Objectifying?

    When we hear about "objectifying" we immediately think of knuckle-dragging men who see & treat women "like a piece of meat." Google tells us, "The sexual objectification of women involves them being viewed primarily as an object of male sexual desire, rather than as a whole person." Other forms of objectification of women would be seeing them mainly for other self-serving uses (bearing children, cooking, cleaning, etc), instead of as complex human beings with inherent worth. So being objectified feels demeaning, like other forms of prejudice, which is always based on a shallow stereotype or classification system that denies human dignity.
    There's a critical underlying presumption: if we get to know any individual well, then we'll realize that everyone has far, far greater depth than we assumed, and also, that we have a great deal more in common than our differences. I fully agree with this presumption, BUT MOST WOULD NOT!

    Why not? Because most will not rise above our society's prevailing 'glass ceiling': scientism's materialist dogma that, life itself, everyone & everything is nothing more than a meaningless accident in a cosmos of matter - stuff, and only stuff. If everything, including ourselves, is mere matter, then we are all in fact, objects. So women, like ourselves, have NO depth, NO inherent worth, NO dignity, and 'a whole person' is literally just meat. And of course relationships are merely 'transactional,' or at best 'relational.' Again Google: "... transactional means you expect something in return for your contribution in a short time frame and if not, you will not provide your contribution. Relational means you are willing to be patient for a longer-term mutual benefit and it is okay if you don't get the full return in the short-term." Such mechanical arrangements work fine for model railway sets & robots, and so so for us 'meat.' This same level of thinking proposes that AI is a great improvement over the human mind. AI would be better BUT ONLY IF human beings were mere meat-puppets.
    Those who make do with materialist dogma as their guiding light actually have FAR more in common with the much-maligned knuckle-dragging male than they realize.

    HOWEVER, HUMAN LIFE ONLY BEGINS to FLOURISH ABOVE scientism's GLASS CEILING! Life below this ceiling is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Even in Canada - a paradise compared to most countries - how many live in utter despair, as expressed through the many forms of depression / anxiety, addiction, cruelty & violence inflicted on ourselves, others, the environment? Why?

    Most of us are, to some degree, psychologically & spiritually wounded & stunted. But instead of recognizing this as a cry for psychotherapy & deeper, more meaningful spiritual practice, we instinctively run & hide, angrily branding anything of depth, meaning & real significance (above the 'glass ceiling') "too deep, confusing, unscientific, unsubstantiated, subjective, etc," and sink back into the familiar grim 'ordinary unhappiness,' assuming that this is 'as good as it gets.' We simply cannot see how woundedness locks us into a 3-year old's level who yells, 'I hate you Mommy & Daddy! I'm running away from home now!'

    “We become disabled, unable to function in areas of our lives that evoke feelings we’ve never learned to tolerate. Turning away from this primary pain creates a second, ongoing level of suffering: living in a state of contraction & constricted awareness.” John Welwood

 

    SUPERB 53-minute Michael A. Singer podcast: "Your Highest Technique: Relaxing Behind Your Inner Disturbance." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYGBrG_fDoo

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else
than in the human heart,
in the human power to reflect, in human meekness,
and in human responsibility.”
Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, in his historic address to the U.S. Congress

 

    How few of us experience our birthright: the joy of knowing our true nature, feeling 'at home,' and spontaneously nurturing people, creatures & the environment so we may all thrive?
    We may have a vague sense of this possibility, BUT the momentum of our individual lives & that of our culture powerfully pushes us towards immediate comfort & distraction; and away from depth & meaning. So we wrongly become resigned that our anxious, twitchy, 'ordinary unhappiness' is 'as good as it gets.'

     Living a deep, meaningful life, with increasing consistency, IS ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE. It does require that we start freeing ourselves from our neuroses - blocked energies, trapped in our bodies, from past unprocessed emotions. Freeing ourselves MUST become our FIRST PRIORITY.
    Michael A. Singer “Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament.” Sounds True, 2022 - a WISE, DETAILED GUIDE to a LIFE WORTH LIVING! Immerse yourself in the skills required to BE MORE THAN A SAD, HOPELESS MEAT-PUPPET!

    "Beyond the clouds, the sun never stops shining.” Gavin Pretor-Pinney