We have defined the happy life as one that is dedicated to the understanding of the self and one’s present environment, characterized by an empirically derived, acceptably enduring self-image fully capable of the development of mature and rational perception. We have often opined that a successful life is not calibrated upon an arithmetic audit of physical assets, but rather, on the ultimate personal determination of a fulfilled life. The latter gold medal is achieved through personal growth, the mature understanding and acceptance of oneself, together with his human and physical environment.
John Locke and numerous other prominent thinkers declared that man is born with a “tabula rasa” (a clean slate) and that his knowledge is exclusively acquired, by empirical experience; it would then rationally follow that such knowledge, acquired by experience or obtained by contemplative reading, be objective, accurate and not subject to the limitations or bias of previous conception. As stated in our contextual title, seen through the view from a “clean” and unsoiled window, i.e., objectively and without the distorting impediment of preconception or bias.
To equip oneself for the acquisition of usefully objective information, one has to have developed a secure and confident self-image, developed, ultimately, from the accumulation of experienced interactive communication with other members of society. Experiential knowledge is also derivatively acquired by reading good literature (books and enlightening essays) with no fixed preconceptions. Good literature, aside from the pleasure of its reading, is enlightening in that it portrays classically eternal human experiences in the lives of its literary characters; a demonstrated extension or comparison with personally analogous experiences.
The non-contemplative individual is haplessly limited by his facile selection of reductive and limited experience of his own life, resulting in the limited extent of his capacity for perception. He is vulnerable to the influence of the stridently articulated views of Trump-like, snake oil demagogues, regardless of the degree of subjectivity or patent falsity of their overconfidently expressed views. He neither consults an objectively reflective mirror nor any other reliable source of information; thus, is fertile ground for the implanting and husbandry of abundant propagandic messages and conspiracy ideations.
By beneficial contrast, the objective and contemplative individual is not easily distracted by demagoguery or snake oil representations; he maintains a confident and rational perception grounded in his personal, and unsmudged (unbiased) mirror reflection of perceived, empirical reality. In addition, reading good literature lends notable sustenance to the contemplative reader and results in the abolition of feelings of utter despair, relevant in times of great political stress, such as exists contemporaneously due to the present governmental quagmire. Mature perception, notably, would have predictably averted such a quagmire.
-p.
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