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Kevin Still's avatar

I remember this one guy who was always on about self-denial and not doing things for show saying something to the effect of "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God." But, I don't know. Talking like that got Him killed.

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Lyle Enright's avatar

First of all, I'm in this post and I don't like it.

Second of all, you're also really nailing for me something I've been struggling to name specifically about the mimetic theory circles On Here (Burgis, et al.). Those have a similar feeling to me: "Recognize that all your desires are downstream of influence so that you can choose your influences and optimize your desires!" That is... not the core lesson of mimetic theory, as I understand it.

And that might not even be fair to someone like Burgis, who's written as much that seems to depart from that ethos as he has things that seem to support it. In any case, I common error seems like it has to do with asserting we have control in areas where we really don't, and then layering personal/spiritual practices on top of that error.

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