Stand

I have done and said many things I would do and say differently now. I have thought and felt many things likewise. If this were not the case, I would have arrived in the world with all the knowledge, awareness and understanding I would ever have, and my life would be pointless and devoid of experience or discovery.

‘A quick example. Today, I got grumpy about something and with some people before I’d looked at the situation properly. I was wrong. I would have been much better served to take a moment and not spurt out erroneous reactions based on past experience. Now, those people will give me the meaning of grumpy old git. I was being grumpy, then, but now, for some people, if they think of me, that is ‘who’ I am. Ho-hum! All I can do is determine to learn and move forward, doing better if I remember…

Obviously, we are not born fully formed in any way, and life is a constant flux of discovering what it means to be human. We are the Beings who inquire after being and for whom being is an issue. This is designatory for us; the way we do it is unique. We are constantly being-in-the-world. Being as a verb, not as a static objectified subject grasping for knowledge of everything that is not us and making constant inventories of everything we encounter. We are constantly becoming, never finished. Our being began way before our factical existence and will continue after it. We get to influence the meaning others give our being during our factical phase (being alive), should we wish.

Thus, since we are all a constant flux of being, constantly becoming, and all the time we have facticity (are still alive), we have no choice but to experience this; we should not expect to have made the ‘best’ decisions for all times, thought the best thoughts, or had the best feelings or intentions. We are constantly ‘wrong’ for many reasons and never finished, even after death. How, then, have we come to this situation of constant accountability?

Accountability comes with blame, a by-product of the cults of individualism and freedom. The utterly ridiculous assumption is ubiquitously accepted that we are all units of the same state, all with access to the same information and that that information has the same meaning to us all. It is assumed that we then use our individuality and freedom to choose and that that choice must be nailed to us for all eternity. Us, the never changing individual us. The constant “I”.

We will hear repeatedly that a thing was said or done and that so-and-so should now defend whatever it was, or else they will be judged a hypocrite and untrustworthy. Not being able to say, “I changed my mind; I don’t think that now", or that one would ‘do’ differently, is one of humanity's greatest (most destructive) tenets. You’ll hear it every day “so-and-so is a…”. It’s fixed, that’s it… one of the reasons I can’t stand psychological labels btw. Psychology is probably the most fluid form of just about, almost a bit like science, there is, but then also the purest form, thought of another way…

Being nailed to the past is a great, dragging anchor and chain that prevents our moving forward constructively and in a way that can react to changing information. It prevents adaptation and the use of experiences as learning. It diminishes our future possibilities and keeps us stuck in emotional reactions that no longer exist. It’s no wonder so many people keep their heads down and say and do as little as possible – maybe they’re afraid of being set in aspic and a label stuck on them…

Of course, the scientific method was developed to overcome this problem, but most lay people think ‘science’ is static proof. The problem here is that most people are lay people. Most people, even many who sell scientific expertise, due to myriad reasons, will expect or allow a scientific finding to be petrified. When, as naturally happens with the scientific method, findings are superseded, most people will say that, therefore, ‘science’ is proved wrong, when actually, this is the scientific method being proved right.

Politicians, our leaders, lie all the time. Their job is to promote the advancement of themselves and their parties, to power, and to remain there. All of them. Is this really true? Do politicians do and say the things they do and say, in most cases twisting and bending truths and facts to breaking point and beyond, taking the credit for what’s popular, and otherwise coating themselves in Teflon, so they can do what they truly believe is in the best interests of their people?

All jobs are political, as is life in general. Every careful explanation is soaked in some vested interest. Sometimes, those interests are honourably altruistic or deeply and, to the best of one’s ability, scientific. In most cases, I would venture that people will say and do what they think is at least OK, all things considered. However, in every case, at every moment, everything is changing. So, are we all liars, dissemblers, a bit disingenuous, manipulative, well-intentioned, greedy, honest? Yes, yes we are, and more, always, all of us; each of us, all the time.

The ability to accept the fact of constantly becoming and to observe it in ourselves and others is tremendously liberating. This does not mean we should never allow ourselves to consider anything as settled; many things can be settled but should also be allowed to change as different circumstances are met and the meaning given, shifts.

As the facticity that is our existence is settled, we should, if we are wise, allow the experience of constant becoming. We should all be well advised to declare that we are not to be nailed to the past but that all our experiences may inform every moment of the present to a greater or lesser degree and that all of this is in constant flux.

Don’t go looking for your true self, your inner self, or try to identify set ‘multiple-selves’. Identity is for the biological facticity of the current temporal iteration of the Being with a name label. The who of the I that is you is a constantly becoming modification of the currently most influential experiences and perceptions of future possibilities.