Integrative Egoism: YouTube, Zoom Calls, and the Rest of Existence

Further Notes on The Ego And Its Hyperstate

If all of human creation is subject to splits in motive and output, if there are various categories acted upon simultaneously through self-interest, what can this possibly tell us? At the same time where Absolute Particularity is asserted, Universal Syntheses between humans begin to appear.

The synthesis of the self and other occurs via a medium which can not be fully grasped. The totality of values and intersecting modes of recognition and ethics means that we do not fully grasp what it is that allows us to participate with The Other.

We are immediately subject to power relations with the other, to ignore structural power relations is to immediately give up the question of true context and true integral philosophy, which is to say a philosophy which understands everything within a true scope of context rather than a reduced partial form.

Youtube Videos

I can easily participate interpersonally with the greatest of all-time via passive consumption. This is how I know Magnus Carlsen, and unfortunately how I know Elon Musk. The power relation is that they talk, and I listen. We are integral in the task of chess being something worth pursuing or via the discussion of what the politics of free speech should be (or shouldn’t be/are actually).

With Dialectical Egoism, we recognize both the higher systems and universalities which we know ourselves by, as well as the power structures which also have the same quality as language, insofar as it is the very medium which we know ourselves by in addition to determining the method of discourse between two people.

Zoom Calls

I am on an equal footing in a zoom call, or rather, there is the potential for me to be on equal footing. No longer am I synthesized with the other purely via The Idea, now The Other can hear me, and I can hear The Other. There is a possible equality here. This is, of course, the same possible equality when you speak to your boss. This is not guaranteed by any measure, but here the power structure is part of the communication dynamic.

In addition— should I be allowed to interupt Magnus Carlsen mid-chess stream? Probably not. Actually, let’s go with, “no.”

Fairness is not determined by equal footing, it is determined by something else, something less tangible.

The Rest of Existence

To integrate my self-interest in the world I must then grapple with ethics. Conscious Ethics of Interpersonal Relations can define my interaction with The Other in a way that relies on reflexive intuition as well.

There are situations where people disagree on what is appropriate Interpersonally. I typically want to feel like I am having a decent time, or if it a subject which is more serious, that people are respectful to each other while attending to the technical necessity of the task.

Integrative Egoism is Egoism which grasps all facets of human consciousness. In a sense this is doomed to failure, but if we point in this direction it can be seen a success via the consideration of more context than we could have without it. Our skills, our passions, our self, and others, are all part of the same fabric of life. The more we can understand that, the more rational we become, and the more our consciousness becomes both actually and a reflection of our true “self-interest,” which is the goal of Dialectical Egoism.