So, what I've come to understand (or think that I have understood) is that we are not here to actually "save" others in the fullest sense of the word but that we can only offer help/support to those who ask. In terms of actually doing the "saving", I've also come to understand that one can only save oneself. Otherwise we would simply be giving away our own power and responsibility which would take us back to what religion promises which in turn we know is inherently flawed. This takes me back now to the above quote from the C's and makes me wonder why they chose those specific words?
I don't agree with that. This is a western individualistic approach that invariably ends in disaster, because alone you will never be able to fill the void inside yourself, but only come to terms with it. You will always be unhappy. That is, it is a way of accepting unhappiness. Some people think that this is the way of strenghts, supposedly you have been victorious over yourself and became stronger this way, more aware and independent, but in my opinion this is the way of stupidity, because it is unnatural and brings only problems.
I'll explain:
HUMAN as a social being is inextricably linked with society. This is the only biological species that does not obey environmental conditions, but artificially transforms the environment into a comfortable social one. A person becomes a person only by entering into social relations, into communication with other people. An individual, for whatever reason, cut off from society from birth, remains an animal, he won't be able to do or understand shit, even to read this forum.
The very essence of human communities is social interaction and it dictated this way by nature itself. It's even hard to survive alone, and in ancient times it was completely impossible. Modern civilization and all its benefits appeared only through social interactions. All the ideas, understanding of this world, dreams and achievements were made by people only thanks to society. Even if you try to hide from everyone in some cave and live there in complete seclusion, you will still use the knowledge that society has given you to survive.
Do you know who the Japanese hikkimore are? Even they do not lie all day on a floor looking at the ceiling, even they communicate with other via the Internet or consume the results of social interactions by other means playing games or watching tv shows. Even your thinking process is a construct formed in you in the process of growing up by the environment, i.e. your society. All the text you wrote here and reflections in it are the result of thousands of years of developing the way of thinking that you have adopted from the society around you.
And how can we not remember that man is an animal with the basic instinct of procreation. Nature itself does not provide that humans can develop further alone even biologically. And you, and I, and every living person, if he is not a psychopath, feels and needs to be understood by someone else just not to feel alone. The emptiness inside can
never be cured by loneliness, even if you think that you become somehow stronger this way. It's a self-lie, nature itself did not provide for this, but on the contrary pushes us in every possible way to communicate with other people.
You can compare this process with those crazy bodybuilders who endure their addiction to the point of absurdity, turning their body into an inflated ball of muscles, which not only looks ridiculous, but also seriously undermines their health, as well as it is banally uncomfortable to live when you can't even scratch your back.
As I have already said, this process only leads to inner emptiness. It may seem to you that this is some calm way of living, but in fact it is only emptiness. Being in this state temporarily can be useful after severe stress to reboot yourself, but being in it forever is like dying. Robotic way of existance even tho you're sure that you're somehow "enlightened" this way. Not like the other, right? You're special :D More conscious and free, not like that herd of silly other people. Yeah? This is the way to nowhere. Look, you even think that you can teach other. What a wise being you're, such a level of understanding. wow... I am convinced that many problems of our civilization are dictated by this emptiness and many catastrophes are made by the hands of those who were sure that in this way they would be able to get rid of this emptiness. Nazism, religious radicalism, crimes, sects, etc., even corruption are all attempts to fill a certain void by some other means except the natural one.
Giving yourself to someone else and caring for this another person becoming together a full-fledged being without the destructive voids inside is the natural way. The emptiness sucks everything, like a black hole. Only by dividing ourselves with another we can cope with it coz there will be no more loneliness, then this hole will not suck in your energy, but generate it in the opposite direction through your partner when you'll see his hapiness. Didn't you notice this yet? That we become happy only when we make happy others, especially those who are important to us. How much more will you be able to do and achieve being happy, energized and without the void? Think about it. It is very difficult to find someone you can trust and share your life with, so most have never experienced this, which is why this myth continues to spread that you can somehow get yourself happy and fuilfilled being alone. Most people have simply never experienced inner fullness so they don't know what it is and believe that their miserable, unhappy life is the norm but giving yourself to some other person which is important to you is somehow bad. Nah, to be alone is a silly, weak way of fears and nothing more.
The most striking example is modern Western civilization, the Woke culture with all its pronunciations, attempts to remake the language, rewrite history, cancel people e.t.c. All these are attempts to fill the gap inside, I'm just sure of it. And this process within some people has reached such a critical point that it has begun to destroy the reality around themself only because this exactly approach that you described in your message prevails there. People first came to terms with their emptiness, then they began to be proud of themselves as supposedly special human beings, because they allegedly "conquered" this emptiness, which means they are better than others, well, as a result, this brought them to the new fascism under the guise of the woke culture, which by itself does not fill anything for them, does not fill the void, but it only pushes unhappiness, self-loathing and loss in life, sucks them into this swamp more and more, forcing them to be harsher activists and take more radical forms of these ideas. It's like a snowball.
It doesn't work because it's not natural.
In this situation, I always remember a quote from the film "Solaris", by the brilliant director Andrei Tarkovsky based on the Stanislav Lem's book:
I must tell you that we do not want to conquer Space at all. We want to expand the land to its borders. We don't know what to do with other worlds. We don't need other worlds, we need a mirror. We are struggling with the outer contact and will never find it.
We are in the stupid position of a person rushing towards a goal that he is afraid of, that he does not need. A man needs a man.
Человеку нужен человек,
Чтобы пить с ним горьковатый кофе,
Оставаться рядом на ночлег,
Интересоваться о здоровье.
Чтобы улыбаться просто так,
Чтоб на сердце стало потеплее,
Чтобы волноваться: "Там сквозняк!
Обувай-ка тапочки скорее".
Человеку нужен человек,
Позвонить ему, послушать голос:"
А у нас сегодня выпал снег.
Как ты без меня там? Беспокоюсь! "
Чтобы был приятель, друг, сосед,
И еще сопящая под боком,
Без которой счастья в жизни нет,
Без которой очень одиноко...
Марина Бойкова
It was always like that. And it will be, untill we ll make some AI who will be able to rewrite his code and took all the humanistic traits out of itself after us.
