Humans Are Slaves of Fictitious
Ideas That Drive Them to Evil and Suffering, Even
When They Are Inspired by Love
Ideas can be ghostly entities, pure inventions of our
spirits, just living in them and in our acts. What are
hell, demons, witches? Mere ideas…
But ideas – even the fictitious - have the
characteristics of living entities: they live in us, in
our brains, and are able to reproduce themselves,
passing from mind to mind, from believer to believer.
Ideas may represent non existing realities, but still
they enslave their believers. Whoever truly believes in
an idea, is in many senses a true slave to this same
idea. And all of us are. All of us are prisoners of the
ideas we believe in:
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of
comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a
summer day.
Bertrand Russel, 1872-1970, English philosopher and
mathematician, Marriage and Morals
Yet more disturbing: many of our ideas are fatal to us. They
can drive us to evil and suffering, even when inspired by
love.
Yes. Love is in a way a mere illusion and a creation of our
spirit. Most of the times love is marvellous, but it can
also be a foolish idea. How can we classify otherwise the
love of money, of some gods, or of some sexual and
passionate loves?
We need love. Love gives meaning to our lives. And in this
sense the ideas of love are substantial, essential. But that
doesn’t mean that love isn’t an animal or human creation, an
invention of our spirits. Which obviously sounds very
strange…
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Quotations
We are subjugated and enslaved by ideas, including ideas of
love.
The way we know and interpret the world depends basically
from the ideas that fill up our mind.
E. F. Schumacher, 1911-1977, German ecologist and economist,
Small is Beautiful
To think is before all to create a world.
Albert
Camus, 1913-1960, French writer, O Mito de Sísifo
Without ideas we couldn’t live at a human level. What we do
depends of them.
Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955, Spanish writer, En Torno a
Galileu
What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and
our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is
the creation of our mind.
Pali Tripitaka, Dhammapada, Budhist sacred texts.
All our ideas, even the more specialized ones, are linked to
a common centre. They are as rays coming from a sun. This
centre is formed by our more profound conviction, by those
ideas that have the power of shaking us.
E. F. Schumacher, 1911-1977, German ecologist and economist,
Small is Beautiful
Ideas have devastated the twentieth century; they have
burned our planet, caused a sea of blood, and deported
millions of people.
D. Tchossitch, Jugoslav writer, Le temps du pouvoir
Wars happen when wrong ways of thinking and living conduct
men to intolerable situations.
Dorothy Sayers, 1893-1967, English writer, in F. Schumacher
Small is Beautiful
Spirituality and sexuality (…) aren’t things possessed and
within us; on the contrary, we are in them and are possessed
by them, because they are powerful demons.
Carl Gustav Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychiatric in E. Morin
Method V
It’s not only through society and by its culture that
individuals are subjugated; they are also subjugated by
their gods and their ideas.
E. Morin, French philosopher and sociologist, Method V
How many millions of people haven’t been victims of
ideological illusion? Supposing being working for the
emancipation of humankind, they really were contributing to
their oppression.
E. Morin, French philosopher and sociologist, Method V
One can raise stockades against the invasion of an army. But
one can’t raise stockades against an idea.
Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French writer, Histoire d’un crime
Ideas can’t be put back in a box; unlike uranium or
plutonium, they don’t need to be mined or refined, and they
can be freely copied. Once they are out, they are out.
Bill Joy, American scientist, Why the future doesn't need
us, in Wired Magazine
Quotations
Our ideas: humour
The wise only possess ideas; the greater part of mankind are
possessed by them.
Samuel Coleridge, 1772-1834, English poet, Miscellanies
Never gave voice to your ideas in a too clear way. Most
people never reflect in what they say, and venerate what
they do not understand.
Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658, Spanish writer, Oráculo
Manual e Arte de Prudência
There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent
person could believe in them.
Atributted to George Orwel, 1903-1950, English writer
I like fixed ideas… as long as may change them.
F. Jacob, French geneticist, The Statue Within
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are
dreamt of in your philosophy.
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English writer, Hamlet
When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
J. W. Goethe, 1749-1832, German writer, Faust
Language is a virus from outer space.
Attributed to William Burroughs, 1914-1997, American writer
Books, Films,
Cultural Stuff on these and
other related issues? See
Love Essays Store
(in association with Amazon)
Love and Ideas? See also:
We Love to Create Ideas that Drive Our
Lives
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