“Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.” ~ Albert Camus
A positive variation of this could be: “Those who have the courage often find philosophies to question it.”
Tag: philosophy
- Theme: Growth
Learning: Dragons or Rockets
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1–2 minutesIs philosophical learning an antiquated folly? Imagine Walter Benjamin or Einstein as Don Quixote, insanely living a noble lie in a brutal world.
Consider the outcomes: Benjamin, a notoriously eclectic reader and philosopher, committed suicide fleeing the Third Reich. Einstein’s learning aided him in escaping by making him valuable to the Allies.
The key difference (for this supposition) is the practical use of Einstein’s mind rather than his philosophical considerations. Practical conversion (utility) may save you in the short-term to continue your musing, while primarily convoluted aesthetic or theological discourse tends to create a tragically celebrated martyr.
However, practical considerations make for a blunt human, and all grand creative endeavors and ideals stem from the philosophical “what if” instead of the sensible “what now.” The folly is to cling to the grand imagining (dream) rather than supplement reality with it. Yet, the fantastic becomes its own inverted form of survival, and it is infinitely more appealing to fight dragons than to design rockets.
- Theme: Growth
Decoding Flows: Form Without Function
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1–2 minutesDeleuze & Guatarri speak of "decoding flows" of information.
Once information does not flow along channels and then breaks into subsidiary functions, it is rendered useless. This "code," if not "decoded," becomes ineffectual.D&G discusses "the body without organs," which can seem horrific if taken literally. When organs cease to decode information flows, they lose their former purpose, leaving a "body" (a form) but without functional components (intent/utility). As a human, not decoding flows renders your form and intent purposeless, a vague blob of decohered information.
- Theme: Self
you are more than you
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1–2 minutesKant used the term "noumena" to oppose "phenomena": the noumenal you is inherently you despite the phenomenal appearance other people may see.
Zizek says the "noumenal core" of you is the unfathomable "x," the je ne sais quoi, the charismatic core. Drawing from Lacan, the petit objet a* creates your noumenal core, the desire that cannot be fulfilled, that drives you and bleeds out of you, which is experienced as charm, danger, or drive.
In this sense, you are more than you: you are your "x"—your excess. Beyond the phenomenal experience of "you," your noumenal core exudes and expands to become the undefinable "you" to which people react.
- Theme: Self
victimization: oppression as privilege
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1–2 minutesThe Right embraces victimization as much as the Left, in part because it allows for idiocy to continue: you can’t criticize me while I’m oppressed (by you.)
It’s obvious the Left reveres victims to the extent that they extend and create categories from which shelter from reality or logic is provided. (Because you are/were marginalized, all concessions should be made, we should all accommodate your hardship.) On the Right, tribal/national tradition and faith-over-facts create a populist shelter that regresses. (Because I am normal, I shouldn’t have to change, and am offended you suggest it.)
The new reality then exists: you must be oppressed to be listened to and valued, leading to “oppression as social privilege.” Yet, the focused attention that grants preference is fickle, swayed by novelty, and so to retain attention victimization must escalate into the fantastical.
- Theme: Self
my truth vs the truth
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1–2 minutes
The truth and my truth should be the same, or at least passingly similar.Only in a world where subjectivity is the height of power can objectivity be flipped into insignificance.
Oddly, objective truth (despite its denigration and claimed obsolescence) is still a primary source for building an irrational causal chain to uphold subjective hubris.
- Theme: Self
doubt and knowledge
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1–2 minutesAccruing knowledge means at some point, you will encounter doubt (contradictory evidence). Doubt underlies all forms of curiosity and seeking, which is the admirable pursuit of a better understanding.
Don’t mistake this journey as seeking "truth": it is more accurate to consider it a better means to piece together a survivable system in our current times.–
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– - Theme: Growth
Naivety or the Calculus of Kindness
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1–2 minutesNaivety is not kindness (in fact, it is often cruel), yet kindness is linked to a lack of understanding as if moral action precludes effectual action. Meanwhile, rationality is portrayed as sharp and hard, cutting away the soft for the "greater good."
However, if rationality leads to kindness, the seemingly foolish move becomes the smart one.
Still, if we wish kindness to be smart, we will find ways to justify it despite the harsh realities we face daily.
- Theme: Culture
The smart choice is to be a bit foolish
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1–2 minutesRational decision-making advocates eliminating threats to prevent conflict, yet this approach makes everyone a potential enemy.
Meanwhile, game theory suggests ‘tit-for-tat’ for fostering self-interest-based cooperation, but this lacks genuine trust and loyalty. Leaders in such systems tend to become alienated and monstrous, knowing they will inevitably need to impose discipline.
Instead of a strict cost-benefit analysis, embracing mercy and kindness could offer a transformative paradigm shift: you no longer have to worry about the smart move (engaging the intellect and ego) when the smart move is to be foolish.
- Theme: Culture
moral panic: luxury morals
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1–2 minutesToday’s discourse is typically moral panic, with a pinch of cherry-picked reality to support our side.
The right perceives certain groups and individuals as destabilizing and prioritizes protection, whereas the left criticizes a lack of empathy and emphasizes ethical progress. Both claim righteousness while selectively aggrandizing, an option only available on the back of established, robust infrastructures built by earlier sacrifices. (Morality over reality, luxury morals).
This mirrors historical cycles of societal introspection vs. external threats and should challenge us to reconsider the historically failed first-world perspective as gluttonously myopic. But we won’t until it serves us.
(a nod to Rob Henderson’s “Luxury Beliefs”)