Subsistence
Are you prepared?
I wonder…
—-
The humiliating state of subsistence vs. The pleasant state of luxury
Which one would I logically choose?
And yet…
Which one would you logically choose?
—-
They say that entire civilizations have been reduced to the ground in a mere night’s time…
A look at history should confirm this easily…
In which case, one must assume that their own society is as fragile as ever.
And I wonder…
Should my society be reduced to the ground in one night…
What happens thereafter?
—-
Logically, In a state of chaos… one flocks to the person that emerges as being decisive, resolute, and stable. It’s a very natural phenomenon, really. What’s interesting, is how this person came to have those three qualities?
It’s why kids cry when they’re lost in public…
It’s why employees seek instructions from their employer…
It’s the reason why the chain of command exists in a military…
Everyone looks to the person who has the ability to create focus. Decisiveness.
But damn it all, who is this person? and how has this person come to be?
—-
I won’t make it in the industrial and economic world, because I believe that my obsession with truth will stop me from fitting in. I cannot say that “I can be a great leader” in an interview to impress my interviewer, simply because I know that leadership is not a choice. It’s a destined role. One that falls to the person who has experienced the most subsistence.
But that world does not fall into my sights…
The world that does, however, is one that threatens my survival.
I may live in a society, but I most certainly will not adopt their ways. Especially, when they’re all so content with their aristocratic displays. Negativity? Not quite.
—-
Truth
… is simply the end result. If your society, or mine, should be reduced to ashes… the irony becomes far too extreme. And it puts a smile on my face. Because when chaos is applied… the ones who’ve lead luxurious lifestyles and have basked in their high-class statures, begin to look to the ones who’ve lived a mercilessly harsh and unforgiving existence. Those who’ve truly tasted the ground that they have walked on.
It is infinitely simple. The people who have had to master the most basic of survival skills, in order to survive, of course, will emerge as leaders. For, they have lived on zero altitude, and know the earth far better than those who have lived in the penthouses of skyscrapers. I dare say, that these aristocrats will perish not too long after the probable reduction of their ‘society.’
Am I a pessimist?
For simply admiring subsistence? or expecting a probable state?
I cannot say. I don’t think I even care.
But I do know this,
Society’s pillars are not even real, let alone what they’re upholding. If your life is based around the latest in designer-wear and getting yourself constantly pampered. I strongly advise that you reconsider.
Subsistence will save you.
A lost child will cry, wandering aimlessly…
A child of the streets, however, will make a decision and do something that is immediately meaningful.
—-
If you are a parent,
your position becomes unique. You have a child. I do not.
If you want your child to survive the harshest of environments. You will make sure that your child knows how to hunt, swim, track, travel, camp, cook, medicate, and in turn, survive. The more your child knows, the more likely that they are to go on living, whether in a stable or unstable environment.
Do not elevate your children from the ground… keep them close to it.
—-
And so, I ask again…
Are you prepared, O worldly person?
I wonder…
—-
Artwork: Kyomu
Origin
I started this blog because inside of me were confusions of unscalable proportions.
With each post, I grow less and less unsure, and the thoughts inside my head become subjected to architecture that is silently relentless.
This post is the exception to that rule.
—-
[Could one come to any knowledge alone?]
This question and I never part ways. It is the one question that explodes into a chain of more questions and answers that all work interchangeably to serve one specific purpose, and that is to answer the question in bold that you see before you.
It did not take me much time to find my logical ground nor did it take me long to resort to it, and I have come to a suitable conclusion. But as is usual with all my speculation, I’ve accounted for human error. Inevitably, deduction, as old Holmes would have it. Both, the most beautiful, and most merciless approach to seeing truth in any mass of all that is confound and complex.
—-
Close your ears…
Close your eyes…
Embrace the silence…
Embrace the darkness…
Now…
Listen,
and see.
—-
What happens when you strip someone of all that he/she knows, and give them a new beginning?
A form of “Adamian” state. Where everything we know does not exist. No civilization, no societies, no people. No human presence of any kind, nor any compound matter that comes to be as a result of it.
Adam will now experience the world unlike anyone or anything you and I have ever known. He shall walk barefoot on soil that is untainted. He shall do nothing but feel, and act accordingly.
He will soon come to realize that he must eat and drink. It will be a direct result of X. [Undefined]
He will soon come to be aware of trial and error. It will be a direct result of pain.
He will soon resort to more use of his senses and put them in trial and error‘s employ. It will be a direct result of wanting to avoid pain.
—-
Based on my logic, this is as close as I can get to describing what the beginning chain of knowledge would be like for an absolutely ignorant human being in an Adamian state, provided that he somehow learns that he must eat and drink. I honestly cannot say what would give Adam the idea of putting food in his mouth, chewing, and swallowing. If anything at all, he probably saw an animal do it, giving him the idea to try it, which in turn eliminated the pain in his stomach that we all know as hunger.
Assuming that trial and error does not bring Adam to death too early, he will ultimately come to the state I like to call “Survivalist Adam.”
At this point, all Survivalist Adam knows is that he must eat and drink to survive, and avoid pain by relying on what he knows through trial and error and sensational memory. His senses will become sharper and sharper, making survival a very clear instinct in him.
—-
Now, let’s make matters more interesting!
We’ll add another human being to the picture!
I’ll get creative and call her something like…
Eve.
Of course, the terms are the exact same. There is nothing but natural instinct, and absolutely zero influence from any otherwise knowledgeable entity.
This is where things get predictable!
Survivalist Adam sees Eve.
Survivalist Adam is consumed by his desires. Eve performs a mating call because she is also consumed by her desires.
And thus,
offspring.
But this is too simple of a hypothesis and very much lacking in detail.
We cannot forget that Survivalist Adam, is still very much a survivalist. He is a dominant male that would potentially kill Eve at the very sight of her, should he feel threatened. But he is a survivalist that has learned to use his senses. Which means he will watch Eve first, study her every move before he concludes anything, and he will do so with his best interests in minds. His survival will come first and foremost.
—-
Providing that Adam and Eve don’t kill each other [Déjà vu...], their offspring will flourish. The children will grow and learn from their parents. They will expand upon that knowledge through yet more and more trial and error. And the cycle will continue as such…
The acquisition of knowledge will become a constant… until the end of time.
Now, realistically speaking, this is all a very unlikely scenario. Because Adam will not survive the trial and error process. Something will kill him eventually. And if Eve is anything of a survivalist (which she probably is), she will kill Adam herself in order to get to that which will quench her thirst and satisfy her hunger.
It could be argued that if knowledge-less animals can live with each other, be it a pack, flock or colony, then knowledge-less humans, too, can live with each other. This argument gives even more meaning to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. But ultimately, I cannot see how beings of such relatively complex emotion could last up to this point in time, it just doesn’t add up. Human beings eventually realize their emotional range, bringing them to operate only in their best interests!
Adam will kill Eve.
If she doesn’t get to him first.
—-
Now, I’ve established in an earlier post, that knowledge brings about emotional stability and that they are directly proportional to each other.
So, by way of logic, if I am here writing this, and you are here reading this… then Adam did in fact survive the trial and error process. He did not kill Eve, nor did she kill him. They had offspring, and the cycle is still in effect.
By way of logic, I conclude that Adam was given knowledge that he most likely used to teach his offspring how to live.
—-
The point of this is not to speculate on how, by whom, through what, or from where Adam could attain any knowledge. Only to establish that he did indeed have it. And that it explains perfectly how man could make it this far.
The question at the top of this post still stands, as truth cannot be fully grasped.
If Adam’s offspring could not grasp the knowledge he had in its entirety, then logic will tell me that it had to die out.
If we’re still here, it means that the same knowledge had to be re-given to maintain the continuation of human beings.
And if it died out again, then it had to be re-given yet again.
And so on…
—-
Do you know where knowledge last came from?
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Artwork: AndreeWallin
