It is incredible to note the acuity of some of Jung’s observations when applied to general conduct and its natural reflexes in a society. When we perceive that there is a search for external validation operating incessantly and encompassing even strictly individual acts, we understand why there is such a high degree of submission to the environment—this one, considered en masse as the sovereign arbiter. From this to the public demand for conduct against one’s will, even if disguised, under penalty of jail or lynching, does not take much time. And the reflexes? How predictable! The social man has no personality; he is a puppet of the collective behavior. All it takes is for one imbecile to get up on a stage, convince a claque, and then the endless mass of sheep, out of fear and need, will be embracing him.
Category: Notes
Playing of Psychologist…
I have fun analyzing myself from Jung’s point of view. Adopting Myers-Briggs’ already widespread terminology, I am, for as long as I can remember, an unmistakable INTJ (with I and J that only get bigger). I try to visualize myself as Jung would do, then I insert myself into my surroundings: impossible not to conclude that I burn alive in a fire! But how, still, has there not been the violent reaction one might expect from someone like me? Perhaps there has been, and of this the increasing radicalization of my behavior is evidence. An independent, solitary guy with a need for planning, action and control cannot react calmly if bombarded all the time with the unpredictable, thrown into an increasingly submissive, unstable and invasive situation, deprived of stability and solitude. Decide, always, even if wrongly, but reaping the fruits of the individual act—the opposite is unbearable! I imagine myself adjusting Jung’s glasses: “Boy, not like this. It’s time. Do something immediately…”
Details, in Art, Are Valid as Long as They Invigorate
Details, in art, are valid as long as they invigorate an immediate impression. When they merely hide “secret treasures” they are, at best, useless. Subtlety and care in a composition of innocuous first impression constitute a waste. The art of not saying everything risks the ridicule of not saying anything; we just have to look at the movies…
Objective: Word Invented by Men
I think of the artistic conceptions of Poe and Tolstoy, and suddenly I start laughing. On one side, the construction of a supreme beauty; on the other, the transmission of a feeling to the reader. Objectives: therein lies the fun. I do not know why, I start thinking about art and comes to my mind the blind universe, the ultimate representation of chance. I think of everything as a whole, and I see nothingness, the empty sky, indifference, the certain extermination, and the improbability of a purpose. “Objective” is a word invented by men who, like men, tend to perish. Stars shine for nothing, an immense galaxy can simply vanish. And I end up reflecting on the very old “useless effort”. Is beauty hidden in the certainty of defeat? Does mercy require the fall? If nothing else interests me, why exactly do I have art as valuable, as the inducer of meaning? It all seems to me, always, to lead to the very same questions…