Author Topic: Mendicancy  (Read 3937 times)

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Nation of One

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Mendicancy
« on: July 10, 2014, 03:51:57 pm »
mendicancy = "1 : the condition of being a beggar;    2 : the practice of begging"


Emile Cioran instructs us to contemplate the beggar:

"He, at least, neither lies nor lies to himself:
his doctrine, if he has one, he embodies; work he dislikes,
and he proves it; wanting to possess nothing, he cultivates his impoverishment,
the condition of his freedom."

The beggar HAS nothing.
The beggar IS himself/herself.
Living from day to day, from hand to mouth ...
The others are imprisoned in their hallucinations of security.

My psyche is delivered. Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Freud nor Doctor Finkleheimer can take credit for this.

The beggar's sloth "delivers" him from a world of fools and dupes.

Writing about "the beggar" :

Quote from: Cioran
About renunciation he knows more than many of your esoteric works. To be convinced of this, you need only to walk out into the street ... But you prefer the texts that teach mendicancy. Since no practical consequence accompanies your meditations, it will not be surprising that the merest bum is worth more than you ...

Can we conceive a Buddha faithful to his truths and to his palace? One is not "delivered-alive" and still a land-owner. I reject the generalization of the lie, I repudiate those who exhibit their so-called "salvation" and prop it with a doctrine which does not emanate from themselves. To unmask them, to knock them off the pedestal they have hoisted themselves on, to hold them up to scorn is a campaign no one should remain indifferent to. For at any price we must keep those who have too clear a conscience from living and dying in peace.

Quote from: Arthur Schopenhauer
The genuine Cynics put up with what they could get for next to nothing, such as lupins, water, a second-hand cloak, a knapsack, and a staff. They begged occasionally to obtain these things, but they did not work.

Independence in the widest sense was their goal. They spent their lives resting, walking about, talking with everyone, and in scoffing, laughing, and joking. Their characteristics were heedlessness and great cheerfulness. Since they had no aims of their own, no purposes and intentions to pursue, enjoying complete leisure, they became councilors of others.




« Last Edit: March 01, 2016, 11:44:48 pm by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

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Nation of One

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2015, 12:24:38 am »
I am simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?

Cioran
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

Holden

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2016, 01:53:50 pm »
Quote
Do you ever think that those who aspire to be FBI agents or corporate lawyers have been exposed to far too many television programs?  I mean, what is reality?
I think you are very right.In 2013,I met this "hot-shot" lawyer.She was supposed to be from one of the top Law Schools(an Indian,but she studied in the US ,I think).Anyway,she WAS well read. She certainly knew more about post-modern French philosophers than I did-quoting Lacan in almost every other sentence.I thought that as she is so well read,she must be aware of Anti-natalism too.
So I asked her what she thought about it.Her response? She "wanted a human being which was a part of herself one day,someone whom she could love & who would love her back".I wonder if Lacan taught her that::).

I remember one of us mentioning Nikolai Gogol.
 Perhaps I mentioned him.Anyway,her point was that I should take away my depressed mind somewhere far away from her so that it did not act as an obstacle to the progress of her glorious personal life and human civilization in general.
Needless so say I did that promptly.
I felt at peace when I was in my dark secluded room.With the cobwebs.
…..

                                   Diary of a Mad Man (Gogol)


34 March. February, 349. — No, I have no longer power to endure. God! what are they going to do with me? They pour cold water on my head. They take no notice of me, and seem neither to see nor hear. Why do they torture me? What do they want from one so wretched as myself? What can I give them? I possess nothing. I cannot bear all their tortures; my head aches as though everything were turning round in a circle. Save me! Carry me away! Give me three steeds swift as the wind! Mount your seat, coachman, ring bells, gallop horses, and carry me straight out of this world. Farther, ever farther, till nothing more is to be seen!
Ah! the heaven bends over me already; a star glimmers in the distance; the forest with its dark trees in the moonlight rushes past; a bluish mist floats under my feet; music sounds in the cloud; on the one side is the sea, on the other, Italy; beyond I also see Russian peasants’ houses. Is not my parents’ house there in the distance? Does not my mother sit by the window? mother, mother, save your unhappy son! Let a tear fall on his aching head! See how they torture him! Press the poor orphan to your bosom! He has no rest in this world; they hunt him from place to place.
Mother, mother, have pity on your sick child! And do you know that the Bey of Algiers has a wart under his nose?

About Lawyers:


Jonathan Wang has not practiced law since he graduated from Columbia Law School in 2010, but he did not plan it that way.

When he entered law school, the economy was flourishing, and he had every reason to think that with a prestigious degree he was headed for a secure well-paying career. He convinced his parents, who work in Silicon Valley, that he had a plan. “I would spend three years at school in New York, then work for a big law firm and make $160,000 a year,” said Mr. Wang, 29. “And someday, I would become a partner and live the good life.”

Mr. Wang, who works in Manhattan as a tutor for the law school admissions exam, is living a life far different from the one he envisioned. And he is not alone. About 20 percent of law graduates from 2010 are working at jobs that do not require a law license, according to a new study, and only 40 percent are working in law firms, compared with 60 percent from the class a decade earlier. To pay the bills, the 2010 graduates have taken on a variety of jobs, some that do not require admission to the bar; others have struck out on their own with solo practices. Most of the graduates have substantial student debt.
La Tristesse Durera Toujours                                  (The Sadness Lasts Forever ...)
-van Gogh.

Nation of One

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2016, 08:52:12 am »
The beggar's sloth delivers him from a world of fools and dupes.
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2016, 09:40:00 pm »
A sacred haven!

Where else can one shamelessly declare forbidden thoughts such as, "I do not want a job or a wife."

I find it so liberating to question the values of society, starting with one's very own parents and grandparents and aunts/uncles ... I have found that defying the values of society does not necessarily cause me to feel ill will towards those who live by such rules.

And yet ...
« Last Edit: March 07, 2016, 09:32:21 am by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2016, 09:02:45 am »
Señor Hentrich,
Many years ago I heard a Paraguayan reporter on the radio saying that if you give money to a beggar means that you have a bad case of conscience. This man comes from a very wealthy family here. Here in a town not far from Asuncion, people go to the top of a Catholic church and throw money to people down there. A tradition here. Of course the Catholic Church and other evangelical churches approve of this. Take care. Raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2016, 12:49:16 pm »
Hello Raul.  Welcome.

Some religious traditions, at their core, respect the lifestyle of the mendicant.

Unrelated to mendicancy, but a case in point as far as religion sometimes getting it right, is a tradition in "the East", when someone comes into good fortune, to go into the market where caged birds are for sale, purchasing the bird, and setting it free from its cage.

I read about this reading Schopenhauer. 
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2016, 11:10:49 pm »
When I close the math books for the night and feel the need to just veg out listening to a few old Black Sabbath tunes from Mob Rules, I go in search of "anti-natalist" blogs.

I was not shocked by the post by the "Mr Meanie Weanie" - The Poor Deserve to Starve which I linked to from The Last Page which mentioned Karl's Say No To Life Blog, but I have to say that that kind of attitude just disgusts me, that whole attitude of contempt for the suffering of others ... the sense of superiority.  I would not want to meet this meanie.  Maybe I'll just continue reading the biography on Schopenhauer until sleep overtakes me.

What do you make of this?

Quote from: Mr Mean-Spirited
Let the poor starve. Let the [fuuck]ers die.

If you can’t eliminate the ailment, you can eradicate the source of the disease. The answer is to let nature take its course.

There is a reason why the destitute are called “unfortunate.” A penniless chap is the source of his own problems. The beggar always brought this adversity upon himself. If a bum made some bad decisions in his life, then he needs to feel the consequences of his mistake. If a broke and bankrupt fellow merely happened to hit a patch of bad luck, then he still needs to steer into that misfortune. If hardship is your true fate, then you need to embrace the harshness. If a starving man is lying on the sidewalk, maybe it is his true destiny to die of malnutrition.

If I were to suffer some financial reversal and if I were to become totally impoverished, I might not like it – but at least I would know that I deserved it.

While I am all for letting Nature take its course, let it take its course with all of us, not merely with the unfortunate.  Maybe Nature can starve the whole arrogant lot of "civilized" pretentious a-s-s-holes.  Even that last line ... how someone "deserves" to die of malnutrition while another can gloat over how superior he is for having a full plate of food ... that whole mentality is disturbing.  I don't get it.   :-\



You might want to listen to these simultaneously and reflect on the words of Mr Meanie.

Reading that, I am finished for the night.


« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 11:33:06 pm by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

Holden

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2016, 03:12:19 pm »
Mr MS sounds more like a libertarian than an anti-natalist.
La Tristesse Durera Toujours                                  (The Sadness Lasts Forever ...)
-van Gogh.

raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2016, 08:12:36 pm »
Señor Hentrich,
This is off the topic.  Is it possible that your nephew might take you to Ecuador? take care. Raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2016, 09:26:23 pm »
He had to relocate closer to the shore ... complications.

He is living in a hostel now with no income whatsoever.  He is able to find food, but he does an awful lot of "fasting".  Where he is now, he must buy water in 5 gallon drums, and everything costs money.  There are no food banks where he is.

I don't think there is much of a "safety net".

No, Raul.  I don't even know if he would be able to return north even if he wanted to ... not that he wants to ...

At this time of my life, I am not up to any adventures.  My journey out West to the Seattle area was a disaster.

In fact, I just received email from him tonight, and he is glad to hear I have returned to studying mathematics, which I had lost interest in for many years, opting instead to drink myself into oblivion while listening to Van Halen or Tupac ... very often simultaneously while talking into a recorder with Cheswick screaming at Nurse Ratched in the background (and the neighbors calling the po-lice).   >:(  :P

In a different lifetime, under different circumstances, I might have followed him into South America, but I have this unbreakable commitment to be by my mother's side now.  I don't know if you have read much about the life of Arthur Schopenhauer, but he and his mother had a falling out, and he had no contact with her for the last 25 years of her life!

Oh well, sometimes neither personality can budge.  I can understand how this can happen.





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« Last Edit: March 22, 2016, 07:19:41 am by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2016, 08:51:01 am »
Señor Hentrich,
Thank you for your reply. I hope your nephew will be able to continue there. From what you tell me he is having a difficult time. I forgot to ask in what part of the US you are living in. New Jersey? You mention Nurse Ratched, is she the nurse in the film with Jack Nicholson? I read some aphorisms by Schopenhauer and that man really had a very deep insight into human nature. Luckily he had an income to endure all the physical and mental hardships in his lifetime. In the other blog I read you even went to a hospital where they gave you a "soft" treatment. Please take care there. Raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2016, 09:38:25 am »
Yes, I am a dirty jersey boy.

I used to like to wander around in the woods, but since the invasion of the mall rats, I mostly hide indoors, escaping into an abstract world of mathematics ... school-boy stuff ... I am no revolutionary ... just an egg-eating humanoid living off the perfumed corpse of civilization.

I consider myself rather pathetic, and since I am impotent to solve any of the problems our species faces on the mass level, I find myself giving my all to solving problems in used math textbooks. 

I commend Schopenhauer for using his lifetime to articulate his philosophy.  There are probably those who were left with inheritances who invested in business ventures or succumbed to alcohol and drugs.

What is "soft" treatment?

Do you mean the whole "you need to take psychiatric medication and join a support group" type treatment?
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2016, 10:29:27 am »
Señor Hentrich,
Thanks for your reply. I meant by soft treatment if in the hospital the doctors wanted you to take medication or treatment by force,pychologically speaking. And from reading your blog you have an amanzing memory. Do you have a photographic memory like William James Sidis? Take care. Raul

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Re: Mendicancy
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2016, 11:41:36 am »
I may have a photographic memory; but, as Norwegian philosopher Zapffe, whose work remains inaccessible to me since I have never attempted to learn the language of my Swedish ancestors, duly noted, this excessive consciousness is not something natural selection favors.  My and Zapffe's intellectual hero, Schopenhauer, had stated that life depends on us not knowing it too well.  Anyway, one of the consequences of this supposed photographic memory is that, throughout my life, I have had mastur-bat-ory access to an imagination which contains all the women of my heart's desire.  I have literally short-circuited the reproductive process by Onanistically spilling the demon seeds down the drain where they can do no harm.   :P

 :o



Where I don't have a photographic memory is in the realm of mathematics.  Some concepts that I have been exposed to for over 3 decades I still like to review.  Coming around full circle, these concepts are more familiar, but I do not memorize formulas, but prefer to rediscover relationships as I go along.   For example, when looking for the roots of a polynomial equation, and I have to factor, I prefer "completing the square" rather than using the quadratic formula.  I like to be able to come up with the quadratic formula by completing the square with the quadratic equation a*x^2 + b*x + c = 0 ...

This is why I prefer solitary autodidactic study because I allow myself to continually return to elementary and fundamental concepts, always reviewing such concepts when approaching exotic ideas.

So, with some things, like mathematics or programming, I do not have a photographic memory and am doomed to a lifetime of continually rediscovering and reviewing.  You know how it is, one wakes up groggy, one is vulnerable to moods and psychological discomfort.  I usually have to write things down ... even when reading from a textbook, if I don't write things down, my mind will wander to something else ...  :)

Isn't the nature of memory strange though, when you think about it, since everything is a memory, even the present moment that passes now ... and then when the brain is dead, no more memories, no more Universe.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2016, 11:06:51 pm by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~