Rationality and Irrationality, Man and Gods: Which God(s) Would You Like To Study?
Every time I start an essay on man's rationality,
Or at least his capability for rationality,
I get stuck,
And hit the brakes.
Why?
Because there is much more excitement and drama,
In pursuing man's irrationality...
Or at least his or her seeming irrationality...
However, irrationality is a very relative concept.
Irrationality becomes completely rational,
Or at least understandable,
And maybe sometimes 'bizarrely rational',
As soon as you understand,
Which God a person is worshipping,
Which God a person is pursuing,
Which God a person wants to be.
Which God would you sooner learn about?
Apollo -- the Greek God of rationality and ethics, light, and truth?
Or Dionysus (Nietzsche's infatuation -- and mine) -- the Greek God of pleasure and dance, and wine and group celebration, and sexuality and orgasm...pretty much everything Freud summed up in 'The Id'?
Or Freud's later infatuation: Narcissus -- the God of Ego, and Self-Inflation, and Self-Assertion, and Self-Absorption, and 'Will to Power', and 'Will to Fame and Ambition', and 'Will to Possess and Conquer', and 'Will To Revenge', and 'Will To Selfishness'...
Dionysus and Narcissus usually get along pretty well together...
Even throw Eros and Aphrodite into the mix (God and Goddess of Love and Romance),
And you can still have a pretty good party...
It's Apollo who puts the main damper on things,
God of ethics, morals, integrity...
The other Gods are often looking to transgress...
Such ethics, morals, integrity.
Particularly when it starts to get completely out of hand,
And threatens to run uncontrollably amok,
Throwing chaos into law and order, prim and proper...
Eros and Aprhodite -- these are interesting Gods too...
If you've been hit by the 'love bug',
And can feel that famous 'flutter' in your heart...
Then you are chasing
Eros or Aphrodite -- both Gods of love and romance, male and female version...
In contrast, to the more sensual and sexual 'down-to-earth' agendas of Dionysus and Narcissus.
All three/four may get along fine together...
Or not.
Dionysus and Narcissus don't need to have Eros and Apphrodite...
Join in the festivities...
To still have a great party...
Indeed, sometimes Eros and Aphrodite...
Like Apollo,
Only spoil the party...
Bringing possessiveness and jealousy into or onto the scene...
And anger and aggression, that may come with it...
At which point Narcissus and Dionysus may both say...
Go back home, Eros and Aphrodite!
Your spoiling the party...
Eros/Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Narcissus,
Swarming Together,
To lift us up,
And/or bring us down,
What do we call them?
'The Terrific Threesome'?
Or 'The Terrible Threesome?
Or Both?
Obsession, compulsion, addiction, love, lust, sexuality, rejection, betrayal, abandonment, jealousy, envy, anger, grief, rage, aggression, violence, crimes of passion, crimes of transference, identification, projection, compensation, inferiority feelings, superiority striving, the 'darkness of the shadow', sexual fetishes, power and sex, domination and submission, sadism and masochism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, seduction, manipulation, coercion, force, serial crimes, serial rapes, serial killings...
Who would you sooner learn about?
Apollo?
Or Dionysus, Narcissus, and Eros/Aphrodite?
Wrapped together in one chemically charged package...
Transference. Transference Complexes, Transference Games, The Exciting Object, The Rejecting Object, Narcissitic Traumacies, Narcissistic Compensations, Narcissistic Identifications, Identification with The Aggressor, Identification With The Rejector, Identification With The Abandoner, Identification With The Distancer, Identification With The Betrayor, Identification With The Violator, Identification With The Abuser...
The first God -- Apollo -- was the God of The Enlightenment Period,
But I think you can begin to understand why,
Apollo, by himself, was not enough,
To define or describe or summarize,
Human Behavior...
Enter the Dragon,
The Transference Dragon,
Enter...The last three/four Gods -- Dionysus, Narcissus, Eros/Aphrodite...
Who did much to help describe...
The 'Other Side of Human Nature'...
The darker,
Sexier,
Seedier,
More romantic,
More sensual,
More unpredictable,
Side of human behavior...
Which God(s) would you like to study?
Or would you like to study them all?
Which God are you chasing?
Or are you chasing them all?
-- dgbn, Dec. 17th, 2008, modified and updated Dec. 30th-31st, 2008.
-- David Gordon Bain.
