Cows and Idealism

Not too many people worship the cow anymore. A damn shame too, because even though we render their flesh to suit our every whim and fancy—for food, for work, for clothing, and on—we’d rather worship effigies and other weird nonsense from which arbitrary blessings and meaningless hopes are supposed to arise but never do. We in the west are the products of Plato, grown stale and cold under thousands of years of Aristotelean sophistry. Like Christian theology has always taught us, believe in your ideas, have faith in your notions, put your ideal before everything else, including the earth. “Why?”—we might ask if we weren’t too self absorbed to take a moment to do so—“Why would we worship an idea that has given us nothing, while a cow, more than an idea, a real pulsing living thing an infinite times more special and an infinite amount more valuable, who to this day gives us real actual sacrifice, gets no more than a second thought?”

Hold up a Bible next to a cow...what would a Christian burn first? Put a pile of money next to a cow...what would a capitalist burn first? What kind of lofty illusion floats in these heads that leads them to believe these piles of paper, each piece affixed with some abstract notion of value, carries more worth than a being of the Earth? Ask any idealist and you’ll get their answer if they haven’t declared it already. They follow something; something they’ve carried with them for a while; something they’ve considered, and judge as necessary to maintain their solipsism and comfort away from the brute sensual world, their idol—their ideal.

At least some cultures still revere our bovine friends; and the gentle creature, ever proud and docile beneath its burden, might even be treated like a saint. Rightfully so in my opinion. If I had my way, there would be vast cow churches and statues of golden cows in front of which we would drop to our knees in religious enthusiasm and beg for their forgiveness every time we use their flesh to hold up our pants. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have my way. But no such reverence of the animal is found in the so-called “civilized” cultures whatsoever; and although we find reverence in their skin every time we use their very flesh to adorn us, and although we feast on their muscles which adorn our Big Macs, we could care less about them because we’re too busy caring about ourselves, and we have taken every step to disassociate with this fine animal in order to forget this one-sided friendship, and in turn, to forget how much they mean to us. Like what every idealism declares: "turn your back on everything but yourself—everything outside of your consciousness, your god, is nothing".

If there is one thing that our religious tendencies have done to prohibit the advancement of the human race, it was to make their idealism more holy and sacred than real things, and to put faith in no more than a pile of rhetoric, while the physical, what they call in a pejorative fashion “materialism”, or “the flesh”, often associated with such ideas as greed, death and satan, the very reality that their spirits, gods and their idols are always too afraid to ever show their face within, is forgotten and marginalized. They worship idols over, say, a great tree, as if their little symbols fashioned and distorted into some obscene likeness of some obscene story, wasn’t completely arbitrary and insignificant in comparison to one leaf of a tree. One could make an idol out of any object and achieve the same effect as long as it was formed into symbol that has long since been branded into the human psych. It is certain that people in the distant future will worship Coke bottles and wear Ford emblems around their neck. But from a standpoint outside of the typical Platonic indoctrination of western culture, what can be seen from this view is that, in some strange twist of reason, the idealists value untruth instead of truth, or what they are not over what they are, believing themselves to be angels or spirits or souls engaged in some meaningless mental costume party on Earth, while their fleshy dress that they so haphazardly wear, is relegated to cold, dumb, lifeless matter in their cold, dumb, lifeless ideas.

This is the end result of the prevailing idealism up until now: to worship and concern oneself with the abstract over the concrete, the spirit over the flesh, the universal over the particular, mind over matter, the idea over the manifest, the one over the many, that which doesn’t exist over that which does, all to maintain some strange platonic narrative at whatever cost—even at the cost of life. The Inquisition, the Crusades, every conquest of peoples, every act of bigotry and racism and tyranny, every war, has been carried out on the principle that a notion takes precedence over real things, that “freedom”, “democracy”, “communism”, “a pure race”, “God’s people”, or whatever euphemism they use to disguise the facts, and all ideas once thought up one time, is cause for murder and rampage, genocide and revolution. The holocaust wouldn’t have happened if some scorned little nazi idealist didn’t come up with an irrational idea based on his own insecurity regarding purely a priori assumptions about other human beings. The inquisition wouldn’t have happened if some ancient rhetorician and priest took it upon himself to condemn people he has never met. Genocide would not occur if those of an idealist mindset didn’t imagine their pure utopian fantasy to be of higher value than the very real and valuable beings he must walk over to attain it. The caste system wouldn’t exist if some Brahmin priests didn’t perpetuate some false ideal of purity on entire peoples they’ve never once met. Witch hunts, imperialism, racism, sexism, eugenics, genocide, class division, religious persecution—all fostered and perpetuated by delusion, perpetuated by idealism, the idolatry of ideas, which might never have occurred if actual value was derived from actual things and actual occurrences.

You want that new leather belt, I know. It looks particularly well with a dark suit, and black leather shoes, which undoubtedly makes you appear successful. Buy your pre-packaged meat, pre-ground, or cut methodically into steaks, because hey, you’re tired, you’ve had a long day, and nothing beats a steak. Sit on your leather lazy-boy and fill up your Jimmy Choo purses and gorge yourself on yogurt and ice-cream and cheese. At last, once you’ve finally found a moment of introspection, don’t forget to pay your respects to whom you should honor most—your gods.

Thanks for reading,

LesMis

What is the point of anything without ideology?

Isn't the absence of ideology just another ideology?

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

A big smoochies to you, for your most excellent presentation, on behalf of all big beautiful bovines of the world.



We honor you, as you honor us.

I like cows, they taste good. The beef we eat is certified grassfed organic and the farmer treats these cows very well. The only problem....they don't get to get a little grain treat once in a while. No comfort foods. Certified grassfed is so cruel that way...it's like someone saying you could not ever eat ice cream or pie.

Yeah, we don't treat our food very well in commercial production. I am sure a few places do but the majority don't.

Now what is wrong with having a cow as your friend and respecting it. I actually don't think there were that many cow worshipers in the old days, I think some of the old writings have been distorted to show Christianity as good and heathens as bad. You were supposed to give up your cow to the church if they wanted it, the cow was a source of nutrition for the family. If you did not give it, I guess you were a cow worshiper.

a reply to: smithjustinb

What is the point of anything without ideology?

Isn't the absence of ideology just another ideology? - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's not about being without ideology; it's about knowing what it is.

This particular thread is about idealism, however, although the line between idealism and ideology is likely close to non-existent.

a reply to: rickymouse

They do taste good. Humans probably do as well, under the right amount of seasoning.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: smithjustinb

What is the point of anything without ideology?

Isn't the absence of ideology just another ideology? - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's not about being without ideology; it's about knowing what it is.

I agree that ideology is the cause of most, if not all, of our problems, but it also is the cause of a lot of good. I think an appropriate, if not more appropriate, question would be, "Where do we come up with various ideologies, and why?"

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: rickymouse

They do taste good. Humans probably do as well, under the right amount of seasoning.

Everything tastes better with Tony Chachere's creole seasoning. Why do you think they call 'em cajun?







"Great on Everything"

I would like to see a cow holiday with a cow parade that would be cool. I'm 12.

I am of the cult of the Holy Chicken.
s1295.photobucket.com...

a reply to: smithjustinb

I've always loved the aphorism: 'in theory, there is no between practice and theory, but in practice there is '

To say that not having an ideology is just an ideology showcases the problem perfectly. The real world is more complex than any ideology can ever be. Having a large set of mental models that you can fit to the problem allows you to spot valuable patterns. Picking one as the 'it has to be so' pattern dumbs you down and induces long term error.

And writing that, it made me realize how often I do just that, so thank you for that comment, it just have me a huge insight

I know I have mentioned this before on other threads but since having my own cows I understand why some cultures worship them. I think Hindus do this? Just today one mother lost track of her 2 week old calf and couldn't find him. I explained to her that we had to find her baby and she had to follow me. Surprisingly she did and soon she found him where he had fallen asleep in some bush. I thought he was a goner! They are not as dumb as people think.

Personally I have a thing for cows- always have. When I was 2 I would break out of the house in the night to be found many blocks away, naked, in the midst of the cows at a dairy farm. I always felt like they had a maternal- type of protectiveness about them. I got into cowhorse disciplines as an adult to stay near them.


Thing is
the cow not only represents our most earthly and physical needs,
but also self sacrifice and martyrism. Selflessness. That went out of style probably around the time Protestants came about.

Anything can be taken to abusive extremes though, including self sacrifice.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Wonderfully put! I used to work on an organic farm, and while i rarely worked with our handful of cows i often hung out with them when i had the time. They may have been bred for docility but i always found wisdom and peace in their eyes. They are so sensitive to the inner moods of humans that are nearby too - i've learned insights into others by watching how a cow reacts to them.

They really are beautiful creatures, and sitting under a tree while you watch and listen to them chew the cud is supremely relaxing.

The first farmers revered them as well as treasuring their gifts and rightly so. Many could learn something valuable from this. Thank you for posting!

a reply to: Mon1k3r

Go to a county fair. They parade the animals around so people can bid on them at the auctions. Lots of animals there and there are a lot of young people tending the animals.

a reply to: Mon1k3r

I would like to see a cow holiday with a cow parade that would be cool. I'm 12. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

There are many holidays based on fairytales that might interest someone of your age.

The latest rant on the woes and evils of ideology. I thought I'd already explained how everything you enjoy today is a result of ideology. We are not neanderthals, we do not behave like neanderthals, and we do not aspire to become neanderthals. This is the result of ideology. We imagine, we dream, we strive, we achieve. Without ideology, we'd still be grunting in caves, shaking sticks at the booming sky lights.

I think, perhaps, your critical perspective ought to be more focused on the characters pushing ideology in such a manner as to give it a bad name. Ideology, by itself, does nothing. It requires a mind to process it, to act on it, to enforce it. Why are we not focusing on those minds, rather than the tools they employ? Taking away a madman's gun does not stop him from being a madman. And yet, we'd rather focus on an inanimate hunk of metal rather than the mind that was directing it.

originally posted by: Mon1k3r
I would like to see a cow holiday with a cow parade that would be cool. I'm 12.

And at the age of twelve, you picked 'Moniker' for a username. I'm impressed.

a reply to: AfterInfinity

Why the Neanderthal hate? You have them very wrong. In fact the evidence would suggest that they had ideology, based on the quality and interpretations of the artwork and craft work that they produced. They even produce some technology that experimental-archaeologists are still puzzled as to how they achieved it with simple resources. They certainly imagined, strived and achieved, and given the size of their brains and similarity to us, and the fact that animals show signs of rem activity whilst sleeping; i expect that they dreamed too. Did you perhaps mean some other, earlier hominid?

originally posted by: skalla
a reply to: AfterInfinity

Why the Neanderthal hate? You have them very wrong. In fact the evidence would suggest that they had ideology, based on the quality and interpretations of the artwork and craft work that they produced. They even produce some technology that experimental-archaeologists are still puzzled as to how they achieved it with simple resources. They certainly imagined, strived and achieved, and given the size of their brains and similarity to us, and the fact that animals show signs of rem activity whilst sleeping; i expect that they dreamed too. Did you perhaps mean some other, earlier hominid?

Perhaps they had ideology, but nothing like what we've got today. And that was my point. If you insist on splitting hairs, then let's jump back to homo habilis. That's us without ideology. What a wonderful place to be, right? Eating rats and hiding in caves. Clearly, the epitome of sophisticated thought.

But hey, as long as ideology is out of the picture, right?