“To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.”

- Mao Tse-tung, Combat Liberalism

There is a trite idea found amongst many unthinking people that you should value friendship and empathy above all else. Judgment is to be considered a terrible sin. And yet, do they always empathize, always avoid judgment? Does their behavior really reflect such a belief?

To answer this question, look to the past. The past is empirical evidence. It helps us understand the various systems of cause and effect which dictate reality. In studying it you will see patterns emerge.

Look at the patterns of your life and its friendships. How many people were you very close with, only to eventually cut off? How many people broke your heart or ignored you? How many people did you yourself find disagreeable enough to avoid? How many people changed over the years into something you no longer cared to associate with? How many did you outgrow and leave behind? How many friendships transformed into a wide gulf of silence? Maybe they’re a click away on Facebook, but realistically speaking, they aren’t your friends anymore. Judging by the past, it would seem that friendships are usually a rather transitory thing, based on regular proximity, nothing like what the tireless advocates of unprincipled empathy would claim.

It is usually the case that friendship weakens as it goes on. When both friends are new, they are empty slates. It’s all smiles and laughter and avoiding contentious topics in search of things they have in common. It is as they learn about one another, come to understand their beliefs and habits, that they grow resentful. They exhaust their commonalities. Their disagreements become the focal point of the relationship. They discover things they don’t abide. Attempts to discuss it are soon denied. It becomes clear that the relationship is conditional upon avoiding certain subjects. This results in them either talking less, or not talking at all.

Once you understand these causal relationships, you can apply them to present conditions. You can inductively determine what is likely to happen in the future because you will see those same patterns arising again. This is the scientific method.

But there is a risk of tainting your understanding. If you do not look at things honestly and objectively, then you are not going to discover the truth. What you will do instead is seek to rationalize a worldview that you only wish was true. If only everyone acted like an angel, we wouldn’t have these problems! Ironically, these “wishful thinking” myths which seem so hopeful and idealistic at first inevitably end up being much worse than actual reality. This is precisely because reality does not conform to the ideals, and so adherents grow to hate reality. Reality is unacceptable, it is insufficient; we are all entitled to a better reality built on the principle of true, total empathy! For Kim Il-sung tells us, “Man is the master of everything and decides everything.”

People get trapped in ideas like this because at some point they were rendered impressionable and then moved strongly to believe them. Perhaps they were indoctrinated over a long period of time. Maybe they had a brief but momentous experience that changed them. Maybe they were terrified by truth and took refuge in the solace of a delusion, only for the delusion to then warp them into a misanthropic malcontent, cynical towards humanity, suspicious of anyone who might speak truth and bring back its terror.

Ideas are taught to us by art, which compels us to an emotional conclusion by telling a fictional story. And while some art can be a great influence, other art may not actually follow the causal patterns of reality, and so distorts the mind into believing foolish ideas. When an author tugs at your heartstrings, he has the opportunity to sell you all sorts of platitudes.

The myth of friendship tells us that we must never betray our friends under any circumstances. We must have total understanding for their every action; except, of course, the wrong kind of action. We must be empathetic towards people no matter what ridiculous things they do; unless, of course, they do something un-empathetic. We tolerate everybody, except the intolerant, which is everybody. It is inherently self-contradictory through deduction.

Acquiring a new belief can feel fulfilling, like a revelation. Having it sustained by others can feel like vindication. But then that belief turns out only to be a basic principle, an axiom from which countless other ideas necessarily follow. These ideas must then logically be defended in order to maintain the original principle and its associated feelings. Contradictions inevitably arise.

At this point you can either continue to rationalize the principle, or recognize that it may be overly simplistic, that maybe the universe and its moral laws are somewhat complex and nuanced.

So it is with friendship, a wonderful thing, yet a thing which is not based on illusory ideals of unconditional love. Friendship is extremely conditional, and downright political. It is often a union rooted in collusion against others. A common enemy can keep friendship sustained for a long time, as each overlooks their comrades’ problems in favor of solidarity with the cause.

Friendship is actually the biggest liability that exists in terms of a person’s moral integrity. You uphold lies because they are convenient to your relationships with your friends. You avoid speaking truths to avoid offending your friends.

But if you are a serious person, you will always prioritize truth and justice over friendship. Not only friendship, but family, and people you hold great debts to. Everything else falls away when you are focused on truth and truth alone.

It is the heart that fools us into false ideology, but it is bitter pride that keeps us enslaved to it. To acknowledge that you were wrong about something is really rather difficult to do. It requires courage similar to that needed to rip off a bandage. You will be mocked, your reputation will be hurt temporarily, you will have to eat crow. But it must be done if you want to abandon an unhealthy falsehood and accept the liberating truth. Some will welcome you back to reality with relief and open arms.

Your reputation will ultimately be far worse if you never acknowledge your mistakes and continue to ply people who demand you adhere to the myth. And if your goal is to avoid mockery, then I have bad news: mockery is inevitable even if you are completely right. Anyone who aspires to greatness must become callous to mockery.

Once you devote yourself fully to the truth — the actual truth — you will see how often people keep themselves “going” with absurd delusions that are actually the cause of all of their troubles.

Curing people of their delusions is righteous work that must be done. You would not really be a friend to someone if you let them live under a ridiculous myth which was the source of their suffering. Aiding and abetting a misbelief is actually a form of cruelty or torture that enables people in their plan for a permanent denial of reality. You doom them to a much worse quality of life, one oriented around eternally convincing themselves that they are right about something which they are wrong about. This can be extremely detrimental to the practical conditions of their everyday experience. There are enormous social consequences, as everyone who is in line with reality regards them as crazy. The greatest suffering an individual can endure is a refusal to accept reality for what it is, and it is a crime to encourage them in that.

Society at large also benefits from having people who are not deluded. If people are clear thinking and rational, the world can progress. If not, adolescent furies will dominate everything, and drag civilization down with them. For civilization is the eradication of barbarism.

Sometimes you will share long and amicable friendships with people full of commiseration and understanding only to see them turn their back on you when push comes to shove. These people need to be cut off without mercy. Humiliate them if they deserve it. Hold them accountable. Scold them like an errant dog. Call a spade a spade. Someone who cannot accept you for who you truly are simply is not your friend, but your enemy. The same is true if you rightly can’t accept them. If they apologize with a level of sincerity that satisfies you, forgive them, but don’t expect it.

It can be a moral duty to betray. Sometimes people you care about need a wakeup call, a jolt to their system. You must give them a strong emotional experience that forces them to confront their delusion, and the way you do this is by building rapport and camaraderie, obtaining their trust, and then strictly condemning their ideological failure. Make them choose between your love and their lie. The resulting suffering at having gained and then tragically lost validation will make them realize just what invalids they are.

Do not expect to be rewarded for your service. Most will hate you for it, because they do not understand. And they may not change their minds immediately. It will stew in their heads, uncomfortably, until one day, perhaps years later, they realize you were right.

Another major element of friendship is blackmail. The way we gain trust with one another is by sharing our vulnerabilities. A naive person will give this information out freely without concern of betrayal. The friendship is then maintained by both parties in a devilish pact purely to avoid the truth coming to light publicly or amongst their other friends; we criticize such truth-telling as “gossip”. But everyone gossips. And gossip allows us to socially regulate others into behaving more appropriately. It helps us determine how others feel about their questionable behavior, and possibly build a coalition against them.

Spite is also crucial to personal motivation. By having people you hate, you will seek to overcome them. To outlive them. To defeat them in the game of life. Living well is the best revenge. Is it any surprise that the saints of empathy lack ambition?

Not least of all, you must speak the truth for the sake of the human being which is yourself. Nietzsche advises that you become who you are, share your real thoughts and beliefs with a radical honesty. It is an existential quest for personal purpose. It is a romantic one which will motivate you to discipline yourself and better fight evil. History tells us that cowards live empty lives.

Just be ready: an honest confrontation and re-analysis may reveal that you were the delusional one, after all. Always maintain your humility before the truth. It surely will drop you to your knees and have you begging for forgiveness in the future. I can guarantee you that, because you are human; there are things you are wrong about right now. At core, you must be ruthlessly skeptical of yourself, your sources, your acquaintances, your friends, your loved ones, and everything you’ve come to believe.

The goal is to become a good person who is aligned with truth and justice to the greatest possible capacity. It will require determination, effort, study, and bravery. But it is a war, not a party. Especially not a pity party. One should never regret losing a friend over speaking truth, not even a sliver. Rather, one should realize their friend was actually an enemy of truth, the greatest evil, deserving of contempt. And there are always new friends on the horizon who can better enrich your understanding than an albatross can. Good people do not resist honest scrutiny. Let there be no tears for the willfully naive.

You must choose your own friends precisely because they are favorable to you. Do not conform yourself to their stupid demands, conform your social group to what is right. Don't suffer fools, maudlin leeches, political enemies, those who sit idly by while others unfairly attack you, those who will not join you in taking a righteous stand, or any other kind of dreadful person. Just tell them to change their ways and leave them. The second a friendship is no longer to your advantage is the second it should be dropped like the bad habit it is. Obtaining the focus necessary to speak truth without reservation or fear is only possible by shedding a lot of dead weight without regret.

There are such things as good friends who can stay with you for life. But this is not something that can be forced by accepting the unacceptable. Such an attempt will surely crack under the strain. It is only possible if both are committed to virtue and truth, and assist one another in correcting themselves by honestly discussing disagreements, helping one another to become better people. People who honestly try to achieve atonement instead of give lip service to the nobility of forgiveness. These people you can give your heart to fully. But it must be earned.

As for the enclaves of untruth, the promoters of wishful thinking, the hypocrites, the cultists, the hugboxes, the echo chambers of liars who think they are being “social” and “healthy” through reinforcing a constant corruption of their understanding of reality: your Robespierre will fall to the same guillotine as your Danton.

Edited by heatdeath (Nov. 21, 2011 09:38:34)

discipline posted:
this isn't true though, baby huey.. most people who post on the rhizzone are actually attractive, charming, intelligent, somewhat on the up-and-up professionally, and well-socialized with their peer groups

we're bros here at the rhizzone. i'm a bro. i like deleuze, joyce, obscure electronic music, and pussy (but not the bitch that it's attached to! haha just a lil joke, i read bell hooks)

heatdeath posted:
Once you understand these causal relationships, you can apply them to present conditions. You can inductively determine what is likely to happen in the future because you will see those same patterns arising again. This is the scientific method.

iirc science requires a sample group larger than 1,

a control group wouldn't hurt either.

that is if we were to discuss generalizations rather than simply the pattern of Lungfish's past relationships

babyhueypnewton posted:
getfiscal (though in his case I think it's cause he's a revolutionary who doesn't fit in very well instead of just a loser)

no getfiscal is very much a loser

shennong posted:

heatdeath posted:
Judging by the past, it would seem that friendships are usually a rather transitory thing, based on regular proximity, nothing like what the tireless advocates of unprincipled empathy would claim.

this is really weird and sad to me. almost all of my close friends are people i've known for a decade or more and when we're back together after a long period of separation there isn't any real difference in the quality of the relationship. the "based on regular proximity" thing makes me think of people i work with whose social relationships occur entirely within the work environment and can be ended by administrative fiat

I have old friends from growing up too although I only really care to talk to two of them anymore. The rest have just become something I no longer find very interesting or respectable and years of playing Nintendo and football in the past no longer makes up for it. None of them know much about the intimate details of my current life nor I theirs. I like seeing them when I do but that happens once a year at most, less frequently as time goes on.

I moved away from my hometown, but it doesn't matter because so did almost everyone else. It is the work environments where I have made the best friends lately and I consider my current crop of coworkers my best friends even though I know in five years time I probably won't be talking to many of them regularly and will be doing something else.

babyfinland posted:
Impper posted:
i love the bitch that its attached to, but the pussy not so much. what am i


mexican

certum est quia impossibile

Hahaha!