The Power of Self-Knowledge

Every day we are confronted with countless choices, many of which pass without even our conscious awareness. We have opportunities to act that pass us by as we run through the predictable course of our habitual behavior, occasionally aware of habitual compulsions which we might resist, but nevertheless giving in to those compulsions with a minimum of resistance. Sometimes we act in such a way as to provoke a negative response, in our selves or in others, by intent or by compulsion, knowing all the while that nothing positive can come from the action. Mostly we don’t know the underlying reasons for our habits, and whether they drive us to spin out or merely keep us perpetually schlepping through life, it can seem nearly impossible to change course, as though we are a leaf in a stream rather than in charge of our own destiny.

Hello, and welcome back to my Minds blog. Today’s post is about that most undeservingly praised and derided of characters, thoroughly misunderstood and eternally misrepresented: The Self. We have varying levels of self-knowledge, but none of us really knows oneself except in the reflection that we experience through our relationships with others. Perhaps for many, it matters little, for they will live out their lives as they will, desiring nothing more than to simply survive and play out their lives according to what the forces of the world have shaped them into. For those who wish to assert their power in the world to influence these forces, it becomes immeasurably valuable to know oneself, for competent action requires an intimacy with the tools and materials of one’s craft, and in the case of living consciously for a purpose, our primary tool and material is ourselves.

We are a relatively sophisticated creature, being mostly composed to our core of the same basic functionality of other animals, which motivate far more of our behavior than we like to admit; we are complicated by our higher faculties, which serve to justify and assign meaning to our habits, attempting to make sense of the world by forming an interpretation of events and making judgments about the world according to that interpretation. This is generally effective enough insofar as getting a person through life, though it can easily enough lead people into a self-destructive pattern of dysfunctionality, particularly without the guidance of an established traditional culture, something that has been lost to us in modernity. It can also lead us astray, as we tend to mistake our interpretation of reality for objective reality itself, mistaking our functional heuristics for the laws of nature itself.

It is often said that we are our own worst enemy, and this is exacerbated to the extent that we reify our own interpretation of reality, complete with self-judgments with which we define who and what we are, what we are capable of, and engendering vulnerabilities, be they in the form of hubris or insecurities. These vulnerabilities can lead us into misguided action, can inspire timidity or resignation where action is possible, and can be exploited by others to exert control over oneself. Furthermore, they can lead us to misjudge others and to fail to understand others, imposing our own interpretation on them or projecting own experience of the world onto them. Whether facing opponents or interacting with neutral counterparties, these errors interfere with our ability to realize our objectives in exerting influence on the world around us.

Even knowing our biases and frailties does not cure us of the same, for we are limited creatures and function within our own design. This fact should be no source of shame, for in honoring ourselves for what we are, the acknowledgment of our faculties and their limitations is fundamental. To imagine ourselves to be what we are not, or to demand that we should be what we are not, or to insist that our nature can be brought to some imagined standard of perfection, is misanthropic, for it is disdaining what we are in favor of some abstract, and rather than engendering an honest humility about ourselves instead inspires contempt for the human being per se. Ideals are worthy to generate and strive toward for the purpose of elevating ourselves to greatness, but become toxic when they cut us off from our being.

There is no strength of will sufficient to make us what we are not, and our by nature we have limitations built into our structure that inherently mean that we will be biased and will have frailties. Knowing our biases and frailties provides us an intimacy with ourselves by which we can catch ourselves falling into a habitual action or reaction that may be inappropriate to the situation at hand, or counterproductive to one’s goals. Just as knowing the misalignment in your gunsight can aid you in aiming your rifle true in spite of the imperfection, knowing your tendencies in relationships can save you from undermining your marriage, our career, or our position in a debate.

The power of self-knowledge is that it enables self-correction. If you are unaware that your gunsight is misaligned, and act under the assumption that it is true, your aim will suffer accordingly. If we are playing a high stakes game for the fate of the world itself, then it is crucial that our aim (metaphorically speaking) be true, that our efforts be made toward positive effect and not towards flailing failure. Like with proper prepping for disaster, which should make your life better even when things are going well, so should self-knowledge make better not only your efforts to influence culture, but your personal life as well, which further benefits your efforts in the former realm.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. It is my aim to act on what is true, and to this end it is crucial that I understand my own frailties, the biases that influence my interpretations that in turn influence my actions. In knowing these, I can closer examine those areas where I am prone to bias, so as to determine whether I am leading myself astray of that which I seek. I also aim to act with what power I can to influence the world towards a positive outcome, and in order to act powerfully I must correct the ways in which I undermine myself in my thoughts and unquestioned assumptions. To this end, I seek self-knowledge, that I may be most proficient with the primary tool that I have to work with: My Self. I’ll be back next week with a brand new blog post, and in the meantime, until then, all the best.