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The Museum of Vestigial Desire

Neglect

tags: raphsody published on:

Once there was an effective way to filter experience. It was very simple. All you had to do was neglect things happening around you. Neglect everything fearlessly. And then the things that still required your attention called out again. It worked very well. I will repeat again: neglect everything, and the when you hear a call, you answer.

Neglecting things fearlessly meant that even if things fell apart, even if things got so troublesome that they started falling apart, your neglect would still be steadfast. This state of mind of course demanded a certain attitude from you. This state of mind and its steadfastness described a stability that can only be referred to mathematically. In a mathematical equation, balance is intact. The variables on either side can change of course but the state of balance is not disturbed. Such a condition can only be described concisely in mathematics.

This state of neglect reflects a situation which refuses to acknowledge any fragility, refuses to acknowledge any room for noise. This mathematical condition is immersive in its optical or sonic form. Such form can be its only afterlife after the spark of theoretical certainty has extinguished. I will handhold you through this. See this scene: we are standing in the midst of what appears to be a chaotic environment. It is a street, and around the spot where we stand building are falling, people are disappearing into holes in the ground and all kinds if general mayhem is progressing. We look calm, as if we are not even there. We look unconcerned. But after a few minutes of your watching, you see a fish jump up from the molten magma around us and you see us grab it. You see us pop the fish into our mouth and swallow it down. Neglect, catastrophe and profit can work together.

We have outlined a golden framework for neglect. Sadly this is incomplete because it is after the fact. The idea of neglect could have been this ideal pose for humans to strike. We could have bred a race of heroes, we could have neglected all detractors till they turned towards us. But today talk of neglect is a missed opportunity. It seems that we will have to live with the unrealised potential of the idea.

One reason why we have to compromise now when we still have infinite time before us is that when we talk about the process of re-casting the idea to anyone we encounter protest and disbelief. Neglect is a bad word today, if we look at the prospect of embalming the word in a sympathetic view and drawing out more from the idea, we face resistance. It seems that to sweeten the deal we have to offer a word that can replace the current meaning of neglect to be able to negotiate.

The current notion of neglect is too wilfully evil to warrant a special word dedicated to it in our lexicon. If we just say that instead of devoting a special word to the implausible cause of neglect, the best we can do is offer a pause. In the middle of a round of speech, when a spontaneous pause manifests, we can project the intent of neglect on it. So let's say we are keen to wipe the slate clean and paint it back again in the same way but imagine a new meaning to be perceived in the re-painting.

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