Things I noticed when revisiting Xenosaga...

• KOS-MOS should be able to fully empathize with people because she is able to recreate one's past.  (Shion and Jr.'s past was recreated when they dove into KOS-MOS via encephalon drive).
• Also, when Sakura is affected by the U.M.N network, could be an allusion to this world and cancer.  
• Shion's "live every day" thing during their confrontation to Wilhelm reminded me of Heidegger's philosophy, where life is about living in the moment.
• At the end, Jin finds peace but strangely started to desire a chaotic life once again.  This reminded me of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, where we sometimes find it pleasant to smash things. 
• Most people see synthetic human beings in Xenosaga's universe as other human beings. When I first played the game, I thought Juli Mizrahi was uncomfortable with MOMO because MOMO was a Realian.  It turns out, she's just uncomfortable because MOMO looks like her first daughter.  
• The Upper Domain needs the Lower Domain, and the Lower Domain needs the Upperdomain,  just like Martin Buber's theology, "God needs us, and we need God, which is our reason for living."
• Wilhelm is like a Philosopher King, but with the end point.  Philosopher Kings vacilate forever.  Wilhelm thinks forever too, and comes to the end point, which is to reset the Eternal Recurrence.  

There should be more, but I don't remember everything that I think of.

Ah, I almost forgot...

Knights of Faith do not get depressed.

Depression is a deadly sin!!  (It was combined with Sloth later on for some reason).

But then again, I don't know how the Deadly Sins are associated with Christianity.

Nietzsche's Fear

IIRC I read something by a Nietzsche expert, who studied him for more than 40 years, said that Nietzsche feared people will eventually think morality is a means to be controlled.  Because of herd mentality, people may evolve to think and recognize that they are being controlled by the upper class, and morality is one of those means to control them... and this will be the death of morality.

But!  Since amygdalas are associated with altruism, and altruism should be the basis of morality, I think as long as we have big-ass amygdalas, the human race will be okay and nice to each other.  We have to genetically enlarge everyone's amygdala.

A recovering ex-Christian.
Zohar and the Frozen Flame.
It rained all night last night.  I fell asleep early and missed it.

I've been thinking how important discussions are.

I read Of Mice and Men back when I was 12, by myself, during SSR period in middle school.  I think, usually people read Of Mice and Men as a class, with study guides and tests on it.  But I read it alone, and by myself.

The words were not that difficult to read, and the story is linear.  The ending was a suprise for me though.  To sum up the story from how I remembered it goes like this; the main character and his autistic friend were buddies, and always together.  Eventually they start working and live in this new area.  The main guy befriends new people at this new place.  The autistic guy gets in trouble for killing this woman, who is important to that new place.  The main character shoots and kills his buddy, the autistic guy, because, in my mind, I thought both of them would be in trouble.

Back then, I thought, wow, betraying your friend like that?  So that's how life works...

So like... 10+ years later, I read the SparkNotes, and it says that the main character kills the autistic guy for a more peaceful death, because he would have been lynched anyway.  Wow, and all this time I thought Mice of Men is renown for it's ending, that it's okay to kill your buddy.  I never considered kiling anyone though, I just thought that that's what Of Mice of Men is about.

Do I really have to feed my ego like everyone else?  Why can't I just do nothing, why does the collective conscious award and congratulate those that accomplish meaningless things?

I wonder why people like explanations of things, and how teachers prefer explanations rather than aphorisms.  I think people think more of aphorisms rather than things that are explained.  If it's explained, people just go... "oh, okay. (THE END)"

I hate people's opinions so much... why does everyone have to think of everything!!!

And they just come out, spontaneously! Very sickening.  Recluse recluse recluse recluse.

Lately, I've been thinking that "good" people are only good because it satisfies their ego, and ultimately, fondles their will to power.  And this satisfaction, is the primary reason to be, or act, good.

But now, I think it's just something natural.  Some people do good things, and some people don't.  Some people just help those who are in need of help, and it's just like that.  Yep.  You can say all you want about them, but they just do what they do.

Altruism.  Amygdala.  Altruism.  Amygdala.  Altruism.  Large amygdala... large altruism...

The desire to help people is genetic.  Just like everything else.  Of course, I have no basis or research to back things up, it's just thoughts.

Now I'm wondering... is the size of the amygdala collectively in the human species getting smaller or bigger?