William Blake
picture from www.stormfront.org
--Without Contraries is no Progression. Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are
necessary to Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call
Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason.
Evil is the active springing from Energy.
Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.
--If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.
from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
In a thorough response, explain what one or both passages above
mean to you. As always, be sure to refer to specific words
and ideas from the quote itself and other texts to support your own ideas. After everyone has posted a comment, read all of the entries and post another comment to extend and deepen the conversation.
I find the first paragraph, about opposites, to make more sense to me in some respects. I understand that idea of opposites, or contraries in every day life. Since grade school we have been learning about magnets and how you cannot make the similarly charged ends touch. There is also the saying, "opposites attract" that is heard a lot of the time describing a set of people that others would not have guessed would be compatible together. Both these occurrences put a positive spin on contraries. The opposite charges of the magnets attract each other pulling the magnets together, while the contradictory couples sometimes work the best. This is nearly identical to Blake's idea in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell": "Contraries... are necessary to human existence." The good in the world would seem only mediocre, if not boring, if it were not paired against the atrocities of genocide and war. The horror of death would be magnified if it weren't for the babies constantly being born. I completely agree with Blake in that contradictory elements are imperative for our lives. I sometimes think that life would be wonderful without any interruptions or mishaps. But at the same time, life would be boring. A t the same time, if life was miserable all of the time, I wonder if the atrocities would be perceived as better than they actually are because nothing is worse.
ReplyDeleteThe first passage which talks about contraries is one of my favorite ideas mentioned and discussed in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" by William Blake. The idea that we need the contraries to help compare and mark progress is very interesting. Before reading this, I hadn't thought of life this way. There needs to be repulsion if attraction can be appreciated. For the worth of Heaven to be truly understood, Hell must also exist. When he writes"Without contraries, there is no progression" (Blake Plate 3), it is a very simplistic statement that has a very deep explanation intricately woven in. Without the negative connotation associated with hate, love wouldn't seem so wonderful.There needs to be hatred for people to value love. We need these contraries to mark progress in our lives. This is such an interesting idea that has never crossed my mind. These contraries don't just exist, rather they are necessities of a complete existence. If we didn't have the benchmarks available to us to make comparisons, it would be difficult to understand and assess the gain and loss we are involved in.
ReplyDeleteBlake said that "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is: Infinite". This quote is suggesting that we do not see all the possibilities". This is because we become opinionated based on stereotypes, hatred caused by the differences that separate us, and when it comes down to it, feelings that make no sense. We learn to see the world through a narrow "tunnel" of prejudice. However, if we were to "cleanse the doors of our perception" we might be able to better understand other dimensions. For example, what better way is there to understand people than being open-minded to the struggles they encounter every day or what they have been through ? This requires that we be free of opinions about people. Then, the world and the struggles of other's may be clearer and we may be able to develop answers to the problems people encounter.
ReplyDelete"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinate.
ReplyDeleteI think this phrase could mean a lot of things to a lot of people, and not all of them even close to what Blake actually meant. But I'll take a stab at it.
What I think this means is that if by some possibility, it were possible for every person to forget their every past experience, every reason for personal opinion and taste, and essentially, forget all that had previously made them who they were (or cleanse the doors of their perception) they would see everything the same way. But though every person had lost all their perceptions, they would still be individuals. All that would have changed about them would be the fact that they would have lost all the evidence (or in this case experience) to back their opinions up, thus leaving their individual feelings and thoughts up for grabs. This is where the word "infinate" comes into play.
A society without perception, is a society without boundries of the human mind.
In Human existence if one thing is present in existence then it's opposite must exist. There is always an opposite to something. If there wasn't an opposite to what may be present the world would either be completely perfect or completely wrong. The world is neither perfect or wrong, because there is good and evil in the world. If there is Love then there must be hate. If love goes wrong there is hate. If hate gets better it turns to love. "Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy" (Williams). This saying i can really understand well, i also agree with it. Usually nothing bad happens when you obey the law. Which in reason your supposed to obey the law. There is a reason for having the law and it is to protect the community. The laws are supposed to be reasonably and one should be able to follow these laws. When someone has energy they are willing to go to measures to have fun. These measures me be able to out step the law which brings "evil" (getting in trouble with the law) to ones life. An great example that we see in the world a lot is underage drinking. A teenager can see that these older kids are having fun and drinking. The law states that underage drinking is against the law. If one is passive, and thinks they can have fun they will obey the laws reasons on why kids should not drink. One who is "springing" ready to go have some fun won't think through the reasons and will "spring" to go drink. Leading to the person who did not drink free from "evil" (in this case evil is getting in trouble with the cops) and the person who did decide to drink has the upper hand in getting in trouble. The person who did not get in trouble will love not being in trouble. The one who is in trouble will hate being in trouble. “Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell”(Williams).
ReplyDeleteF~M~S
I really like the first passage. It talks about a lot of obvious things that nobody ever really thinks about. Like "Without contraries is no progression." Without opposites things would not get better or worse. Like batteries You need a positive and a negative charge to complete the circuit. If you just have a negative all it will do is sit there and nothing will benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't really understand is why ALL of examples are necessary to human existence. I get that all those things are opposite but why do people need all of them to live? Love and hate and attraction and repulsion i understand. Why reason and energy? What does he mean by reason and energy? is he thinking about the difference between right and wrong? The rest of the quote makes perfect sense. That was the only part that really confused me.
"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite. "
ReplyDeleteThis segment means to me that if people were not blinded by their eyes and ears, they would see the world, and what good and evil for what really is.
People are blinded by who they are. By being human, we have our own lives separate from everyone else. It's not possible to really "feel" their feelings, we can only feel our own. Most people try to open up their perception and see and feel from other people's perspective, but nobody has completely cleansed the doors of their perception. Not even Blake. He clearly had his failings in perception: he believed the woman to be less than the man. But he came to the idea that man should aspire to cleanse the doors of perception. I think that what he has said about the contraries being necessary to human nature implies that he doesn't believe it's possible to succeed in completely cleansing the doors of perception. Like the contrast between love and hate in each person, everyone has to be enlightened in some ways and ignorant in others.
The meaning I draw from all this is a lot like existentialism: we're limited by our human nature. we have to fight so hard to try to understand good and evil, and there's no guarantee that we'll ever really find anything of it that is absolutely true. It's infinite, and we will never get to the bottom of it. We have to accept we aren't able to understand the world completely or what right and wrong are. it would seem we just have to do the best we can see, however imperfectly we cleanse the doors of our perception.
--If the doors of perception were cleansed were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.
ReplyDeleteReality is the projection of our conscience. However, our perception of life is tainted by the distractions and complications that lead us to believe that life is difficult and limited. Though if our minds were not distracted, we could see simplicity through "cleansed doors". If we were able to see life through a clear perception, we would be able to see that the possibilities are endless. Once we stop thinking about what we cannot have and start realizing nothing is out of our reach, we can bring about what we want into our lives. The outcome of what we bring about in our lives becomes the reality we perceive. Therefore, if we were to cleanse the doors of perception, we would be able to perceive how simple and open ended life really is.
The conversation between Stephen Colbert and Deepak Chopra was mostly about how there would be no creativity if everyone was happy with what they have. That without the wanting to make life more enjoyable and easier there would be no new inventions. There would be no need for new video games or movies if everyone was happy all the time. There would be no need for machines for making life easier if there is no one who is uncomfortable with the way there life is now. This idea ties into Blake's idea of "Without Contraries is no progression". Without people who say no, I will not hunt animals, there would be no advancement in agriculture, and we would still be hunters and gatherers. Our country is built on that idea; if the colonists didn't fight against the British Empire we would not have America.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea of Blake's that I like is: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite." This idea is saying that if you only look through the "narrow chinks of [your] cavern" (eyes) you will not see the big picture. If we look at everything in our own prospective instead of looking at the big picture and see it though other peoples' views, there is so much that is not getting utilized. If we do, then there are "infinite" possibilities we can do with this data to make many lives better. There are so many conflicts that can be avoided if we just take a minute and see both sides and how they feel.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed then everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.”
ReplyDeleteThe doors of perception: Mans interpretation, the cleansed view, the reality that was twisted so far out of proportion just to make man see what he wants to see, feel what he wants to feel, and make what he wants to make.
We do this to achieve differences, to make “contraries” to prove the other wrong, or is it to make us right? Do we feel guilt if out perception is wrong? Or do we make our selves believe it is true to keep us right? Is it lying because it isn’t the “cleansed” version of what we perceive? Or is it subconscious? Does our mind generate these realities without us knowing? Does it pull a curtain between the “cleansed” world and us?
The reality as we know it is a construed one. Or perhaps is the construed reality that of Deepak and Blake? Whatever one it is we will never know, because the doors will never be cleansed and man will still twist the perception of the door to his own benefit forever.
-Asa
The first passage really stuck out to me because of the ideas that it raises. It is stated in such a clear manner that is allows the reader to expand and create their own ideas on what is actually said. The basic idea that Blake raises is that it is important to have opposites within human life: "Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence" (Blake,1). In a world without opposites, can humans actually in fact live? Blake points out that it seems to be essential to have opposites in order to live. Knowing this, it is hard to determine what is a characteristic and what is human nature. Throughout time, this has been proven to be true. Within war and even just everyday life, life seems to depend on opposites. It is also what brings the flavor into the world. Without differences, life would become boring and orderly. Blake says for this reality, there must be differences. Blake brings up important ideas involving what is essential for life and it creates an environment where readers are able to question the importance of life.
ReplyDeleteMOLLY LONGWELL SAYS:
ReplyDelete"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite."
When I see this quote, I have no problem understanding what it means. That's not just because our class has had discussions about it, but the more you look and take the phrase in, the easier it is to understand. But the reason why I connect with this quote so much is because I completely agree with it. If one has "deeper insight", it opens one up to infinite possibilities. This quote goes on to say that if one stays closed up, possibilities are limited. I think that I, and I'm sure along with many others, have experienced this or will experience it. If someone really closes themselves off and is not open to other ideas or opinions other than their own, knowledge is limited; therefore possibilities are limited. But if one can be open to more knowledge, certainly your knowledge grows. I've found this idea to be true through life because if someone is stuck on one level of thought or ideas, and is not willing to move on the "deeper insight" and thought, KNOWLEDGE is limited. But the more you are willing to take in other insights, the more knowledge you will GAIN.
--If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.
ReplyDeleteThere are many ways that the above passage could be interpreted. I tried to break it down, and this is what I came up with: Perception can be affected and influenced in a number of different ways. What you are exposed to is a big part of it; your family's views, morals, location, heritage, and ideas all play into what makes up perspective. From perspective derives opinion, and once opinion is established, it is rarely altered significantly. In this respect I can see why Blake believed that humans are too sheltered to see the never-ending significance of what is around them. He suggests that our views are veiled, we see only the uncleanliness of the door, not what lies beyond it. Because of our perception, and the opinions we form from it, it is impossible for us to completely accept the limitlessness of all that is around us. It is beyond comprehension and understanding. Despite the fact that Blake is making a statement; "... as it is; Infinite", I think that he includes himself in his definition of man, and therefore knows that he too cannot fathom the immenseness of the universe. Yet maybe he does place himself as one who does understand it. Considering he talks down to many of our highly respected philosophers; "In the excitement of his discovery, Blake challenged every great thinker before him" (Blake Dictionary), it would not come as a surprise if he did think of himself as above us all.
I found the second quote from William Blake extremely interesting. He explains how"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: infinite"(Blake). This means that if either good or evil as established by the church or any two contrasting factors, then there would be no difference between good and evil. Contrasting ideas are necessary in anything in order to make it interesting. Utopians have ideas of things that are perfect, however how interesting would something be that was perfect. In reality it would be boring, because there would be nothing to rival it, and there would be one sidedness to everything. For example any book you think of or movie has a theme of good and evil. For example one of the worlds most popular books "Harry Potter" shows Harry as the good in the book and Voldemort as the ultimate evil. The best selling book of all time is the bible. It has millions of people who follow it because it has these contrasting themes. For example in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve represent the good, and the serpent represents the evil. Without these contradictory aspects of text, it is easy to predict that books such as the bible would not be very popular at all. Blake's quote examines how things would be if the boundaries of good and evil were blurred into one. If evil was destroyed, then there would only be a world full of monotonous, and endless normality, and nothing to make life interesting. Blake describes the interesting idea of how life would be if the "doors of perception" or one of the two sides were abolished.
ReplyDeleteBlake's first quote describes how without contraries there would be no progression. This is very true. For example wars are not good for people or the earth, however it is two groups of people both believing that the other group is evil and that they are good. Through wars things progress, treaties are ultimately signed, and one group usually succedes in gaining what they set out to accomplish. Without war, progressions in technology, and in other areas may not have happened.
Blake brings up an important point that good, to religious people is the good is the norm, and the evil is interesting. It is true, and this is why evil is present in almost every book, movie, etc. It is necessary to contrast the good, and make a person realize that good is really that, by showing it along with evil. Without the evil to contrast the good could people even tell that good was good? It is likely that they could not discern the difference. Human nature makes it so that people needs evil in order to thrive. This is how opinions are built and how people become individuals, and not one similar droid.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it actually is: infinte.”
ReplyDeleteTo me this means that you must remove all prior ideas of a given person, situation, object, etc. You must not see things as evil, good, bad, you must remove comparison and contrast. When you get to this point of seeing things exactly as they are and no better or worse than you would have imagined them, then you can see them as INFINITE. Any one thing can be any single thing. Like Deepak Chopra said, we each live in our own realities. We each view things as we expect we will. If we “cleanse” our expectations, we can see that everything could be anything. The possibilities are unlimited. Infinite.
Cleanse the Doors! Using no judgement on something! Have you ever done that, simply seen a situation as it is. Not trying to imagine the future, and forgetting everything that led up to it. Living in the moment and seeing the moment as it is at exactly that moment. Removing it from every other thing that has taken place. Try it some time.
I agree with Oriana's use of examples and text citations, but I think that Blake's idea is more about that without opposites there is no progression, or human life as WE know it. In todays society it is full of opposites and contraries that there is no way of knowing what life would be without it. There are murders and people who starve everyday, so to imagine a life without these would be almost impossible and would only be inferences not facts. Deepak Chopra said that Hell would "cost more," because it has an environment that breeds creativity, while Heaven is the opposite and a life without any problems would be boring. Fear is one of the things that has made our country more advanced; without the constant fear of a conflict there would be no need for our military to create more elaborate weapons and technology. One example would be the interstate system. The interstate is used for mainly commuting now, but when Eisenhower made it, its main use was for military transport to different states in case of an emergency. I think that a life without opposites can exist, but who would want to live in one?
ReplyDelete-Without Contraries is no Progression. Attraction and
ReplyDeleteRepulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are
necessary to Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call
Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason.
Evil is the active springing from Energy.
Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.
The idea of contraries is a theme that runs through all of Blake's work. I agree with him that these opposites are essential to progress. Without hardship there would be no need to improve anything and society would grind to a halt. This idea becomes especially interesting when we consider that the majority of the world believes that if we lead a virtuous we go to Heaven, a place that is completely devoid of contraries. Thus, according to Blake, Heaven is a place where there is no progress and therefore quite boring. The world that we live in is full of contraries and opposites and as a result is a very interesting and active place. I think that Blake's passage also means is that humans cannot survive without conflict. As much as we may condemn conflict, we cannot imagine and certainly cannot make our world into a place where conflict is absent. This is because humans will always have differing ideas about almost any topic imaginable.
I really enjoyed reading Courtney's post because I felt like it was very true and well-stated. The only obstacle that stands between human beings and the power to become all-knowing is having a closed-minded approach. One is not able to full appreciated what they have and understand the views of others if they are seeing things through the "narrow tunnel" that Blake mentions. Having an open-mind, free of all prejudice and opinion, would allow us to attain limitless opportunity. There would be no positive option that wasn't in our reach. The fact that we do have all of these mental barriers and restrictions closes us off from otherwise inevitable success. We do it to ourselves without realizing it. Our opinions are formed by our past experiences and it is impossible to totally disregard them. So in a way, failure is a necessity in human life. Since our "unclean doors of perception" limit our success, failure is unavoidable. (hmmmm...sounds familiar...... contraries becoming necessary to human existence??)
ReplyDeleteI think Oriana's blog was interesting about how opposites keep life intact. It is such a simple, yet overlooked detail in life. There are opposites to everything, which raises the question: What would life be without them? As Deepar Chopra said; heaven is boring if it only persists the abundance of happiness and simplicity. As that may be all we strive for in life; the pleasure is in the struggle more so than the end result because once we accomplish one goal it is not long before we look towards more obstacles. We are always working towards something. What would we do if we were not to worry or struggle. If we had everything we wanted as we wanted it. The struggle and disappointment is as important as the success and achievement. Therefore, opposites are an essential part of life and all though we may resent the struggle, we would not know the meaning of appreciation without it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how "junybug93" questioned why everything that Blake mentions is essential for life. It is one thing to identify it, but completely different to understand why. She states: "Love and hate and attraction and repulsion i understand. Why reason and energy? What does he mean by reason and energy? is he thinking about the difference between right and wrong?" I think this is a very valid question to ask while reading this excerpt. Reason is the logical thinking behind something. It is the voice that tells you why you must do something and supports the decision through valid points and efforts. Energy, in my mind, means the drive. It is the effort that supports the reason. So actually in this case, it does not seem that these two are opposites, but actually work together. There can be a reason to do something, but with no drive, or energy, that reason is pointless. These are not opposites, but more counterparts that help establish yet another aspect of human nature. I'm really glad that "junybug93" pointed this out because it allowed me to think about the points individually, but also the effect they have on the other elements. For example, love and hate. One can look at their individual meanings, but they do effect each other. Without love, would there be any hate? And vise-versa? This is very interesting to think about and I'm so glad that while reading the other responses I came across this idea. Instead of reading Blake's individual elements, this enables one to see how they are all connected.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS ANDREA!
ReplyDeleteIn, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," William Blake shows his belief that in order to have one thing, you need its opposite. In the first quote Blake says that "Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is heaven. Evil is hell." Heaven does not require energy because there are no problems and nothing ever happens, therefore nothing would need to be resolved. This point was also made by Deepak Chopra who said he would rather go to hell than go to heaven because "hell is more interesting." Who would want to live in a world where nothing happens? Not many people, and yet most people strive to go to heaven. They fear hell, and yet this is where the energy is. Hell requires energy because of the problems that it has. I think that the way Blake defines heaven and hell, makes people stop and think what it is that they really want, and where they actually would want to go in the "afterworld." After reading this, I reconsidered where I would want to go. I have always wanted to go to heaven. People make such a big deal about heaven, pretty much stating the everything that is good is in heaven. This goes for commercials on television: a chocolate company explains how good their chocolate is by saying that the gods in heaven accidently dropped their chocolate. Images of hell are always dark, with devils and monsters, it's not shown as a necessarily happy place to be, whereas in heaven, everyone is extremely happy. Blake makes people reconsider something so simple, to be good and do nothing, or to be bad and go where the energy is.
I like how Cailyn brings up a good point that we don't really think about "Without contraries is no progression." It's a very good point. People don't really open up to perception. We don't think into depth on certain topics. But as Blake says open up to perception and you have a world of infinite. So both of his passages relate closely to each other. I also like your example of the batteries. It really gives a great visual, and a deeper understanding.
ReplyDeleteF~M~S
“From these contraries spring what the religious call...” Blake hints that the religious have coined the contraries Good and Evil. Good and Evil seem to be how the religious classified and used to control their lives. They set goals in life to be Good, to rid their lives of Evil. The doors of perception are how people see life. They see them as the ends of life, after death you go to either. Life is limited. Perhaps when dirty the doors make up Good and Evil, but when cleansed are the three contraries Blake wrote. If the first contraries were those of which Blake wrote: Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, and Love and Hate, maybe man see life as infinite.
ReplyDelete“Good is the passive that obeys Reason, Evil is the active springing from Energy” Blake connects his contraries with Good and Evil. They are parts that make up the different ideals of each.
Man needs to understand life as neither Heaven or Hell but as a place of both. Blake describes Heaven as a passive that obeys Reason, Heaven is Attraction, and Love. It seems that Heaven is a weak place that is afraid to step out of place. Hell is an active and strong place. The only balance that appears in the two is the idea that love is stronger than hate.
I liked Erika's response. I could go even farther to say that fighting is part of human nature and that fighting ultimately happens because of differences. People fight over almost everything. People fight over individual beliefs which good and evil are necessary for. In order for people to be separate individuals with unique ideas, good and evil is necessary. Take a second to imagine a world with all good people. This would take away some of the individuality of people. People would no longer fight, and argue. Although fighting is bad, it ultimately brings groups together to fight what they see as bad or "evil".
ReplyDeleteI really like what "Kia" was saying about how you need contraries to make progression possible. Though I feel that I understood this concept, prior to reading Kia's blog, I hadn't looked at the theory in the same light that Kia had. I think that there are a lot of insightful views in what she had to say. I believe that one of the main ideas behind the concepts of Heaven and of Hell is that they are opposite extremes of each other, and as Kia pointed out, if one were not appreciated or noticed the other would hold no value as well. Kia also supports this very similarly in the way she describes the relations between hatred and love. Though people tend to hate, I assume that it is not a particularly enjoyable experience for anyone, and that is why, when in love, people are content. One extreme supports the other.
ReplyDelete~erika
response to krystyna's: "...if we were to cleanse the doors of perception, we would be able to perceive how simple and open ended life really is."
ReplyDeleteMy original thought was that if something is infinite it is in no way simple, with more possibilities comes more complications. But I now see where this is coming from, adding opinions and perspectives to an idea just complicates it in the sense that someone else's views could be completely different. By eliminating those predetermined ideas however, one can see how the lack of limits in the universe make it more simple. If we try to interpret and pick apart each part of life, we only end up with more questions and no satisfying answers. Right now I am taking one sentence and creating an entire paragraph about it, and on a very small scale, proving my point. Infinity is simple.
Laura says: "To me this means that you must remove all prior ideas of a given person, situation, object, etc." This makes me think of prejudice and stereotypes. To first of all not make assumptions of others would be beyond atypical of people, and second to avoid bringing yourself in to any situation would lack the egotism that consumes many people, especially Americans in this day and age. I think that I would struggle not assuming anything not necessarily just about people but generalizing everything around me. I think that what Laura is saying about how she views the phrase "cleansing the doors of perception" would be an epitome of how to meet others and a standard for ideal interactions.
ReplyDelete"This is because we become opinionated based on stereotypes, hatred caused by the differences that separate us, and when it comes down to it, feelings that make no sense. We learn to see the world through a narrow "tunnel" of prejudice." COURTNEY
ReplyDeleteI really when Courtney said this. It seems like when I was reading her entry that she kind of understood it in the same way I did. But she added a different insight to it. She added that so many people today, because of stereotypes and prejudice, people see things through their own eyes and cannot think beyond THEIR OWN insight. I really like how Courtney took her response to something like this because it is completely true and connects so well to William Blake's quote from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell": "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is: Infinite" (Blake). And as I'm writing this second blog, I realize that this proves exactly what I wrote in my first blog. In fact, all of us that took part in this second blog, took in other people's insights and ideas and worked with them. We were willing to try to understand and even agree and disagree with each other. And while doing this, we learned something new, or at least I did!
I liked Courtney's response, about how we see things through a narrow tunnel of perception in ways that generally don't make much sense. I also really like how she went on to say that if we did this maybe we could better understand the rest of society. I agree, if we stop stereotyping everyone and give everything a fair chance, then perhaps we could help people who need it more. There are a lot of good people in the world that maybe don't get fair chances because people go about assuming things. I think, though, with the world that we are in, such a task is impossible. Most are raised from birth to make assumptions. Can't find any cookies? Maybe there are none! Homeless man? He's a drunk!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Courtney's (and Erika's) point about society as a whole "cleansing the doors of perception" but I don't think it's probable to happen.
"The conversation between Stephen Colbert and Deepak Chopra was mostly about how there would be no creativity if everyone was happy with what they have. That without the wanting to make life more enjoyable and easier there would be no new inventions. There would be no need for new video games or movies if everyone was happy all the time. There would be no need for machines for making life easier if there is no one who is uncomfortable with the way there life is now."
ReplyDeleteNice point Max.
What if though we only strive for happiness and create things to achieve this because we think our time on earth is limited? If we were to combine the ideas of Chopra and Blake and humans thought that our life was infinite then maybe we wouldn't try so hard to be happy. If we have to infinity and beyond then why worry about such little things as happiness? Would it even matter if we were happy? we wouldn't have to worry about being good to go to heaven or being bad and ending up in hell. What would people choose if we had no guidelines. The observation of human nature would be interesting if all humans believed that everything was infinite. What choices would we make ?
I found Reece's post very interesting. I agree with him in that Blake is saying that we as humans cannot perceive the vastness of the world around us because of our inherent biases or opinions. I find this idea intriguing because it also ties in to Blake's idea of contraries. He is saying that because humans are so full of contraries and constantly contradict themselves, they will never be able to see the universe as it is, infinite. Maybe he is suggesting that either way humanity is doomed. If we do not eliminate contraries we will never see an infinite universe, a true universe but if we do get rid of contraries we will cease to have progress.
ReplyDeleteThis is Andrea
ReplyDeleteI like how Holly compared the passage: "Without Contraries there is no Progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence," to magnets! I thought this was a very clever way of putting what Blake was stating into something as simple as magnets. I agree with Holly and Blake that opposites are necessary to life, but I don't agree with Blake in his thinking that in order to have one thing, you absolutely need the other. If a person always did good deeds, helped people, and tried hard, I don't think it means that they have to also be a terrible person, going around hurting people, and expecting everything to come easy. I think that in order to have good people, it is inevitable that there will be bad people, but I don't think that one person must achieve both of these traits. I think that everyone can have these traits, but not necessarily act upon them. Blake seems to look at the world in black and white, with no grey areas. I think that a lot of things are in the grey area, and not so obvious as to what category they should be in.
I agree with Krystyna's last post:
ReplyDelete"the pleasure is in the struggle more so than the end result"
I think I'm not the only one who suspects that the nature of what's important about life comes from the struggle between contraries. There are many possible answers to the great questions "who are we?", "where did we come from?", and "where are we going?". to search for the answers and argue over them is the most meaningful thing to do in life. to struggle for knowledge of what right and wrong really are. Like Orianna said in one of her posts: without the contraries there isn't even really life as we know it. Feelings would be meaningless if we only felt good or bad. We would just feel nothing at all, and we wouldn't be able to appreciate real feelings, which are in the contrast.
my important questions are WHY DO WE WANT TO FEEL THINGS?
WHY DO WE THINK THAT IT'S GOOD TO FEEL THINGS THE WAY WE DO?
ARE THERE ANY SOLID REASONS?
WOULD WE STILL THINK SO IF LIFE WORKED A DIFFERENT WAY AND THERE WEREN'T CONTRARIES?
WHY DO WE THINK THE EXISTENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL IS A "GOOD" THING? ISN'T IT EVIL TOO?
SOMEBODY PLEASE RESPOND. thanks.
I realize I may be the only one left, so I might as well tell what I think.
ReplyDeletePeople are wired to be optimistic. natural selection has made our nature such that we believe in hope. If we were intelligent enough to understand the world around us and lacked natural optimism, we would probably fail to see why we should live and reproduce at all. Then as a species, we'd be dead.
I think we need to believe that living is good in order to keep living. Part of it's inertia: we cling to our existence because it's all we have and it's the way things are.