Sincerity and Presence

Sincerity and Presence

Source: https://protesilaos.com/books/2022-06-25-knowledge-presence/

I already alluded to this notion of “letting go”, of not being attached to an idea, some project of ours, or particular view of our selfhood. When non-attachment becomes the norm in our life, we necessarily live in the moment. The present enjoys our undivided attention. Our sense of self is no longer contingent on any of those concepts we would otherwise cling to.

Let me be concrete here. If I were to prepare this presentation with the ultimate goal of amassing Internet points, such as likes, comments, subscribers, I would be creating an idol of myself—an avatar—who lives and dies in the domain where this video acquires those points or not. If then, I do not have the sincerity to understand that I am not the idol of myself, which I created by mistakenly attributing value to certain constructs, my immediate experiences will revolve around this distorted reality. I will become a victim of my own desires or, rather, my desires will take on a life of their own and exert control over me, alienating me from what I do and rendering me heteronomous (I described “heteronomy” in the previous presentations—it is the “rule by another”, the opposite of autonomy). I will continue to be physically “here”, but my thoughts will be in that imaginary world where the avatar operates in.

By recognising the truth, I understand that Internet points do not change me. With this recording I already say everything I want to communicate. What happens afterwards is outside my control, as it is, for instance, subject to the vicissitudes of some algorithm. I thus am not attached to this project, I do not draw up a corresponding idol and do not get trapped in that mini-game of accumulating of Internet points.

Consider this scenario which you can all relate to either through personal experience or via your acquaintances. You brew a coffee or prepare some tea, walk to the balcony to have your drink, and post on your social media page something like the following:

Enjoying the moment! 🫖☕🤗 #motivation #happiness

Instead of actually savouring the moment, you keep your computer device within reach and constantly check for updates. You are not “there”. Your mind travels to where your avatar is. It wonders in that domain where you acquire validation through how others react to your post about your experience. You are not simply enjoying the moment as you claim.

As you obsess over your status update, you do not open yourself up to the possibility of experiencing the world that unfolds before you. Did you observe the patterns in the clouds? Are there any birds around? How does the breeze feel right now? Do you even pay attention to the drink you purport to enjoy? Maybe you think you have seen it all. “Everyday is the same”, you say. But what if you believe in this sort of constancy exactly because you have a warped perception of things, which is governed by the idol of you and your idolisations in general?

Why did you post that status update? Will you lose your friends if you don’t? Are they that fickle? Will a 100 likes make the drink taste any better? What if you get no likes at all? Does it ruin your day? Why make your experience of the moment contingent on the performance of an avatar? Why confer that much power to a notion; power which will be used against you, such as when you get sad that no-one liked your post?

We often hear people lament how they are a failure in life because they could not realise their dreams or live up to a certain standard. Are they right? Did they truly fail as human beings? Or did their avatars not fulfil their purpose within the confines of whatever mini-game? Instead of belittling ourselves, why not consider the possibility that the dreams and aspirations we have are, at times, falsehoods. Why beat ourselves into submission when there is a good chance we simply lacked perspective? Maybe we were misguided and had the wrong goals.

When we are in the mindset of seeking the truth, we develop the skill of observing our behaviour in such moments instead of jumping to early conclusions. We assess our condition and, with parrhesia, with courage and plain-spoken-ness, ask the difficult but necessary questions:

Why am I seeking social validation for a private affair? Is not my appreciation of the moment sufficient? Would I want my enjoyment to be ruled by popular vote? Do I have a personality or am I merely doing what others want? Is my selfhood limited to the performance of an idol of mine? Why hurt myself by assuming that my ideas were correct in advance? Who is this all-knowing judge, anyway, who brands me as a failure? There is so much that can be said about the trappings of our imagination and how we tend to consider them truthful without further consideration. We escape from the moment, we lose ourselves, we cede control to some avatar, and eventually feel helpless when things go awry.

By practising parrhesia, we find the courage to stand up and take the initiative. We do not allow our self to be reduced to an idol, to a figment of a convention or role-playing game. We are more than that.

Think again about this otherwise innocuous act of posting a status update about your drink. You might think now, “Why would philosophy even bother with such details? Is not philosophy about abstract magnitudes and academic discussions?”

Philosophy is ultimately realised through quotidian life. We do philosophy. We don’t merely preach it or study it. As such, we can draw a general point from a particular phenomenon as we couch it in terms of its wider context.

To continue with the example here, by tackling this seemingly trivial issue with the help of philosophy, we learn that we can enjoy the moment without the performative aspect of tokenising the minutia of our life. By “tokenising” I mean that we convert our experience to something that has transactional value in a certain domain, which we then trade in a market in exchange for popularity and validation.

We have to take a step back and assume agency. Let the moment have our undivided attention. There is no longer an idol or avatar that yearns for those tokens of short-term stimulus. The idol has no power over us. It cannot affect us. There are no troubling thoughts about what our peers might think of our experience in the here and now. None of that bothers and burdens us. None of it. The moment just is: we recognise it as such.

We practice being present in those seemingly “small things” because it is easier to start with them than with more complex phenomena. We can track our progress and notice how a more deliberate disposition is achievable. We practice in small increments, one step at a time, until we learn to remain present consistently, no matter the specifics.