Dialectical Egoism: The Journey of the Actual
In Newtonian physics, force has potential and kinetic energy. This is the same with Actuality in the Hyperstate, logics having taken material form with conscious intention and unconscious will.
When my father’s wife Marjorie made winter hats, she made a lot of them at a time with the idea that people would need to stay warm in the winter. I tried on my hat immediately, then I took it off and did not wear it for about a month. Then when the day came, I actualized the idea of the hat’s purpose to keep my head warm during winter. Then, I put it away again.
The hat both carries the idea of the family as well as the practical purpose of keeping the wearer’s head warm. I also used this hat in a convertible at night so the top could be down and I could still be warm, that was not a family moment, but none the less as family I had this object whose idea was to keep my head warm at my demand.
When the object is packed away, it is not keeping my head warm, but you can say it is maintaining its ability to be able to keep my head warm at my demand even when it is not being used, so it is most consistently actual within this framework. The hat is most actually something with which to keep my head warm at my demand, even if the hat was to be thrown away, certainly after I die I imagine it might be tossed in a garage sale.
Say I die in the year 2080 and it goes into Goodwill. Hard to imagine hand crocheted thing would, but it could continue to function, until the material itself broke. A material analysis is not the same thing as an analysis of the actual. The Sctual highlights the logic of the object, while the material analyzes what the object is made out of. Dialectical materialism would further source the material of the object to its means of production, including the farm where the wool was made.
When we talk about the Actual, we talk about a dimension of reality but it is not the all encompassing reality. The Actual for Hegel is made Actual when an idea comes out of consciousness and becomes present in the world.
My fiancé is making a surrealist game in which the hat was close by to be used. I could tell the story, and another person could tell the ideas relating to the object in the realm of a surrealist game. The hat is at hand, being-in-and-for-itself in its ability to be perceived by people outside of its initial creators and intentions, and be categorically known. However, if we look at the object in its form of being-for-self, to embody simply keeping the head warm at will, it can still do so, but it is not every dimension of the object. The object also sublates the notion of the family both in its physical location at this moment and its use in a game outside of its use of keeping the head warm, but none the less it can still material function within the original idea of keeping the head warm at will.
Objects escape our grasp and are thrown into society, its purposes inevitably become registered as the come into views of others who use it to form their own constellations of ideas and knowledge of what is in their world, the process of which we can call Hegelian Self-Interest or Dialectical Egoism. But to know Dialectical Egoism, you have to know the object’s ability to leave your grasp to some extent, especially if you want it to stay in your grasp.
A hat is not something to go to war over, it is something someone can be very generous with. If someone was to go to war over their hat, I would avoid doing so since there is nothing a hat can do which is worth going to war over. I would generously give out the hat, perhaps even give the hat away (although I can’t think of a circumstance where that would be feasible). The idea of keeping my head warm is the intended purpose of the idea, but as it is an object for the family and a molecule of various logics and ideas, it comes into use as a family object none-the-less.
The hat is my object, but it is also a hat, limited by its actuality, but with a radical ability to be transformed into something else. Now it is in my blogpost, and it is the hat from my blogpost. The hat is moving up in the world, it is now geometrically linked to this blog post! Then the logics of blogs come into play. How much should I care about a blog post? Not very much, it wouldn’t be worth taking too seriously. Now I must not take this hat too seriously, where that wasn’t an issue before, assuming that it is registered, being-in-and-for-itself, as an object within the blog and blogs within society.
The Hyperstate for me is also me currently typing, that Actual wills at the moment. I am writing theory, not making hats, not learning to make hats, not talking about my family too much, despite my fondness for my family. No, here I am writing theory. My fiancé takes a bath, and I am in the same house as my fiancé rather than in home with my father and Marjorie. Territory for the Idea of me starting a family, of starting a relationship, and I am within this territory, a highly specialized territory of mutual interest of myself and my fiancé.
I was living with a parent at various points, in their territory, their families. But also my family, giving parents, accommodating. But of course, how accomidating to my libido could such an arrangement be? No, that’s what adulthood is for, this is why we leave the nest, the actual ideas break free of their containment center, of their growth center. This makes the family happy hypothetically, I like to think it gives them an inspiring vision of vitalism. Inspired? Maybe, maybe not. Not the point, although I am glad to have readers. Here I am within the force of my ideals, Actualized within my knowledge, my physical location, my libidinal forces, my societal ideals, not to mention my thirst for a radically different culture (I am now overseas).
Can a revolution be a plane trip away? If revolution is a radical shift in culture and ideals, it certainly can be. But it depends on how the rest of your life is linked to that plane trip. Is that plane trip mostly a vacation, or have you truly Exited? The revolution of Exit and the assembling of a new Territory for the Idea, isn’t that the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy?
In this sense, and in an Actual sense, I am a fan of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. I am a therapist who supports self-actualization, and *De Niro voice* who the fuck are you exactly? How should I register you in society, *De Niro voice continues* please, post your sacred geometry whenever you feel like it. *end De Niro* Clearly, I am something else as well. Dialectical Egoism is not just for those who search for true self-actualization within their custom sacred geometry; rather, it is the true sacred geometry, the measurement of the actual.
Here, I am the person showing you the force. I am showing you the movement of force in the world which has power consequences in the sense of winning games, having territory, and your own self-interest, but it also has artistic consequences in terms of personal self-fulfillment. There is no way to tell who is the most self-actualized empirically, since this is a high set with infinite potential of logics with various moods attached to the various logics, but I’d like to think I’m doing okay for myself at least.
I have my nice hat!