Music seems to help the pain

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Just another day in my boring life. It rained all night, we’ve got about 8 inches of rain over the last 3 days. Our town was on the local news due to the amount of flooding. Watched the Bears lose to Carolina and then went outside with the Chow. Heard from Amber tonight – it was nothing special. I’m not gaga over her. Watched “Man vs Wild” with Bear Grylls – this episode was in Ireland. Still haven’t heard back from the doctor, has he called in my prescription yet?

Sunday is the big day to check the help wanted ads in the newspaper. Every time I have checked, for years now, the paper has had around 130 to 150 job listings (even though I wouldn’t be interested in most) but today there was a grand total of 53 jobs posted. I was really surprised. Apparently the economy is that bad. There wasn’t a single relevant job to apply for. Discouraging. Then I found an article about an interview former fed chairman Alan Greenspan gave today on the ABC News. He said “The United States is mired in a once-in-a century financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession.” He added that this is the worst crisis of his career and the economy still has a long way to go. Finally, he said we have less than a 50% chance of avoiding a recession. While everything he said makes sense, I find it interesting coming from him. Why? Because, I personally, think Greenspan plaedy a large part in creating the economic conditions we are currently in by cutting interest rates too low and keeping them there for too long. Sure, there is plenty of blame to go around but Greenspan helped create these conditions and then got out of Dodge.

I'm in bed, achin' head, gold is lead, choke on bread, underfed, gold is lead, Jesus bled, pain is red, dark doom. Gruel ghoul, Greasy spoon. Used spool, June gloom. Why do you go? And now! Music seems to help the pain, Seems to motivate the brain. Doctor kindly tell your wife that I'm alive, Flowers thrive, Realize, realize, Realize.

I want to touch on something that I think Hegel was brilliant for developing in his philosophy. He stated humans are not only self-conscious of objects and ourselves, but other subjects as well. In other words, part of our self-consciousness comes from how other self-conscious beings (humans) view us. So true self-consciousness is a social condition and it involves our identification with conscious beings. This is certainly true since much of our self-esteem (or lack thereof) comes from how others view us. This makes the driving force of life, on an individual level, the quest for recognition. We all seek recognition in our lives and we need this to be fulfilled as humans. Recognition is obtained by different methods by different people. Some seek recognition by bullying others, attaining wealth and power, some seek it by becoming a martyr or identifying with a cause, others attempt to gain recognition by committing suicide. So we all seek and need recognition. However, in society there exist relationships of inequality and dependence. Those who are subordinates are aware of their status and this causes their superiors to negate some of the subordinate’s consciousness. At the same time, the superior enjoys their independence and power but also feels guilty for negating the consciousness of his or her subordinates. Therefore, neither the subordinate nor the superior gains full recognition in relationships of inequality. For this reason, I would add that the healthiest friendships and romantic relationships are those which are based upon equality so each member can receive recognition and fulfillment.