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26 January 2003 (Sunday): the world is my onion

Human beings instinctively live in concentric circles, I think: self, family, friends, ethnicity/culture, nation, civilization, planet. We are tribal creatures. Our loyalties begin with the immediate and the familiar, then radiate outward. Tragedy and heroism arise when the circles' boundaries are switched or disturbed: when nation must be held above family, for example, or above self. It doesn't feel natural, so when it does happen we all watch with pained admiration -- or horror.

So should we try to transcend these habits? Break out of our little onion? War is a result of our willingness to adhere to the model, holding our inner circles more dear than the outer ones; the life of an Iraqi soldier is more dispensable to me than the life of an American soldier, which is in turn more dispensable than Soren's. But how else are we to relate to each other? Are we capable of holding unknown strangers sacred in our hearts? Should we even want to?

I'm going to get off the computer any minute now.

posted by enjelani @ 02:58 PM PST

Replies: 16 comments

The layers furthest on the periphery are the ones most easy to agree on.

But some of the layers closest to the core sometimes fold in on each other, like those of a real onion. I could name at least a few people I consider more dear to me than myself, for instance, and I would die for them if necessary.

But even being able to invert and swap some of the layers can be as bad as it can be good; the idea of self-sacrifice sounds noble, and is one of the hardest states of mind to achieve. But to what end?

When someone else manages to convince you that one of the outer layers should be dearer to you than the inner ones - when that inversion isn't just a temporary flash of insight, or a peek into the wondrous or the disturbing - when it becomes the *truth* for that person - that's when matters stretch our definitions of philosophy and self.

I may be willing to die for a few people whom I hold dearer and more valuable than myself. But that's even more true, in some sense, for some of the people we call zealots on the other side of the conflict; people who are either willing to die, or have been convinced to die, for a cause they were not born into.

As onion browns and warps in the crucible, self-sacrifice looks like noble devotion from one side and like evil fanaticism on the other.

I don't know what I think about it all...

posted by m. mellow @ 26 01 2003 05:35 PM PST

On the other hand, I do love French Onion Soup. Cheese fixes everything.

posted by m. mellow @ 26 01 2003 05:37 PM PST

amen! cheese is the answer.

posted by zach @ 27 01 2003 09:03 AM PST

nice image there, enji. :) concentric spheres though, maybe? life being three-dimensional and all that. life of concentric circles would be a bit easier to manage.

gotta be careful with the cheese. too much and things get quickly out of hand. all of a sudden life is clouded with an abundance of gooey fattening flavor and you loose perspective on the onion.

what?

posted by soren @ 27 01 2003 10:47 AM PST

mmm... abundant gooey fatness... rich, buttery-sour, salted creamy-crumbly/rivers of dairy divinity, aged or fresh, shredded or sliced, melted or chilled, carbohydrates'-better-half, edible rinds and brioche crusts, a worthy compliment to fine wines...

what the... no. I shall desist. This post is about onions, not cheese.

posted by m. mellow @ 27 01 2003 12:22 PM PST

I did mean 'complement' and not 'compliment'

*must* get back to work now...

posted by m. mellow @ 27 01 2003 12:26 PM PST

couldn't resist:

"Well I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to shoot you."

posted by zach @ 27 01 2003 02:42 PM PST

"creamy-crumbly rivers of dairy divinity!" LOL! oh, that was beautiful, truly.

reminds me of that onion.com article about a city ravaged by a flood of fudge: "small town deluged in torrents of rich, chocolatey goodness" ...or something like that.

posted by soren @ 27 01 2003 02:44 PM PST

Venezuelan Beaver Cheese?

:)

....right, i'm done commenting now.

posted by soren @ 27 01 2003 02:49 PM PST

You guys talk about food a lot.

posted by Jim @ 27 01 2003 02:53 PM PST

when i was shrooming once, i saw myself at the center of concentric spheres. let me dig up what I wrote, right afterwards: (keep in mind that it was written while i was under the influence) :) the interesting thing was, of course, that I could actually SEE these spheres, which makes it easier to talk about. :) but I never got around to analyzing it more than by just saying, "whoah."

--

shell
I was curled up in fetal on the beanbag, in the nucleus of many layers of concentric shells. I could see through them. G was on one level, and A was in another. Everyone was removed from me by layers of this shell. Everything was removed from me. It was just me and the beanbag in the center. I felt very secure. I wonder what this implies? Is the nature of feeling secure a need to separate oneself from everything else?

posted by azudemai @ 27 01 2003 02:58 PM PST

hmm... shells... i saw *The Grid* once a long time ago under the same influence. it was all wonderfully pythagorean.

are mushrooms food?

posted by soren @ 27 01 2003 03:13 PM PST

posted by zach @ 27 01 2003 03:26 PM PST

you all are insane! insane, i say!

but yes. spheres. i'm with ya.

posted by enjelani @ 27 01 2003 04:51 PM PST

man, are you guys silly. :-D i saw the 14 comments and i thought "ooh, there must have been a philosophical discussion about the onion." instead i find... cheese and mushrooms?

suddenly i'm craving an omelet.

posted by Lynn @ 28 01 2003 07:26 AM PST

mushrooms are eeeeevil not-foods.
but cheese can be mighty good and food in general I can't be a-complaining about.

self-centered = onion-centered?
Why aren't fruits shaped like onions?

posted by dishi @ 28 01 2003 02:35 PM PST