Table of contents
PART 1: Where All Begins
PART 2: The Moving Being
PART 3: The Court of Reality
PART 4: The Canvas of Reality
PART 5: The Realm of Others
Frame & Axiom #18: On community.
🪟 18 - Sentient mirrors
Dear Reader,
The first assumption I employ in my series of axioms is that everything begins from the disconnect between that which we call the ‘self’ and everything outside it. It may or may not be a false separation, but the nature of my concern here is not metaphysical, instead, I rely on the notion that this is how we are generally made to perceive it and that this is a first assumption of the vast majority of us (whether or not it is made conscious). That is, the ‘I’ is a sentient being separated from the external world, separated from other minds, existing at a singular point in space-time.
I have written a great deal on the nature of the self. The self is a moving self completed in mere sufficiency, as positioned by its minuscule field of perception and history, upon an active battleground of potent forces. But Nature has decided that such a game is not yet complex enough to be played, and that each self ought to be thrown into a community of moving selves. With that, any examination of living effectively will not be complete without an examination of communal life.
Life presupposes the sum of many selves. Each self is a judge from their own point of sufficiency, that is, their own point of reference. The qualities a man sees and commends in another, he does from his point of reference. What does that necessitate? That he too values and is likely to possess precisely the qualities he has expressed. That which is commended is a reflection of that which is valued. Hence, it pays to be attentive to the genuine compliments of others, not out of any lust for self-approval, but because people see themselves in others. Is it not amusing to one for whom different people tend to express different sets of commendations? The judgement of another is hardly a reflection of a self in its totality, more so a reflection of the one who judges. Perhaps every commendation is a virtuous expression of envy, every criticism a malignant expression of generosity.
If the communal world is a realm of mirrors, all interpersonal problems are problems of clashing mirrors. It may be that two mirrors are only ten degrees apart, or that two mirrors are so deeply stood at opposing angles that it deforms the reflection of both. As per Wittgenstein, “when two principles meet that cannot be reconciled with one another, then each man declares the other a fool and heretic.” One man may offer reason to the other, certainly, but how far does that go? At the end of reason comes persuasion, that is reason in starkly-coloured dress. It is no wonder then that the nature of mirror-clashes is often combative and all-consuming.
In a world of selves where no individual representation of reality is complete, the effective communal life is earmarked by an effective meeting of representations. I have observed and experienced that effective communal living lies in reverence towards the diversity of representations, in the granting of weight to the representation of another and in the masterful navigation of the inevitable inconsistencies. Most popular relationship advice seem to be mere variations or logical consequences of this notion. (I may say “all” but I prefer to refrain from such vain self-assurance.)
But, if only that was all there is! With our acute angst over the unknown, our own selves as chief of unknowns, we too are eternally ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence our eternal susceptibility to narratives, and the potent forces of flattery or slander. Our communal world, the realm of mirrors, is a game to be played, which one navigates by hearsay. One has to learn the rules, or else. Surely then, what others say of us are not mere reflections of them, but who we truly are.
Till next time,
Euwyn