Masks

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I dunno, I like to just be. I try to be the best me I can be, and often I am not the best me I can be, but I think that figuring out "who" I am is a moot point. I am. That's all.

Don't overcomplicate it. You're a bundle of neurons cased in meat.

[The Wizard]

That's pretty much what I've concluded. You just put it better than me.

[Brotep]

Be that as it may, even a single neuron is capable of being conditioned.  Just think of all the fucked up complicated patterns billions of neurons can be conditioned into following.


It's not just a question of "Omigosh, who is the really real me?"

It's "what patterns of thinking and acting am I stuck in?"

[Kai]

Just do shit, FFS. You're still stuck in this "is this right or is this wrong?" mentality. Just do shit, and once you can do shit without asking "is this who I really am?", THEN you can worry about the consequences, THEN you can start tempering yourself (if you feel like it). Its the "is this right or wrong?" that is keeping you from being yourself.

Or maybe you'll just be stuck in existentialism forever.

[The Wizard]

Just do shit, FFS. You're still stuck in this "is this right or is this wrong?" mentality. Just do shit, and once you can do shit without asking "is this who I really am?", THEN you can worry about the consequences, THEN you can start tempering yourself (if you feel like it). Its the "is this right or wrong?" that is keeping you from being yourself.

That's a work in progress. We'll see how it pans out.

[P3nT4gR4m]

You're talking about "just not bothering with who I am" and making yourself happy and sad and shit. That's ass-backwards imo. Start with who you are, right down to your core beliefs, morality, emotional responses ... all the big defining stuff and wipe it the fuck out. Tear the tower down, one brick at a time, til there's nothing left that's recognisable as you and then build the whole thing back up the way you really want to be. It'll take fucking years of hard work and dedication but you'll end up what you want to be instead of a twitching bag of random instincts and drooling neurosis like 99.9% of our earths population.

But, aren't we the way we are because that is who we "really" want to be?

I'd guess most are largely a product of their environment. If you don't choose then there's someone out there who'll decide for ya. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "I wish I could be more like..." or "I wish I wasn't like..."

Funnily enough wishing doesn't seem to be working out for them. Go figure.

[Triple Zero]

Goddamnit, you're fucking a sack of meat

Personally, I prefer to just staple two chicken breasts together.

[LMNO]

Basically, this all seems like another instance of

"How am I not myself?"
  \

[Brotep]

You're talking about "just not bothering with who I am" and making yourself happy and sad and shit. That's ass-backwards imo. Start with who you are, right down to your core beliefs, morality, emotional responses ... all the big defining stuff and wipe it the fuck out. Tear the tower down, one brick at a time, til there's nothing left that's recognisable as you and then build the whole thing back up the way you really want to be. It'll take fucking years of hard work and dedication but you'll end up what you want to be instead of a twitching bag of random instincts and drooling neurosis like 99.9% of our earths population.

But, aren't we the way we are because that is who we "really" want to be?

I'd guess most are largely a product of their environment. If you don't choose then there's someone out there who'll decide for ya. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "I wish I could be more like..." or "I wish I wasn't like..."

Funnily enough wishing doesn't seem to be working out for them. Go figure.

Obviously this is because they aren't wishing upon a star.

We meet the environment halfway.  Or two thirds of the way.  Or some other fraction.  We do what we can under the circumstances.

To be sure, you're not much of a musician if you just play the same thing over and over--variation, and ability to move across different riffs and styles, is important.

Goddamnit, you're fucking a sack of meat

Personally, I prefer to just staple two chicken breasts together.

Staples chafe.  That's why I use cinch straps.

[The Johnny]

I'd guess most are largely a product of their environment. If you don't choose then there's someone out there who'll decide for ya. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "I wish I could be more like..." or "I wish I wasn't like..."

Genes, family, school, society. Before one turns 11 and comes to a higher stage of self-conciousness and decision making, its at the mercy of the other factors.

[P3nT4gR4m]

You're absolutely right. So many factors have so much influence before you even get an opportunity to step back and see the effects that by the time you do, for most people, it's already too late. Takes time and effort to wrestle control of your avatar from the forces that formed it. So most don't. They conform to psychological cliche's, they are comparatively easy to manipulate. They eat what the system tells them to eat, they believe what the system tells them to believe. They're all the fucking same. They would bore me if it wasn't for the fact that fucking with them is so much fun.

[Brotep]

Everything we do and say is in danger of becoming a cliche.

Step on the same spot twice, and your footprint gets deeper.

[rong]

"Know Thyself" was a joke.

Also:

Goddamnit, you're fucking a sack of meat

Personally, I prefer to just staple two chicken breasts together.

[Jasper]

Almost everything the organism does is only distantly related to the intentionality of the 'mind', in my case.  In a system like that, everything but deliberate agency is trivial.  It does not matter how you define yourself, unless you do so in your decisions. 

The walls don't come down because you say you're a battering ram at heart.

[Brotep]

The walls don't come down because you say you're a battering ram at heart.

This is true.  However, while descriptions are unreliable by themselves, they are only a small part of the performance of identity.

There is more that is available to analyze.