Tribe vs Individual

Common Results of Counter-Value Actions within a Community and Why We Need Counter-Value Exiles

A Philosophical Exploration of My Own Beliefs from Experiences, in text

I think there are two basic types of evil in the world.

“I believe myself to be good and use actions and words that lead to evil outcomes.”?

“I believe myself to be evil and use actions and words that lead to evil outcomes.”

When someone truly believes themselves to be evil, as a society we study that person with compassion and may refer them to psychological care.?

Evil-ness, in our society’s common belief structure, is a learned behavior, or malfunction of neuro-processing, for example inefficient or absent specific neurotransmitters, which cause erratic and damaging behaviors due to fractured perceptions.

After all, we rarely recognize evil in a baby, except in fiction.?

In other words, nobody is born evil.

But, what is “evil”??

What is “good”?

Can someone BE truly GOOD or EVIL in a complex world??

Good and evil are labels most often placed by others in a community, and in the context of evidence to justify the label.

Justifications are made through evaluations of agreed-upon values and perception as determined by objective reality of the results.

Most of us believe ourselves to be good, and further we believe the actions we take are fair and necessary to accomplish our goals. Specifically, the goals we choose within the systems and world in which we’ve been trained to live.

We choose goals, actions, and behaviors in line with our values, or judgements.

Good and evil are scales based on values, both individual and within a community.?

Defying values breaks a code of decency, respect, and fairness.

Defying values within oneself diminishes self confidence and self trust because we break a promise to ourselves about how we interact with the world and judge the interactions, and this begins an inner struggle between what is objectively true versus what is subjectively right, as determined by stated values.

Mental health studies show this greatly enhances feelings of disconnect and anxiety because the brain analyzes actions in conflict with stated values about that action.?

Lying is one example of this. Many people feel it’s wrong to lie; yet stretch the boundaries of truth to cover actions and behaviors which may not be perceived with positivity by external influences.?

The mind-based comparison sort of lightly "breaks" the brain and causes incongruent patterns of thought to emerge like subroutines, sub-personalities, or "voices" of elders or parents.

While we may not understand the purpose of this contrast-derived negativity, the result I've noticed in my own life can be a downward spiral of emotions, negative self-talk, and coping mechanisms.

Defying values within a group diminishes group confidence and trust with an individual because the group learns not to rely on that individual. That individual demonstrates, through actions or words, they are unwilling or incapable of upholding shared values.?

Individuals who breach community values enough times are exiled from the community because they TAKE too many community resources to maintain and return TOO LITTLE to the community.?

Lack of trust begets exile because it leads to greater survivability of the community.

Kindness is a powerful human concept that someone deserves compassion and extra resources because some life event has rendered that individual incapable of upholding community values and balancing give and take of community resources.?

However, when compassion becomes endemic it transforms into codependence where an individual may only survive through additional acts of community compassion.?

Our brains struggle to recover from acting codependent because an individual accustomed to receiving a greater level of support will believe putting more energy into system, or community, to receive a similar level of support will be unfair.?

The feeling of unfairness may cause them to slide into negative territory, such as relying on addictions or other damaging coping mechanisms, until an individual is capable of confronting their own proclaimed and broken values and life objectives, essentially choosing the struggle of life over self punishment and suffering.

Fairness is often used as an argument to justify mental or pghysical laziness in those who don’t know, or have never experienced, the true struggles and difficulties that are inherent to life and living. Life is inherently unfair, unpredictable, and seemingly cruel.

We often have too little concept of life this way as children, and must accept this for the transition into adulthood to be complete.?

Adulthood, and acceptance of life’s hardship, helps overcome the obstinate and contentious ego. This release of self-centered childhood programming allows the greater function of the pre-frontal cortex to manifest, and act on primal neuro-programming, to create community.

We are communal animals.?

Nature programmed our brains to be together because being part of a community gives a greater chance of survival.?

Being alone means a greater difficulty in living, greater drain on limited resources, and greater levels of energy used for basic survival.?

In a community, division of labor leads to an opportunity to thrive rather than simply survive because time, energy, and resources are fairly divided to ensure the greatest level of success for the community, as a whole.?

When individuals take too much time, energy, or resources for themselves they defy community values and trust.?

Lack of value alignment kills trust and begets exile.

Exile, while difficult, is also fertile ground for personal growth, creativity, and expression because one is free to plumb the depths of human suffering and personal experience.?

Exile can lead to delightful revelations, as demonstrated with Walden - where Henry David Thoreau chose a sort of temporary exile in an experiment of self-perception and survivalism.?

Great art is often built on a foundation of self-perceived exile and suffering.

Or exile can lead to dependence on coping mechanisms as temporary escapes from the cruelty felt by a general lack of fairness in the world.?

How one responds to exile might be directed by how quickly one accepts fairness as an ideal, but not a value, and takes radical responsibility toward actions that shift objective reality toward better results.?

It’s here that the Stockdale Paradox may provide inspiration for one struggling in exile.?

The Stockdale Paradox describes the idea of believing in the best, demonstrated by optimism in an outcome, while also confronting the objective truth of reality and making choices and taking actions that reflect both, with an anchor in reality.?

Basically, taking steps and hoping for the best outcome while also taking steps to prepare for the worst outcome.

It’s important to note that NO PERSON who changed the world, or created radical movements, simply lived by the values of the time or community.?

Philosophers, writers, artists, and musicians throughout history were exiles from core communities. They chose to BE different, to THINK different, and to SEE the world different, and this exiled them from those who begged quiet sameness.?

Sameness disappears to our senses because our brains ignore it to optimize basic survival. Differences stand out.?

No change ever happened because of the status quo.?

Change can cause fear and uncertainty in most people, and that’s why it’s so hard to improve the challenges we face today as a global community.?

We need counter-community thinkers.?

We need exiles.?

Exiles are rule breakers…

They are adventurers…

They are differentiators…

They are revolutionaries…

And they change the world when they take radical responsibility and accept the level of work it takes to shift the world in the direction they feel it should move.?