Explorer of the human condition, Author of Machine Ego, Host of The Harsha Reality https://xitter.cf/t.co/p2n82Q3yYw
Joined April 2016
- Tweets5.9K
- Following244
- Followers881
- Likes16.4K
Pinned Tweet
By trying to become virtuous, you destroy virtue
By trying to become scholarly, you destroy scholarship
By trying to become, you fail to be
Harsha Perera retweeted
One of defining moments in my life was when I (after 2 years of excellent grades) dropped out of university. It didn’t feel like I was trusting myself so much as being unable to resist doing what I felt I needed to do. Unprepared, for many weeks I woke up with my hands trembling.
Freedom can be scary because YOU have to take responsibility for your life.
Because you have to create your own structure and decide how to allocate your time.
That boils down to trusting yourself at a very fundamental level.
Harsha Perera retweeted
In 1945 Richard Feynman’s wife died. Afterwards he wrote her a love letter. At its end he apologized for not mailing it because he didn’t have her current address. The letter was found among his effects after he died in 1988.
Confuciun vs Greek virtues
ROOTS of INDIVIDUALISM and COLLECTIVISM
There is significant overlap between Stoic/Platonic virtues and Confucian ethics, but there are also deep differences:
Mencius' Four Beginnings:
Ren - Benevolence
Yi - Righteousness, justice
Li - Propriety
Zhi - Knowledge, wisdom
Stoic Virtues:
Sophia - Wisdom
Andreia - Courage
Sōphrosynē - Temperance
Dikaiosynē - Justice
Growing societies of the time were all grappling with the problems of how to coexist and thrive at scale. Cultivating virtues such as wisdom, consideration for others and justice would unsurprisingly be beneficial whether in Zeno's Athens or Mencius' Zou (4th CBE).
The biggest difference between the two broad traditions is that while the Confucians emphasised Ren (benevolence, human heartedness) the ancient Greeks tended to emphasise Sophia (wisdom, reason) more.
Further, for Mencius the root of justice was shame — "the feeling of shame is the origin of righteousness" —
while the ancient Greeks tended to emphasise correct action based on reason.
Sōphrosynē (temperance) was based on self-mastery, where as Li (propriety) emphasised proper and harmonious social relations based on ritual and filial piety.
One system of morality is more inside out (individualistic), while the other is more outside in (collectivist). This difference is highly visible today in what we loosely refer to as the East and West.
Harsha Perera retweeted
To say that moderns worship themselves is not quite accurate. While the ‘individual’ has certainly taken primacy, with man overestimating his powers of reason, the psychological reality is really one of nagging inadequacy.
What looks like deification of the self is actually excessive self-consciousness full of self-doubt. The self that doubts itself now desperately strives to confirm its adequacy through all manner of goals and achievements.
It's not that we have created machines in our own image, but that we ourselves have become like machines.
I far prefer to deal with an actual robot, rather than a sullen, blindly mimicking human-robot that is often worse.
The warmth of an intelligent human is sadly a luxury.
“First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization…Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.”
To keep maximum creative control, Led Zeppelin funded the recording of their first album themselves before approaching record labels. It helped that they were already successful sessions musicians with a bit of cash in the pocket..
Fantastic documentary with great live footage.
“Just as, in the Indian view, every man of the Kali Yuga is stimulated to seek his freedom and spiritual beatitude, yet at the same time cannot avoid the final dissolution of this crepuscular world in its entirety,
…the historical moment, despite the possibilities of escape it offers contemporaries, can never, in its entirety, be anything but tragic, pathetic, unjust, chaotic, as any moment that heralds the final catastrophe must be.”
Mircea Eliade
Harsha Perera retweeted
The human story so often involves means taking over ends, tools taking over their users.
The ancients were well aware of this danger as Chuang Tzu's comically exaggerated tale of the farmer and his pitcher tells
As soon as you define a criterion or conceptual framework, you start finding things that fit, even if they don’t.