Why Me?

Photo by Randy Jacob on Unsplash

Living beings are selves and everyone sees themselves as being themselves because they are themselves, but why are we ourselves?

Dualism is fundamental to the human condition and manifests itself in many different ways. As naturally as both “inward” and “outward” both exist, so to do we humans divide every issue which we face into two opposing halves. We have many ongoing great debates wherein we often divide ourselves as a species into two opposing groups as we pick our own preferred side of the two sides of each and every issue. Believers and atheists, Liberals and Conservatives, firm and gentle, inclusive and exclusive, many of us pick a side to ally and to agree with and to call “the right side”, from this stance to consider the other side “wrong” and opposing.

This is the destructive war of the self. Let’s call this opposition based mindset the “Warrior mindset”.

On the other hand, some of us sometimes choose a side on an issue but do not call our side “The right side” and the other side “The wrong side”. Rather than treating the two sides of an issue as being opposing sides, some of us sometimes treat the two sides of an issue as two mutually complimentary groups.

This is the creative cooperation of the self. Let’s call this complimentary based mindset the “Creator mindset”.

Let us neither glorify nor demonize either mindset, but let me take up the point of view of the creator mindset for the present purposes and say that neither opposition nor cooperation are right or wrong but rather are mutually complimentary. The creative cooperation of the self sustains and increases the self by aggregation, while the opposition of the self destroys the self by attrition. Self destruction not necessarily being bad.

Consider the hero as the one willing to self-sacrifice and die…

According to the warrior mindset, it is in this way that the good self prevails and the bad self is destroyed. The warrior seeks a perfected self. According to the creator mindset, however, it is in this way that the good self is increased but does not prevail and the bad self is lessened but is not destroyed. The creator seeks an improved self.