CTK is a truly great performer. Here he is on Da Thrill Is Gone (From Here).
***
My statement for today is unrelated to CTK. It seems important to recall that the reason I call Reeducation, Reeducation is that in it we had to engage in such constant and severe self-criticism. Rather than meditate so as to reach higher levels of zen, as I at least had always done before, we were to abandon the path and berate ourselves for not yet having become Bodhisattvas.
It also seems important to recall that perhaps the most central of the sacrifices required in Reeducation was integrity, by which I mean most specifically being who one is. This, I see darkly, was the point of the relentless self-criticism. That is why I am now so enamored of the statements on integrity, self-respect, and especially trust of oneself embodied in the maxims of Gracián.
Another professor I knew well believed that the sacrifice of integrity was necessary to professional success. One must not publish what one believes, say what one thinks, or care what one teaches, lest one’s true face show, causing one to be pulled down into Hell as the statue does Don Juan in Tirso’s play. At a certain level these things are true enough but at the devastating level to which he took them they led to terrible dead ends, as their implication is that one is to transform oneself into a thing but still expect to perform as a person.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
great video – love it!!!
Isn’t it?! Glad you enjoyed!
OT to that: I am back to this post to pick up the phrase “berate ourselves” and reaffirm: that is what I found so destructive about Reeducation, we had to keep sitting in a circle and chanting, more or less, “we are sick, we are sick, we are sick.” Every normal life problem was converted into a symptom of our individual “sickness.” That was really scary, especially in the context of a program in which we were also prohibited from actually addressing problems, taking control of situations, handling things.
While you reencoded everything bad that happened as a symptom of sickness, and everything good as a symptom of denial, you also had to watch your life crumble away as you failed to care for it. It was terrible.
Anyway, one of the most important roots of the problem was this cant, “we are sick, we are sick, we are sick.” I think this is incredibly destructive … *incredibly* destructive. I would like to know how it could *not* be a self esteem eroder, how it could *not* work to weaken the listener and bind them more closely to the darkness.
Anyway, one of the most important roots of the problem was this cant, “we are sick, we are sick, we are sick.” I think this is incredibly destructive … *incredibly* destructive.
Maybe you are not factoring in the perversion of some people enough — there can be a payoff in being sick, perhaps? It relates to the same conceit: “I’m a sinner, but I’m big enough to recognise that I am sick. You are a sinner, and you don’t seem to care.”
I suppose you are right! Possible payoffs:
– getting off the hook, if this is desired
– masochistic ecstasy, if this is desired
– praise for admitting imperfection, as you suggest
– maybe some I have not heard of.
The objective in saying this seems to be to learn that one is not perfect and that one may be a contributor to whatever problems one is having – and to learn to recognize these things without feeling guilty (because it is an ‘illness’).
What I do not understand is that most people I have met in life already know they are not perfect, already know that they themselves may have ‘a part’ in their own problems, and already do not feel guilty about that – after all, one is here to learn. To take a person like that and have them sit around saying “I am sick, I am sick, I am sick” seems quite perverse to me.
Even if one has a problem, as I do, such as a tendency to get into vaguely abusive relationships of various kinds. It is a real problem and I have been complaining of it since age seven … and have been seeking help for it since then … and yet to sit around saying “I am sick, I am sick” seems to me only to create a yet less confident person, and thus someone yet more vulnerable to abuse.
Maybe you need to be much sicker to get real pleasure out of admitting you are sick.
That is possible! 😉
I actually think it is. Which is why modernist Universalism misses its mark. We are not all psychological constructed in the same ways — or at least, we do not end up feeling and reacting all the same.
…and that, again, was the key problem with Reeducation: everyone was the same and it was “arrogant” to think otherwise.
[That, of course, was because it was supposed that everyone had done embarrassing things, or had embarrassing failures, so that by saying we were all the same nobody could be “in denial” about any of that. But once again: what if you have people who are already able to be somewhat open? Then the insistence that we are “all the same” no longer serves that purpose.]
It is so odd how universalism gets fetishized. Even doctors dealing with standard, known physical diseases (not diseases with gray areas, unsure cures, multiple variables) assume that each individual will respond as an individual organism, not as an automaton.
My experience tells me that universalism is the half way point towards a more complete intellectual development. When one first learns to think abstractly, one universalises as a direct outcome of applying abstract principles to reality. Yet it is only a half way point to intellectual development because there are always exceptions to the rule — but more than that, as you say (and the example of the doctor’s prognosis as an analogy is good) we are all organically different. Our upbringings for a start……
So, that is why trolls of all shapes and hues, as well as mediocre thinkers get caught at the level of simple universalisms and do not move on much beyond that.
Have you ever noticed it with trolls?
Universalism as a half way point, yes, very good.
Trolls: yes, they seem to be threatened by the subtleties, and it is perhaps because they have not yet fully assimilated the universal principle.
My most persistent troll, though, was my more famous X, and he was up to trying to discredit anything I might say about anything, just in an attempt to control from beyond the [grave, so to speak].
I don’t know. With the trolls I always get, “You are saying this. And someone who says this ALWAYS means that.”
And I’m thinking, “really?” What is your basis for this assumption apart from some universal generalisation from your own experience?
Is this because you have a site which in part deals with race and colonialism and it is in English? That may mean you get a lot of American readers. The discussion of these things here is informed by certain readings and principles, it’s almost a kind of code, and there seems to be a custom of “calling people out” on what are taken to be their blind spots.
I’m all for disagreement on politics and pointing out blind spots in arguments, but this habit of deciding that someone is not the perfect feminist, the perfect postcolonial, etc. and going on about it to them is not useful.
I haven’t had trolls myself who say if you say this then you mean that, although I’ve seen a lot of it elsewhere. I did get challenged once to a blog duel of sorts by someone who said because you are a professor, you must believe x, y, and z.
Actually, I was referring to the trolls who troll on feminist issues, but the other issue you raise is also an interesting one — the issue of colonialism and race. Yes, that also relates to many cases of misplaced universalism, it just isn’t funny. But I don’t get any of those kinds of comments on my blog, for some reason. The tradition of calling people out for not having the right attitudes is silly. I say so because nobody who has ever done that to me has been at all interested in what my real attitude is. They base their views on a presumption of what my attitude must necessarily be, if I have a certain identity. But they are never interested in digging deeper (beyond and beneath allocating me a particular identity), so they earn my scathing contempt. Beyond that, I also get to play Jesus in such situations:
“Are you worried about little blindspot that you think I might have when you live in the current supreme colonial power of the USA?”
The “Jesus play” is funny! And yes, the trolls on feminist issues are some of the worst.
Back to CTK:
Just want to let everyone know that the Chris Thomas King Fan Site is open, and I’d like to invite you all to drop by and check it out. You will find his bio, photos, complete discography, concert tour schedule and more.
Thanks!
http://www.myspace.com/christhomaskingfansite
Cool! 🙂