A New Objectivity
I just read an article in National Geographic about the dog-loving residents of the Marina district in San Francisco, who take their dogs to social events such as “yappy-hour”, dress them in “matching cowboy hats and sweaters”, hire astrologers to write their charts, (“Franklin was a warrior in a past life…but this life is about partnership and cooperation…and he is focused on material security”) send their pets to “doggie day-care”, establish adoption centers with furnished condos and an aquarium, and hire dog masseuses who will visit your home and give Rex a rub-down for only $75 an hour.
“People increasingly regard their pets as quasi persons, or honorary persons…” say’s James Serpell, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, who is quoted in the article.
Far be it from me to crap all over anyone’s good time. I in fact do not really care what anyone does to make their life more enjoyable to them, and I celebrate those who have the gumption and creativity to make of their lives what they will, and who have the courage to buck the “I am so screwed up” crowd and enjoy themselves rather than whine and be miserable and take revenge on everyone else for the fact that they hate themselves so much. “Do what thou wilt” I say, echoing Aleister Crowley.
However, this article brought to mind another cultural phenomenon, namely Cesar Millan, televisions famed “Dog Whisperer”. Once you watch his show a few times, you get struck by the realization that not only has our modern society lost control of its children, it can no longer even control its pets. What a crisis of will we are in!
Cesar teaches his clients, all of whom cannot control the problematic behavior of their pets, that their dogs are not the “little people” that they think they are, but pack animals with a specific nature that must be viewed objectively as such, and which require their human owners to play the dominant role of “pack leader”. In each episode the pet owner learns that their dog’s misbehavior is in fact a direct result of their own behavior. The dog reacts to the signals that their human master gives them. If a human does not take the calm / dominant role of the pack leader, the dog becomes confused, and attempts to take this role itself, a role for which it is unsuited, and which causes it to initiate behavior that becomes troublesome and even dangerous for the human owners. The dog becomes the dominant member of the household, and the humans throw up their hands in surrender at this behavior they cannot control…behavior that they are in fact causing by their abdication of the essential role of pack leader. The problem, in other words, comes from a lack of will to play the necessary role of leader and authoritarian in a calm yet assertive manner that lets the dog know who the boss really is, and which puts them in a “calm-submissive” mode that facilitates their happily obedient nature that comes out once the proper roles are established, and when they are no longer thrust into the position of the tense and aggressive pack leader that they assume when the human master does not play his or her role.
It does not take a genius of analogy to realize the similarities between a pet owner who is unable to be a leader to their pet, and our current cultural crisis involving parents who are unable to control their children. Much like the residents of San Francisco’s Marina district with their dogs, America is full of parents who treat their children as “little adults” and “friends” and “equals” who cannot be punished but must instead be bargained with, and yielded to when their wills and temper tantrums are stronger. Is it any wonder that the result parallels that of the weak and confused dog owners?
This phenomenon was perfectly captured by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in a South Park episode where Eric Cartman’s mom looks for help in getting a grip on her out of control son. After a succession of crushed and destroyed “super-nannies”, she turns to the Dog Whisperer, who gives her the same advice he gives to dog owners. She must become the pack leader to her son. She must constantly exude the calm-dominant energy. She must, in other words, be a parent first, and not an “equal”. For the first and only time in the shows’ history, the infamous Eric Cartman begins to truly change for the better. He learns his place as an actual son, instead of the petty child-tyrant he has been. His mom tells the cartoon version of Cesar that she has “lost a friend, but gained a son”, to which he replies – “he will become your friend later”. Such truer and saner advice could never be spoken to parents who wonder why their children are so out of control. The episode ends with a twist, however, when Cesar refuses Ms. Cartman’s romantic advances, and she takes revenge by returning to the spoiling habits that lead her son further into his career as a bona fide monster.
It is my contention that parents are thrusting their children into positions of equality long before they are prepared for such responsibility. When the parent fails to play the role of pack leader, the child, far from becoming a true equal, typically over-reacts in that way that children do and attempts to become the leader, ending up the unhappy and tyrannically dominant member of the family. A graver disservice could not be done to children, who must learn the lesson of obedience long before they graduate to the mature level of an equal, let alone the dangerously powerful role of a leader.
This leads me to an even larger, more general point: the lack of true objectivity amongst most people in our society; the inability to see a dog for a dog, or a child for a child, or nature as the non-human force that it is, or world events in any way other than thru the narrowly focused lens of a purely political view. As dog owners who cannot see that their dogs are not the little humans that they imagine them to be, or parent s who cannot see that their children must learn to obey before they can learn to govern themselves in freedom, the world is full of humans who cannot see the true and objective nature of things and events around them, but instead see only the personal, entirely humanized fantasies that they project onto everything that they see. Few indeed are those who can observe nature and the universe as something that exists unto itself, and as something that is entirely non-human and beyond human.
“How beautiful they are, these free forces that have not yet been stained by spirit!”
- Nietzsche
“Do not say these forces are “not yet” stained by spirit, but rather “no longer” stained by spirit, and understand that by “spirit” is meant what is unreal – everything that man with his sentiments, thoughts, fears, and hopes has projected onto nature in order to render it more intimate, or in order to make it speak the same language.”
- Evola
Such a perspective is more necessary in our own time than ever before, considering the poor state of “truth” in our country as it is reflected by a media that has reduced truth to a mere form of spin. Truth as an objectivity that transcends humanization & subjectification has little to no support in a culture dominated by political considerations that view the very idea of truth as something to be “made” rather than learned or discovered. Politics is about power, and power is about the shaping and manipulation of perception, not the truth as such, which does not really exist as far as it is concerned. This can be seen in the battle for viewers between CNN and Fox News, which reflects the greater battle for the political control of America. Conservative right-wingers have long trumpeted the mantra that the press, as embodied by CNN, has a liberal bias, which they attempt to counter on their own Fox News network, which proudly displays a blatant bias in favor of right-wing conservatism. Whether or not CNN is consciously biased towards a liberal view point becomes a moot point in the wake of the Fox approach, which treats reality as nothing more than a spin contest between the forces of the left and right.
(Master comedian Steven Colbert takes this approach to its ultimate limit, spinning the news to the most exaggerated extreme possible, yet in the opposite direction of what he really thinks, confusing those who do not understand that he is satirizing the viewpoint he seems to be glorifying)
The state of our culture as portrayed in our media betrays an utter contempt for the very concept of objective truth, and degrades human life and its complex realities to a mere war of narrow perceptual ideologies. In all of this the truth becomes a lie, and the lie that gets you to vote in the way that “they” want you to vote becomes the only truth that matters. The “humanization” and falsification of reality marches on, and flushes its biological and ideological progenitors down the toilet along with all of the rest of the physical and psychic refuse that they create. The problem is that some of us good ones get pulled down with them!
It is time to declare a new and necessary objectivity. A = A, X = X, and we will never know what A and X actually are unless we develop a capacity for an objective perception that transcends the shallow trap of our desires, sentiments, and ideological indoctrination, from both the left and the right! Certain courses of action must be taken in order to extract and maximize the treasures that reality and human nature can yield when they are seen for what they are, instead of what we would like them to be.
Nature is not sentimental, actions have consequences, attack breeds attack, the soft absorbs the hard, the hard is brittle and breaks easily, the eradication of freedom does not make us safer, and the human interactions that make up world history are far more complex than any ideology would have us believe.
The solutions to the problems that face us require calm levels of thought that go far beyond the capacities of the reflexive, emotionally reactive indoctrinations that our national thought and discourse have been reduced to. The men and women of objective intelligence must step forth and become the pack leaders of the human race, for the children are currently running things, and the world is subsequently going to the dogs.
- Werbinox
“People increasingly regard their pets as quasi persons, or honorary persons…” say’s James Serpell, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, who is quoted in the article.
Far be it from me to crap all over anyone’s good time. I in fact do not really care what anyone does to make their life more enjoyable to them, and I celebrate those who have the gumption and creativity to make of their lives what they will, and who have the courage to buck the “I am so screwed up” crowd and enjoy themselves rather than whine and be miserable and take revenge on everyone else for the fact that they hate themselves so much. “Do what thou wilt” I say, echoing Aleister Crowley.
However, this article brought to mind another cultural phenomenon, namely Cesar Millan, televisions famed “Dog Whisperer”. Once you watch his show a few times, you get struck by the realization that not only has our modern society lost control of its children, it can no longer even control its pets. What a crisis of will we are in!
Cesar teaches his clients, all of whom cannot control the problematic behavior of their pets, that their dogs are not the “little people” that they think they are, but pack animals with a specific nature that must be viewed objectively as such, and which require their human owners to play the dominant role of “pack leader”. In each episode the pet owner learns that their dog’s misbehavior is in fact a direct result of their own behavior. The dog reacts to the signals that their human master gives them. If a human does not take the calm / dominant role of the pack leader, the dog becomes confused, and attempts to take this role itself, a role for which it is unsuited, and which causes it to initiate behavior that becomes troublesome and even dangerous for the human owners. The dog becomes the dominant member of the household, and the humans throw up their hands in surrender at this behavior they cannot control…behavior that they are in fact causing by their abdication of the essential role of pack leader. The problem, in other words, comes from a lack of will to play the necessary role of leader and authoritarian in a calm yet assertive manner that lets the dog know who the boss really is, and which puts them in a “calm-submissive” mode that facilitates their happily obedient nature that comes out once the proper roles are established, and when they are no longer thrust into the position of the tense and aggressive pack leader that they assume when the human master does not play his or her role.
It does not take a genius of analogy to realize the similarities between a pet owner who is unable to be a leader to their pet, and our current cultural crisis involving parents who are unable to control their children. Much like the residents of San Francisco’s Marina district with their dogs, America is full of parents who treat their children as “little adults” and “friends” and “equals” who cannot be punished but must instead be bargained with, and yielded to when their wills and temper tantrums are stronger. Is it any wonder that the result parallels that of the weak and confused dog owners?
This phenomenon was perfectly captured by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in a South Park episode where Eric Cartman’s mom looks for help in getting a grip on her out of control son. After a succession of crushed and destroyed “super-nannies”, she turns to the Dog Whisperer, who gives her the same advice he gives to dog owners. She must become the pack leader to her son. She must constantly exude the calm-dominant energy. She must, in other words, be a parent first, and not an “equal”. For the first and only time in the shows’ history, the infamous Eric Cartman begins to truly change for the better. He learns his place as an actual son, instead of the petty child-tyrant he has been. His mom tells the cartoon version of Cesar that she has “lost a friend, but gained a son”, to which he replies – “he will become your friend later”. Such truer and saner advice could never be spoken to parents who wonder why their children are so out of control. The episode ends with a twist, however, when Cesar refuses Ms. Cartman’s romantic advances, and she takes revenge by returning to the spoiling habits that lead her son further into his career as a bona fide monster.
It is my contention that parents are thrusting their children into positions of equality long before they are prepared for such responsibility. When the parent fails to play the role of pack leader, the child, far from becoming a true equal, typically over-reacts in that way that children do and attempts to become the leader, ending up the unhappy and tyrannically dominant member of the family. A graver disservice could not be done to children, who must learn the lesson of obedience long before they graduate to the mature level of an equal, let alone the dangerously powerful role of a leader.
This leads me to an even larger, more general point: the lack of true objectivity amongst most people in our society; the inability to see a dog for a dog, or a child for a child, or nature as the non-human force that it is, or world events in any way other than thru the narrowly focused lens of a purely political view. As dog owners who cannot see that their dogs are not the little humans that they imagine them to be, or parent s who cannot see that their children must learn to obey before they can learn to govern themselves in freedom, the world is full of humans who cannot see the true and objective nature of things and events around them, but instead see only the personal, entirely humanized fantasies that they project onto everything that they see. Few indeed are those who can observe nature and the universe as something that exists unto itself, and as something that is entirely non-human and beyond human.
“How beautiful they are, these free forces that have not yet been stained by spirit!”
- Nietzsche
“Do not say these forces are “not yet” stained by spirit, but rather “no longer” stained by spirit, and understand that by “spirit” is meant what is unreal – everything that man with his sentiments, thoughts, fears, and hopes has projected onto nature in order to render it more intimate, or in order to make it speak the same language.”
- Evola
Such a perspective is more necessary in our own time than ever before, considering the poor state of “truth” in our country as it is reflected by a media that has reduced truth to a mere form of spin. Truth as an objectivity that transcends humanization & subjectification has little to no support in a culture dominated by political considerations that view the very idea of truth as something to be “made” rather than learned or discovered. Politics is about power, and power is about the shaping and manipulation of perception, not the truth as such, which does not really exist as far as it is concerned. This can be seen in the battle for viewers between CNN and Fox News, which reflects the greater battle for the political control of America. Conservative right-wingers have long trumpeted the mantra that the press, as embodied by CNN, has a liberal bias, which they attempt to counter on their own Fox News network, which proudly displays a blatant bias in favor of right-wing conservatism. Whether or not CNN is consciously biased towards a liberal view point becomes a moot point in the wake of the Fox approach, which treats reality as nothing more than a spin contest between the forces of the left and right.
(Master comedian Steven Colbert takes this approach to its ultimate limit, spinning the news to the most exaggerated extreme possible, yet in the opposite direction of what he really thinks, confusing those who do not understand that he is satirizing the viewpoint he seems to be glorifying)
The state of our culture as portrayed in our media betrays an utter contempt for the very concept of objective truth, and degrades human life and its complex realities to a mere war of narrow perceptual ideologies. In all of this the truth becomes a lie, and the lie that gets you to vote in the way that “they” want you to vote becomes the only truth that matters. The “humanization” and falsification of reality marches on, and flushes its biological and ideological progenitors down the toilet along with all of the rest of the physical and psychic refuse that they create. The problem is that some of us good ones get pulled down with them!
It is time to declare a new and necessary objectivity. A = A, X = X, and we will never know what A and X actually are unless we develop a capacity for an objective perception that transcends the shallow trap of our desires, sentiments, and ideological indoctrination, from both the left and the right! Certain courses of action must be taken in order to extract and maximize the treasures that reality and human nature can yield when they are seen for what they are, instead of what we would like them to be.
Nature is not sentimental, actions have consequences, attack breeds attack, the soft absorbs the hard, the hard is brittle and breaks easily, the eradication of freedom does not make us safer, and the human interactions that make up world history are far more complex than any ideology would have us believe.
The solutions to the problems that face us require calm levels of thought that go far beyond the capacities of the reflexive, emotionally reactive indoctrinations that our national thought and discourse have been reduced to. The men and women of objective intelligence must step forth and become the pack leaders of the human race, for the children are currently running things, and the world is subsequently going to the dogs.
- Werbinox
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