Epilogue
(This page is definitely a rough outline of what I hope to accomplish in the epilogue.)
While reading the first 100 or so pages of Bruce Hood's The Self Illusion, I started to realize exactly what might be the best way to conclude this book. The main premise of Hood's book is that we are not really ourselves, but we are, in fact, an amalgam of reflections, scraps, cues, images, projections, and self-pictures based on with whom we come in contact. While this does, indeed, sound a little Lacanian, it is more about knowing how and in what ways who we are is actually developed throughout our lives.
Well, I started to think about this idea and how it relates to this project's goal. What am I really trying to accomplish with this book in general? Such thoughts led me to contemplate how misguided most people's thinking on the subject of diet and exercise actually is. We have become so misguided because of the simple fact that we are collective involved in group think about the importance, and consequent obsession with, these two areas which tend to dominate American culture. We are stuck in our mental ways, and it is quite challenging to change any of that. As a result, our culture never really took the time to think about all the dissenting voices to the diet and exercise craze, meaning we are more readily buying into whatever the group is thinking. I would rather surround myself with a social group that is actually not thinking about this sort of stuff constantly. I would rather find a social group around which my identity will not be consumed by this bizarre desire to obsess over body image, weight, exercise, and coercion. If our own minds and sense of self is more dominated by context, then I urge people to change their contexts. I urge people to associate more readily with people who will not engage in, employ, push, or focus on such an ill-conceived notion of what it means to be healthy. If we can disassociate from that group, we will find another, more joyful group around which a happier self will emerge.
While reading the first 100 or so pages of Bruce Hood's The Self Illusion, I started to realize exactly what might be the best way to conclude this book. The main premise of Hood's book is that we are not really ourselves, but we are, in fact, an amalgam of reflections, scraps, cues, images, projections, and self-pictures based on with whom we come in contact. While this does, indeed, sound a little Lacanian, it is more about knowing how and in what ways who we are is actually developed throughout our lives.
Well, I started to think about this idea and how it relates to this project's goal. What am I really trying to accomplish with this book in general? Such thoughts led me to contemplate how misguided most people's thinking on the subject of diet and exercise actually is. We have become so misguided because of the simple fact that we are collective involved in group think about the importance, and consequent obsession with, these two areas which tend to dominate American culture. We are stuck in our mental ways, and it is quite challenging to change any of that. As a result, our culture never really took the time to think about all the dissenting voices to the diet and exercise craze, meaning we are more readily buying into whatever the group is thinking. I would rather surround myself with a social group that is actually not thinking about this sort of stuff constantly. I would rather find a social group around which my identity will not be consumed by this bizarre desire to obsess over body image, weight, exercise, and coercion. If our own minds and sense of self is more dominated by context, then I urge people to change their contexts. I urge people to associate more readily with people who will not engage in, employ, push, or focus on such an ill-conceived notion of what it means to be healthy. If we can disassociate from that group, we will find another, more joyful group around which a happier self will emerge.