Tues July 7, 09 - Thought

im reading this book called “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. He’s the author of “The tipping point” if you thought his name sounded familiar….but the basis of the book so far is that sometimes within the first 5 seconds of meeting someone, our first impression, or our first hunch on a particular person, situation or object can be just as accurate as taking the time to figure out if we were right. This was backed up by several experiments he conducted like attaching sweat detectors and stress notifications onto a group of gamblers during a card game in which they’d be tricked in order to get chips. The signs of stress came to the person notifying them they were being tricked a significant amount of time before the person even reacted or thought to react, and this is evidence to the fact that subconsciously we are aware of things before we’re even aware we’re aware. nah mean?
anyway, along with this he was talking about some guy, and this gentleman just happened to write a book called “Descartes Error.” I didn’t even finish the sentence to where my brain was off on its own rampage and I’d like to blurt out these thoughts before I just leave them as a jumbled heap in my brain. I never know where they go, or which ones are appropriate. but maybe if i look at them. Anyway..Obviously Descartes was infamous for the “I think therefore I am” shpeel, he thought if he could find one indisputable truth, then it was grounds to find evidence for Gods existence. If he could just find that this earth was capable of being proven existing he would prove that something had to cause it to exist, etc. By proving that we think (because even if we’re not thinking, we’re thinking about not thinking) it was the one grounded fact that led him to the “I think therefore I am” what I began to arise from that books title was maybe this guy was thinking that because of that subconscious level of thinking we have to where we don’t even know when we’re reacting to something is that we don’t always know of our own existence, let alone our own thoughts..so its not always grounds for proving that we’re thinking. But we still are thinking..we’re just not aware of it (so I think Descartes was right). However, if you take it even further how free will is sometimes ..well, compromised. Think of how much the media, our parents, our friends and other family members, our teachers, reading materials etc have played a part in the way we make decisions, it gets farther and farther away from true individual decision making, so another way to look at it would be just because i am thinking does not always necessarily mean that it is “me” thinking, it is not always my will to think but the influence others have provoked me to think in a certain way. However you are the person that chose to take those situations and people etc, and pick from them what you want like a smorgus board to construct your personality and that, I believe, is individuality. When we personify ourselves how we want to look, feel and think thats exactly what we’re doing, personifying ourselves. Sure we may try to be acting like others, we may even be living the life of others, but how we go about doing it is entirely subjected to our interpretation.