Personal Development and the Argument from Priority

This morning, I was thinking about my sheer boredom with topics political. Even when the conversation turns political within the philosophy community of which I am a part, I start to feel more than a little bit impatient, and a desire arises within me to steer the conversation towards matters psychological or, at the very least, philosophical. This tendency towards boredom with politics has only grown stronger the more self-aware I have become, and it has become nearly incessant as I've delved full-body into the sea of journaling, meditation, and personal development as a whole.

After talking about this with friends and observing the same tendency within them, I think that there are some clear reasons as to why this is the case. I think this tentative theory also explains why the "argument from priority" can seem so clear and reasonable to those of us who have done some grueling self-work, while the same argument seems so impossible for others to see. I will speak only to my experience, but also with reference to the fact that I think others might also share in this experience – I appreciate feedback, of course.

When I tiptoed into the tide of self-work and self-improvement, I definitely undersimplified the size of the mountain to myself. The size of this mountain, however, was made clear to me quite quickly. When I was on this journey, I made choices which hurt myself and others. The effects of these choices, in my experience, were catalyzing – "I do not want to be this type of person," I remember thinking quite clearly to myself on more than one occasion.

Once I saw not only the size of that mountain, but also the costs – to myself and others – of not climbing it, I began to spend the bulk of my efforts and time working towards the goal of making it to the peak. In my experience, after I spent time in this process fixing the aspects of myself which I knew I did not want in my future, I began to see a clear image of what I did want. This ramped up my self-work even more, as I saw (and see more clearly each day) a clear goal of where I want to be.

This is where the "argument from priority" comes in. I could read economics texts, I could write abstract articles about libertarianism, and I could discuss the Obama inauguration with my friends – and, in moderation, these topics can be nice to read about, write about, and discuss with others. However, as I said to my friend on the phone this morning, "If I don't learn about the Austrian business cycle, I won't die. If I don't do this self-work, though, I will die in a very real way." Further, from the positive standpoint, if I don't learn about sound monetary systems, I won't gain a whole lot – I'll have some trivial knowledge and some intellectual trophies to hang up. However, if I do this self-work daily and take it – and myself – seriously, I will gain sustainable and true happiness.

If that choice doesn't make the argument from priority clear, nothing will.

Those of us who experience the marvels – and difficulties – of self-growth know the argument because we live it. We also know that if we spend our days reading Rothbard and Mises while claiming to hold self-growth as a value, then something is very much amiss. This, to me, explains why the argument from priority is self-evident to those of us doing this work, yet it is so invisible to people who lack self-awareness and do not have a committment to self-improvement.

We're climbing the highest, most grueling – yet also most rewarding – mountain. Abstract treatises can wait.