I think that whether it’s my best friend, or a charlatain on the internet, when it comes to listening to talk within academia, I find my mind wandering as I wade through the nearly self aware pretentiousness of it all. Can they hear themselves or are they just high on their own juices they hopped themselves on whilst exploring the imagination?
I think that though that sounds abit harsh, it really comes for a simplistic bias that I have: they’re not here to help. These people are smart and charismatic and they can be very informative at times, but they are no further able to help society’s worries than a talk show host is. They are not artists, they are not philosophers as, for the most part, their theories are self contained and self referential and cannot easily be built upon by other thinkers.
The problem that I have with the academics like Ken Wilber, and countless others, and probably every philosopher (self proclaimed or externally labeled as such) is that their message is one of freedom, independence, and even the best of all: salvation ahem I mean enlightenment…
Enlightenment is the new salvation to the religious, enlightenment has become the catch all for the woes of the personal and the interpersonal. But at the end of the day, none of them have any practical guides on how to do any of it, much like the rant I posted days ago about parenting. These people are taking a personal journey into unexplored territory, and describing it, and expecting others to be able to take that journey too and explore those territories.
But regardless of how much they try, their success is limited and eventually they fizzle out, are forgotten, or are never paid attention to at all to begin with. And why is that? In this amazing age of digital technology and being smarter than we’ve ever been, why does it seem that less and less people are interested in what these people have to say?
I think it’s fairly clear: they’re not here to help. They do not help you with your job, or your bills, your marriage, your goals in life, parenting, taxes, political understandings, or practical knowledge seeking. In this day and age, everything we’re connected to and into is directly related by how it makes us feel or helps us (entertainment aside of course). Our twitter feeds and facebook follows, our favorite websites, blogrolls, rss feeds, all of these things are all us reaching out into the here and now for information and help regarding our life as it is right now.
In a way, I think that technology has allowed us to do during the day what scientists say we do at night: come up with and prepare scenarios that we may face or encounter in waking life. Except we’re trying to actively seek this kind of information and feedback as immediately as we see the need for it. It’s the perfect place for the worry warts and hypochondriacs of the world, but it’s ultimately giving us more tools to be able to better handle our day to day lives.
How does this relate to philosophers? Well I think that they dont entertain, they dont really help us practically, and they dont seem to really be able to prove any of what they’re talking about so the return on any investment into any modern philospher is slim to none and at best likely to be boiled down to a single quote on someone’s cubicle wall, or in the signature area of their personal email.
The fundamental important piece to realize is that everyone everywhere is very lost right now and very worried, if not outright screwed and aware of it. This fundamental understanding of the layman’s mentality lends itself to the importance of why it is that those not here to help are passed over quickly.
Politics, pensions, shrinking middle class, layoffs, fear of death, this is the average person’s day to day life these days. So strange to hear and see these things still being so prevalent in the common consciousness in such an advanced day and age. But really, we’re no more advanced now than we were a hundred or more years ago as far as the common concern is concerned. No philosopher has ever reformed a nation, given hope to a people, granted freedom to those enslaved. And yet every philosopher talks as if their theories on how and why things are the way they are seems to take a pride that is only really ever seen in the biblical texts regarding moses.
As socialism become increasingly more and more likely to be the best way for the masses and the people to continue on and prosper, everyone is slowly starting to think about others and not themselves in small ways. However, as much academic yammering as can be heard through daily podcasts, recorded phone conversations, or lectures from philosophers comes out every day, in spite of the words the message is clear “I’ve figured it out, just follow me and read my books. The answers are there” This is clearly self serving as a philosopher, and yes, every philosopher must eat, but we give out degrees in, basically, critical imagination and call them degrees in philosophy. There is nothing wrong with such a degree, but it is guaranteed that while the thought and things you come up with are for the masses you pretend to understand, at the end of the day, most of your time is spent in your own head, talking to yourself.
The introvert and thinker has no place in a society that moves quickly and as the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, if your ideas require a catalogue of books, an entrance fee, a paywall to view, you will be quickly and swiftly swept under the rug by those who are simply waiting for their own personal ghost of che guevara to ride into town, being just idealistic enough and mostly courageous enough, and practically world smart enough to actually try and make a change for everyone. Talk is cheap, and in a world of billions of text and voices flying all over every second, talking is given little credence unless you’ve got the balls and the strategy to actually do something worthwhile, or do you simply hope for a series of good web chats with others, and a good book tour? If so, stay in your ivory tower when you finally notice that the world is on fire around you. We will do the hard work and maybe you’ll get lucky and the people will rally around to save your tower so you may live to think another day. Maybe not.
Philosophers today are speaking as if to an intelligencia that doesnt exist. They’re talking to the plebians and the poor, the disheartened, and the pissed off. The philosopher that does it right will do it quickly, for free, and be on the lips of everyone before they even realize what they’re saying. That philosopher will be a real activist, because now we’re all moving towards being ubermen (and women) the real renaissance people. Learning and doing just a bit of everything. The time for philosophers is over, those who want to survive will become revolutionaries or be forgotten about. This is not a relaxed time, this is the moment just before the fall of the roman empire. Stop talking, we dont care. Do something, because thats what we’re all waiting for, the moment to act. And until then, put your brain on moment to moment and day to day issues that people will need and be able to use while they wait for the rallying cry.
