Identifying with the world...

It's kind of cool how life can turn into a game of dominoes sometimes. I get an idea to write a novel about a runaway slave, so I do some research. I read the book, The Ties That Bind, a discussion of slavery and its effects on society today. It is written by a sociologist. I suddenly remember that I really liked my one sociology class in college, might've taken more had my professor not been a rambling drunk. Then I remember that I liked my textbook from that class so much, I had kept it. I go back to my parents' house and grab it off the shelf. Today I pulled it out and started reading it. Just reading the title and description, I am filled with excitement about its contents. The Birth and Death of Meaning. It's all about life and purpose and the history of man as a species, all things I love to discuss in my blogging. I am stoked.

In reading the preface, I was reintroduced to a number of well-known sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers. One of these was Mr. Otto Rank. I liked a short snippet of a quote of his that was included in the preface, so I got online and looked for more of his words. Many of them got my brain churning, but there was one passage in particular that I liked the most. The simplicity and organization of it caught my attention.

“The richer–that is, the more varied and complete–the individual’s emotional life, the less is he driven to projection, and the more will he incline to identification. His outlet and satisfaction comes in identifying himself with the emotions of the other. On the other hand, the narrower and more restricted the individual’s emotional life, the more intense will be his fewer emotions, the less will he be inclined to, and capable of, identification–the lack of which he has to compensate for by projection. Projection thus proves to be a compensatory mechanism that adjusts for an inner lack. Identification, on the other hand, is an expression of abundance, of the desire for union, for alliance, for sharing."

When I think of projection and identification, as Rank discussed, I think of a similar finding by Mr. Ben Folds, though he worded it a bit differently in his song, There's Always Someone Cooler Than You.


Smile
Like you've got nothing to prove
No matter what you might do
There's always someone out there cooler than you

I know that's hard to believe
But there are people you meet
They're into something that is too big to be

Expressed
Through their clothes
And they'll put up with all the poses you throw
And you won't

Even know
that they're not sizing you up
They know your mom fucked you up
Or maybe let you watch too much TV

But they'll still look in your eyes
To find the human inside
You know there's always something in there to see

Beneath
The veneer
Not everybody made the list this year
Have a beer

Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall
But there's always someone cooler than you
Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be it for long
Oh, there's always someone cooler than you

Now that I've got the disease
In a way I'm relieved
'Cause I don't have to stress about it like you do

I might just get up and dance
Or buy some acid-wash pants
When you don't care then you got nothing to lose

And I won't
Hesitate
'Cause every moment life is slipping away
It's ok

Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall
But there's always someone cooler than you
Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be it for long
Oh, there's always someone cooler than you

Life is wonderful
Life is beautiful
We're all children of
One big universe
So you don't have to be a chump

We are swimming in an ocean of projection. When I look around and see how distracted people are with stuff, looks, money, I feel like we are in a current state of emergency. Our species is stuck in this emotionally stunted phase. Though Rank may have been more specifically discussing projection and identification in the psychological sense in his work, I like to apply it on a wider scale. Because that's how it makes sense to me. Those who have varied emotions and are aware of those emotions have the ability to identify. Not just with other people, but with themselves and with the world, whether it be through art, medicine, math, what have you. Those, on the other hand, who don't acknowledge their emotions and are unaware of them, have fewer, and because of that, focus their energies on stuff. Both of these are cycles. He who focuses on identification is reinforced to continue by experiencing a strong relationship with the world through his medium. He who neglects to identify projects himself onto outer things, which bring empty fulfillment, causing a greater lack of emotion, thereby causing them to continue to project. Whew. So now the question is, how do we as a species break out of this collective funk? Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that. But I do feel that the moment reality tv dissipates, we will be on the right track.


I identify with the world through nature, my photography, my thinking, and my writing, as well as my relationships with others.