Well said! I've come to view this dynamic almost as a kind of ontological principle for how we weave our individual paths through the multiverse. The more deeply one let's go of fear and embraces trust the more the world seems to brighten and align with ones desires. It feels like the evolutionary force actually favors the fearless which is pretty much the opposite of what this safety obsessed culture tries to inculcate. I think the cartoon Archer captured this quite elegantly.
hear hear. maybe cynicism also requires preemptive certainty in other people's motives? so to accuse someone else of being cynical, without properly understanding their motives and their reasoning first, would be... cynical? interesting paradox.
glad you got to enjoy a quiet weekend with your husband, in any event!
To say that I had "quite a solid plan" is giving me way too much credit, I had *slightly *more of a plan than you, but I could also very easily have been utterly fucked if not for pure luck.
But yeah. A dance of trust indeed. Solidarity, my friend.
As a serious Christian, I recently purged all occultists and pagans from my feed. For some reason, I decided to keep you and John Michael Greer. This post made me realize I made the right decision. There is a lot here that is helpful to any struggling soul in these darkening times.
I don’t expect you to be flattered by my admission, but I thought you should know so that you keep up the good work.
I heartily agree with your view of the world- but I would call it cynicism. Or perhaps the meaning is more clear if I say Cynicism. Because cynicism has always had more than one meaning- there is the philosophy of cynicism and there is the straw man of cynicism created by those threatened by the philosophy.
Cynicism as a philosophy has never said that all or most people are untrustworthy or ill-intentioned towards others. In fact, the cynics were the ones to invent the idea of being a citizen of the world and having a common humanity that transcends membership in an ethnic group, citizenship in a city state, or social class. What cynicism taught was to be wary of the intentions of those with power, and to not let social conformity come between the self and the wisdom of Nature. Elites created a straw man of this idea in order to discredit those who pointed out their self-interested use of violence. This is the origin of the use of cynic or cynicism to mean pessimism, misanthropy, and stagnation.
Cynicism teaches that the body and nature are the sources of meaning in life, and that it is demanding and degrading for humans to make up hierarchies to place one human over another. Ancient cynics lived lives somewhat comparable to the anecdotes Rhyd shares in this piece- traveling around, sleeping rough, working whatever odd jobs could be had without the indignity of faking allegiance to the social hierarchies of the time, and mocking the powerful.
Just as “communism” and “Marxism” have become strawmen to be thrown at those who question the conscription of young men to war, or increasing levels of inequality in our society, “cynic” is word which is used as a slur to shut down discussion and delegitimize an intellectual opponent. But like “communist”, it contains the ghost of an idea of a world where Nature and the body are more important than the ridiculous hierarchies humans invent, and the convoluted philosophies and justifications for that hierarchy the lapdog philosophers of the elites develop. And so long as people throw the term around, some of us will eventually look into it enough to realize that even back in the days when Plato and Aristotle were coming up with justifications for slavery, there were philosophers who mocked the systems of power rather than justifying them.
In the straw manning of cynicism the elites have kept alive the ghost of Cynicism. They show how a philosophy which says the body and Nature are enough and that kings and rulers are irrelevant to the work of being human frightens them millennia later. Their ongoing attempts to discredit a dead philosophy just show how powerful the idea of being a human animal in a human body truly is. Of course, you don’t have to call that idea cynicism. But you might consider not carrying water for the elites by perpetuating their self-serving interpretation of an ideology that might be a fellow-traveler to your ideas.
I absolutely agree. What I found funny is that this post "against cynicism" is, as you say, full of anecdotes that wouldn't have felt out of place in an actual ancient cynic philosopher's life.
I get this a lot too. Called a pessimist, a cynic, negative, a Doomer etc. Dude it's the complete opposite! Mostly I'm pretty joyful, if you hadn't noticed! Quite weird
Apparently, no doubt for good reasons, you’re not trusting in having comments on your most recent post, so I will comment here. “there’s no attention given to the material conditions informing these opinions” opinions of some woke identitarian types - the words I just quoted from your new post to me are fancy for “those folks just don’t have any common sense!”
One of the other posts has a massive comment threat that I couldn't keep up with and it's gotten a bit aggressive so I decided to turn off comments on this new one just to give everyone some space.
Yeah, checked out the thread. My approach when caught up in a back and forth is once I’ve said what I can say on the subject is to stop and let the other person have the last word and end it.
Well said! I've come to view this dynamic almost as a kind of ontological principle for how we weave our individual paths through the multiverse. The more deeply one let's go of fear and embraces trust the more the world seems to brighten and align with ones desires. It feels like the evolutionary force actually favors the fearless which is pretty much the opposite of what this safety obsessed culture tries to inculcate. I think the cartoon Archer captured this quite elegantly.
Beautifully said brother. That Ross quote gave me goosebumps.
hear hear. maybe cynicism also requires preemptive certainty in other people's motives? so to accuse someone else of being cynical, without properly understanding their motives and their reasoning first, would be... cynical? interesting paradox.
glad you got to enjoy a quiet weekend with your husband, in any event!
To say that I had "quite a solid plan" is giving me way too much credit, I had *slightly *more of a plan than you, but I could also very easily have been utterly fucked if not for pure luck.
But yeah. A dance of trust indeed. Solidarity, my friend.
As a serious Christian, I recently purged all occultists and pagans from my feed. For some reason, I decided to keep you and John Michael Greer. This post made me realize I made the right decision. There is a lot here that is helpful to any struggling soul in these darkening times.
I don’t expect you to be flattered by my admission, but I thought you should know so that you keep up the good work.
I'm always both bemused and honored so many Christians read me. Thanks. :)
I heartily agree with your view of the world- but I would call it cynicism. Or perhaps the meaning is more clear if I say Cynicism. Because cynicism has always had more than one meaning- there is the philosophy of cynicism and there is the straw man of cynicism created by those threatened by the philosophy.
Cynicism as a philosophy has never said that all or most people are untrustworthy or ill-intentioned towards others. In fact, the cynics were the ones to invent the idea of being a citizen of the world and having a common humanity that transcends membership in an ethnic group, citizenship in a city state, or social class. What cynicism taught was to be wary of the intentions of those with power, and to not let social conformity come between the self and the wisdom of Nature. Elites created a straw man of this idea in order to discredit those who pointed out their self-interested use of violence. This is the origin of the use of cynic or cynicism to mean pessimism, misanthropy, and stagnation.
Cynicism teaches that the body and nature are the sources of meaning in life, and that it is demanding and degrading for humans to make up hierarchies to place one human over another. Ancient cynics lived lives somewhat comparable to the anecdotes Rhyd shares in this piece- traveling around, sleeping rough, working whatever odd jobs could be had without the indignity of faking allegiance to the social hierarchies of the time, and mocking the powerful.
Just as “communism” and “Marxism” have become strawmen to be thrown at those who question the conscription of young men to war, or increasing levels of inequality in our society, “cynic” is word which is used as a slur to shut down discussion and delegitimize an intellectual opponent. But like “communist”, it contains the ghost of an idea of a world where Nature and the body are more important than the ridiculous hierarchies humans invent, and the convoluted philosophies and justifications for that hierarchy the lapdog philosophers of the elites develop. And so long as people throw the term around, some of us will eventually look into it enough to realize that even back in the days when Plato and Aristotle were coming up with justifications for slavery, there were philosophers who mocked the systems of power rather than justifying them.
In the straw manning of cynicism the elites have kept alive the ghost of Cynicism. They show how a philosophy which says the body and Nature are enough and that kings and rulers are irrelevant to the work of being human frightens them millennia later. Their ongoing attempts to discredit a dead philosophy just show how powerful the idea of being a human animal in a human body truly is. Of course, you don’t have to call that idea cynicism. But you might consider not carrying water for the elites by perpetuating their self-serving interpretation of an ideology that might be a fellow-traveler to your ideas.
I absolutely agree. What I found funny is that this post "against cynicism" is, as you say, full of anecdotes that wouldn't have felt out of place in an actual ancient cynic philosopher's life.
I get this a lot too. Called a pessimist, a cynic, negative, a Doomer etc. Dude it's the complete opposite! Mostly I'm pretty joyful, if you hadn't noticed! Quite weird
Maybe the only real ideal is the ability to keep up with the dance…
Apparently, no doubt for good reasons, you’re not trusting in having comments on your most recent post, so I will comment here. “there’s no attention given to the material conditions informing these opinions” opinions of some woke identitarian types - the words I just quoted from your new post to me are fancy for “those folks just don’t have any common sense!”
One of the other posts has a massive comment threat that I couldn't keep up with and it's gotten a bit aggressive so I decided to turn off comments on this new one just to give everyone some space.
Yeah, checked out the thread. My approach when caught up in a back and forth is once I’ve said what I can say on the subject is to stop and let the other person have the last word and end it.
The abusive behaviour by your collaborator RG Miga was the problem.
Hi Rhyd I wanted to comment on your homonationalism article but there doesn't appear to be an option to?
See my reply to BeardTree about why I turned off comments on that post.