“You have to laugh at EVERYTHING. At life, at death, at death. And above all, at what is considered most sacred. I curse everything that stinks of the sacred. Amen.”
Josep Promortalista Antinatalista-FB
"I can't accept any reality other than that of art. This world is horrible."
Diaries
Alejandra Pizarnik
“We want to be "happy" and we don't give a damn about anything. That's what the jailers sell us, and we buy it. We are the perfect slaves.”
Condenados a vivir -YT
“I have no doubt that there are many fathers, and especially mothers, who love their children madly. They would give their lives for them. I believe this is, deep down, even without being aware of it, because they know or sense the great crime they have committed by throwing them into this filthy, Shitty world. And, no matter how much they try to disguise it as altruism, their actions are tremendously selfish and malicious.”
Josep Promortalista-Antinatalista-FB
Review of "Apokarteron" – Hegesias of Cyrene
Hegesias of Cyrene (4th-3rd century BC), a Cyrenaic philosopher, was known as Peisithanatos ("the persuader of death") for his extremely pessimistic view of life. His most famous work, Apokarteron (Ἀποκαρτερῶν, "The Man Who Lets Himself Starve"), is a philosophical dialogue in which he argues that life is full of suffering and that death can be a rational option to escape it. This position led to his censorship in Alexandria, as his teachings were said to cause suicide among his listeners.
Contents of the Work
The protagonist of Apokarteron is a man who decides to starve himself to death after concluding that life is not worth living. In the dialogue, the character presents a series of arguments that reflect the Cyrenaic influence, but with an unusual twist: while classical Cyrenaics sought pleasure as the highest good, Hegesias insists that pleasure is ephemeral, inaccessible to many, and that life is marked by pain and frustration.
The work develops ideas that could be considered precursors to existentialism and nihilism. The protagonist rejects the idea that wealth, health, or love lead to stable happiness. Therefore, if life does not provide authentic happiness, there is no point in continuing to live it. Thus, death becomes a reasonable and, in a sense, liberating option.
Josep Promortalista-Antinatalista-FB
Hegesias and Promortalism
Hegesias's philosophy fits with promortalism, as he considers that life, by its painful and frustrating nature, has no inherent positive value. Although he does not appear to have actively promoted suicide as an imperative for everyone, he did see it as a reasonable solution for those who recognize the essential dissatisfaction of existence.
His position contrasts with that of other ancient philosophers: while Epicurus sought to alleviate the fear of death to allow for a peaceful life, Hegesias takes this lack of fear to the extreme, considering death a preferable option in many cases.
Censorship and Impact
Hegesias's ideas were disturbing enough that King Ptolemy II banned his lectures in Alexandria. His speech appears to have had a direct effect on those who listened to him, prompting some to take their own lives. His thought did not have its own school and has survived in fragments, but its influence is evident in later currents of thought, from Schopenhauer's pessimism to Cioran's negative existentialism.
Conclusion
Apokarteron is a radical and uncomfortable work that questions the validity of life itself. Hegesias breaks away from the classical Cyrenaic tradition and proposes a form of pragmatic nihilism in the face of lettre. His vision, although repressed in his time, resonates with various modern philosophical currents and is of undeniable interest to those, like you, who consider pro-mortalism a logical consequence of antinatalism.
Had it survived in its entirety, Apokarteron would undoubtedly be one of the most extreme texts of ancient philosophy.”
Josep Promortalista-Antinatalista-FB
Pleasures Are Meaningless
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%202&version=NIV“With all kinds of illnesses, bodily abnormalities, birth defects and disabilities, job insecurity, abuse, exploitation, humiliation, all for a few crumbs, accidents with terrible consequences such as amputations, becoming quadriplegic, useless, monotony, boredom, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, heat waves that affect or even kill your children.
Peddophilia, child prostitution, dictatorships, wars, extortion, fraud, betrayal, depression, insanity, schizophrenia, psychosis, drug addiction, alcoholism, discrimination, bullying, child labor exploitation, old age, slow and painful decline and deterioration of your body, loss of loved ones, trauma, obesity, crime, and countless other ills.
Luis Monzón-FB
"Why do others expect anything from me when I no longer expect anything from myself? Why should I get out of bed when all I've longed for for so long is to never open my eyes again? It seems almost absurd to write these tragic sentences when what I should do is pick up the beautiful razor lying beside me and merge with its cathartic gleam in the ecstasy of suicidal emptiness."
Romantic Disorder
Arik Eindrok
“The English word “fascinate” is derived from the Latin term fascinus. A fascinus supposedly had the power to put into trance, and the Latin verb “fascinare” means both “to use the power of the fascinus” and “to practice magic” in a more general sense.
In ancient - pre-Christian - Rome, Fascinus actually meant a flying phallus that invoked the protection of the Roman god Fascinus.
Bronze ‘flying phallus’ amulet, Rome, 1st Century BC. It would be hung outside a house or shop doorway to ward off evil spirits.
Blog:
https://thetravelbible.com/museum-of-artifacts/Museum of Artifacts-FB
“And the Oscar goes to all of humanity, for constantly burning inside, yet managing to remain as cold as ice on the outside.”
M. Jablonka
“In youth, we trample Life; later... we feel that Life tramples us; alas! it's because we grow old, and Life is eternally young.
When we are young, we aspire to be happy; later... we only aspire to be as unhappy as possible.
When we are young, we have aspirations; and that gives us wings; later... we have nothing but disappointments; and that cuts them short; that is why, as young people, we try to fly, thunderously; and, later... we walk in silence, slowly, toward Death.”
José María Vargas Vila
"The intellect sometimes gives off a stench. A sour sweat comes from mathematics, from ideal schemes, from "sweet" dreams of economic redemption (...)
This "comfort" in the cruelty of the inanimate is only felt when we don't visit it. It is comfortable as a spectacle, not as an experience. (...)
And at the very heart of all "idealist and humanist conceptions of the world" there is a hidden cruelty. Idealists are predators."
B. Decasseres.
“Tantalus walks through our streets and rubs his hands. On men's faces is the disgust of a million ancient deceptions, the pain and mockery of things lost beyond repair. But new generations spring from the ever-fruitful wombs and quickly perceive the aromas of life before the unwary elders have died. And the ancient Bubble Blower smiles again, because she knows that the new generations are the dead generations arriving again.”
B. Decasseres (1923)
“It's understandable that even atheists sometimes cling in a clearly dogmatic way to the human figure.
Of course, since they can't appeal to belief in God, they resort to superstitions involving the "sanctity of man" or the "affirmation of life," and that basically means nothing: it's just a circular way of saying that we want things to happen, that they should be this way because we have faith that they should be. In fact, if we pay attention, we'll see that this is exactly what we were doing when we believed in God: validating the circularity of our beliefs about ourselves. From this perspective, it's clear why such beliefs never had, and could never have, any explanatory power.”
Andre Cancian.
From Hegesias of Cirene-FB
The real reason we can´t have a ten commandments in a courthouse: you cannot post “thou shalt not steal”, thou shalt not commit adultery” and thou shalt not lie”, in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.”
George Carlin
"So I'm writing to you, so you can help me against what wants to fall within me, that in me that's in love with misery, poverty, malaise, helplessness, orphanhood, and death."
Letters to León Ostrov
Alejandra Pizarnik
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