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Human Action Ambition, Ability and Achievement Finding and Using the Passion Inside
© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.
These pages contain the complete text of Human Action, public speaking
trainer Elliot Essman's philosophy of human achievement.
Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
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The Burden of CivilizationCivilization is an exercise in self-restraint.
Despite the fact that the
word “freedom” is highly charged and subject to changing contexts and
interpretations, the word is impossible to avoid. The aim of my philosophy is
not only to open the door to human freedom, but to make that freedom meaningful
in the everyday world. For that very reason this final chapter will discuss
what we call Pose/Poise, loosely translated as the way each of us “presents”
ourselves to the outside world. It is how we handle the challenge of everyday
life, represented by Pose/Poise, that determines how much useful freedom we
enjoy.
To explode Pose/Poise
further, “Pose” refers to those conscious stances or positioning each of us
decides to take, while “Poise” refers to our unconscious and seemingly
automatic personal positioning or style in relation to the outside world. Since
the line between the two is not always a distinct one, I treat them as one
entity.
One of the key problems with
Pose/Poise is that daily life demands that we operate within its strictures. To
keep up with our Pose/Poise each of us must make thousands of static, mechanistic
and uncreative decisions every day, if not every hour. Some of these decisions,
such as those we make when we drive our automobiles, are essential for our
survival. Others, such as how we dress and ornament ourselves, are essential
for our peace of mind.
Clothing is a good example of
a basic Pose/Poise item. Many interpersonal situations require that we choose
from a very limited range of clothing options. Our kinetic process of becoming
civilized over the years, due to the natural progression of things, gives us
many static and automatic constraints. Civilized people in America dress properly, stop at red
lights, refrain from spitting on the sidewalk, speak proper
English, and throw litter in proper receptacles not because someone tells them
to, but because they judge these activities to be worthwhile and uplifting. Yet
even if the result makes life better, a complex and powerful environment of
static constraint remains in place.
We humans have a primeval
side, a side that rejects Pose/Poise. It is a mistake to interpret this side as
the “animal” portion of our beings. Animals are rarely un-poised. This deeper inner
side of us is quintessentially human. If we go too deeply into it we flirt with
madness. But each of us needs to touch it now and then, to leave our
Pose/Poised selves for at least a moment. We are not always in a position where
events or our own geniuses allow us to Shock to a new state. But none of us can
exist in the vortex of Pose/Poise indefinitely. Ultimately, something has to
give. Recognizing the eternal problem of Pose/Poise is a good first step toward
making sure our discontent is expressed with proper frequency and in
non-destructive or even creative channels.
I cannot be myself in the
everyday world every moment of every day. I cannot think during every moment of
every day or tend to my survival every moment of every day. I need locations in
my life that I don't analyze, don't categorize, don't name.
Before we go further with
these concepts, I should stress that the instances where we leave Pose/Poise
are rarely more than fleeting. We cannot live without Pose/Poise because to do
so would be to live an uncivilized, brutish life, not a human one. We must turn
our creative civilizing force into some kind of reference matrix is we are to
benefit from it at all. When the maverick wildcatter strikes oil, he's got to
put it somewhere for it to have value. So to reject all Pose/Poise is to reject
all civilization. No human is an island. We cannot leave the human condition
but must work within it.
A total rejection of
Pose/Poise is not only a static solution, it is an ineffective one. It
pre-supposes the possibility of certainty, of an infinite intelligence, of a
great presence created by the human imagination, but that can never be as great
as the imagination that creates it. Such a rejection of Pose/Poise can only be
effected by adopting new poses and creating new levels of poise, so it is by
nature self-defeating.
I realize certain religions
and methods of spiritual liberation earnestly seek to short-circuit or escape
the cycle of suffering in the world, and I understand their motivation for wanting
to do so. But I believe to call the cycle of Pose/Poise and human discontent “suffering”
is to make an arbitrary decision. You could just as easily use the word “joy”
to describe a phenomenon so essentially human.
Exercise: Recognizing the Pose/Poise
Sit in a quiet place a few
minutes, close your eyes, and concentrate your thoughts into the bridge of your
nose, right between your eyes. Force yourself into alternating mental states
like the ticking of a clock, once a second. Contract the muscles in your torso
with each tick. You will feel the cares of the world one moment as you contract
the muscles, then feel the weight of the world leave you as you let go, then
feel the cares, then let go, and so on. Do this exercise until you get into a rhythm
that lets you truly enjoy the moments of release and comprehend the power of
the Pose/Poise in you.
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Human Action Table of
Contents
Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Elliot Essman's Life In The USA
Elliot Essman's Food Writing
Susie Essman's Comedy and Sitcoms
linguix.com
smokefreekids.com
© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.
The URL of this page is
http://www.buildingyourself.com/action/masks2.htm