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This is my argument The reason why people have a passion is because they believe that they can change something and that it is important. In fact, all emotions are true in such a way. Emotions are simply involuntary responses to our rational observations. A child observes what he is good at and that is how a passion develops. It is very obvious to a child. Everyone as a child had figured it out, but not many people actually followed their passion. Since all passions are rational, then if society is rational, following one’s passion will lead to prosperity. However, this is not the case with our current society. If I want to become a philosopher in North Korea, my prospects are very low or I will not make enough money to survive. This would never happen in a free society because passions are always valuable. However, state intervention prevents the pursuit of an individual’s rational self-interests. It subdues free will. There was a man who did a major in philosophy but who after regretted it because he hadn’t been able to make money from it. It as at this point that people break with their passions. He concluded that passions are not necessarily good and he implicitly accepted nihilism rather than recognising that evil was done unto him. It makes it hard for him to recognise it since sophism is state sponsored in philosophy departments. The majority of people share a similar story. Whether it is coercion from the state, or their parents, or their peers, an adult or child is in some way rejected for following their passions and the adult or child concludes that he cannot trust his emotions. This is the very essence of evil. It is why people did not trust the invisible hand of the free market for tens of thousands of years. Essentially, their self-esteem was so destroyed that they did not trust their own rational faculty. It is the greatest contradiction that ever existed. A virtuous man would find a work-around. He knows that his life is meaningless without passion. He knows that if he were to look back at his life without following his passion, he would regret it and wonder what could have been. There is no alternative for him. Every action we make is motivated by emotion. A person cannot simply think and do. They must think until they feel that they can do. An artificial line has been created between emotions and thoughts. Emotions simply are an expression of our deepest and truest thoughts that we may not even be conscious of. It is analogous to the arbitrary distinction between qualia and meaning. We see red because we associate it with everything else that is red. A person void of passion then, is a robot without free will, following the instructions of others without even being consciously aware of it. So, the virtuous man has no rational choice other than to find alternatives to the best of his ability. This does not mean that the virtuous man will be unsatisfied. The passion arises only from what can be done. If man finds that his passion is unreachable, his passion will naturally change. So, the virtuous man is a force that cannot be stopped by anyone or anything. It is as clear as sunlight what his objective is. A rock cannot turn into a tree, nor can man change his neurological predispositions, particularly once he becomes aware of them. Even if a man is destroyed for following his passions, he will never be the same. He will always be at ease, because he knows what must be done so he will inevitably build himself back up. He is the man who works. But if a man does not immerse into his passions, he will always live a shallow life not knowing what he could have been. “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it” – Lao Tzu.

Part three in my three-part article series on the voice of reason. "We’ve already established why and how disconnected people react when in confrontation with reality, and that in order to remain in denial and disconnection one has to ignore trauma and silence reason—that of other people and in themselves. Here, I will talk about the personal and social effects of being a voice of reason." Read more here: http://blog.selfarcheology.com/2016/02/silencing-voice-of-reason-part-3-pros.html

Part two in my three-part article series on silencing the voice of reason. "Having principles carries a lot of weight. Your thoughts and emotions dictate your behavior. So if you have a certain mindset, you will act in a certain way. When you live in a highly delusional and unprincipled society as ours, having principles and applying them consistently requires enormous inner strength and courage. Your life is different than that of most people; your priorities are different than most people’s; your relationships are different; you see things that other people don’t see. And when you describe those things, people who are highly invested in staying unprincipled and irrational—that is the majority of our population—get upset and unruly." Read more here: http://blog.selfarcheology.com/2016/02/silencing-voice-of-reason-part-2-values.html

So, a few weeks ago, we recorded a podcast, which probably will become a regular thing. In the first episode of Self-Archeological Conversations, I and my lovely co-host Jackie share our thoughts and experiences on ageism, first impressions, preconceived notions, and the value of estimating people objectively. So grab a cup of your preferred beverage and let's settle in for an hour of self-archeology!

A quick video of mine on living with integrity, estimating people, and words versus actions.

Part 2 on the struggles of setting personal boundaries, especially with toxic people. The main theme here is learned dependency. Setting Boundaries with Toxic People (Part 2): Learned Dependency

New video in the series on self-esteem: the development of self-esteem. What is important to the development—or misdevelopment—of one's self-esteem and to one's mental health in general. It's probably the most important video in the series so far.

As I am new here, i felt I would start off with victimhood.We live in a culture of victimhood, and people who define themselves by it are often abusive themselves. I grew up in such an environment, but I refuse to be cruel to others.There must be a way to end this cycle. You can't be a victor when you're a victim of someone else, or your circumstances.Many cultures and even organizations such as education, government and religion cater to the mentality of victimhood, and foster it in order for a few to gain power over the many.If you are not rich, you are a victim of the rich.If you are overweight you are a victim of fast food companies.If you are a woman who is married to a terrible husband, you are a victim of men.So on, into infinity.Is there a way to deal with this problem? No, not if you treat the symptoms, as politicians, experts and others claim they can fix.The only way to fix this problem is to teach people that they are responsible for themselves, and any vulnerable people in their care, like children. There must be a way to get more people out of the "victim of ____" mindset.

Hello everyone. This is the first time I've posted publicly about this so I hope it'll make some sense. I've come to realize that when I engage in conversations with people, whether they be friends, co-workers, family members, etc. that anything that they say I respond in a way that relates to something I did, or I experienced. For a long while I did not realize this about myself, but over the last few years I've been pursuing self-knowledge and trying to work on many aspects of my life. While I wasn't an only child, my siblings were much older than me (they're my half siblings from my father's first marriage, and are 9 and 11 years older than I am). And when my parents divorced when I was nine, I became an only child living with a working mom. So I spent a lot of time alone. I suffered from low self-esteem as a child and was bullied through school (I was overweight through my entire childhood). I was so nervous to even talk to people in any setting. I couldn't talk to people over the phone unless they were my family or friends. When I would be at social events, I generally kept to myself and often people thought I was stuck up because I never talked to anyone. When I had to give speeches in school I was so nervous I'd stumble and shake. I hated being the center of attention. It wasn't until I got a job as an ESL teacher living abroad, where I would have classes of up to 12 students or more, that I broke out of this nervousness about talking to others. I gained a lot of confidence with speaking in front of large crowds, and now that sort of thing doesn't bother me in the least bit. I actually enjoy doing entertaining things in front of crowds. I also now have no issues engaging in conversations in social situations. In fact, I happen to think I talk too much and dominate conversations. It feels weird when I am in conversations now because we'll be talking and when the other person is speaking, I try my best to listen, but I often don't find what they are saying particularly interesting. I want to find what they say interesting, and with a few people I've become genuinely interested in it, but overall I just don't. I've gotten better at not interrupting people and listening in general, but I still seem to always bring the topic back on myself. The more knowledge I gain of this the more self-aware I am in conversations. I know that asking people questions is a good way to engage them and not myself, and I do my best, but I still always seem to have to give my opinion or relate it to my own experience. I'm not sure if this is a subconscious way of trying to empathize with the person or not. And while I've known that I do this for quite some time, I still end up doing it and only realizing that I do it afterwards. And with people younger than myself, I find that I often give advice, even when it is not asked of me. Although I rarely fluff myself up or toot my own horn so to speak. I've asked some friends and co-workers that if I talked too much and they either didn't give a response or just said that I was a "good conversationalist" and always had something to talk about.Perhaps I am being paranoid and looking too much into it? I wonder why I always seem to feel a bit of guilt after having conversations with people. But I find it difficult to make friends on a deeper level than just the acquaintance level. And I feel it is because I cannot connect deeply with people because I talk about myself too much. I know that I don't want to do this, but it just seems difficult to have a two sided conversation. I have gone through days where I don't engage with people much just to avoid getting into the same situation again but I find that makes it worse. If the best way to get better at something is to practice it, how come I still do the same things? Any insight is helpful. Thanks for reading. Shea

My newest article on the difficulties and consequences of being raised in a controlling environment: http://blog.selfarcheology.com/2014/04/the-burden-of-being-over-controlled-as.html

The third video on self-esteem: What are the signs of high self-esteem, or what are the signs of a healthy, fulfilled, and self-realized human being.

The second video on self-esteem: what is low self-esteem, what are the signs of low self-esteem, and how people try to compensate for their low self-esteem and achieve "happiness."