{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} :: The Schopenhauer Disciples

To All,
  I wish you all quietude and solitude in an increasingly HEGELIAN (see: Collectivist, Bureaucratic, Managerial) world, packed to the brim with overpopulated masses, industrial pollution and TECHNOTROPIC HALLUCINATIONS.

  I have moved to a new room and chose not to "connect myself" to the "world wide web" of lies.  When does mankind realize that social media is an even worse CONTAGION than the so-called legacy media?

  I'm as tired of this populist anti-intellectualism as I am tired of managed, institutional "learning."

  Where are the independent seekers who don't give a lick about "folk wisdom" or "wisdom from on-high (Church, State)"?

Books I have read in these past couple of months:

Artaud and the Gnostic Drama by Jane Goodall (I highly recommend!)

Violence and the Sacred by Rene Girard (Another recommendation!)

Persuasion and Rhetoric by Carlo Michelstaedter

Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard (thank you Hauser and Holden - a great Irrationalist work!)

War by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

The Cheap-Eaters by Thomas Bernhard

In These Great Times by Karl Kraus

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges ("Mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of men.
")

The Day of the Locust by Nathanel Hawthorne


What have I been thinking about, lately?  Greek Tragedy, Scapegoating and Sacrifice.  I think a lot of how the Zionist Israelis are scapegoating and sacrificing Palestinians, as the National Socialists scapegoated and sacrificed the Jews in their turn.

Who's Next?

Can man escape the scapegoat/sacrifice?  Can man assume the burden of the guilt of violence in himself, and not blame another?  It remains unlikely.

Another thought:  what was the origin of culture and civilization, anyway?  Prohibitions, perhaps?  And if so, what was prohibited?  Violence, lust, greed, vengeance, betrayal, in a word, CONFLICT.



A departing quote for you all, from Peter Wessel Zapffe, 1983:

“When the contemplative man, a studiosus perpetuus vitae, has indulged in the Indian wisdom, or Gnosis, that the Mystery of Life is amoral, then the awe evaporates and he can in all his physical powerlessness, from the soul’s categorical imperative, seize the mystery by the neck and shake it like a mitten.”


Take care, All;  I will "check-in" when I can!

Another thought:  what was the origin of culture and civilization, anyway?  Prohibitions, perhaps?  And if so, what was prohibited?  Violence, lust, greed, vengeance, betrayal, in a word, CONFLICT.

From Notes from The German Genius:

There is a German obsession for distinguishing between “civilization” and “culture.”  In German usage, Zivilisation means something that is indeed useful, but nevertheless only something of value of the second rank, comprising only the outer appearance of human beings, the surface of human existence.  The word through which Germans interpret themselves, which more than any other expresses their pride (in their own being), is Kultur.

Whereas the French as well as the English concept of culture can also refer to politics and to economics, to technology and to sports, to moral and to social facts, the German concept of Kultur refers essentially to intellectual, artistic and religious facts, and has a tendency to draw a sharp dividing line between facts of this sort, on the one side, and political, economic, and social facts, on the other.

This division, between Kultur and Zivilisation, was underlined by a second opposition, that between Geist and Macht, the realm of intellectual or spiritual endeavor and the realm of power and political control.

I am under pressure.  Too much in personal life to discuss, so I will just try to peck away at a reading list [ten social science].

I refuse to use a stupid smart phone to type much of anything.  I would rather talk to the Wind.

I'll wait for a keyboard.

Hentrich,
I read your message but for some reason the system does not allow me to send my reply.
They are making your life very difficult and yet you are a tough nut to crack.

I can only wish you the best where you are now.

Take care.