I was thinking about the pointlessness of writing a series of posts illustrating a "good enough" model of human behavior which few people have read and even fewer have understood. So I won't do it. I have a few other things to talk about which follow from the model (for example, religious behaviors), but that's about it. I'm done.
The flatland model implies that important human behaviors at their root are predictable and therefore meaningless in anything other than an evolutionary (Live & Grow) sense. That is literally the last thing humans want to be believe about themselves.
But there is always an unacknowledged shadow side. If all else fails, humans will sometimes tell you (for example) that God moves in mysterious ways. That's one way to get through life, but there are lots and lots of other filters the "successful" human deploys to solve the get-out-of-bed problem when things go sour, as they inevitably do.
The best kept secret on Earth is and always has been that human life sucks, even if you have indoor plumbing
And it doesn't just suck for you, it sucks for pretty much everybody, even the most "successful" humans among us. Filtering is the only way to get through it.
The flatland model is self-evidently an existential threat to humans. It's not a literal death threat, of course, but it does call characteristic human behaviors into question by attempting to pinpoint the instinctual (Live & Grow) motivations driving those behaviors. The model says that such threats (including the implications of the model itself) must be filtered. In fact, DOTE has always been invisible in flatland. I've gotten away with saying lots of terrible (albeit true) stuff about humans because I could always count on the fact that very few of them would notice.
Most of life as we experience it boils down to highly social monkeys acting instinctually and telling stories about what they or others are doing (storytelling is also instinctual). For example, if I look at any "successful" website, that's what I see. Success in this regard is merely a function of 1) establishing a socially acceptable POV and therefore an audience; and 2) telling stories which appeal to that audience. Any such website is therefore a direct expression of Live & Grow in the flatland model. Outside this website, there are no exceptions to my knowledge.
Whether humans are generally able to see what motivates their behavior is the question I'm raising here. In so far as the vast majority of people are going to websites where they can receive and tell socially satisfying stories—or argue with each other about those stories, which doesn't change their social commitment—we can be pretty sure that humans are blind to their own motivations. That's the difference between flatland itself (that vast majority) and observations of flatland.
I believe I can see what motivates people at this basic level, and a few other people I've come to know here on DOTE can also see it. That's got to be good enough from my point of view.
But a website (this one) based on an inherently threatening point of view can not effectively exist in any Live & Grow sense. Therefore, this one has now ceased to exist, at least in the sense that there will be very little new material appearing on it. I have reached the inevitable end of a project which started years ago. The site will remain up for the indefinite future. I need to arrange to have someone else take care of the site when I am no longer able to do so.
This is very likely the last time you will be able to make comments on this website. If you've got something to say, you had better say it now.
— Dave
One more bonus video
Thanks Dave!
See ya !!
Posted by: Germ | 03/22/2017 at 12:23 PM