Hegelian Stallion

“Philosophy is its own time raised to the level of thought.”
-Georg Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right


"Yo Adrienne."
-Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, Rocky

Is it ever really possible to be objective?

I watched Rocky recently. As you might guess, living in South Philly, mere blocks from the 9th street of unforgettable training montages and bearing the name of one of the most memorable characters, I am no stranger to the movie's most famous line. But I'd never seen it before and thought that I ought to at least once see first hand what all the fuss is about. So I netflixed the thing, heated up some Di Brunos pizza and settled in for some blood and boxing, South Philly style. And throughout the course of almost the entire movie I was filled with only one strong and persistent thought:

Why won't Stallone just stop freaking saying my name?

It really really bugged me and at first I couldn't put my finger on why. All I knew was that it's weird to hear my own name spoken over and over again in a movie. When I sat down and thought about it I realized that I've always reacted with vehemence, some might say violence towards people who shared that little thing I call myself. In college there was a girl named Adrienne who was also blonde and blue eyed who had a silly french last name. Every once in a while people would confuse us and I would become enraged. I took to calling her "the fake Adrienne" or "bizarro me" and I can't say I was terribly upset when she transferred schools. Though I maintain I had nothing to do with that decision.

I tried googling myself around the same time period only to realize that there was another Adrienne with the same last name. She was a sports writer for Arizona State and had a weekly column. At one point she sent an "amusing" email, "Hi you're me and I'm you." Scoff was the only reply she would receive. In fact I allow her to live only because I have several hits on google that come up before anything that relates to her. Watching Rocky just brought up another example of what I now realize is a persistent pattern of mine. Why am I so protective and possessive of my name?

I thought on the question a bit. In large part I figure it's as simple as this: growing up I never had to share it. I was the only Adrienne I knew. "Adrienne" in so far as I related to the concept, was defined as the entity I knew myself and only myself to be. "I" as I understood it = "Adrienne." And things stayed that way for a long long time. So unlike Traceys and Elizabeths who had to confront this condundrum at early and more pliable ages, my cognition and sense of world awareness with regards to Adrienne was never really questioned. So while eventually in intellectual theory I "understood" that it was possible that another person could equally validly bear that which was rightfully mine, my particular imprinting told me other Adriennes are phonies. That they are full of hooey and are not be trusted. Which I guess is why it still weirds me out to hear it in movies like Rocky and why I die a little each time someone starts a greeting with Yo.

It's interesting to me that I grew up with a particular bias towards this combination of 8 letters (3 syllables, 4 vowels, 4 consonants). I think it's amusing that I have a cultural conditioning towards my name. I'm not going to begin to guess at how it has affected my sense individuality, aka "I'm special!", in relation to the world, we'll leave that for another day. But, I'm more than a little intrigued by the idea that my sense of consciousness is slightly different than most people's because of the rarity of the name Adrienne. That I view the world "in my own time" based on this particular given I was born with. It's so funny that because of the relative rareness of a label my mom gave me, I am made uncomfortable watching a movie. What a strange phenomenon... One that only another person with a generally less-than-average-in-popularity name growing up in an atmosphere in which this name was not as a rule spoken in their presence who then moved to an area in which a movie popular several decades ago, containing a memorable line in reference to character bearing the same moniker, was filmed would understand. Because only then would such a person hear people reference this movie over and over again and feel alienated knowing someone had a connectedness to their namesake that did not include that person. A tiny chain of random events that creates a worldview that few but myself could ever really get.

Which brings me back to my original question about objectiveness. In reference to philosophy, Hegel doesn't seem to be totally one sided on the subject. I would love to think my mind is working on a higher plane. That I've learned to raise my judgements of the world around me "to the level of thought." Which I guess is why I like to generally identify myself as a rational, logical and objective person. But things like my name remind me how one's reactions are so often based on irrational phenomena, things like my particular non-self-related-name hearing childhood, that create my "own time" upon which to view the world. For a long while I explained away the other-Adrienne hating thing with "logical" reasonings. Because to me they seemed terribly logical, why should I want to share what's mine with someone else? What I didn't realize was that the frame of reference in which one's name is solely the possession of themselves was in itself a learned one. So, what are the limits of human consciousness, can we ever get out of our frames? Or will we simply step into larger ones, ones we might not notice until something else points them out to us? And so on and so on into infinity... Where's the plane of objectivity and what's the limit we approximate to get there?

In relation to Rocky, I will probably always initially have a very strong and negative reaction. I must work to figure out what thoughts I have in relation to this movie come from a more general critique of the film and which are "You stole my name bitch!" ones. I don't know if it's totally possible to take rationalism to the personal level. I don't think I believe you can "raise" your emotional reactions "to the level of thought." Because reactions and emotions aren't thoughts. And besides, I'm pretty sure it's not possible to totally logic one's life.

And why would you want to really? If philosophy can live in its own time, so can I.