Joan Vaccaro

The Solopsist's Plea

Explanation
Thinking carefully about who I am takes me to the subjective world that I inhabit mentally, and then naturally to ponder solipsism. It also leads me to suspect that my various perceptions of, say, seeing a cup, are rooted in "something" beyond my thoughts that has a physical form of a cup that is before my eyes. The collection of all such "somethings" could be called the objective reality. I elevate its status from just being a suspicion by assuming that it exists. But it is no more than an assumption. I also acknowledge that we all need relief from the great challenges we face every day, and rituals provide a means of doing that for a few moments even if they may be empty gestures. The ritual described below is of this kind. From time-to-time I perform it with like-minded friends simply for the pleasure of doing it.

Explanation

Thinking carefully about who I am takes me to the subjective world that I inhabit mentally, and then naturally to ponder solipsism. It also leads me to suspect that my various perceptions of, say, seeing a cup, are rooted in "something" beyond my thoughts that has a physical form of a cup that is before my eyes. The collection of all such "somethings" could be called the objective reality. I elevate its status from just being a suspicion by assuming that it exists. But it is no more than an assumption.

I also acknowledge that we all need relief from the great challenges we face every day, and rituals provide a means of doing that for a few moments even if they may be empty gestures. The ritual described below is of this kind. From time-to-time I perform it with like-minded friends simply for the pleasure of doing it.

Human life is absurd. All that "I" can do is assume:

that "I" exist, whatever this omnipresent "I" thing is,
that "I" am part of a subjective world (solipsism), and
that there is an objective reality beyond my subjective world (subjectivity and objectivity).

My subjective world is not fixed. It is full of gaps because of the things I forget. It contains many things that I don't understand. It is coloured by cultural values which tend to hide abstract properties. It is always changing: depending on my emotional state certain aspects are drawn into focus and emphasised while others are hidden or temporary forgotten. It becomes unbelievably bizarre when I dream.

The objective reality is everything beyond my thoughts. It includes everything that exists in an objective sense. It is is very different to my subjective world. The objective reality has ongoing and unchanging patterns and rhythms. It persists whether I think about it or not. It is unchanged by my emotions, my dreams or what I forget. It appears to have no gaps; there are only gaps in what I know about it.

There is a fundamental incompatibility between my subjective world and the objective reality. The objective reality includes everything that exists objectively, including my brain, but it does not admit anything that is subjective like "I". "I" do not exist objectively; "I" am only part of my subjective world. Yet both my subjective world and the objective reality are essential to me, and "I" can deny neither. This is the fundamental absurdity of life as I see it.

I bring the two worlds together in a ritual which entails reciting The Solipsist's Plea and then performing The Solipsist's Twirl:

The Solipsist's Plea: Oh Universe!
I assume that you exist.
Let me feel your far flung matter,
so that your illusion
may persist.

The Solipsist's Twirl: Twirl around quickly with arms out stretched. Blood rushes to finger tips as hands are flung outwards. By Mach's Principle, all the matter in the Universe is tugging on arms and hands, pulling them outwards. Feel the whole Universe tugging! It feels comfortingly REAL.