1.12. The Creative-Humanistic-Existential Stopwatch of Life

We all have the stopwatch of life on us, one way or another other. There are two types of stopwatches that are worth distinguishing. One is the creative stopwatch. The other is the social performance stopwatch. The two are usually intimately connected but let me distinguish the difference.

1. The Creative-Existential Stopwatch

We all have the drive to create. God and/or Nature has blessed each and everyone of us with certain individual, unique capabilities, potentials, talents. Call these 'CPTS' (Capabilities-Potentials-Talents). Under normal, healthy life, philosophical, and psychological conditions, we not only have a drive to survive, but we have a drive to survive with a flourish, with a passion, unless or until this passion is extinguished within us (such as by the perception of overwhelming obstacles, loss of meaning in life, entropy -- the loss of health and/or energy, loss of a loved one, tragedy or traumacy, resentment, depression, rage, guilt, sorrow...).

I have a fresh appreciation of some of Freud's later work, specifically, 'Beyond The Pleaure Principle', in which he conceptually creates a new 'dialectic' in man's life. By 'dialectic', in this context, and through most of the context of this philosophical work, I mean the distinction of a philosopher between 'two opposing life (or death) forces that collide with each other, each with their own separate 'will to power', that may result in any of a number of different consequences such as: war, court, one side completely conquering and/or controlling the other (i.e. domination/submission), a 'Mexican standoff' or mutual impasse, mutual or one-sided alienation, negotiation, compromise, approval-seeking, democracy, and/or integration. A distinction can be made between 'healthy' and 'pathological' dialectics, with most playing themselves out somewhere in between.

Using Freud's 'BTPP' (Beyone The Pleasure Principle) conceptualization, let us say that we all have only a limited time on earth to express ourselves in the way that we want to express ourselves, to fulfill or achieve our CPTs, and do whatever it is we want to do on this earth before the stopwatch of Time, of Existence, of Entropy, starts to grab hold of us, and slow us down, to our eventual death. Morbid perhaps, but this is the reality of our existence. The older we get, the more we can appreciate that entropy -- the loss of the energy and vitality through 'oxidation' and/or the aging process -- can become a significant deterring factor in the achievement of our CPTs. Life becomes a struggle -- which we likely won't notice when we are younger -- between our 'Drive to Survive With A Flourish' and Entropy (Aging, Loss of Energy, Oxidation, Death). In short, life -- and particularly 'life with a flourish' becomes a dialectic struggle between life and death (Freud's last dialectical philosophical conceptualization). I can accept this terminology and this dialectical conceptualization easily -- even if I let Freud's term and concept of 'instinct' slide away into history.

2. The Social Performance Stopwatch


We all have 'Individual Philosophies' ('IPs') that we may or may not try to turn into 'social philosophies'('SPs') -- this terminology is courtesy of my philosophy email friend, Paul Baioni, from Memphis, Tennessee. I will use the terms 'IP' and 'SP' in ways that promote my own IP and SP here; Paul's ideas can be found in links to our private/public emails, and beyond that, to his own systemized essays.

In my conceptuology, our IPs can be viewd as the 'bridges' between our capabilities, potentials, talencts on the one hand, and our Social Expressions or Performances (SPs)on the other hand. A distinction can be made between our private expressions and/or performances (when we are alone), our semi-private expressions and/or performances (when we are with close friends, family, and/or loved ones), and our public performances (when we are more in the limelight of the public appraisal such as at work, making a speech, writing a book or essay for public consumption, involved in a team or individual sports activity with people watching.

Now, as much as we may hate to admit this fact, we are all being appraised and judged, both in semi-private and public spheres alike. The more private our realm of self-expression, the more we have the 'freedom' to engage in what might be called 'narcissistic self-indulgance' (doing the things we want to do, and expressing ourselves in the way that we want to express ourselves). The minute we step into a relationship of two -- unless we are entering into a 'sado-masochistic' and/or 'dominance/submission' relationship -- we are entering a situation where we need to at least partly curtail the full extent of our narcissistic IP and narcissistic self-expression in favor of 'sharing some of this narcissistic limelight' with our partner in the relationship -- in whatever the form that their own narcissistic IP and self-expression may take. Thus, a dialectic can be seen to exist -- which is partly different for every relationship -- between the twin polarities of narcissistic self-assertion and social sensitivity (or talking and listening).

The larger the social stage is -- especially if it is a democratic stage -- the more there is generally going to be a sharing of 'narcissistic limelight' among the group, unless one or a few persons are doing something that warrants the rest of the crowd being willing to put aside their own narcissistic IPs, agendas, and self-expressions in order to watch, read, and/or listen to the person or persons who are the centre of attention. This usually demands a certain level of social credibility and trust in order for a decently large crowd to being willing to put aside their own IPs, agendas, and social performances for any signficant length of time in order to watch and/or listen to someone who is in effect 'on stage' for a purpose such as entertaining, motivating, and/or educating the rest of the audience.

Otherwise -- and even in spite of -- warrented social credibility (based on good past social performances, reputation, and so on), the Stopwatch of Social Performance is ticking. I have only so many words and minutes to attract my desired audience here, and if I cannot attract my audience within that limit of time, within the time limit of my Stopwatch of Social Performance and Credibility, then I will lose my audience, and will basically be writing to and for myself, just as if smaller or larger portions of an audience at a sporting or entertainment or political event grew weary, bored, and/or sufficiently upset that they started to walk out of the event. We all have our own, unique narcissistic IPs and agendas, and are only willing to spend so much time listening or watching or reading about someone else's narcissistic IP and/or social performance before we start to tune out and go back to our own more comfortable, more pleasurable, narcissistic IP and agenda, whatever that might be. That is, unless the educator, the motivator, the entertainer is charismatic and captivating enough to keep our interest focused on what is being said, done, and/or written.

I mention this because this philosophical perspective -- the perspective of the dialectic in life, self and society , and particularly the dialectics between: 1. life and death, 2. between survival with a flourish and entropy, 3. between narcissistic self-assertion and social sensitivity, 4. between conflicting IPs, 5. between conflicting Individual Wills To Social, Economic, Political, and/or Religious Power, and 6. between Apollonian (intellectual) energy, Dionysian (sexual and sensual energy), and Rousseauian (romantic) energy -- becomes the under-riding backdrop for the rest of this philosophical presentation and social performance. If you don't want to read about the influence of the dialectic on man's life in general, on our own individual and social life in particular, and on the history of Western Philosophy and Culture, then you are not likley going to want to read this philosophical presentation and social performance in its evolving entirety.

However, if what i have written so far has attracted you enough at this point to want you to keep reading, then i say welcome to Hegel's Hotel and DGBN-Gap Philosophy, and I will do my best to recognize that I only have a limited Stopwatch of Social Performance, the limit of time that I have within any essay to either entertain you and/or teach you some new idea that you may or may not be able to creatively apply to your own individual life, your own evolving IP. It is on that note that we begin this philosophical odyssey.

DGBN,
David Gordon Bain,
Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations
Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism
October 16th, 2006