Wood for the Trees

Perspective of Time and Self

Posted by Mathew Abonyi Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:47:00 GMT

A question was recently raised about the phenomenon of time appearing to pass more quickly the older one becomes, following the belief that the youth perceives its own time slower than the elder, and that the on-rush of time as seen both in the present and the past is a train travelling ever faster. Time outside the self is said to be constant, but the mind doesn’t perceive it as a constant. Its perception of time is dependent on two appearingly similar, but actually disparate actions.

The first is our sense of the present. It appears to be wholly dictated by the amount of focus the mind places on awareness-in-the-moment. When the mind analyses or perceives in detail the actions of itself, its self-reflection reveals its own perception of time and watches time as slowly as it is allowed to perceive it (what one can only assume to be a biochemical limit and whatever ‘overhead’ the subconscious adds). The ability to watch time is the same as its ability to watch a bird in flight or a thought growing from an idea. Its an imperfect perception and it is coloured by all the other actions of the mind, its senate of depressions and interests both conscious and unconscious. So we never reach a perfect perception of time-as-constant, but rather our personal estimation of it. When you count seconds, you are in effect getting close to time-as-constant, but each hiccup of the subconscious or indiscipline of the conscious throws off this watching of time as it is perceived. The quantity and intensity of out-of-time actions divert attention away from the perception of time and so it appears to be the case that when we think deeply, work hard or play outside that the present is moving quicker than normal. This effect occurs because we are perceiving time as it happens and, like not paying attention to the bee in our peripheral vision, time moves into the periphery of our attention. We can still tell what hour of day it may be, but not how it became that hour of day so quickly. The mind’s perception of present, then, is one of mind-in-the-moment.

The second is our sense of the past. Contrary to simple assumption, our perception of past is not dependent on a perception of time. It is, in fact, not time but its proxy in memory as the SUBCONSCIOUS remembers. For it, thought and action of a highly disparate nature will appear to be longer, since it requires more of its resources to process, understand and respond.

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Task of the Humanities

Posted by Mathew Abonyi Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:52:00 GMT

The task of the humanities in our day is to take advantage of the objectivity allowed by the passage of time and growing decoupling of culture and country. It must make clear the isolating diversities and reopen them to cross-cultural understanding. It must make clear sense of what it is to be human in the present age of disillusionment and apathy, reactivate a sense of human universality and a recognition of the slipping potential of man. The final result of such an endeavour is to not only place into context the thought of previous centuries in various countries, but, more importantly, to have a pan-cultural (that is, inclusive but not self-cancelling) understanding of ourselves. A primer of literature, art, philosophy and history would clarify the Man-child, Man-youth and Man-adult, perhaps highlighting the problems yet unsolved and at the same time show the facets of life which an individual or society may encounter.

I posit the current mistake is to experiment and specialise, only causing greater and unnecessary confusion and troubles for posterity. The specialisation is, I think, the primary reason for our indifference. Subjectivity unrestrained and misunderstood encourages the new generations to discard the past; it must be set in its place just as the systemisation of life has been and must be.

In preparing a global, self-reflexive understanding, we not only prepare for future generations a crystalline perception of self, but mature ourselves.

The necessity of originality is an delusion of the imagination, a function of its eureka moment. While it is relevant and ‘true’ to the individual, it is not absolute to the external world. It is a guide which should not be overly stressed.

What, after all, is studying and writing but a revision of what has already been considered, and what is writing, directly or indirectly influenced by that study, but a reconfiguration of thought in our own unique voice? Our contributions may just be seen a regurgitation of other, more eminent persons, but they are valid, even necessary, to ourselves to solidify our understanding.

Literature, and in fact the humanities as a whole, is an expression of an individual’s search for greater understanding of the self and its relation to the world. It is a discussion between them, culminating in an understanding of both.

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