Submitted by StormSnitch589 t3_z1trk5 in books
This book will always be on top of my other reads. My favorite part comes around Chapter 5. Here, Watts explained that the pursuit of security is in itself insecurity. I agree when he said that in a world where everything is forever changing and nothing is permanent, there is no point in pursuing safety. It’s like wanting to have food to eat everyday knowing that no food lasts forever.
If you haven’t read this yet, I highly suggest that you do especially if you’re the type to overthink things.
Favorite quote: You want to be happy, to forget yourself, and yet the more you try to forget yourself, the more you remember the self you want to forget. You want to escape from pain, but the more you struggle to escape, the more you inflame the agony. You are afraid and want to be brave, but the effort to be brave is fear trying to run away from itself.
It’s amazing how a 100-paged book could contain so much wisdom.
Will definitely read this again.
[EDIT] Didn't expect the post to blow up. I thought wrongly that only a few people were interested in the works of Watts.
To those who share the same enthusiasm and thinking of his works with me, I'm glad we met. And for those who think differently, your honesty is much appreciated.
A couple of hours since the post went live, I observed common feedback patterns and some threads seemed to have turned to a debate between the philosophical and psychological perspectives of anxiety. Specifically, clinical anxiety.
As much as I'd like to say something about this, I simply just can't. I don't know how the scientific method works. I'll leave this to those who can speak as they are acknowledged by the modern society, be it through their license or practice. The post is not for this matter.
Instead, I'll use the content of the book because it looks like from most comments that they have not read the book. Not to be condescending, but here are some of the ideas shared by Watts.
He talked about conventions. A more detailed Chapter 5 talks about a "divided mind" where humans have two concepts of themselves. In the book, these were "I" and "me". I is one's concept or idea of the self, which is tasked to improve me, the current self. He argued that it is because we were trained to use conventions that we became insecure.
Take money for example. It is what determines what you can and cannot have. So "I" would modify his identity to become rich and therefore make a better "me". This is where people start thinking they need to get rich and achieve all those worldly desires.
The food example was similar. We know for one thing that food makes people full, but it is not deterministic. What if one day you wake up with food but eating it does not satisfy your hunger at all? It just so happened that when humans ate, we became consistently full and nutritious. And what determined this conclusion? Science.
Watts proceeded with the argument that science is also a convention. Conclusions formed are ultimately thoughts of people, and thoughts are also conventions, something that we use just so we could come up with an understanding of things. But really, what does understanding mean?
In the modern world, conventions are evident more than it ever was in history. Things like graduate degrees, experiments. Those are things we came up with, because there needs to be a system. Because we need to rationalize. We need an explanation. We need something to trust.
But again, I am not saying nor do I want to that these conventions are totally useless. Because it makes life easier for us generally. Words, as conventions, help us convey thoughts. It's more convenient than doing a charade of your thoughts.
So that's where I stand on the discussion regarding this issue. To those who think that Watts is not someone that can help them, it's totally okay.
Finally, to you all: if you're feeling anxious, I am wishing nothing but the good things in life for you. Whatever it takes to live above your demons, may you have it in you.