It's a Sickness I Can't Live Without

It's a Sickness I Can't Live Without

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
— Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Something is Wrong With My Master Manipulator

It's a Sickness I Can't Live Without

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
— Michelangelo (1475-1564)

The titled responsion is something this particular author can relate to. The problem is that the pathway to mastery is wrought with failure, inadequacy, and self-doubt.

For me, the horizon of time is not a never-ending story. The judgments of those around me, the ones that rely on my contributions, participation, and accomplishments, must see progress in terms that make their lives worth living is part of what it means to be an adult and a contributing member of society.

We can't always live in the "me" space; prosperity must translate into something tangible otherwise, it's just wishful thinking. Balance is the key.

To say working towards mastery is a sickness is a way to maintain balance, whether you are riding bare-back on a camel or obsessing over your OCD tendencies. The question that I would like you to consider is, how does this differ from the persuit of perfected perfectibility that the Ancient Greeks gave us?

Michelangelo - planksip

Michelangelo Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.

planksipMichelangelo

Master Manipulators

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.
— Adam Smith (1723-1790)

The titled responsion has a resonating quality to the democratizing ideology that provides purpose for the master manipulators within our society. Manipulation is the antidote to ambition when the goals are self-serving.

What is the mean? How can we simultaneously acknowledge the individual drive towards selfishness and prop up and support those less fortunate, less capable, and less accomplished?

My best guess is that we need a balance. Once again, please be careful not to fall off your camel.

Adam Smith - planksip

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist, philosopher and author as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment.

planksipAdam Smith

By way of thought experiment, let us anthropomorphize the camel and pretend the entitled responsion came from her. Is the master's manipulator broken? Is she looking to pray for salvation or an electronic device? How has the female pronoun used for both the master and slave left you feeling? Report on yourself.

The Movable Mover

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.
— David Hilbert (1862-1943)

The titled responsion is an alliteration moving in the direction of mankind. Is there a force beyond what we can see and hear? Of course, there is mathematics, God's language, some say. Anything else?

David Hilbert - planksip

David Hilbert was a German mathematician. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

planksipMary Shelley

Religion, hopium, and the Shoah are somewhere in the distance, probably not too far off from an oppressive reality. This master manipulator meme starts with Michelangelo and sets the tone with the work ethics turned aesthetics and the end of the Quattrocento into the High Renaissance. Adam Smith masters the manipulator's mindset, so by feeling experimentation (Antonio Damasio), I use the opportunity to try out some different pronouns. Our Thomas Sowell influence questions the prayer; bent earthward, a pair of desert wanderers find no answers. Can you change that? Time will only tell.

Let's All Agree on What is Wrong

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.
— Thomas Sowell (1930-present)

The titled responsion is possibly an impossible task. Do you like tautologies? Is there any wisdom in this seemingly illogical and self-contradictory statement?

Thomas Sowell - planksip

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Born in North Carolina, Sowell grew up in Harlem, New York.

planksipJonathan Swift

By master manipulator, I could mean the idea at the end of the prayer or the phone as the master or a camel with a human narrator. Mapping the meaning is ethics 101, digitized and delivered through mnemonic means; my intent is ambiguous and aesthetic. What do you see?

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planksipDaniel Sanderson