What I love:):)...and why so much of the world seems so fundamentally distorted:):):)...

I picked up a bunch of books from the Lawrence Public Library book sale last week...the last day, they were giving away stuff for free:):)...so I have a couple boxes full of really great books, right now:):)...

I picked up a bunch of Cliffs Notes...they had a ton of them:):)...and after reading the Cliff Notes for Beowulf at Melissa's apartment the other night while were hanging out, talking:)...I realized how great Cliff's Notes can be:):)...

If you're not familiar with Beowulf:):)...it's one of the oldest known poems in the English language (Old English) that we still have a reasonably complete text of:):)...all I can remember is that it is the story of a hero who defeats a dragon named Grendel:):)...and protects the lives of the Danes whose lives were threatened by the dragon:):)...

I can only remember that much because the book/poem, itself, is almost impossibly unreadable:):)...because the language is so archane:):)...and it is the best case for Cliff Notes of any of the books I have ever read or attempted to read in the English language:):):)...

So:):):)...that's my long justification for why I have like 25 or 30 copies of Cliffs Notes in my living room, right now:):):)...

So:):):)...

I'm flipping through the Cliffs Notes:):)...in search among my new exciting literary finds (if I can reach to call them that:):)...of a book that I've always wanted to know more about:):)...but was too daunted by the actual text:):):)...

And so I came upon B.F. Skinner's Walden Two:):):)...

Now...I've never read Skinner's Walden Two...because...despite all the really great things about Skinner's theorizing...his identification of the principles of operant conditioning...and, thus, the foundations of behaviorism in psychology...

For the most part...B.F. Skinner...is a wanker:):)...

I don't mean he's not brilliant:):):)...he is:):):):)...definitely:):):)...

But he's also kind of a wanker:):):)...

And Walden Two really kind of sums up why B.F. Skinner is a wanker:):):)...

Walden Two is Skinner's narrative/argument for a utopia of tight regulation of peoples' lives...to guarantee a world where everyone does what Skinner wants:):):) (can we say, control issue?:):):)...

And what is so fundamentally wrong with the title of Skinner's book:):):)...

Is that it is this profound distortion of the meaning and purpose behind it's namesake:):):)...

This really beautiful, amazing, inspiring book that I spent several nights awake reading my junior year of high school:):):)...

Walden:):):)...by Henry David Thoreau:):):)...

Which is this really great book...about how Henry David Thoreau...in mid-nineteenth century New England...left his comfortable New England life...to go survive off the land of Walden Pond...communing with nature...and seeking spiritual growth...of his own free will...

Walden Two, on the other hand, theorizes a utopian society of regulated life to avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, as Hamlet might put it:):)...

The Cliffs Notes author (I know...I know...this whole analysis is a total cheat since I haven't actually read Walden Two, yet...I'm reading the Cliffs Notes to work myself up to read a book that I'm not that terribly thrilled about, given it's basic premise:):):)...and this was how I made it through Zenobia Washington's AP English class:):):)...bluffing:):):)...if you don't believe me:):)...ask my best friend my senior year of high school and still one of my best friends in the entire world, Angela Largent:):):)...it simultaneously impressed Angela and pissed her off so bad at me:):):)LOL:):):)...

OK...so...back to the story:):)...

So...the author of the Cliffs Notes writes, comparing Thoreau's beautiful account of his journey into the soul...and Skinner's account of a highly regulated utopia...that...

"...Walden ultimately concludes with an emphatic note of optimism and hope in humankind's ability to transcend its self-imposed limitations and fulfill its unmeasured potential for excellence. Walden Two ends with an emphasis on the predictability of human nature and a belief that regulation and control of human nature is necessary to achieve happiness and equality."

...which is like saying that Karl Marx and Adam Smith had a few disagreements:):):)....which is true, of course:):):)...but their disagreements are fundamental differences in how they see the world:):):):):)...not just distinctions that don't make a difference:):):)...

I read Walden my junior year of high school...

And I was so totally taken by it...

This beautiful story...

Of a man who gave up all of his material comforts...

So he could find himself...

It's still one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read in my life...

And Skinner titling his trifling little regulated utopia after Henry David Thoreau's incredible story of self-discovery and freedom of the the soul and of the conscience...

Is just really kind of fucked up...pardon by french, Dr. Skinner...

What Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden...is what life is supposed to more like, for all of us...not forced on us...but because it's a better life...

Not necessarily the moving into the woods and giving up the material comforts of life:):)...though that has a certain romantic appeal to it, as well:):)...at least for a couple weekends or so:):)...

But the life of self-reflection...of self-discovery...of digging deeply into one's soul...and being the person that one really wants to be...out of a deep sense of self-exploration...not a bankrupt sense of self-centeredness...

It is the deepest experience of freedom that a person can have, I think...

And Thoreau gets inside it so remarkably...that everyone should definitely read this really incredible book at least once in their too short lives:):)...

And that is what is so fundamentally distorted about the democratic world, right now...and the world, generally...

This total confusion between the highest ideals that life has to offer...in the form of the most profound sense of freedom...and self-discovery...and self-governance...and defining of one's own life...that such freedom offers...

And it's opposite...

A world where we try to control and regulate and otherwise limit that freedom...

And all the while pretend that it is the very freedom that we say that we want to expand...

The world is just kind of playing bullshit with itself, right now, rationalizing that fundamental distortion...

And that's what's so wrong with the way that people are thinking about the world...and its problems...and how to deal with those problems...right now...

As George Orwell writes in his dystopia, 1984...slavery is freedom...

And all of us seem to be saying...

Well...yes...but we don't mean complete slavery...that would be going just a bit too far, now don't you think, Ben?:):):)...

Well...of course it would:):):)...dumbasses:):):)...

Because the way forward for humanity...involves freedom...more of it...as much of it as possible, in fact...while still dealing constructively with aggressive situations that threaten our safety with as little aggression in response as possible...

And confusing freedom...with control...

Is like confusing your head with your ass...

That's how different the two are...

And that's how fundamental a distortion Walden Two is of Henry David Thoreau's original personal account...

And that's how fundamental a distortion of humanity's future and progress and potential...

That rationalizing a world of control instead of championing a world of freedom is...

And at this point...I'm with Thoreau...

If everyone wants to live lives of "quiet desperation," as Thoreau referred the fate of most people who never risk to live a life committed to authentic self-discovery and definition...

Then so be it:):):)...

But that's the life I'm gonna live:):):)...

And in the meantime...

Anyone who wants to bullshit themselves that control and bossiness and bullying is the same thing as freedom can do that all they want:):):)...

But there is no way in hell that you're going to convince me of the same:):):)...

Because I am just not that big a dumbass:):):)...to swallow that big line of bullshit:):):)...

You can fuck with many things in this world...

But not Walden...not Henry David Thoreau...

Some things are sacred:):):):):)...

Everyone should have that life...that life of freedom...of self-definition...of self-governance...of self-discovery...

But only few dare to...

The road less taken...

It's the only road I know, I think...

And the only one with a path worth blazing and a destination worth reaching to me...

Have a great night, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben