Philosophy bores the crap out of me.
Even though I spend a good chunk of my time reading and thinking about big questions, the state of philosophy today puts me to sleep.
It’s a lot of talking that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Talking about ideas with no heart, no blood, no color, no purpose.
Even the old philosophers, who were about much more than living inside their heads, turn into boring logic-choppers in the hands of 20th century scholars.
It’s a total snore-fest.
I’m wondering about questions like, why do people not do things they want to do?
There’s a treasure-trove of wisdom in ancient books. Philosophers today aren’t concerned with such practical problems.
Going back to the source in Plato and his historical influences — the Egyptians and the Pythagoreans — tells a different story.
These guys didn’t separate their thinking from their daily lives. Philosophy, which means “love of wisdom”, took a practical and spiritual role in their lives.
The love of wisdom was meant to be lived and experienced.
Plato’s students in the first few AD centuries have more in common with prophets, mystics, magicians, and religious initiates than any academic philosopher.
Philosophy was erotic.
Not in a dirty-minded way (maybe), but indicating an overwhelming desire for transcendence based in the living experience of the body.
Reasoning with words and logic was second-class to the mind’s power of noesis — a kind of understanding that is beyond sensation and reason.
Forbidden mumbo-jumbo, or a suppressed truth? You make the call.
It’s almost surreal to learn this. Philosophy went from mystery cults calling on the gods to arguing about words in an article that 7 people will ever read.
Our society values science and things that look like science. What’s the bottom line? What’s in it for me? Shut up and do your eight in the cubicle.
Magic and mysticism are for superstitious idiots and what are you, some kind of rube?
Insert your favorite meme of soyjak here.
Me, I kinda like the magical flavor.
Look around you at the trivial crap that people obsess over. Celebrity gossip, some crap trending on social media, constant drama in their lives, how to get rich quick…
Imagine what your life would be like if you chose for yourself what you wanted to experience and how you wanted to live.
All that junk from the media is given to you, plugged into your head like an app update.
It don’t got to be like that.
Fire and shadow can seduce, but you must agree to the seduction.
There are truths beyond the flickering flames of memes and apps.
How many will ever understand that?
Matt Perryman
https://matts.email