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Aswad -> RE: Remnants (7/1/2009 2:08:21 PM)
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ORIGINAL: lovingpet
Am I understanding that it is not really possible to know what life experience and belief structures will follow a person until they have dissociated from it?
If so, then you do not understand.
I do not need to become American to know what it means to be Norwegian. I can have a look at Americans, visit their country, interact with their culture, and then contrast this with what I already know. In that way, I will know more about what seperates one from the other. What we know all too well, we don't realize, as we take it for granted. Only when we encounter that which is different, do we have a yardstick by which to measure what we knew. Only then do we have the means to know what seperates one thing from another. Without suffering, we cannot fully appreciate what joy is. Without darkness, we cannot know light.
Which is not to say that these things necessarily cease to be real without the contrast, just that we have no means to know them, because to know a thing is to differentiate this from that. Wear a blindfold for a day, then take it off, and you will know far more about seeing than you ever thought there was to know about it.
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If that is so, then I am wondering if a Gorean is going to pick up on those subtlties that you mentioned and recognize the person's background.
I would say I am intentionally blind to whether someone knows anything about being Gorean.
I am instead aware- I would like to believe "keenly aware"- of whether they are the kind of person I can relate to, whether they are the kind of person whose word I would trust, and so forth. Whether I respect someone is not contingent on their background, but rather on the content of their character, and the manner in which they demonstrate that character. I know people who identify themselves as Gorean that would never earn my respect, and I know people who don't identify as anything in particular who have nonetheless earned a great deal of respect.
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If I were to try to explain how I was permanently affected by a belief structure, I could do it.
You could touch on it, sure. But as you say:
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It would not be exaughstive and I would suspect that others would be able to identify areas I was unaware of especially if they are currently of those beliefs.
And I would reverse the latter: they'd be especially able to identify those areas if they were of a different belief.
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I am remaining as open and teachable as possible here.
Please read Paul Graham's essay "What You Can't Say", specifically the parts dealing with openness. Google will find it as the first hit if you search. The rest of the essay is brilliant, too, and well worth a read. It nicely complements scientific findings about the paradoxical nature of self-awareness.
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I am doing what I can.
That's all I ask.
Health,
al-Aswad.
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