the ends justify the means, but I disagree. The means ARE the ends, and the ends are created by the means. The results of your life are the product of the process by which you live your life: your daily routine and its routines and coping mechanisms. You are the some of what you repeatedly do, to steal an idea from Aristotle.

To look at it another way, you are a temple. And your religion is the sum of the prayer and sacrifices made at the altar of your daily life. You cannot live your life one way and hope to create a life that is the opposite of what you do. You are the result of your accumulated actions. And if you do not like your results, change your routines. This may sound really obvious when I say it out loud, and you may be tempted to try and tell me that this is a superficial reading and that you can be the exception. And you may be right. Possibly.

but let me ask you ask you a question. Think back to your last video game with a skill tree and an experience system. How often were able to build a character with a set of particular skill by doing something other than those skills? Certainly it happens, but how common is it? Not very in my experience. And maybe your experience proves different. No stress if it does, but I would recommend you consider that the world tends to favor people who level up with a grind that matches their character build, not one that is at odds with it.

 

Just a thought.

 

That’s all this week from your Glorious Leader. Heed the call and rise to the sounds of the Liberation!