The Apex

TLDR: (Skip to the solutions.)

Foreword

I grew up aware of the fact that I was overtly and literally property because I thought to expressly ask, and was then expressly told, that the constitution flat did not apply to me because I was this thing called a “child” and that this did not mean real free person in any way. I was “free” to obey or suffer. The entire point of my life it seemed was to be transformed into what these hateful controlling giants wanted me to be.

They didn’t just want my actions, they wanted my thoughts, my very feelings to serve them. I was nothing if I was not useful by their metrics.  I could articulate none of this. It’s taken decades. Fear and rage and a desire to escape became my primary emotions. And they still are honestly.

The rage I have directed, the desire to escape is waiting, but the fear persists because I know the truth. This is me sharing it.

I learned I had very basic limited human rights, that didn’t even protect me from arbitrary unilateral systematic extortion and assault. Before I even knew the word was I knew the reality of it. Indeed it was literally the first thing I learned from the world outside my home.

That truth exposed many other lies. It never ended. Underlore.com is the result. Ultimately we’re all slaves to something. You can’t even imagine freedom until you know the ways you are a slave.

The Beginning

This page has been modified to function as a starting point for the rest of the blog.

If Underlore is a choose-your-own-adventure-book, this would be where you start.

Below you’ll find an explanation of the meaning behind the large purple symbol that appears on every post. The meaning of that symbol is a general statement of ethics and philosophy as well which is why this page is the default page for the entire blog.

The philosophy is a personal one and for a pretty solid overview click about.

This page is intended to function as a jumping off point into the issue specific posts. The linking isn’t yet complete, so you might have more luck just using Google to search this domain via Google’s “site:underlore.com” function.

But page two (so to speak) of this blog is this one: http://underlore.com/issues-index/

Eventually from there you’ll be able to quickly reach relevant posts on any given issue I have written about. If an issue is missing, feel free to comment somewhere and I’ll add it. Or if you prefer to view posts chronologically, use the side menu on the right side of the page.

Pardon the sloppiness but I’ve written so much over so long that I’ve lost track of much of it.

But without further ado!

The meaning of The Apex.

This image is a 7 sided self-intersecting irregular polygon. It is an original symbolic attempt to express visually the core of my work and ethos.

It has 7 sides because luck, fate, means everything. Luck is the apex of importance of trait. It is better to be lucky than anything else. Good luck is immune to corruption. Good luck can also be totally invisible. You have no idea what you have narrowly avoided.

This image is meant to symbolize my entire world view. This symbol is my wish for myself and my species. For others it should represent affinity with my philosophy, vision, goals, and intent.

It has a gradient of violet into blackness to symbolize the transition from the seen to the unseen, or vice versa. Apotheosis and revelation in any context.

It is pointed downward to symbolize where our focus should be: On the here and now, as opposed to any hypothetical after-world. This as such thus symbolizes intractable opposition to pain and death.

Apex means point, but also utmost, and upper. Pointing it downwards is meant to showcase the paradoxical nature of all top-most truths.

Also it symbolizes specialization. You can view it from an anthropomorphic stance at which point its asymmetrical nature indicates a solitary, purpose-specific limb. To remind us that we are all focused specialist entities and thus should care about others because we need each other and the system of physical and logical law on which we are printed, on which we depend for functioning, which is enforced from an unknowable source.

Its self-intersection is meant to symbolize the importance of that hidden truth, the underlore at the highest possible, most widely applicable scale. The twist in the unseen third dimension is what defines this shape. This self intersection is what creates the paradox that makes it a piece of truth. The self intersection also symbolizes the recursive nature of direct self improvement by whatever ethical and technical means are available.

It represents the struggle between the meaningful dualities hidden in unusual and unseen dimensions. Such as the struggle between the future self and the present self, or the struggle between the individual and the tragedy of the commons, or the choice to live for today or live for a year from today.

I’ve labeled this fiction precisely because it isn’t.

I hope you come to understand.

P.S.

Underlore: noun

• The key fact(s), logical conclusion(s), or missing context(s), which radically change the meaning of a given event or idea.
• The profound truths, beneath and more real, than what is superficially apparent.

Update:

It’s been said this view is unworkable in the real world. Well…

Feel free to stress test my world view. That’s the whole reason I have a blog. Go find me some factual or logic errors, or assertions I’ve made that you feel are improperly defended, I think you realize by now I’ll respond (there, in context) with intellectual integrity if nothing else.

As for my premise being unworkable, that’s demonstrably not true. Really any no strings humanitarian aid organization that thrives and does good proves that there is a workable social place for opposition to virtually every facet of pain and death.

Up to and including people with real hard science plans for the outright elimination of them.

http://www.hedweb.com/abolitionist-project/index.html (pain)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence (death)

“They could be shown the mastery of their minds and bodies, so that they could achieve the full expression of their powers, not spend their lives like ineffectual ghosts trapped in a marvelous machine beyond their skill to operate. They could break the domination of pain, so that it became a sentinel and not a tyrant, sending messages which the rational mind could accept or ignore as it pleased. Above all, they could choose to die only when they wished; they would be shown the many paths that led beyond the grave, and the price that must be paid for immortality in all its forms. A vista of infinite time would open up before them, with all its terror and promise. Some minds could face this, some could not; here was the dividing line between those who would inherit the universe, and those who were only quick-witted animals.” ~Arthur C Clarke (Via character.)

Trust me when I say, I have arrived at these positions for very good reason.

I was once a hardcore social darwinist with extreme cynicism and fatalism. Fortunately, somewhere along the way I learned to emotionally tolerate being proven wrong, and that let me challenge all my ideas, expressly to error check them out of pure ego. I wanted a flawless (at least) world view. Not saying I’m anywhere near there yet obviously, but I know I’m at least not wildly off base. And if it turns out I am, I’m happy to adapt.

For example, I learned to debate civilly in the first place because I believed that facts and logic persuaded people.

Turns out that is not true. I have adapted accordingly, or at least recognized my limits.

Avoid my Mistakes

Thanks for your time 🙂

See also:

http://underlore.com/to-the-allies-of-pain-and-death/

http://underlore.com/who-i-am/