Nonbeing: On Neighborly Love
We angst in the person we present ourselves to be.
We react to the person we think we are. Within the reaction is what ceases at bodily demise.
The reaction itself begins anew by every action.
It would be incorrect to think of reaction as a divisible aspect of reality.
A reaction is intimately tied to an action.
An example. As we age, our capacities peak and then tend towards annihilation. “Who we are” changes as these capacities change in keenness. Our “spirit” or reaction stays consistent, but the underlying action ceases to correlate with our expectations.
The spirit is an esthetic exultation. Our consumption of ourselves through self reflection or self identity is an esthetic mirroring. This is where we get psychology, which, while objectifying, depends on a standard, cohesive society (action) to exist. Luckily, western society has made progress towards an ever-universalizing interpretation of itself and the society it rests in/on.
It still remains to the individual to determine its own esthetic evaluation. While psychology has made progress (for example, society is growing in consciousness of differences and how to properly maturely deal with differences), the individual ranges in how they understand the world we live in.
Some understand a lot, some don’t. Some a little more than others and some a little less.
But yet they’re all individuals.
Some may ask themselves within this reaction/reflection how can the world be better.
Change the individual. It would be petty to say the self. The self reading this will always be one of an ever growing number of individuals.
The question of morality is, obviously then, now how can me, the self, be a good person. Rather, how can the individual be a good person.
We’re faced with this reality when we see people less well off than us. What can we do to help them? No. That’s the egotistical question of the self. It doesn’t consider the individual, the very people excluded from the question, what can we do to help them?
The moral question is what can they do for us. Why are they less off when they should have more to give? Why is this the case and how can I change it?