I thought of
noding this when I read the
replies to my writeup "
To all you so-called "logical" motherfuckers:". In there, somebody mentioned that
logic does have
objectivity as one of its virtues. Well, I won't
argue that logic has virtues (it is one of the
ten Greek "
liberal arts", after all), but objectivity isn't
one of them.
Nope, objectivity is another thing
altogether, a virtue all in itself, something that
Buddhists fight to attain and
businessmen pretend to have. Simply using the same
method of thinking as most of the
Western world doesn't at all confer objectivity. It's just
thinking, which is a
process (as opposed to
consciousness, which is a
state of being--THE state of being, actually). People
more often than not slant their thinking to
conform to some
imagined or
wished-for reality. Everyone who's ever heard an
excuse or
confronted an asshole knows that.
Funnily enough, modern science kind of
choked itself when it discovered (to its complete and total
dismay) that there cannot (logically) EVER be such thing as an
objective observer. The guy
watching the experiment, even if he's in a different room and
touches nothing--he STILL affects the
experiment...just by watching. If you think about that for a moment, it makes sense, but if you want it to *logically* make sense, you have only to
consult some basic
particle physics for proof.
Of course, that makes it sound like objectivity is
impossible or something, but I'm not inclined to buy that. The Buddhists
seek it, as I said, and they're not in the habit of seeking the
unreal. Very
practical people, buddhists. But they do view objectivity as a condition of
consciousness, not of
thinking. According to them (and a few others, probably; there are lots of
spinoffs of buddhism), it is not possible to THINK without being
subjective about it. But it is possible to BE without being subjective about it.
You got to admit, it
sounds like fun, if nothing else.