All the Rules are Broken

"Origin of The Effort", Part II

When you're very smart, but your parents are totally out to lunch, you kinda have to figure out a lot of stuff on your own.  When I was doing this I became concerned and even antisocial because it was very obvious that the rules people were trying to teach me (or simply trying to convince me were in effect despite whatever the truth of the matter might be) were totally bonkers.

For example: once when I was very young I got into a fight with another little boy.  I knocked him down and kicked him.  When I kicked him a teacher (who was in the process of breaking it up) said, "You don't kick a man when he's down!"

Now, of course, I understand: fighting is about winning, not destroying the other fellow.  But at the time it made no sense, I was too young and inexperienced at the time to figure out why I was "bad" for kicking the boy.  I just got confused: you are already hurting each other, why is it different to use the feet when "he's down"?

There was an incident where some kid was doing something wrong, I forget what, and, thinking that this was the thing to do, I told a teacher.  The teacher said, "no one likes a snitch".  I didn't know what a snitch was, but I was extremely confused: do we obey the rules or not?  Is it in fact okay to disregard the rules as long as you don't get caught?

No one explained.  It made no sense.  Eventually I learned both the word "hypocrite" and why no one likes a snitch.  However, the basic problem remains: either the rules are good and should be obeyed, or they are faulty and should be repaired or discarded.  In actual fact there are no rules whatsoever (although Nature does display regularities, even our mathematical equations that approximate these are tentative, contingent.)  Instead there are complex systems of feedback and neurosis that constrain and bind the human into intricate and mostly really stupid social forms. While humans are (or at least occasionally can be) sentient, these social forms and the feedback loops that maintain them are nearly idiotic.

There are two, and only two, solutions:  Form and Non-Form.

The first solution lies in mastering the world of form, becoming God-like and near-infinite.  This is ultimately a dead end.

The second solution lies in remembering what you are, becoming infinite God. This is what the world is for.