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Metaphysical?
Indeed. Despite its esoteric, mystical, almost charlatan background, I cannot think of any other word that fits better to the subject of this written. Once you disregard the historical attempts to make metaphysics some sort of theological architecture, the twisted sectarian intentions of using it as cement to pave an allegedly path to superlative evolution and other nonsenses of the kind, one thing remains clear about the term itself. Whatever addressed as metaphysical, is “fundamental” to life although beyond the strict physical phenomenon, and somehow linked to it. Meaning, in order to be metaphysical, something has to be manifest in the physical world, but with invisible joints under, over, and throughout physics, biology and anything tangible; and joints so strong and complex that a significant part the issue becomes virtually independent from space-time. Only then we can properly talk about something metaphysic, because whatever we are talking about has entered now into the realm of , and we are watching the bigger picture. But let?s rewind at this point and make an obvious question: why do we need for the life to be metaphysical in the first place? As simple as disappointing. Life is too simple when we look at it phenomenally, which means that humans are ultimately irrelevant, born from nothing and destined to…nothing. Pretty scary when you consider it in such a raw way. In the other hand, if you contemplate it as a whole, if you study it (any scientific field of life), if you live it through art or music, life is just too sublime to be simple. But this option is scary too because according to theological metaphysics, which is the last piece that still has certain effect on people, we are not even the sketch of who we be, so we are, more less, doomed. The inner self rejects this, because is not pro-life. Back to the beginning, back to zero, back to the question mark after the word metaphysics.
So, we speculate about what could be trough, beyond and above; and our speculations are like little boats in the sea, sometimes moved by oars (rationality), sometimes moved by the wind (belly, chest and context). Of course, we do not only speculate about metaphysics, we lie about it; we use it because issues such as death cause a fear so viral that is a mine of gold for some other humans. And we have been doing both for so long that today we can?t tell one from the other. Nevertheless: the idea previously pointed out, remains as a hint for analysis: whatever addressed as metaphysical, is “fundamental” to life although beyond the strict physical phenomenon, and somehow linked to it.
Under this new, this almost rational resignification, the more important metaphysical categories for reflection nowadays are the relationships between mind and matter, as well as psych-social-matter phenomenal, both due to their “abstract-concrete” nature. Finally, into this frame, we find the metaphysical diseases
Everybody knows that the present time is a stage for the emerging and/or aggravation of a series of diseases with physical, social, and physiological components mixed all together in a way so intricated that the old ways and treatments just don’t work anymore. Physicians fall more and more often when dealing with them, along with psychiatrics and psychologists. They are just not prepared and they will never be, because these new diseases have two bizarre features which make them rare and difficult to treat to any health science. One: they either cannot be cured or they cannot be cured completely; and if they are finally gone somehow, they can, and do, come be back at any moment, most of the times more vigorously than before. Two: most of the magnitude of these diseases can be managed only by the ill person itself, which is ironically difficult for a sick man or woman. Among the main contemporary metaphysical diseases, we have chronical stress, depression, anxiety, tendency to a skewed conception of reality, dysfunctional patterns to behave, addictions, alienation, conformism, mediocracy, dogmatism and two or three more.
But why to call them metaphysical instead of just saying they got a biological, physic, and social dimension? Because it is not the case, at all. They could have been addressed as such only while the edge philosophical questions remained, more less, opaqued by the “mega tells” of theology and ideology. But biology, physics and society are apart from each other just in science. In empirical, daily life, they are more than together; they are the thoughts, feelings, sounds, shapes, colors and smells integrated in every human experience, action, and interaction. So, there is a tacit needing of a “theory of everything” in common life, stealing the concept from theoretical physics. The old answers to the edge questions quoted before were the pillars of those theories of everything, the mega tales, which in turn molded conceptions, self-conceptions, patterns, and everything in between. Currently, the little portion of science that has been democratized, all of it over a very short amount of time, I must add, has had a telluric effect on the edge questions and, therefore, in the theories of everything. It destroyed them. The impact of this event in the mind of those who had believed in such tells as part of their cultural configuration (people currently under 80, just to line a draw?), is catastrophic. With regards to the mind of the generations that came after since, the affection is pathological: now everybody, no matter her or his religious or ideologist beliefs, feels at the bottom of their beings that the right answer to any edge and ultimate question is: unknow. The truth will make you free they say, but nobody said it?ll make you happy.
You see, surrounding your own person (meaning, avoiding you as a subject of analysis), what do you see? What’s in your atmosphere? Because, let?s be honest, there are almost seven billion of humans just like you in this ball of dirt, but not everybody shares the same atmosphere, meaning, the same context. Let?s start with the basic issues. According to United Nations itself, at 2018, 82 % of global wealthiness was earned by just one percent of the population in 2017 (UNICEF, 2021). This single data is so explicit that we need go no further. And if/when people decide to go further, then internet and TV news are enough to get the bigger picture, with more dramatic scenes. Egoism, discrimination, gluttony, thieving, laziness, lye and such are characteristics of the material structure upon which your society, any society, is built, degree less, degree more. The “atmosphere” you can perceive from such status is nothing but dismal. Wait. It gets worse. You take an already read a history book and read it again, but his time focusing, and you notice that basically that has been that way since the very beginning. Plus, as somber as it is, those are just ugly leaves of a bizarre three, the “system”. Governments, armed forced, economic groups, laws, politics, communications and everything needed for that little economic elite we all want to be part of, and would be if we could.
The conclusion couldn?t be more dire: the possibility of changing what most of us breathe day and night is ridiculously near to 0. That?s our atmosphere, our society, our realm. It is scary, so the idea of metaphysics gives them hope. Hope for a better living. “Maybe in the absolute bigger picture things don?t work that way” they like to think. Maybe karma, dharma, reincarnation, benevolent and powerful entities, and so, actually answer to the concepts of order, betterment, ethics and so forth. Well, now that is a fairy tale in the stomach of everyone under 13. The bottom of our truth is ignorance, uncertainty, and ambiguity in the long view, decadence in the nearer, and we are perfectly conscious with regards to that, and that, my friend, is the ground for a metaphysical disease to sprout and/or arise.
Bibliografia
UNICEF. (2021). El mundo de hoy es mas rico, pero tambien mas desigual que nunca. https://news.un.org/es/story/2018/12/1447091
