Maze of Love 3
So, to continue setting the stage for this complicated maze (it is because it is not a spatial, two-dimensional maze, that I simply have to navigate through), I'll continue with who I think I am.
I am part of a constantly evolving process, a local pinnacle of evolution, a being made of water and organic and inorganic compounds, utilizing electrical signals to process what we call information about the world and coordinate its actions.
I am also this pattern of information processing which is illumined by my consciousness. This pattern, in turn, has also evolved from millions of years of genetic and mental evolution, setting the stage for the experiences that have shaped it over the course of my life.
The individual centres of attraction, what I always thought of as “myself”, the central, abstract, yet internally perfectly tangible “feelings” of who I was and who I wanted to be, these also changed from time to time, as did my capacities to interact with others and experience joy in the world.
It's as if the frameworks at each stage of consciousness are like better and better software versions for interaction with other people and the world.
How to run a brain, essentially.
Still, neither of them are inherently better or worse than any other.
That's what makes this maze so complicated. You want to exercise all levels at the same time, not simply rise up in a bubble or sink down to the ground.
Experiencing love is experiencing a higher state of consciousness, but it can also coincide with pleasure, which is in the realm of the body rather than that of the mind. Still deeper down the ladder, molecules carrying scents can, without even being noticed, influence our mind. The stages are not disconnected from each other, they all interact.
In the realm of the mind, the final point in evolution is that of “mutual understanding in unrestrained communicative action unfolded by rationality” – after this, the mind is entirely transcended into the soul, which, in turn, transcends into pure spirit. Holy shit. That's a long way to go, and at the same time we're already there.
The “struggle for recognition” is simply the theme, developed from Hegel to Habermas, that mutual recognition – what we have also been calling the free exchange of mutual self-esteem among all peoples (the emergence of the rational-egoic self-esteem needs) – is an omega point that pulls history and communication forward toward the free emergence of that mutual recognition. Short of that emergence, history is a brutalization of one self or group of selves trying to triumph over, dominate, or subjugate others.