Empath's Elegy

When reason was not part in adopting a belief then no amount of reason can ever convince a mind to abandon it.

Emperor Julian wrote:

The happy life is regarded as the goal and final aim in the philosophy of the Cynics, as well as in every other philosophy. But a happy life consists in our living according to nature, and not according to the opinion of the crowd.

Emotions are nature’s method of informing us about the state of our health – our harmony with existence.
Here the distinction between being in harmony with manmade environments rather than natural environments is made clear.
The gene/meme division must follow the natural existential sequence of genes and then memes, and not the nihilistic inversion of memes imposing contradictory rules on man’s genetic dispositions; a method adopted when natural selection has been ignored producing unfit genetics necessitating further ideological/dogmatic (memetic) interventions to deal with undesirable consequences of the original intervention. [ MANifesto: Word Wars – Gene & Meme Dynamics]
In an effort to reduce need/suffering – the very experience of existing – man manufactures men – socially engineers them – who are incapable of enduring any degree of the experience of existing above their inherited constitutions – being unfit to survive they experience survival as a burden too great for them to bear.
The “opinions of the crowds” replace nature as the standard for evaluating fitness, and/or worthiness to continue living – intersubjectivity substitutes for natural selection, and the collective now becomes a sponge to absorb the negative consequences, until it becomes so saturated that it can absurd no more.
Nature cannot be thwarted for long. Postponed need/suffering accumulates and explodes upon those who arrogantly believed they had become immune and that their pleasures were a product of their personal value.

Diogenes Laertius wrote:

When we endeavour merely to live naturally instead of making useless efforts, we are bound to lead a happy life; and we are unhappy only because of our folly… And he maintained that his way of life was like that of Hercules, as he held nothing more dear than freedom.

When we are a by-product of unnatural interventions – social selection that ideologically contradict nature’s ways, placing us in a state of constant conflict with nature – we find it difficult to harmonize with that which we find unbearable, or inhuman, or unjust. Our ensuing unhappiness must find a cause, a culprit to accuse, or declare its state of misery a universal truth, dismissing freedom so as to exclude ourselves, and our ancestry, from the pool of responsible suspects.
The entire mythology of Abrahamic absolution is a method of preserving innocence.

Inferiority is elevated by the attentions of its superiors; the superior is degraded.
Here is one of Democracy's greatest flaws.

Σας θυμίζει κάτι; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Spirosthe1st (@spirosthe1st) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The psychological power of a pretentious gesture.

Temporal Transformation
When we meet someone that reminds us of ourselves, in the past, our pity is converted to kindness.

A well animated video that explains this visually… it’s bizzare [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Uberboyo (@uberboyo) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

*Binary thinking and dualism are rooted here.
An echo if Yin/Yang the near-absolute state that never finalized into a singularity.
Chaos/Order

*Nihilism's linguistic defences are also rooted here.

*Concerning 'free-will'
Will is not located in the brain.
A plant has a will, and it has no brain.
Will is the entire organism's actions, directed towards objectives.
Wil is what differentiated life from non-life.
Will is the focus of organic energies.

*Consciousness is now exposed as a dominant focus, fluctuating over time.

*Self-Consciousness creates the conflict.
It is the focus on a focus - awareness of awareness.
So, the ego - lucid self - mistakes its singular focus for the cognitive multiplicities involved in consciousness.
The multiplicity of processes reduced to a singularity.... just as the mind reduces the multiplicity of existence to a singular concept: universe, existence, world, cosmos, etc.

*An organism has judged/evaluated, chosen/acted before it becomes aware of it.
This is why cultivation (civilization) requires a regiment of repeating alterations to an organism's natural impulses.
It takes time to reprogram the entire organism to react unconsciously in desirable ways - adaptation is difficult.
Ego, lucid mind, must impose itself on the processes it wishes to adjust - learning, training.

*This is where 'god' resides - some mysterious force, incorrectly assumed to be an external agency, idealized as a 'better self', expressing intuitive impulsive judgments/choices naturally selected over hundreds of thousands of years - often contradicting the ego's socialized ideals.

*Identity is not a singularity (no absolutes). It is a multiplicity of drives, impulses, each with its own objectives - gratification/satisfaction - encompassed by the ego's singular control.
Ego (lucid self) is a part of the brain evolved to organize and direct or supress (control) all these processes.
Will-power is determined by the ego's ability to control all these processes - energies.

*From consciousness to self-consciousness.
From a focus on an external objective to the emerging ability to focus inward - focus on the focus on an objective.
Awareness of awareness.
This can have negative effects, such as procrastination, self-doubt, over-analysis, insecurity etc.