(October 21, 2012 at 10:41 pm)Akincana Krishna dasa Wrote: If these types of circular, question-begging answers satisfy you..... what can I say?
GOOD LUCK.
Okay... Let me put this another way:
Control itself is an illusion. In any form it may present itself. "Control" by the government or police force, derives it's power from the society these entities govern. A government without legitimacy is no government at all, it has power because we believe it does.
"Self-control" is a means by which our human psyches override our baser instincts or impulses, because we have the capacity for reason. Our reasoning allows us to overcome our anti-social, individual desires for a greater or common good and allow for pro-social behavior. Which, in turn, allows us to create something greater than the self, society and civilization. But underneath all of that "self-control" lurks the individualist spirit which seeks to work solely for one's own self-interest. We don't always act on these individual wants and desires because of our capacity to reason and our basic human desire for a sense of belonging.
Even the notion of a singular "self" is an illusion. We are all comprised of various parts of self, some "selves" are more cohesive than others, but we've all experienced moments of a divided self.
We are simply highly evolved, social creatures, in comparison to other lifeforms on Earth. We figured out millennia ago that we have a better chance of survival if we stick together. Religion provided a handy means to bind people together and create a common goal. However, religion has become outdated.
There is no control in the universe, just simple physical laws (which we may or may not fully understand) that all matter must follow. This is not a form of control, because control implies a desire to conquer or dominate. These physical laws just simply are, there is no good or bad or indifference to them.
