Random Thoughts (Natural Hypertrophy and Krishnamurti)

So, I recently watched a video by the YouTube channel natural hypertrophy (which is a great channel you should check out if you have time) titled "I am better than you". In Nietzschean terms he explains how saying that you are better than someone is something society constantly tries us to guilt trip over which is an example of the slave inversion of values in practice. He further differentiates between the humility of the strong will, which realizes itself to be strong and sees itself truly placed compared to all the other geniuses around us compared to weak humility which tries to downplay itself while enjoying the attention it gets from people saying that someone is so good yet remains humble. Instead of accepting the harsh reality of continuous improvement being required, it would rather stagnate itself and others around it even to the point that it starts feeling miserable about itself instead of accepting its true calling and engaging in a sort of Dionysian dance of creation of its own values. All the points raised in the video were extremely salient, especially relevant given the prominence of the culture which he terms as "participation trophy culture" which through the mask of encouragement, can end up reducing all things to a mass of mediocrity, but there was a very subtle thing I noticed which I felt is worth pointing out (nobody really reads this anyway, it's just me talking to myself). 

Can someone be objectively better than someone? The video answers this in the affirmative. He mentions how consistently going to the gym makes him better than the average person who eats unhealthy and never strives to improve themselves. Any endeavor in life can be compared to climbing a mountain. Once you climb higher and higher, you slowly start to realize that there's not many people truly interested in that mountain as you (because 1.we all have our own journeys and 2.most people are just superficial), you deal with the loneliness, the insignificance of your pursuit (because anything we accomplish is at a scale incomparable to the cosmos). Though we are all denying death in a way with these immortality projects, even those are not enough at the end of the day (or at least until you've closely examined the very nature of the fear of death and death). The greatest people in each field are motivated by a beauty only they can see or feel in that pursuit. They battle this meaninglessness, this loneliness, the sense of utter superficiality of everyone around them, the lack of understanding between humans leading to constant conflict; they battle each of these every day when they go ever higher on their pursuits, further isolated from everything, like a moth drawn towards a flame only they can see. Of course, when they are doing the activity their whole attention is given to it and they don't observe it, but it becomes even more strikingly evident upon any introspection (which is why they might develop behaviors that can stop them from introspecting through numbing etc.). This is close to what krishnamurti calls passion, being closely related to feeling the sorrow of the world.

In a way, we all do this, because human beings are inherently beautiful,(in the true sense of that word). We all have experiences throughout life which lead us to develop different coping mechanisms for living. Many mental health conditions are just examples of survival mechanisms continuing to react to circumstances they believe to exist because the perception of the individual has been too clouded by experience. Given those circumstances though, if we see the operation of an individual, even in someone with the most twisted behavior, it is possible to observe the movement of life itself; a dynamic readjusting flow of awareness working to survive. Can someone be objectively better than someone? Yes. But human beings are not objects to be compared on the basis of some properties. In some conditions this may be necessary. The aim should not be to create an ideal for oneself based on societal perceptions and stick to that ideal, but rather to be an authentic unfolding of the process going on within you (considering this as an aim instead of starting with awareness defeats the whole point). 

There is a fear which enters our minds when you even try to suggest the existence of such a freedom from all societal perceptions. As Krishnamurti would say, our minds have been made negligent and lazy under the constant boot of authority. You think, "If there is no authority or ideal to compare myself to, wouldn't I just be lazy or not accomplish my best?". To quote Krishnamurti again "In true freedom, there is no mediocrity". Freedom 'from' something isn't freedom in the true sense. To see this, imagine if your core value was freedom, an objective function you wished to maximize in a utilitarian sense. You would work only to gain more freedom, for the sake of freedom but you would be caught in the duality of 'freedom' and 'not freedom'. Essentially, in trying to maximize freedom you would become bound to freedom. If you're living your hardest, with nothing and no one to compare yourself to or to tell you to do anything, do you really value yourself so little that you think you would end up mediocre?

There is no "I" really, to which we can ascribe the quality of being better. Life is only relationship, your relationship to being. I forgot what I was going to write earlier so I should probably stop this rant.