Using Typology As An Excuse To Be An Irresponsible Loser

[Mahat]

I put this in the enneagram section because I have more experience with this in enneagram circles than I do in other systems though this can occur in those systems as well. In a lot of circles, attachment types (3, 6, 9) and their themes get denigrated and denied within the self. They are attributed as sheepish, unglamourously human, in the realm of normies while those that do the denigrating are unique, enlightened, and powerful ubermensches who have transcended every possible human need and desire. Ironically enough, it's these same people who can barely get out of the house, go to school, or get a job. Or if they have a job, they're in a job they're not mean't to be in. Often times they use type as an excuse, not just descriptively, but as a means to justify how they're too unique and enlightened for this mundane world to be of any valuable use to anyone. They have no significant accomplishments that they can boast of, yet see themselves as exceptional or would like to portray an image as such. The thing is, these are intelligent and astute people I'm describing, yet they use type to hide behind their insecurities and short-comings rather than confront them directly. Not only do they not have the will and strength to accomplish what they truly want and embody their values, they're cowards in confronting who they really are. The types that I'm describing are usually some strand of 5 or 4, both correctly and incorrectly typed. Intelligent, creative people yet what's it all for if they haven't done anything valuable with those talents. Typology is a powerful tool with amazing, with at times, overreaching explanatory power, but many use it as a means to cosplay which segues to my main point....

This is just a symptom of a larger phenomena. With the internet, we can easily sequester ourselves into silos and construct an image of ourselves that's either inflated or a complete fantasy, and the audience would be none the wiser. We live in an ever more performative and aesthetic age, where anyone can hide behind a mythologized screen name, a fancy avatar, and create a persona. We've become simulacra of ourselves, where layers of aesthetic myth, fantasies, truths, half-truths, and out-right lies get layered on themselves the more we spend time in cyberspace. It's easier to do that than to actually make something of yourself. I sometimes forget that these are real people with lives aside from the internet.

[Animal]

Exactly!!! Couldn't agree more. There is an elitism embedded in 4 and 5 which is real for those typed correctly, and for those who aren't, they may not really have that same 4/5 elitism but they project uniqueness and superhuman qualities onto the type. To speak for myself, I can be quite the "special exception" - but when it comes to typology I have never seen the point in worshipping some type. I may say intense glamorous things about 4 or 5 but that's just how I talk; I also say them about other types. Ask any 2, 9, 6 etc. Theres the real dirt and grit and then the mythology for any type. I don't need a type to make me special because I know from living an actual life outside the computer that being special, artistic etc is something you have to earn. Even the most innately talented person is nothing and no one unless they focus, discipline and build something out of themselves. I was born with some talent but I worked really hard on it and lost it to an illness. Since then, anything about me is self made. Of course my parents, frends, culture and romances provided some beautiful influence- but anything I have become is the result of blood, sweat and tears. Some types are more geared toward action than others - and some are better at duty, routine, focus. Those are talents some start out with just like some people or types may start out with artistic or passionate inclinations. However, it's the dutiful and focused sorts who "make it." So worshipping the "not in their body" types who are less likely to mold and market their talents in a reasonable way is just dumb. It's especially dumb for those who embody those types and who understand what it actually entails. Personally I've always strived to integrate more 6 and 3, and also more 1 and 2. In m personality I have also strived to integrate more 9. The 9 and 9 fixers in my life are an invaluable influence.

[Animal]

I will add that I also think the idea of worshipping "special talent and people who are amazing but too helpless to do normal things" is a product of libtardian culture, which has become too widespread and its initial principles are distorted by now. Everyone wants to be the special exception so badly that they compete to win the oppression olympics. They would gain more love and sympathy by being "most flawed" rather than actually doing something good. There are long lists of ways people can be special: transitioning, gender abnormal, sick, immigrant, minority, mentally ill... and all of these flaws entitle them to be worshipped just as they are. No one has to hold them to any standard because their group has suffered from oppression in the past.

Do you really think that in 1900 before the liberal fetish craze of speshspesh, that if enneagram had been around people would give a rats ass about type four? No. Every guy would be insisting he's a 1, 3, 6 or 8 and every woman would want to be a 2, 6, or 9. No one would give a rats ass about the spesh klub who is too oppressed by internal suffering to go to work. That is a modern phenomena and there's no one more outspoken about its detriments than me! Rewarding people for voluntary weakness is sickening. Enabling.

Of course in any culture there is always some worship for the unique artist but outside of libfluff dreamland, this wouldnt matter unless someone actually straps down and develops skills and makes art. There's a reason we aren't seeing Da Vincis and Beethovens nowadays - because anything goes. Anyone can call themselves an artist or a 4 or 5. Everyone has a college degree and is oh so educated and erudite. Most of them drank their way through college. The loss of expectation of quality is largely behind the overtyping at 4 and 5 phenomenon-- people realize that the rich and hard working won't get any love. Those who get love are "special and broken" and this dumbass oppression olympic culture tells us to love them regardless of whether they make any real effort, because they were "born that way."

[Mahat]

[Vive]

(Any you in this post is meant as a general you and is not specifically directed to anyone)

Statistically speaking, people are much more likely to be average than anything else. Not in all things, but in most of their skills. Also, we're all human, prone to the same biases, the same kinds of rituals and similar behaviors. I think many of those that deeply identify with or are at 4 and 5 seem to often forget just how human they are. I think they are prone to dig deep into their darkness, which mostly likely least to lots of disenchantment. Where there are shadows there's also light. While there are certainly times where it is definitely necessary and good to dig deeper into your own 'darkness' I would suggest that it would be a good thing for a 4 and 5 to explore the light side of themselves more and more.

For 3, 6 and 9 I think it's kind of the opposite. A lot of what 4 and 5 and maybe some other types have out in the open, is buried under the surface, subdued in the shadows. I think this idea of 3, 6 and 9 being 'sheepish and unglamourously human' might also be further perpetuated as it coincides with a lot of 6's, 3's and 9's more deeply held beliefs about themselves (but I might wrong, of course). Like: "I'm not very significant", "I'm not very strong", "I'm not as great as people think". This relegates the more 'abnormal' 'strange' 'different' (or maybe even interesting) parts of these types to everyone's unconsciousness, well at least initially, if we don't dig deeper. I think when you really start interacting with some of these types, you'll very quickly find out that they are not just sheeple, or just blandly human.

Then, my thoughts about elitism:

Dear elitists (including me, formerly),
While some people have exceptional skills (maybe they even have many), it still doesn't mean they're better person. Whether you're better at someone else in a skill can be easily measured, but whether you're a 'better' person is a moral question. There's a lot of grey and disagreement in that area. Even if you somehow decide that you morally 'better' than some others, Ask yourself this: "am I making a fair comparison?". When you think about that, the following questions might pop up: Have you lived through what the other has? Do you have their exact flaws? Do you have the same genes? The same amount of money? The answer is always no to at least one of these questions. Still having hard time believing you're not better? I'd suggest you'd really try to put yourself in someone else's shoes and really see and imagine what it would be like to live life with their flaws and gifts in their situation.

It doesn't mean you can't think that someone is a shit excuse for a human being or just plain stupid. It's not like people's responsibility for their own actions stops when you're empathizing with them. Stop focusing on how much worse other people are than you, seeing how bright you shine is fodder for your ego perhaps, but what are these judgements really based on? By all means be proud of your achievements, be proud of being better at a skill (or maybe even multiple skills) than most people, but never be proud because you're a 'better' human being, because there is no such human being. You can only better yourself, as you know what you've gone through, you know what your deal is, so if you want to be better than someone, try to be better than you were before. Only then can you make a fair comparison.


In closing, I would like to share this:

"Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth"
- Jean Paul Sartre

For some it's very easy to complain about problems, but much harder to go and find a solution. Before you give up or make a final judgement, make sure you've seen both sides of the proverbial coin.