Perhaps the most seductive power in the world is to convince others that you hold the secret to the universe, control access to the divine to the transcendent.

The Carrot is everything. God, A better society, The truth. We may get further and further and further and further and further, but will we ever be satisfied? What I believe is, we may meet our goals sometimes., but we will always formulate new ones. Does the carrot wear a mask for everyone that he tricks? Or maybe I should say, whoever the carrot, "Leads", does he wear a different mask, to please them? We can not characterize the carrot as good or evil, first of all, because it's inanimate, in this analogy, and because we as a people make up what the carrot is.

Maybe one day the donkey will stop, admitting defeat. He realizes that the carrot is too fast, and he'll never catch him at this rate. When he stops, and the carrot falls to the floor as he bends over, he'll realize that the carrot is right under his nose. He has to stop chasing it, and just reach his mouth out and take a bite.

That's the Buddhism argument, almost. I agree with you, slightly, but if someone has already reached a goal (Of not seeking a goal, for instance), then they have stopped. They stop chasing the carrot, they don't want it anymore. Just go and eat some vegetables in the garden, that aren't tied to a string or a stick, suspended so that you can not eat them.

If I am ever to reach some sort of medium, where I am satisfied with all of my opinions on the world, then I will stop chasing the carrot. In my mind, I have already won it.

I think other people chase the carrot in non-intellectual ways. Basketball players, drug dealers, cops, politicians. It's my theory that all these strings run thru the same "o."

I think of it as a spiritual itch. It's probably biological like hunger and lust but it feels different.

Is it safe to say that o=goals?

Is "o" my want to get up from my seat right now and finish my homework, or is "o" my want to become an English major of some sort? Is "o" my want to get up and get some more food, or is "o" my want to finish the Twilight Zone series, completely?

Do we have many different "o"'s? or is it the same o, that can wear many different masks all at the same time?

I think o(x)=goals. This is a solid argument, Recon. Is this your original idea? =o

I have tried to step outside myself and play psychologist. I like to use the carrot on a stick and donkey analogy. The carrot is our ideal. The donkey is the rest of us. Movement. I also like to use the symbol "o" for this carrot. Are we programmed to seek the transcendent, the heroic, the ethical? Is there a culture drive in man? My theory is that there is, but it's application is flexible. Therefore we have wars and arguments, all powered, in theory, by the same energy, the same "carrot" behind it all in different masks. Yes, my theory implies that carrots wear masks.

My theory is that this carrot-desire is inescapable, so I could not even formulate my theory if this theory were not in service of my ideal of myself as "heroic psychologist who faces ugly truths." But to see this from the outside forces me more into an ironic or comic role. Anyone relate to this theory? Are we all chasing the carrot? Are we hardwired to do so?

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/q-donkey-carrot-stick.jpg

Does Carrot, Donkey and Stick correspond to Id, Ego and Superego respectively?

I think those that aren't exactly strong minded, not to be rude, are the ones that fall prey easiest to religion.

Does Carrot, Donkey and Stick correspond to Id, Ego and Superego respectively?

Freud's system was strange in that he used pronouns as symbols. I, it, over-me. Vague, dry, ascetic poetics. Donkey and carrot is good old fashioned pictorial analogy.