The Three Cs
2025-11-17
I watched this video summarizing Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and it was a great summary of the whole book. Hegel is notoriously hard to read and I haven't read the book all the way through, but this video was an excellent primer for the overall ideas expressed in this foundational work. It was something that resonated with me immensely, particularly the idea of finding the self around the kata-noesis, or relation between ideas.
For a long time, I've struggled with building a self-concept because of the vulnerability that I felt in social situations. It was always easier to morph my beliefs into whatever was socially advantageous so that I wouldn't have to face a negation of those beliefs bare and unfettered. See, I have an easy time facing negation of beliefs in a more simulated or intellectual way. Like if I'm having a dialogue with someone, I have no problem switching between the affirmative and the opposition regarding essentially any position. To me, the ideas themselves always felt so fluid and malleable that I distinguished them as illusory.
But the official Hegelian take on it is actually quite liberating: those ideas are actually the only real thing to exist. The world that we experience via the senses is actually the illusory one, and I find comfort in knowing that this mistake in distinction is one that literally every person makes. However, I'm now at a point where the meta has been established, the curtain opened, and now I am forced to contend with establishing a stronger self-concept by taking my kata-noesis and finding what I deem to be true in those myriad relationships between concepts that are constantly shifting and morphing. Nonetheless, I feel that the process has not only been much slower than I anticipated, but also much more grand in scope.
It's taken several years, but I feel a callused and strong self-concept forming closer and closer with each passing day. For me, I had to borrow from traditional salesman tactics and foster my self-concept through an acronym. The acronym I use that determines my values and their applications is called The Three Cs:
- Creativity
- Connection
- Compassion
The way I see it, these values not only act as an ideological scaffolding, but also suggest practical steps in how I go about my day. Simply put, as long as I do something every day that is creative or fosters connection and compassion, that to me is a successful day. It doesn't matter what else happens. I could make a million dollars or get hit by a bus—as long as I keep to the Three Cs, there's nothing that can stop me.
Through the Three Cs, I hope to foster that Hegelian dialectic that will further strengthen my self-concept. Through this strengthened self-concept, it will become much easier to impose my Will onto the world. For such a long time, I was afraid of imposing my Will because I thought that it was a futile task. I defended myself from the harsh realities of hard work and failure so that I wouldn't have to make something of myself and deal with the negation of my self-concept. As I reach this stage in my life, though, I hope to continue pushing through that negation, no matter how narrow the path becomes.
Theosis is an inexplicable thing, but I will find it. I absolutely have to.