8FOLD/ACRA: The House of Fiction # 4
martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 11 05:22:25 PDT 2005
Tom Russell wrote:
> I obsess sometimes about the nature of identity.
> How much of me is me? Am I half my father and half my
> mother? Am I the sum of their lives? Am I a
> socio-economic-political product of my times? If
> that's true, than I have no say over who I am. I
> can't help who I am, and so I have no true me-ness, no
> personality, no free will.
You are a biological organism acting on the instincts to survive and
pass your genes to the next generation.
Oh wait! Even better! You are a billion cells wrapped in a layer of
skin and all co-operating for mutual survival.
Oh wait! Even better! You are a quadrillion atoms engaged in chemical
reactions that result in the cyclic formation of deoxyribonucleic and
amino acids.
Oh wait! Even better! You are several quadrillion quarks and leptons
existing in a quantum state that is 99.9% you and 0.1% dead cat.
> Though if there is an essential me-ness, a soul
> that defies brain chemicals and physical reality, then
> I don't have control over that, either. I'm created
> with a core, basic personality. And what does that
> say for free will?
Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Sorry. Had to laugh.
No choice really. Endorphins made me do it.
> I know that emotions are the result of chemical
> imbalances in the brain. Science tells us this. But
> I don't want to believe it. I want to believe in the
> mystery of personality rather than its solution.
And I want to believe that Jennifer Love Hewitt wants nothing more than
to make sweet passionate love to my genitals.
> Drugs change the chemicals in your brain, they make
> you happy or down or whatever, they dull your thoughts
> (or speed them up). Let's forget side-effects,
> over-doses, death. Forget all that shit, it's not
> important.
> But if drugs change who you are, than it brings up
> very curious and tricky questions about the nature of
> me-ness. With drugs, I wouldn't be me. I'd be
> chemicals.
Or genes. Or cells. Or atoms. Or elementary particles. It's a
matter of point of view, really.
> Now, some people
> (my brother Kevin)
> are cool with that.
We are all chemicals. Some of us choose to be 0.5% heroin.
Martin
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