Week 3 -- The Fall and Kierkegaard

[Just realized I've been erroneously refering to these posts as days instead of weeks. Whoops.]


Existential Slavery
I feel personally as though this falls into the idea of determinism, or at least determinism in the sense in which I define it.
Some background: I believe free will vs fate is more of a battle between what you can do versus what society and nature deem you ought to do. In some cases it makes more sense to follow in line with how things should be, and other times it is best to break out and go a new path. Existential Slavery I believe is defined as the chains in which society and your own mindset hold you to, and so I believe this is an apt comparison.

Degrees of Slavery
·        Physical Slavery – actually shackled and forced to do physical work
o   Examples: Transatlantic Slave Trade, USSR Gulag Laborers
·        Mental Slavery – trapped into a situation via various psychological mindgames
o   Examples: Milgram’s Experiment, Domestic Abuse
·        Existential Slavery  -- trapped into a situation out of influence from external factors
o   Examples: Going to school, having a job, etc.

As you can probably see, Existential Slavery is a bit of a pop out here. When it comes to comparing the three, it becomes obvious that Physical and Mental slavery is much worse; but that doesn’t change the fact that Existential Slavery can also cause quite a few detriments.

Confession, Repentance, and Catharsis
I don’t think it would hurt to listen to someone talk about their life and sins on a bus. Another question asked in class was if whether they told the truth or not mattered; I don’t think it does. If they end up getting catharsis out of telling me a bunch of bullshit, I know that I personally won’t be effected, and so if she’s helped by giving me this information I feel like it’s perfectly fine. Of course, there’s always the chance that the person speaking is trying to sell you on an idea or an object, in which case you would need to have the proper sense to avoid such a thing. 

God’s Nature as Unknown
I see God more as a personal therapist now after the conversation we had about it in class. When you do not have a person to share your passions and anxieties with, it can be very helpful to instead debrief and console yourself; however, we don’t typically do that very well. This aspect of God, or the unknown, allows us to create a vessel to get this from. Whether that vessel is real or not doesn’t matter; what matters is that it creates catharsis, just like how it was mentioned in the last topic.

Passion and Anxiety
I thought that this in particular was a pretty interesting subject. I can certainly relate personally to the aspect of talking to someone about your passions, or talking about an anxiety, and having that person just “not get it”. I feel as though it is truly vital to always have a method with which you can share and expel your emotions with, whether it be by talking to another friend, or by talking to your own God.

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