- Joined
- Jul 5, 2013
- Messages
- 182
Today I want to talk about a thing that everyone on this board desires and seeks, either to obtain or to maintain: self-sufficiency. Now some of you may have been taught in school that self-sufficiency is an unrealistic goal, but what you were probably taught is not what I mean by self-sufficiency: I don’t mean living in a hut outside society, growing all your own food, and reducing your carbon footprint (though that can be a part of it), I’m talking about being self-sufficient within society (i.e., practically). I’m focused on this because humans are highly social creatures and are dependent on one another (at the very least for reproductive and child rearing purposes). I also see value in considering this because becoming self-sufficient is one of the core aims people seem to have here on Girls Chase. Though I also have personal motives for weighing and considering self-sufficiency, as it’s one of the things I presently desire the most but have yet to consistently manifest. I’m using self-sufficiency here to as the ability to produce more value than you consume and also, and most importantly, to do so. Within this definition of self-sufficiency I recognize three time oriented parts:
o A self-sufficient character (past potential) - Lessons, memories, habits, dreams, reflections, fears, the idea of rewards.
o Active Engagement (present action) – How well you are productively engaged within your immediate world.
o A stock-pile of resources (future potential) – spiritual, physical, emotional, logical.
What this model of self-sufficiency emphasizes is the importance of present action based in a strong sense of self with a focus on social development through the building up of a variety of resources, both internal and external.
Present action, or active engagement, is what brings meaning into a person’s life, and is also the cause of that need. Another way of saying that is that life occurs in ones active engagement. Past and future potential exist in service of one’s active engagement, which is the fount of ones social value.
Developing self-sufficiency is a process, and a large number of people are, to a greater or lesser extent –- based on the limitations of the reality they're born into – unable to rise to this stage, let alone transcend it.
But even so, it's vital to realize that this is only one stage in life, and the maturing of a truly masculine character starts before and ends beyond self-sufficiency.
Masculinity is all about penetration – spiritual, physical, emotional, logical, and countless compositions of those in part and in whole. Knowledge of the types of penetration (whether through experience or the help of a teacher) gives strength to do so. So if you’ve decided to penetrate through a stage, your knowledge of the next stage will most likely help you visualize and manifest it, giving you a better shot of success.
I’ve organized these stages by seasons of masculine consciousness, and inside each of the seasons I have listed achievements that typically fall within them and that compose them. The basis of this conceit (the stages of life as seasons) is my personal reflections on heroics.
But before we continue on to breaking down the stages, I want to point out that some of the achievements in each stage may be skipped, depending on individual circumstances, and some are more necessary than others, depending on the zeitgeist and an individual’s personal spirit. However, each of these stages is built on top of its predecessor and they all are still to be viewed as markers of the unfolding of a mature character.
Seasons of Masculine Consciousness
--Eternal Sleep--
1. Removing Yourself from the Social-Fabric (Waking Up) (Spring)
o Gaining experiences that separate you from group-think and your native institutions through cognitive dissonance and doubt
o Reflecting on those experiences
o Having your psyche compound in a way that causes a void and a need for individuation (which will conflict with your need for acceptance until stage four)
o Experimentation
o Developing/finding a sense of self through self-respect and self-responsibility.The greater discipline, patience, and concentration you can muster the greater your self.
2. Becoming Self-Sufficient (Summer)
o Focusing your energies on something you’ve consciously decided to focus on
o Building agency
o Basic proficiency in the social arts
o Discovering something worth dying for
o Winning socially valuable resources from nature
o Learning to lead your life based on principle
o Learning to trust yourself
o Winning a place in society -– becoming re-institutionalized
o Marrying society (this can symbolically be shown through marriage to woman). This is the traditional return of the hero, but in reality is just one of the fractal loops of the hero’s journey
o Advanced proficiency in the social arts (this makes you trustworthy and makes you and those around you capable of deeply and honestly enjoying one another's company)
o Mastery of at least one art
o Developing a maximally productive worldview
o Developing a mature sense of responsibility for your fellow man
3. Helping Others People Become Self-Sufficient (Fall)
o Raising children
o Doing your part to help society function
o Taking care of your kin
o Taking care of your kith
o Mentoring future generations
o Granting others social momentum
o Nurturing an heir
o Building resources that help people develop their lives (stories) according to productively oriented principles
o Bearing the wisdom of your times
o Telling empowering stories
o Developing a maximally objective worldview
4. Marrying Nature (Winter)
• Accepting decay as natural and necessary
• Removing yourself from the social fabric once more, but this time for good. Going back into solitude/the wilderness to be alone with Nature and returning once more to her womb to never and forever be born again.
--Eternal Sleep--
__________________________________________________
Notice the ebb and flow rhythm of these stages, much like breathing, where a man seems to move back and forth between nature and society.
If you don’t burn away a certain layer you might get stuck in a past negative time orientation, or feel like you have an incomplete character and that you have achieved little with your life.
But I am young (23) and it is hardly my place to be the sole arbiter of stages that lay beyond me, so I am hoping someone who has been around longer can verify what parts sound right and also help clean them up by adding, removing, combining, or refining achievements.
Four of my basic assumptions are that 1) man derives meaning from society, 2) man is masculine inasmuch as he is conscious -- that is, with no consciousness he is no longer a man but a beast, 3) man needs society for his consciousness to continue to survive, as he is fundamentally a social animal, as consciousness functions in the realm of meaning, and 4) value is based in meaning and meaning is socially derived.
Looking more closely at that third assumption: since consciousness appears founded in the need not only to reproduce, but to raise children to perceive meaning through past and future potential, I am willing to assume that if there was a scenario where only one man was left on Earth, or perhaps was put on a planet on which he could survive for a period, what would happen would be a rapid degradation of his consciousness to a primitive state alongside the development of highly psychotic tendencies as he tries to cope with huge amounts of cognitive dissonance. He may just lock his memories of society behind the doors of forgetting. Though, I admit that this is more or less a ridiculous hypothetical.
But anyway, what do you think of my attempt to break down the seasons of masculine consciousness? Anything you think needs to be added, removed, or changed? Also, does anyone have ideas for the Seasons of Feminine Consciousness? Outlining that could be really useful for understanding women. It would obviously have many of the same "achievements" as the masculine outline, but some of them would be moved around. For example, "raising children" would be a summertime achievement for the feminine, as they physically flower in the spring and bear fruit in the summer, while a mature man will usually not "pollinate the flower" until a bit later in his development.
Best,
Oskar
o A self-sufficient character (past potential) - Lessons, memories, habits, dreams, reflections, fears, the idea of rewards.
o Active Engagement (present action) – How well you are productively engaged within your immediate world.
o A stock-pile of resources (future potential) – spiritual, physical, emotional, logical.
What this model of self-sufficiency emphasizes is the importance of present action based in a strong sense of self with a focus on social development through the building up of a variety of resources, both internal and external.
Present action, or active engagement, is what brings meaning into a person’s life, and is also the cause of that need. Another way of saying that is that life occurs in ones active engagement. Past and future potential exist in service of one’s active engagement, which is the fount of ones social value.
Developing self-sufficiency is a process, and a large number of people are, to a greater or lesser extent –- based on the limitations of the reality they're born into – unable to rise to this stage, let alone transcend it.
But even so, it's vital to realize that this is only one stage in life, and the maturing of a truly masculine character starts before and ends beyond self-sufficiency.
Masculinity is all about penetration – spiritual, physical, emotional, logical, and countless compositions of those in part and in whole. Knowledge of the types of penetration (whether through experience or the help of a teacher) gives strength to do so. So if you’ve decided to penetrate through a stage, your knowledge of the next stage will most likely help you visualize and manifest it, giving you a better shot of success.
I’ve organized these stages by seasons of masculine consciousness, and inside each of the seasons I have listed achievements that typically fall within them and that compose them. The basis of this conceit (the stages of life as seasons) is my personal reflections on heroics.
But before we continue on to breaking down the stages, I want to point out that some of the achievements in each stage may be skipped, depending on individual circumstances, and some are more necessary than others, depending on the zeitgeist and an individual’s personal spirit. However, each of these stages is built on top of its predecessor and they all are still to be viewed as markers of the unfolding of a mature character.
Seasons of Masculine Consciousness
--Eternal Sleep--
1. Removing Yourself from the Social-Fabric (Waking Up) (Spring)
o Gaining experiences that separate you from group-think and your native institutions through cognitive dissonance and doubt
o Reflecting on those experiences
o Having your psyche compound in a way that causes a void and a need for individuation (which will conflict with your need for acceptance until stage four)
o Experimentation
o Developing/finding a sense of self through self-respect and self-responsibility.The greater discipline, patience, and concentration you can muster the greater your self.
2. Becoming Self-Sufficient (Summer)
o Focusing your energies on something you’ve consciously decided to focus on
o Building agency
o Basic proficiency in the social arts
o Discovering something worth dying for
o Winning socially valuable resources from nature
o Learning to lead your life based on principle
o Learning to trust yourself
o Winning a place in society -– becoming re-institutionalized
o Marrying society (this can symbolically be shown through marriage to woman). This is the traditional return of the hero, but in reality is just one of the fractal loops of the hero’s journey
o Advanced proficiency in the social arts (this makes you trustworthy and makes you and those around you capable of deeply and honestly enjoying one another's company)
o Mastery of at least one art
o Developing a maximally productive worldview
o Developing a mature sense of responsibility for your fellow man
3. Helping Others People Become Self-Sufficient (Fall)
o Raising children
o Doing your part to help society function
o Taking care of your kin
o Taking care of your kith
o Mentoring future generations
o Granting others social momentum
o Nurturing an heir
o Building resources that help people develop their lives (stories) according to productively oriented principles
o Bearing the wisdom of your times
o Telling empowering stories
o Developing a maximally objective worldview
4. Marrying Nature (Winter)
• Accepting decay as natural and necessary
• Removing yourself from the social fabric once more, but this time for good. Going back into solitude/the wilderness to be alone with Nature and returning once more to her womb to never and forever be born again.
--Eternal Sleep--
__________________________________________________
Notice the ebb and flow rhythm of these stages, much like breathing, where a man seems to move back and forth between nature and society.
If you don’t burn away a certain layer you might get stuck in a past negative time orientation, or feel like you have an incomplete character and that you have achieved little with your life.
But I am young (23) and it is hardly my place to be the sole arbiter of stages that lay beyond me, so I am hoping someone who has been around longer can verify what parts sound right and also help clean them up by adding, removing, combining, or refining achievements.
Four of my basic assumptions are that 1) man derives meaning from society, 2) man is masculine inasmuch as he is conscious -- that is, with no consciousness he is no longer a man but a beast, 3) man needs society for his consciousness to continue to survive, as he is fundamentally a social animal, as consciousness functions in the realm of meaning, and 4) value is based in meaning and meaning is socially derived.
Looking more closely at that third assumption: since consciousness appears founded in the need not only to reproduce, but to raise children to perceive meaning through past and future potential, I am willing to assume that if there was a scenario where only one man was left on Earth, or perhaps was put on a planet on which he could survive for a period, what would happen would be a rapid degradation of his consciousness to a primitive state alongside the development of highly psychotic tendencies as he tries to cope with huge amounts of cognitive dissonance. He may just lock his memories of society behind the doors of forgetting. Though, I admit that this is more or less a ridiculous hypothetical.
But anyway, what do you think of my attempt to break down the seasons of masculine consciousness? Anything you think needs to be added, removed, or changed? Also, does anyone have ideas for the Seasons of Feminine Consciousness? Outlining that could be really useful for understanding women. It would obviously have many of the same "achievements" as the masculine outline, but some of them would be moved around. For example, "raising children" would be a summertime achievement for the feminine, as they physically flower in the spring and bear fruit in the summer, while a mature man will usually not "pollinate the flower" until a bit later in his development.
Best,
Oskar