Myth As Reality

To start with a potential disclaimer;  I have no idea of if the thoughts to be expressed in the following post is valid, or “True”.  I merely mention them for the sake of self expression, and to provoke thought.

Having stated that, I’m personally beginning to feel that Reality is more Myth than a common objective standard.  Solely because of the amount of conflict that has escalated in the American Culture Wars.  From the perspective of a fairly disinterested individual in the thoughts being hurled around.  I would like to state that there at least appears to be “Two Camps” of thought being advocated for.  One of the “Liberal Bent”, and the other of a “Conservative Bent”.

I don’t identify whole sale with either disposition, for they both seemingly have their merits, and their flaws.  Regardless, the item I’d like to point out is parallel to these identifications in the sense that they underlie the seeming conflict in ideology (from my point of view).

The idea/item I’m pointing out is the notion of Myth as World-builder.  We as people are fostered from youth within a set mindset.  That of Christianity, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, or what have you (this also includes, but is not limited to Formal Education, Atheism, New Age Beliefs, or whatever).  I’m calling it ALL out, for all stem from a mindset of cultural conditioning and identity.  Racism, cultural conditioning.  Sexism, cultural conditioning.  Class-ism, cultural conditioning.   Nations, cultural conditioning.

Everything, and I do fully mean everything that one encounters in their daily lives, and from their own point of view is seemingly conditioned, and a myth.  A narrative of Life that we, or one can live by.  I’m not implying that such a behavior is either good, or bad, for that is another set of culturally conditioned thinking.

What I’m actually saying though is the thought that our Reality is fully manifested via ourselves from the Myths and thoughts that we believe.  Not some pseudo-“Law of Attraction” thing, but more of a this is what happens when one believes in something, and they act upon said belief.

A concrete example;  Does a Country exist?  Let’s take the United States as example.  In theory/thought it does exist, but as a tangible object does the “United States” exist outside our mindset?  Suppose you were a native of Mars, and completely foreign to the notion of Earth’s History (Shout out to Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger In a Strange Land”, for the idea inspiration).  To drill down into more personal details, go to you backyard, and grab a fist full of soil.  Is this “DIRT”, a Country/State/Province/City/County…etc?  No, it is a hunk of dirt, but we’re willing to fight, and shed blood for the ideological notion that this is our “Homeland”.  Our “Property”.  Our “God Given Rights”.

This is not so, from my current opinion (notice the caveat).  All that exists within our world is a myth that we’ve concocted to believe in.  Including ourself as ourself.  Digging into this mindset one shall arrive at a notion of what can actually exist?  And what is Authentic?  Does a person actually have a physical, concrete, form/body?  Or could they already be embodied in some form of an “Afterlife” (spiritual/virtual dimension)?

Now isn’t this too “Myth-Making”?  That I’m establishing postulates, and characteristic ideologies that espouse my mindset?  All of these words should effectively mean nothing to you, as a “Realized Individual”.  They are effectively another school of doctrine/thought that espouses to hold the “Absolute Truth”.  This not so, for the only Truth that a person may ever have is THEIR TRUTH.  Enforcing it upon another, or getting up in arms about it is no different than all the crusaders, jihadists, inquisitors, and other cultural zealots that fight for, or fend off “attackers” from other “Cultural Mindsets”.

This should all be fairly easy to see, for the first component of a “Culture”…is a “Cult”.  Note:  None of this forebears sharing your ideas, or beliefs.  It simply means that trying to ram your thoughts home, and to “convert followers”…is somewhat offensive.  Especially, to those who aren’t deigning to be fully involved in the present cultural (CULT) wars.

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Split Realities, and Loci of Existence.

As can be experienced in nearly everyday life, a person is a member of multiple levels of reality.  There’s the virtual with social networking, the tangible, and the spiritual.  There’s probably many more depending upon one’s definition of Reality, but the task I’m aiming for here is the notion of the mentioned three.  Virtual, Physical, and Spiritual.

One of the intended points of my game is to invoke the feelings of multiple planes of existence within one local.  A character within the game can interact with computers (virtual), and be embodied in a physical form.  Their mind, called ego/soul in the game, is another aspect of the character’s multi-dimensional nature.  Said ego/soul is meant to represent the spiritual/intangible realm.  A thought that keeps occurring to me while I dabble with this project is that a person/player can’t really tell where the exact threshold between virtual/physical/spiritual realities lie.  Unlike a video game there isn’t a “loading screen” to portray when one mindset takes over from another.

Tying this into thoughts about Real Reality which has lately been appearing as more subjective than objective in some cases.  For the brain has to interpret signals from whatever stimuli it is focused on in exactly the same manner regardless of source.  Engaging on a social network is similar to engaging a virtual rendition of a character.  You’re sitting “alone” focused upon a rendered embodiment of someone who is presenting pre-processed information (self-censoring is easier when there’s no immediate response time).

We weave narratives online, but also in person.  And yet it is apparently “easier” online to forget that we are a certain so-n-so.  Forget notions of a “natural world” in some sense, for the Universe/Reality encompasses all of the distinct renditions of split realities.  A person can easily grasp that their physical life is separate from their virtual one, but yet a person cannot easily relinquish their online life once established.

Now why would there be a separation of the Spiritual from the Physical or Virtual?  Are these mere categorizations we use to help distinguish one reality from another?  Is this even valid?  Could I not in fact be operating from a brain in a jar/vat connected to a network of other brains?   That what I’m seeing is illusion, and/or uncertain as to “realness”?  Most assuredly yes, else there’d be no point to the whole school of “Western Thought”.

You know, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave?  An individual chained within darkness (ignorance) while a fire plays illusionary shadows upon their senses?  That once broken free, and set off from the Cave.  That they have entered, and seen the “Great Fire” that lies within a bigger “Cave”?  There is no way out of the notion of residing within an illusion.  At least none that I can readily think of, but does this matter?  Is the stimuli any less “real”?  I’d say not.  Thus when an individual comes to realize the illusion of illusions.  That there seems to be everything within existence, but only if you can project the shedding light from your own cognitive fire upon the shadows around you.

Spiritual, Physical, …Virtual…all three, and probably more are vectors to Reality.  There is no difference between the three portrayed.  It is an illusion.  Different Terminology for a “different implied understanding”.  Magic, and miracles happen everyday, but we are so used to them that we don’t acknowledge their uniqueness.

…I am a light in the darkness, casting my own shadows upon other’s consciousnesses while trying to play shadow puppets with myself.  Is this because I’m “afraid of the dark”?  Ignorance?  The “Unknown”?  Or is it just because my own little flame can cast only so much light in such a big cosmic arena?  And yet, gazing into the Heavens, at night, one can see the entire sky illuminated….

 

The Dark Messiah

This idea has influences from several possible sources.  Namely; Der Ubermensch (Nietzsche), Knight of Faith (Kierkegaard), Religions & Myths, and a “Caring Antagonist” in thoughts once expressed by my Brother.

In my present conception, The Dark Messiah, is neither a hero, a savior, nor an “anti-hero”.  The Dark Messiah is a personality that is so beyond conventional moralities of “Good & Evil”, and exerts a will onto itself.  That is capable of withstanding all common conceptions of what is “Good”, and what is “Evil”.  It is a character that has taken Neutrality, Indifference, Rationality, Emotionalism, Apathy, Impartiality, Mutability, and Self-Interest to an extreme.

In the draft of life, The Dark Messiah, would ideally be vested above all in their own self-interests/pursuits, but paradoxically they’d be vested in said interests by their chosen Deity/Ideal/Cause.  Thus they’d feel obligated to serve a “higher power”, but they have chosen said “higher power” for themselves.  They weren’t indoctrinated into said belief/worship.  In some sense it is a “auto-theistic” notion of the Dark Messiah.

It should be noted that a Dark Messiah is not Narcissistic, for they would have to render themselves completely open to ridicule, and criticism.  In fact that would be the function they would serve.  To embody the ever mutable Other of Philosophy/Tribalism into a tangible being/idea/focus.

The Dark Messiah, is a contrarian, and a rebel to every position.  Including their own.  They take doubt to new levels, and meta levels of is the doubt of this idea even doubtful?   The basis of their thought could be the contradiction within the Nihilistic Nothing mentioned previously upon/within this blog.  The tension generated by tearing oneself asunder at every moment of every decision is what grants the Dark Messiah their strength, and credibility.  They realize the need for “Strong Figures”, and “Weak Figures” for they have been both in their lives.  They are the fulcrum upon which the balance of Good and Evil is rent.

The Dark Messiah, simply doesn’t care about base needs, nor immediate desires.  Their desires is what matters most, but they sublimate the immediate minor ones in favor of the greater long term ones.  They realize that they are connected to an embodied system of Life.  That in order for themselves to exist, and benefit to the way that they have developed.  They too must align themselves with the “general course”, or zeitgeist of the times.  They can’t directly oppose said flow of Life unless the opportunity presents itself.

They are survivors who’ve been burdened, and alienated by the system they were fostered in.  Not because they failed to conform, or conformed too readily.  They are this way because they’ve been foisted into a realization that they’ve grown beyond the system they once knew.  That they’ve changed.  That they’ve become the Alien, the Other, The Outsider.  The alienated that no longer desires to bend a knee to a society that sacrificed them.

In some essence, it may be characterized by the protagonist of the original Fallout game.

After risking their life, and everything about them as a character.  The protagonist of Fallout is condemned to exile by the home he spent the entire game trying to save.  The Dark Messiah, may be what happens after the protagonist of Fallout makes his way into the wasteland.  He is neither a hero, nor a savior to his people.  He’s just another “Drifter/Lost Soul” in a nuclear scorched wasteland.  That goes on in the interlude to Fallout 2 to have set up his own village far away from his vault.