The Ontological War

It’s very common for people who are increasing their degrees of realself to take a step forward, learn something new, and then use that new knowledge to examine other aspects of their lives. Ann does this in Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and these post about her will do the same.
Going back to the time when [...]

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In Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Ann and Graham are talking in a café, and Ann tells Graham “something personal”:
Ann: I think that, um … I think that sex is overrated. I think that people place far too much importance on it. And I think that stuff about women wantin’ it just as bad as men [...]

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Most of the people who increase their degrees of realself start from the socialself world, being mostly their socialselves, and having mostly socialself-to-socialself relationships. Biographies show that there are a few people who apparently had a strong sense of their realselves for as long as they can remember, but most people start out life as [...]

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On first hearing about them, some ontologically insensitive people may think that the socialself is the same as the realself, only a little deeper. This is not true. The two selves are structured differently, and because of their different structures they perceive themselves and all of human life and existence in different ways. The socialself [...]

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The following excerpt from an autobiographical sketch by DH Lawrence is probably my favorite passage of any I have ever read. Lawrence was sometimes described as “maladjusted,” but what this passage actually shows, at least to the ontologically insightful, is that he was sensitive enough to know that human existence is unacceptably wrong and needs [...]

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