tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post6794478908483068183..comments2023-09-29T02:49:02.989-07:00Comments on An Emphatic Umph: Confusion Daniel Coffeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-1596161573041059602013-01-21T18:07:54.291-08:002013-01-21T18:07:54.291-08:00These are truly excellent questions. When I first ...These are truly excellent questions. When I first wrote that, I thought I was being clever in alluding to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. And there's something about raising it to a principle that I find alluring.<br /><br />The more I think about it, the more I stick by it. But I'm not sure it means holding back. It just means not being an ideologue. That is, I can still commit absolutely to my feelings from the inside out — with the understanding that these feelings may change. But I stop short of demanding others to feel the same way as, well, what do I know?<br /><br />I'm not sure acting and being real are opposed. I mean they can be but they don't need to be, not if you begin from a place beyond the real — or a place that is always necessarily real whether you're acting or not.<br /><br />I believe this is what has intrigued me since I was a passionate but stoned teen: I love this AND that and then I love this and not that and and and and... I actually believe that this uncertainty principle breeds a certain passion in that it fosters a going with the flow of the world.<br /><br />And: I need to keep thinking about it. Thanks, as always, for jumping in. Daniel Coffeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-12482873691854073332013-01-21T14:17:12.289-08:002013-01-21T14:17:12.289-08:00“My only principle at this point is uncertainty.”
...“My only principle at this point is uncertainty.”<br />This seems like a basis for one to live an ironic life! It’s like living a life where you welcome a position - or better still - multiple positions, and you embrace them without considering them to be your ultimate positions, because you already know that you might change with time and so you keep yourself open towards other ideas, positions, principles etc. It sounds a little Buddhistic, Stoic, or maybe Socratic, because by living in Irony (I think) one embraces ideas without necessarily accepting them or indulging in them, so one lives one’s life by restraining themselves from indulging in a thing too much. <br />Is this what you mean by uncertainty? If this is it, then this position sure is extremely anxiety ridden; At least it is to me, especially when I think about taking up this stance. It’s very hard to be ok with openness and uncertainty because it ends up making a person look like a actor acting in a play where the scenes are constantly changing and the actor has to be on his toes changing his role constantly in relation to the ever changing scenes. <br />αλήθειαhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04198838378463465730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-19727756240626918092013-01-16T15:42:17.440-08:002013-01-16T15:42:17.440-08:00Courage, yes. Not sure it's a principle but a...Courage, yes. Not sure it's a principle but a demand, a requisite. I find that I keep looking to what I know, retreating to my old ways rather than bearing the confusion to forge a new world, a new way of going. I am not brave, alas.<br /><br />Good article. Mostly. Thanks.<br /><br />Daniel Coffeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-86392099772356789862013-01-16T06:55:52.476-08:002013-01-16T06:55:52.476-08:00If there's a principle besides confusion, I...If there's a principle besides confusion, I'd say it's courage, since it's often required when leaving certainty for confusion, and no guarantee of any future certainty. Of course, sometimes there's no courage involved at all, and you're thrown into confusion against your will. But I still think it takes some courage to embrace the confusion. <br /><br />Since you don't read the newspaper, you probably didn't see that article in the nyt a few weeks ago about how people tend to vastly underestimate how much they will change in the future. It seems relevant here. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/science/study-in-science-shows-end-of-history-illusion.html?_r=0Lindsay Meiselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17250501133788792507noreply@blogger.com