Schopenhauer's Cosmic Miserablists

Why I consider Madness Theory to be a spiritual/intellectual descendant of The Inversion Principle:


From 2014 October

I may be taking extensive notes from this text as it is related to one of my favorite books of Critical Theory, Shoshana Felman's Writing & Madness, the book which inspired the poem/principle, Madness Theory, which most definitely resonates with The Inversion Principle which I had been exposed to in “The Real Man's Club” in the mid-1980's (age 17 or so).  Here I sit, thirty years later, a full-fledged Steppenwolf typing away in his domicile at 3AM in the morning.

See "Madness Theory" at https://xhentric.wordpress.com/incantations/madness-theory/

Much like my nephew in the gortbusting years and “Nat” in the whywork years, I have to credit “Holden” for personally motivating and inspiring me to continue to document my scholarly activities in such an anti-intellectual environment as we live in this twenty-first century Bizarroland culture called the Space Age or the Machine Age – mass industrial consumerist culture, which is a spiritually bankrupt perfumed corpse.  Now I will continue to develop Madness Theory, a spiritual/intellectual descendant of The Inversion Principle.  It is all interconnected.

I want to implement Madness Theory by commenting on the hypocrisy of the status quo, thereby challenging the social order.  This is my living protest and actual historical rebellion against oppressive social institutions (religion, government, big business, the military), i.e., what John Trudell refers to as “the corporate state” - the Predator-Enemy.  Know your enemy.

Early in the text (Insanity As Redemption) I come across a reference to R.D. Laing, and I am instantly validated as anti-Freudian.

Quote

Insanity, Laing concluded, might very well be a state of health in a mad world.

Now, in 1984/1985 I was introduced to the idea that up is down and down is up (THE INVERSION PRINCIPLE from Myths, Dreams, and Cultures [an obscure Philosophy class for inspired high school seniors]).

The core truth of madness theory might be stated as follows:

 "Insanity may very well be a state of health in a mad world."

inspired high school seniors - Herr Hauser

Was it a class for gifted students?

Not particularly gifted.  Well, just to get into the "academy" as it was called, one had to show some kind of promise.  By the time we made it to senior year, we had witnessed many either get the boot (for behavioral problems or poor performance) or quit the school (for lack of access to females).   

And no, the academy in question mostly prized its mathematics whizkid prodigy eggheads, someone like Ed Chu (a member of the "AP Calculus" class that had me depressed as fuck) who had great discipline and very strict parents.   My own parents were divorced the year before I entered the school, so by the time I was 17, I was engaging in some (alcoholic) drinking on weekends, pot smoking during the week, and was already starting to feel the advancing nervous tensions building up in me - the anxiety, the paranoia, the growing anti-authoritarianism.    I had begun slipping a little in mathematics, and I even got to the point where I refused to attend a BASIC Computer Programming class - the beginnings of some kind of nervous breakdown?  As a teenager, I was actually mostly repelled by the idea of digital electronic computers, although I had always enjoyed "computing" - as an organic computer made of meat.

The go-getter businessmen dads of other classmates had their offices in their houses with their giant computers and printers.   I did not come from such a household.   In fact, to this day, my father has no use for a computer.  I even tried to give him one back in 2008.   He didn't want one.

So, no and again no, as our Art would say.   The Philosophy course, Myths, Dreams, and Cultures was not at all reserved for the eggheads.   In fact, the instructor was the head of the English department, the man responsible for getting many of the great books on the summer reading requirements, such as Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenacne, Levin's This Perfect Day, Brunner's The Sheep Look Up, and even Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It was a great opportunity.  The course was focused on Joseph Campbel's Myths to Live By.  Unfortunately, Ed Chu did not show much interest in what "my Philosophy instructor" was offering.  What is a "real man" anyway?   Is a real man a man who philosophizes?

There was never any mention of Schopenhauer, but more about Wilderness Survival - the whole Tom Brown Jr. thing.

That was the momentum behind GORT BUSTERS:  It was the current generation of "The Real Man's Club" conversing on a message board like this one with old worn out Steppenwolves like myself from the old school RMC ---- I feel very fortunate to have been exposed to such a charismatic Teacher with a capital T.

My interests in mathematics and computing have returned again and again, but I am not sure how long such interest can be sustained.   I wish someone like me had left me some notes like the ones I am leaving.   Leaving notes to some youth in the future who will treasure my attempts to preserve something they might find extremely valuable (for their inner wealth).

I get bored with words.  I sometimes even get bored with music.

cialis tablets https  ://  cialiswithdapoxetine DOT com : cialis pills

Blocked by Gorticide !   

I am glad you liked it.Life is just very tiring.One thing after another.Makes no sense.

I found a PDF file of A Philosophy of Madness: The Experience of Psychotic Thinking by Wouter Kusters (translation).

I have not had access to keyboard except with library for 60 minutes per day, in which I have technical, practical things I also must take care of within the 60 minutes, hence the down and dirty link to the text I am exploring at the moment.