Physicality, not athleticism but existence, is everywhere. The air is physical, water is physical, light is physical, life forms are physical, emotions are names for physical chemical processes in the brain; but religion, politics, ethics, biases, beliefs- they are all metaphysical, they all are constructs of the mind, all fabrications of artificiality. These metaphysical concepts dominate this species, rule every thought, control nations of people, direct everyone into a large concert for their own demise, and they are addictive, like heroine, crack cocaine, and morphine combined into a potent combination, interpreted metaphysics is a deadly, habit forming, destructive element, and unfortunately, after its condition, forms itself out of the mind, rendering the user unable to isolate itself from the substance, because it is not physical, but metaphysical, and ever present in the thoughts and actions of the individual, and in consequence all people collectively.
What are some roots of this metaphysical trait? Why are Homo sapiens the only known living species on this earth to possess such an aspect? Some may say that we possess such a mental ability because we are an advanced species intellectually and incredibly successful for how short a time we have been on this planet, but that seems ego-inflating. Perhaps it is that this species’ ability to rally behind a metaphysical invention that has allowed it to be so dominating and successful. All of the pack mentality species (e.g. ants, dolphins, lions, wolves, etc.) have the highest success rates. They collaborate, they unify, they work together when the time comes regardless of any predisposed bias against one another, and those that allow their poor relationships to interfere with the mission at hand run a great risk of failure. Humans have developed entire written theories for the effectiveness of this metaphysical teamwork, and in a sense, animals do rely on metaphysical constructs, the ones which do receiving the highest success, but humans have a much greater dependence on the metaphysical, and it seems that the initial ability to wonder what was not wondered before, ask what had not been asked, and even more so, create ideas to satisfy the need to know, and rally behind those ideas to propel the species into unfathomable success. Origins theorized, and it seems that metaphysics is a genuinely beneficial aspect of this species, but there is a problem. Metaphysical ideas such as religion, racism, political superiority, nationalism, and all kinds of other constructs, are competing, clashing, oppressing, killing, hurting, demolishing; they’re destroying humanity. Is this a bad thing? That’s hard to say. It seems that nature has preset safeguards to life (whether these safeguards are created or manifested is unknown) and that whenever a species gains too much power, whenever it begins to destroy the established entropic order, the species’ greatest advantage, what has forever been its strongest asset, becomes its most volatile detriment. Like cancer, metaphysics infiltrates the body as evolution, and when the time is right, it corrupts and kills the body to stabilize nature. In the book World War Z, the scientist assigned to track the source of the virus confided that nature has a habit of making an organism’s greatest strength its most obvious weakness. This is apparent and factual, and from here analytical observance and concluding decisions must be made regarding the beneficial nature and aspects of this oncoming self-destruction of humanity. Is it better to survive, or better to die out? Will we deform more of the world with our continued existence, or will we be a benefit? Primarily, however, metaphysics must be analyzed more before a definitive assessment can be delivered.
To look in literature, it is apparent that metaphysics is the driving force behind almost every short story, novella, novel, series, and every other conceptualization. To name a few significant metaphysical pieces of literature: The Holy Bible, Wuthering Heights, Al Qur’an, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, every Shakespearean play and sonnet, every religious text, every philosophical theory, every political doctrine, practically everything made by humans is metaphysical in its foundation. Friday Night Lights, Into The Wild, and The Killer Angels are no exceptions to this. The authors use metaphysics not only in their display of their novels, but the characters and actual people behind the novels used metaphysics to propel the events which were written about by the authors.
In Friday Night Lights, metaphysical concepts dominate Odessa and the inhabitants. Not only are racial bigotry, familial expectations, and unfair vilification, but the entire town is dependent upon High School Football to keep it alive. If there has never been a more depressing collapse of a first world community, it would not be too surprising. For an entire livelihood to be based upon the degradation of ethnicities, children, and coaches, all the while placing dependency upon a child’s game for a few months of the year; it is completely preposterous, and unmistakably a rather depressing outcome for a collection of people. Racism is a parallel to all kinds of discriminating (e.g. sexual orientation, heritage, body type, etc.) and is a prevalent aspect of humanity. The people of Odessa, and in consequence the world, have preset biases towards ethnicities. The reasons behind this racism are numerous, and can be construed in many different ways. For some, racism is taught by familial tradition, or by religious indoctrination. For others, racial bias is formed from experience, assuming that all people of a certain ethnicity or state are all the same. This racism, for whatever reason it comes about, gives people a sense of superiority at times, at others it opens something up for ridicule, and often it creates the perfect scapegoat for vilification. At the same time in Odessa and elsewhere, familial hierarchy dominates many children’s mindsets and futures. On top of being conditioned into racism, children are expected to follow into success and superiority. It is true that parents want the best for their children, but there are many factors which play into this. Parents want what they think is best for their children, and here it means success at a petty sport. This causes a great deal of stress on the players, as it would on anybody whose parents pressure them into being this impossible ideal of perfection, rendering them incapable of meeting this expectation. However, in the end, Odessa is a vilifying town, attacking other schools’ football teams, claiming them to be inferior; attacking ethnic groups, claiming them to be reasons why the team and community suffers; attacking the coach, claiming that because the team is not at a level of pristine perfection that it is on his shoulder; and attacking the very family members for not living up to the impossible standards placed for them. This is metaphysical conceptualization gone awry, and what once could have been used for the benefit of the town is now ripping it apart even more in its collapsing economic state.
Into The Wild portrays the metaphysical journey of Christopher McCandless. As a relatable character, McCandless was relatable and likable, not only in the account, but in his life as well. McCandless was incredibly intelligent, and it is difficult not to feel sympathy for him. Not particularly conforming to any religious or political party, Krakauer revealed Chris’ criticism against all spectrums of economic, political, and ethical trains of thought. He was not particularly susceptible to societal expectations, or to political party conditionings, yet he did fall victim to himself. McCandless thought he could figure out the ultimate absolution of humanity, thought that he could find the truth, what reality actually is, but in his self-indulgent, incredibly fortunate adventures, he only built his tolerance to fear, obstinacy to danger, and obdurate reaction to other people’s show of concern. Chris is the embodiment, the analogous identity for humanity and its development through the metaphysical realm. He began his life in normalcy for a travelling boy, but it quickly became difficult, intense, and he was surrounded with emotional turmoil at every turn. He created and adopted his metaphysical entity, and helped not only himself, but others as well, spending Saturday nights feeding the homeless on his own fruition. Yet, he always had his own biases against external forces, e.g. his father, and they always plagued him. Therefore, he ventured into Jack London’s metaphysical hypocrisy, and ventured so far into his cavern that it killed him. In the song “Evidence” by Crown The Empire, it is stated “You’ll never find happiness while you live inside hate.” It seems that Chris McCandless was trying to find fulfillment, trying to find happiness, but he never would be able to, until he settled his issues with his father, to which he had already confessed to his sister that he could never forgive his father. Krakauer presents a potential argument that Chris may have met his absolution and internal self-actualization, but it came too late to save him, and he died, much like it appears that all of humankind will.
While McCandless’ journey led to his own death, and the devastation of the psychological integrity of numerous others, it was absolutely nothing close to the magnitude of the destruction caused by metaphysics in the American Civil War. A nation of people, convicted to their core about their metaphysical foundation of “freedom” split in two over additional metaphysical controversy, and in consequence to the closed minds, slaughtered millions of their own “brothers” over a domestic dispute. The impact of something as destructive as war can shatter everything that has been built, but it can also be the provocation needed to propel those involved and affected into a new stage of development. The absolute obliteration that occurred in the Civil War, and in the battle of Gettysburg specifically, is astounding, and the fact that it took a convincing metaphysical backbone, and continuous reinforcement of these metaphysical concepts on both sides is a strong testimony to the very present danger of metaphysical concepts, especially when these concepts are not presented and analyzed in a pragmatic manner. When entire congregations of people simply accept what is fed to them, it is a deadly concoction of corruption through idiocy. This is why pragmatic analysis of everything, absolutely everything, is crucial to safe development, safety for all involved, even with the incredible risk, but far less perilous than blindly believing whatever has been handed over in lace and bows, because many times, the object within all the trivial coating is an ugly, destructive creation, and is best to be rejected instead, or replaced after a while. Shaara took the liberty of portraying the personal thoughts of the generals and soldiers at Gettysburg, and he portrayed them as skeptical of their own metaphysical ideals pushing them to slaughter so many people, but not in the heat of battle, not it the spark of the moment when all the emotional chemicals concoct into a potent mix, allowing people to do the things that they do to one another. No, once the complexity of the situation’s ethical implications are removed, then everything is just easy to convince yourself into, especially when there is an army prepared to do the same on the other side. Not only does blind metaphysical dependence destroy the ability for segregated groups to come together, but it also destroys groups from the inside. In the battle of Gettysburg, the Confederacy had become so intoxicated with hubris and their cause that they idiotically followed Lee’s directions to charge an entire mile through a valley to the enemy, so intoxicated with their lust for victory and superiority, dominance and aggression that they still charged when artillery fire rained down from above, so drunk on power and their convictions in things fabricated by their minds and self-convinced by constant reinforcement that they ran uphill wearing wool uniforms in blisteringly hot weather towards the enemy, so convinced that the probability no longer mattered due to the reinforcement from their deity that roughly five hundred soldiers returned from this failure of a charge, leaving the rest dead or dying. One regiment lead by General Armistead retained only twenty men who managed to break the union line, but twenty men is nothing when an entire army surrounding them bears down. The Confederacy was set up to dominate the battle of Gettysburg, and quite probably push to Washington D.C. immediately after, yet their metaphysically intoxicating attraction decimated them in one swift charge, crushing every chance for their victory, not due to a divine intervention, not because their cause was less just, but because they ignored logic and the physical facts for their twisted reality of hubris and metaphysical dependence.
Metaphysical dependence is found in every society ever recorded, leaving incredible impact upon the race as a whole. The impact of the corrupt metaphysics is so drastic that it is impossible to accurately predict what this species would be without it. Metaphysics is the driving role behind almost all human caused issues, from the small triviality of a small town’s ethics to the entire conditioning into war. It is apparent that metaphysics, while it has brought humanity as far as it has, had also held us back, and is corroding us away. What is best? Is it best that humans continue to develop and exist, or is it better for humanity to die out as well? These are questions that may be unnecessary to answer, as the answers are swayed by the bias around the word ‘better”. In a sense, it is in the highest priority for humans to continue their existence, yet in another, without the corrupt metaphysical impact, humans would so quickly overpopulate the planet and consume all of the resources that our continued inhabitation of this planet would completely destroy everything that it is, and not only would numerous other species die from our impact, but we would lead to our own demise there as well. Metaphysics can be directed into a less dismal path, however. Since religion, nationalism, and the like are nurtured, taught into those who believe them, humans can also educate humanity towards different ideals, ideals that are so rudimentary that almost every child seems to be receptive of them immediately. How difficult can it be to believe that it is right to accept and love every individual? How simplistic is it to educate humans to cooperate globally towards a prosperous future for not only this race, but for the entire planet and beyond? At this point in time, more difficult than it is desirable to be. After thousands of years of reinforcement of these ideas of segregation, prejudice, purity, absolute truth, and the like, redirecting the minds of humans to disregard these will be difficult, near impossible if not fully; but it is not a battle which should not be pursued, not when the fate of the race and many others hangs in the balance. The battle will never be done, as with each individual comes one’s own subjectivity and corruption, and there will be a constant battle, but this is eons in the future in comparison to what is happening now; do we let metaphysics destroy us, or do we attempt to redirect it? This is the unanswered question.
What are some roots of this metaphysical trait? Why are Homo sapiens the only known living species on this earth to possess such an aspect? Some may say that we possess such a mental ability because we are an advanced species intellectually and incredibly successful for how short a time we have been on this planet, but that seems ego-inflating. Perhaps it is that this species’ ability to rally behind a metaphysical invention that has allowed it to be so dominating and successful. All of the pack mentality species (e.g. ants, dolphins, lions, wolves, etc.) have the highest success rates. They collaborate, they unify, they work together when the time comes regardless of any predisposed bias against one another, and those that allow their poor relationships to interfere with the mission at hand run a great risk of failure. Humans have developed entire written theories for the effectiveness of this metaphysical teamwork, and in a sense, animals do rely on metaphysical constructs, the ones which do receiving the highest success, but humans have a much greater dependence on the metaphysical, and it seems that the initial ability to wonder what was not wondered before, ask what had not been asked, and even more so, create ideas to satisfy the need to know, and rally behind those ideas to propel the species into unfathomable success. Origins theorized, and it seems that metaphysics is a genuinely beneficial aspect of this species, but there is a problem. Metaphysical ideas such as religion, racism, political superiority, nationalism, and all kinds of other constructs, are competing, clashing, oppressing, killing, hurting, demolishing; they’re destroying humanity. Is this a bad thing? That’s hard to say. It seems that nature has preset safeguards to life (whether these safeguards are created or manifested is unknown) and that whenever a species gains too much power, whenever it begins to destroy the established entropic order, the species’ greatest advantage, what has forever been its strongest asset, becomes its most volatile detriment. Like cancer, metaphysics infiltrates the body as evolution, and when the time is right, it corrupts and kills the body to stabilize nature. In the book World War Z, the scientist assigned to track the source of the virus confided that nature has a habit of making an organism’s greatest strength its most obvious weakness. This is apparent and factual, and from here analytical observance and concluding decisions must be made regarding the beneficial nature and aspects of this oncoming self-destruction of humanity. Is it better to survive, or better to die out? Will we deform more of the world with our continued existence, or will we be a benefit? Primarily, however, metaphysics must be analyzed more before a definitive assessment can be delivered.
To look in literature, it is apparent that metaphysics is the driving force behind almost every short story, novella, novel, series, and every other conceptualization. To name a few significant metaphysical pieces of literature: The Holy Bible, Wuthering Heights, Al Qur’an, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, every Shakespearean play and sonnet, every religious text, every philosophical theory, every political doctrine, practically everything made by humans is metaphysical in its foundation. Friday Night Lights, Into The Wild, and The Killer Angels are no exceptions to this. The authors use metaphysics not only in their display of their novels, but the characters and actual people behind the novels used metaphysics to propel the events which were written about by the authors.
In Friday Night Lights, metaphysical concepts dominate Odessa and the inhabitants. Not only are racial bigotry, familial expectations, and unfair vilification, but the entire town is dependent upon High School Football to keep it alive. If there has never been a more depressing collapse of a first world community, it would not be too surprising. For an entire livelihood to be based upon the degradation of ethnicities, children, and coaches, all the while placing dependency upon a child’s game for a few months of the year; it is completely preposterous, and unmistakably a rather depressing outcome for a collection of people. Racism is a parallel to all kinds of discriminating (e.g. sexual orientation, heritage, body type, etc.) and is a prevalent aspect of humanity. The people of Odessa, and in consequence the world, have preset biases towards ethnicities. The reasons behind this racism are numerous, and can be construed in many different ways. For some, racism is taught by familial tradition, or by religious indoctrination. For others, racial bias is formed from experience, assuming that all people of a certain ethnicity or state are all the same. This racism, for whatever reason it comes about, gives people a sense of superiority at times, at others it opens something up for ridicule, and often it creates the perfect scapegoat for vilification. At the same time in Odessa and elsewhere, familial hierarchy dominates many children’s mindsets and futures. On top of being conditioned into racism, children are expected to follow into success and superiority. It is true that parents want the best for their children, but there are many factors which play into this. Parents want what they think is best for their children, and here it means success at a petty sport. This causes a great deal of stress on the players, as it would on anybody whose parents pressure them into being this impossible ideal of perfection, rendering them incapable of meeting this expectation. However, in the end, Odessa is a vilifying town, attacking other schools’ football teams, claiming them to be inferior; attacking ethnic groups, claiming them to be reasons why the team and community suffers; attacking the coach, claiming that because the team is not at a level of pristine perfection that it is on his shoulder; and attacking the very family members for not living up to the impossible standards placed for them. This is metaphysical conceptualization gone awry, and what once could have been used for the benefit of the town is now ripping it apart even more in its collapsing economic state.
Into The Wild portrays the metaphysical journey of Christopher McCandless. As a relatable character, McCandless was relatable and likable, not only in the account, but in his life as well. McCandless was incredibly intelligent, and it is difficult not to feel sympathy for him. Not particularly conforming to any religious or political party, Krakauer revealed Chris’ criticism against all spectrums of economic, political, and ethical trains of thought. He was not particularly susceptible to societal expectations, or to political party conditionings, yet he did fall victim to himself. McCandless thought he could figure out the ultimate absolution of humanity, thought that he could find the truth, what reality actually is, but in his self-indulgent, incredibly fortunate adventures, he only built his tolerance to fear, obstinacy to danger, and obdurate reaction to other people’s show of concern. Chris is the embodiment, the analogous identity for humanity and its development through the metaphysical realm. He began his life in normalcy for a travelling boy, but it quickly became difficult, intense, and he was surrounded with emotional turmoil at every turn. He created and adopted his metaphysical entity, and helped not only himself, but others as well, spending Saturday nights feeding the homeless on his own fruition. Yet, he always had his own biases against external forces, e.g. his father, and they always plagued him. Therefore, he ventured into Jack London’s metaphysical hypocrisy, and ventured so far into his cavern that it killed him. In the song “Evidence” by Crown The Empire, it is stated “You’ll never find happiness while you live inside hate.” It seems that Chris McCandless was trying to find fulfillment, trying to find happiness, but he never would be able to, until he settled his issues with his father, to which he had already confessed to his sister that he could never forgive his father. Krakauer presents a potential argument that Chris may have met his absolution and internal self-actualization, but it came too late to save him, and he died, much like it appears that all of humankind will.
While McCandless’ journey led to his own death, and the devastation of the psychological integrity of numerous others, it was absolutely nothing close to the magnitude of the destruction caused by metaphysics in the American Civil War. A nation of people, convicted to their core about their metaphysical foundation of “freedom” split in two over additional metaphysical controversy, and in consequence to the closed minds, slaughtered millions of their own “brothers” over a domestic dispute. The impact of something as destructive as war can shatter everything that has been built, but it can also be the provocation needed to propel those involved and affected into a new stage of development. The absolute obliteration that occurred in the Civil War, and in the battle of Gettysburg specifically, is astounding, and the fact that it took a convincing metaphysical backbone, and continuous reinforcement of these metaphysical concepts on both sides is a strong testimony to the very present danger of metaphysical concepts, especially when these concepts are not presented and analyzed in a pragmatic manner. When entire congregations of people simply accept what is fed to them, it is a deadly concoction of corruption through idiocy. This is why pragmatic analysis of everything, absolutely everything, is crucial to safe development, safety for all involved, even with the incredible risk, but far less perilous than blindly believing whatever has been handed over in lace and bows, because many times, the object within all the trivial coating is an ugly, destructive creation, and is best to be rejected instead, or replaced after a while. Shaara took the liberty of portraying the personal thoughts of the generals and soldiers at Gettysburg, and he portrayed them as skeptical of their own metaphysical ideals pushing them to slaughter so many people, but not in the heat of battle, not it the spark of the moment when all the emotional chemicals concoct into a potent mix, allowing people to do the things that they do to one another. No, once the complexity of the situation’s ethical implications are removed, then everything is just easy to convince yourself into, especially when there is an army prepared to do the same on the other side. Not only does blind metaphysical dependence destroy the ability for segregated groups to come together, but it also destroys groups from the inside. In the battle of Gettysburg, the Confederacy had become so intoxicated with hubris and their cause that they idiotically followed Lee’s directions to charge an entire mile through a valley to the enemy, so intoxicated with their lust for victory and superiority, dominance and aggression that they still charged when artillery fire rained down from above, so drunk on power and their convictions in things fabricated by their minds and self-convinced by constant reinforcement that they ran uphill wearing wool uniforms in blisteringly hot weather towards the enemy, so convinced that the probability no longer mattered due to the reinforcement from their deity that roughly five hundred soldiers returned from this failure of a charge, leaving the rest dead or dying. One regiment lead by General Armistead retained only twenty men who managed to break the union line, but twenty men is nothing when an entire army surrounding them bears down. The Confederacy was set up to dominate the battle of Gettysburg, and quite probably push to Washington D.C. immediately after, yet their metaphysically intoxicating attraction decimated them in one swift charge, crushing every chance for their victory, not due to a divine intervention, not because their cause was less just, but because they ignored logic and the physical facts for their twisted reality of hubris and metaphysical dependence.
Metaphysical dependence is found in every society ever recorded, leaving incredible impact upon the race as a whole. The impact of the corrupt metaphysics is so drastic that it is impossible to accurately predict what this species would be without it. Metaphysics is the driving role behind almost all human caused issues, from the small triviality of a small town’s ethics to the entire conditioning into war. It is apparent that metaphysics, while it has brought humanity as far as it has, had also held us back, and is corroding us away. What is best? Is it best that humans continue to develop and exist, or is it better for humanity to die out as well? These are questions that may be unnecessary to answer, as the answers are swayed by the bias around the word ‘better”. In a sense, it is in the highest priority for humans to continue their existence, yet in another, without the corrupt metaphysical impact, humans would so quickly overpopulate the planet and consume all of the resources that our continued inhabitation of this planet would completely destroy everything that it is, and not only would numerous other species die from our impact, but we would lead to our own demise there as well. Metaphysics can be directed into a less dismal path, however. Since religion, nationalism, and the like are nurtured, taught into those who believe them, humans can also educate humanity towards different ideals, ideals that are so rudimentary that almost every child seems to be receptive of them immediately. How difficult can it be to believe that it is right to accept and love every individual? How simplistic is it to educate humans to cooperate globally towards a prosperous future for not only this race, but for the entire planet and beyond? At this point in time, more difficult than it is desirable to be. After thousands of years of reinforcement of these ideas of segregation, prejudice, purity, absolute truth, and the like, redirecting the minds of humans to disregard these will be difficult, near impossible if not fully; but it is not a battle which should not be pursued, not when the fate of the race and many others hangs in the balance. The battle will never be done, as with each individual comes one’s own subjectivity and corruption, and there will be a constant battle, but this is eons in the future in comparison to what is happening now; do we let metaphysics destroy us, or do we attempt to redirect it? This is the unanswered question.
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