I had an interview for college today. I also had one last week, but I was asked to go again so they could more thoroughly grill me on my motivations and try and discern whether I was a circle or a triangle.
Actually, both the interviews scared me somewhat. Not because of the social surroundings to which I am naturally averse, or nervousness about the contents and combined difficulty of the courses I'd be attending, but the fact that the understanding of the universe which has been brewing uninterrupted in my mind for the last 3-4 years had suddenly shifted, and swept away to a tiny corner of my mind, to somewhere which my awareness of humans in the context of the universe as groups of chemicals which had formed consciousness was no longer a valid state of perception, and instead was replaced an awareness of humans in the context of an educational establishment as labels such as "lecturer" and "student". In essence it was a huge eye opener into the way we see ourselves - not as naturally occurring entities which are formed from universal mechanisms, but machines in the context of an human-centric, abstract society.
This isn't an attack on identity. I'm not saying that it's the wrong way - but it's apparent to anyone which is the more 'truthful' of the two - universal truth as opposed to abstract role in an abstract society. Yet we cling to our roles as if they are as important as our physical manifestations. A lot of people will defend their identities with as much desperation and aggression as they would their own mother - yet, if that identity was stripped, the person would still be alive, breathing and conscious. I believe that it's misplaced instinct that results in our defense of the imaginary (although I reserve the right to change my mind). It's almost as if we've been told from birth : "that concrete statue over there, that's you", we dress it up, and do anything to stop it from being torn down.
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