You visit a strange country called Jarjet. People there do all kinds of atrocious things by your own moral standards. Not only is their behavior atrocious, but as far as you can tell, unpredictable. When you ask them why they behave in such an unpredictable manner, hoping there’s a meaning to the madness, they tell you, “you can’t know why, because you are not Jarjeton.”
You tell them, “well, even if I am not Jarjeton, there must be some discernible logic to your actions, perhaps some kind of Jarjeton logic?”
They only continue to stonewall, justifying their actions on the basis of being Jarjeton alone, and telling you that you can’t understand because you are not Jarjeton. So you ask, “well, what makes you a Jarjeton? That is, what are the objective criteria that makes you a Jarjeton? I’ve heard that Jarjetons have basically the same DNA distribution as any other group of humans. What is it to be a Jarjeton?”
“We know that we are Jarjeton because we all share a subjective experience that tells us so, which you don’t share, that is enough.”
“How do you know I don’t share it?”
“We know, because we are Jarjeton. If you were Jarjeton, as fellow Jarjetons, we would know.”
“Well, how can I attain Jarjetonhood, what do I have to do?”
“You just have to have an awakening experience. It will happen to you someday — or not happen. That’s all we can say. When you become a Jarjeton, you will know, and so will we.”
You press them, “what is it you know? What is it that you observe that you didn’t previously observe? Can’t you describe it to me?”
“You just kind of know, all Jarjetons just know. And as you’re not Jarjeton, as we said, you can’t understand, so it is pointless to ask questions such as this.” They explain to you.
In your frustration you even go as far as to point out that brain scans reveal that they don’t appear to have any brain activity apart from the same kind of ‘normal’ brain activity any other human would have. They point out that, that may be so, but no brain scan has access to subjective understanding. They continue on much to your bafflement in unpredictable behavior that you consider morally atrocious.
– matt at shadow of iris
[This entry was originally written about nine years ago, and published at this site, before it became a blog. It's been slightly edited since then, and the title has changed. But I'm glad to bring it back.]
