Recognizing the Synthesis – One of the Many Ways I View the World

Like most people, many of the things that interest me share common themes and are therefore repetitive. So instead of trying to explain where I’m coming from post after post, I’ve just decided to put these pages up instead. Hopefully it helps to explain, or at least better understand, my overly simple ass.

When I started really studying theology [and not just the Bible] in my mid twenties, I came across an abundance of influential writers and thinkers that ended up having an enormous impact on me.  Two of these philosophers were Kant and Hegel.  Read more about ’em if you want or if you ever find any free time – if such thing exists any more.

From these two men we developed the concept of:

Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis – also commonly referred to as the Dialectic.

It’s a process of thought that is still used in philosophy today, but it’s concept can be used as a basis to try to understand MANY THINGS.

Without trying to BORE YOU TO DEATH and also at the risk of totally oversimplifying the concept, here it goes:

• Thesis – Represents (x)
• Antithesis – Represents (y), its polar opposite school of thought
• They fight and disagree and call each other names.
• Eventually, they (usually a third-party observing from the outside over a lengthy period of time) resolve their disagreements with (z) – they Synthesis.
• Someone disagrees w/ (z) and develops its polar opposite.  Viola – the Synthesis becomes the new Thesis, and around we go again.

(Z) becomes new (X), then someone hates them and comes up w/ another (Y), until someone else comes up w/ a new solution of (Z).

Diddy has broken this down to: “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop – eh eh, eh eh. Bad Boy.”

Blew my little mind.  I thought, “Wow, this applies to EVERYTHING”:

• politics
• race relations
• music
• art
• regulation
• government
• legislation
• personalities
• parenting styles
• baby names
• power struggles
• religion
• social uprising
• gender roles
• personal growth
• blogging
• privacy rights
• human rights
• cognitive dissonance resolution (please look this one up if you’re not familiar with it)
• what to eat for dinner tonight

Probably most important – Is that it helped me understand why you can’t stop PROGRESS.

Without truly realizing it at the time, this would be the catalyst that really started to reshape the way I looked at the world and how I processed new incoming information.  It also started to shift what information I allowed to myself to learn from – another key shift for me.

Since that time, I find myself automatically looking for the synthesis in things.  What’s out there?  What’s it breeding?  Who is going to eventually speak out against it?  Who’s gonna follow and who’s simply gonna do their own thing?  Who’s gonna follow the person doing their own thing?  How long will that person follow until they eventually disagree and then do THEIR own thing?

Who wants to stop following, but can’t?  What is that going to breed?

Who’s on the outside and wants to speak up, but can’t?  What’s that going to breed?

I’ve lived most of my adult life asking a lot of questions and at 30, am becoming quite surprised at some of the answers that are returning.

Bad Boy [Diddy dance]