2017-02-10: Maps of Meaning #3

topic

discussion notes

  • Shadows and personas, taming your inner monster, entering into chaos to discover your monster so you can harness it

    • May have been a monster originally, and then realised it was monstrous, and changed

    • May have not been a monster, and had to developer it to protect from other monsters

    • Finding balance is the important - too timid, monsters abuse you - too monstrous, no opportunities - balance takes time and diligence

  • Lying / white lies / persona / society / honesty / makeup / cleaning / manners / virtues / success / faking / tradition

    • Cleaning example

      • Not cleaning your house at all

        • You get sick and people think you are a slob
      • Cleaning your house religiously

        • You have no spare time and people can think you are weird
      • Cleaning your house thoroughly only when others are around

        • Could be considered lying/disingenuous is not your natural state / putting up a front / bravado example - could also circumvent / muddy the waters / for natural improvements

          • However, if you are a mother with messy children, then this situation may be the best you can do, as the below example may not be possible
      • Cleaning your house regularly to maintain health, and occasionally thoroughly to maintain aesthetics for others

        • Seems the middle balance through the above
    • Makeup example

      • No makeup provides the confrontation to build natural beauty in health, fitness and character - traits that can exist over time

      • However, aesthetic beauty diminishes over time - one may wish to use [feminine makeup, plastic surgery augmentations], [androgynous clothing], [male expensive watches, suits, cars, etc] to maintain their sexual marketplace value over time

      • To find balance

        • Makeup at the cost of developing natural beauty - is bravado and disingenuous

        • No makeup or efforts to improve aesthetics (shaving, haircuts, good clothes) - may lose societal standing

        • A mixture of aesthetics improvements and natural beauty/character improvements seems to be the middle ground

          • Aesthetic improvements to haircuts/shaving to look like your better self

          • Hygiene and character improvements to become a better self

    • Roles example

      • A home keeper housewife role may find a lot of meaning in maintaining aesthetics, as it is the role they have been assigned for their breadwinner - along with parenting if have children

        • it seems Jordan’s thankfulness for makeup stems from this point

          • If one is married, naturally, having an aesthetically pleasing home and wife even in old age is nice and perhaps reduces temptations to look elsewhere
      • Bravado examples

        • Taking a loan to buy a porsche to appear aesthetically successful/attractive/appealing even though it is a white lie perhaps

          • May make it seem that success is only aesthetics, which is a very narcissistic way of seeing the world - Nicole Kidman’s “To Die For” can portray this delusion
  • Bull example

    • The spanish tradition of releasing a bull (a monster that represents chaos and destruction) to then tame by the human - can be of a lot of cultural significance - a right of passage for a man perhaps

      • However, when the tradition is lost into a situation where the dragon is caged and thousands of humans are destroying it, and cheating it, it seems to lose its honourable qualities

        • Especially when a man or men are destroyed by the monster/bull so the monster is just shot - this is embarrassing - the monster perhaps should be praised in admiration - although admiration is hard for cynics
  • Destruction of building scene

    • Similar to riots around the world

      • The things the rioters dispise perhaps through resentful envy, are destroyed - rather than admired envy in the quest of a pursuit for accomplishment of an ideal
  • Cynicism is related to success hierarchies

    • when presented a success hierarchy, people may

      • tear down the successful

      • build their own alternative hierarchies - that may not be mapped to reality

      • use envy to fuel inspiration to become better

    • Anytime one admires or envies (? or resents ?), it is a positioning within a success hierarchy

  • Approach anxiety / rejection / fear / risk assessment / conflation of risks/issues / experiments over experiences / experience to experiment to learnings to success / idling is failing and worse than rejection as no learning or opportunity for success