The Gnostic premise

[Magical Realist]

The most concise statement of what I call the Gnostic premise is from Rousseau. He said:

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are."

This also happens to be the foundation of post-60's modern anarcho/liberalism, that man is essentially a free being, but is enslaved by the determinations of his condition. The inner liberating spark becomes a form of awareness or knowledge that he needs to escape from his prison of material existence. Knowledge becomes the saving power, not God or moral conduct or the government. It is a politcal ideal as well as a spiritual idea, this narrative of revolutionaries bucking a sinister system or "the establishment". It is the Fellowship of the Ring seeking to undermine the dark reign of Sauron. It is the underground movement of Jedi knights striving to bring down the tyrrany of the evil Empire. The exodus of enslaved Hebrews from the cruelty of their Egyptian masters, promising a return to Zion--a land flowing with milk and honey. The ideal utopian state is implicitly assumed---a return to simplicity, independence, populism. communal support, naturalism, tolerance for all differences, and the destruction of the inequalities of wealth and privelege and class. It assumes a immanent wisdom and innocence to the human spirit such that compassion and respect come naturally and have no need to be enforced from above. Is it realistic? What becomes of the emancipator once the great emancipation has been accomplished? What new enslavement must be posited to sense their own newfound freedom against? The enslavement of dark demonic ignorance, the cosmic foil in the gnostic's messianic epic. Always this threat of fascism and totalitarian dominance on the distant stormy horizon.

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[Mr Doodlebug]

People seeking Utopias have killed many more people, caused far more harm, than anyone seeking their own gratification, or just muddling along.

[Yazata]

The most concise statement of what I call the Gnostic premise is from Rousseau. He said:
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."

Man is everywhere in chains? To what?

If I was going to come close to agreeing with Rousseau, I would say that what enslaves humanity everywhere is probably our own dreams and desires.

Nobody can let themselves really be happy, because they carry this nagging dissatisfaction around inside them. The fact that they feel themselves to be "enslaved", that they believe that something about life is fundamentally wrong, and the fact that they imagine that some radical change in everything around them is going to be necessary to make things right, is precisely what enslaves them.

The real problem isn't Sin, or the Fall of Man, or Pharoah, or evil capitalism, or our being trapped in the physical world... it's us, the fact that we are human beings and not gods, the fact that this is real life and not heaven. It's our own inability to let ourselves be satisfied with the lives we have and be happy.

Human beings are probably the only organisms on Earth that can imagine perfection and then feel that they are horribly oppressed, or alternatively that they are totally unworthy, because their lives don't meet their own imaginary standard.

[cluelusshusbund]

If I was going to come close to agreeing with Rousseau, I would say that what enslaves humanity everywhere is probably our own dreams and desires.

Nobody can let themselves really be happy, because they carry this nagging dissatisfaction around inside them. The fact that they feel themselves to be "enslaved", that they believe that something about life is fundamentally wrong, and the fact that they imagine that some radical change in everything around them is going to be necessary to make things right, is precisely what enslaves them.

The real problem isn't Sin, or the Fall of Man, or Pharoah, or evil capitalism, or our being trapped in the physical world... it's us, the fact that we are human beings and not gods, the fact that this is real life and not heaven. It's our own inability to let ourselves be satisfied with the lives we have and be happy.

Human beings are probably the only organisms on Earth that can imagine perfection and then feel that they are horribly oppressed, or alternatively that they are totally unworthy, because their lives don't meet their own imaginary standard.

I thank you got right to the hart of the matter... but i thank what most see as bein "real" about life is just an illusion... which leads me to have no issues wit bein worthy or not... an my standard for life matches exactly wit how life unfolds.!!!

I thank the ability to be happy depends on the individuals circumstances which i thank are all beyond ther control... but insted of feelin inslaved or that life is fundamentally wrong... even wit my limitations i feel empowered... an even wit the horrors that occur i feel that life coudnt be any more right -- in that life cant be any other way than what it is.!!!

[elte]

I can't let myself be happy because that just makes the sadness more painful.  I too don't blame myself.

[cluelusshusbund]

I can't let myself be happy because that just makes the sadness more painful.  I too don't blame myself.

Sentient life does what it can to cope... an no need for one to blame therself -- others will do it for 'em... eh.!!!

[Magical Realist]

People seeking Utopias have killed many more people, caused far more harm, than anyone seeking their own gratification, or just muddling along.

I've sought Utopia many a time. It's a small town in the Texas Hill Country. Really hard to find. It's great for tubing the Frio River. I haven't killed anyone there yet, but if they bump my inner tube and spill my beer I  might think about it.

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