That's a great quote from Freud. Similar to the idea that the meaning of life is life itself. I'm a recovering addict myself which has made the concept of "lack" and objeit petit a really appealing to me. I found your work through searching that and Rollins work. Addicts experience the void to a heightened degree and will engage any behavior they can find to fill the void. Your comment about Hegelian existentialism is apt because in recovery programs the solution to that void is found largely in service to other people and spirituality. I've found this to be the best possible answer to the lack. The spirituality is left open to the individual and seems broadly to be the cultivation of relationship. Relationship to oneself, others, and the Universe (God, Tao, Nature, Etc.)
This was excellent. Your writing style is very compelling. It's so funny I was just catching up on your video about living your best life last night. Any thoughts on how to counter the apathy and banality? It's just one thing after another and somehow I'm culpable for it all. Sometimes it's so much that it you revert to that passive nihilism just to avoid breaking. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the kind comment, mate. I really appreciate it. And indeed, I, too, see the culpability towards apathy in myself. Frankly, I don't think there's a remedy to it as nihilism constitutes to our subjectivity. Freud wrote in a letter, "The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life, he is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is merely admitting to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have happened, a kind of fermentation leading to sadness and depression." Having said that, I think the way we can bear to live through this narcissism is through a kind of Hegelian existentialism where we see our self-consciousness in the other, not merely as an outer but immanent to both ourselves and the other. Keen to hear your thoughts. What do you think?
Last I checked, I wasn't complicit in any genocide. There's a lot of substance to chew on here, but dishing out guilt trips for simply trying to exist in a world with unspeakable injustice before I'd even had my morning coffee was too much to bear. To be alive and aware is a heavy weight, but this made me feel 10,000 lbs.
That's a fair criticism, Lauren. In all honesty, making the reader feel like "10,000 lbs" was one of the goals of this piece. Firstly, that's what watching The Zone of Interest does to one, so I wanted to capture that in writing. Secondly, I believe the purpose of philosophy is to uproot us from the normal, comfortable state of being. However, if my essay made you feel defeated and cynical, then I'd say I've failed as a writer as my intention wasn't malicious but metamorphosis. But of course, the readers are to judge that.
That's a great quote from Freud. Similar to the idea that the meaning of life is life itself. I'm a recovering addict myself which has made the concept of "lack" and objeit petit a really appealing to me. I found your work through searching that and Rollins work. Addicts experience the void to a heightened degree and will engage any behavior they can find to fill the void. Your comment about Hegelian existentialism is apt because in recovery programs the solution to that void is found largely in service to other people and spirituality. I've found this to be the best possible answer to the lack. The spirituality is left open to the individual and seems broadly to be the cultivation of relationship. Relationship to oneself, others, and the Universe (God, Tao, Nature, Etc.)
Astutely put. And I'm glad you've come across Peter Rollins. He's somewhat of an intellectual hero of mine!
This was excellent. Your writing style is very compelling. It's so funny I was just catching up on your video about living your best life last night. Any thoughts on how to counter the apathy and banality? It's just one thing after another and somehow I'm culpable for it all. Sometimes it's so much that it you revert to that passive nihilism just to avoid breaking. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the kind comment, mate. I really appreciate it. And indeed, I, too, see the culpability towards apathy in myself. Frankly, I don't think there's a remedy to it as nihilism constitutes to our subjectivity. Freud wrote in a letter, "The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life, he is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is merely admitting to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have happened, a kind of fermentation leading to sadness and depression." Having said that, I think the way we can bear to live through this narcissism is through a kind of Hegelian existentialism where we see our self-consciousness in the other, not merely as an outer but immanent to both ourselves and the other. Keen to hear your thoughts. What do you think?
Last I checked, I wasn't complicit in any genocide. There's a lot of substance to chew on here, but dishing out guilt trips for simply trying to exist in a world with unspeakable injustice before I'd even had my morning coffee was too much to bear. To be alive and aware is a heavy weight, but this made me feel 10,000 lbs.
That's a fair criticism, Lauren. In all honesty, making the reader feel like "10,000 lbs" was one of the goals of this piece. Firstly, that's what watching The Zone of Interest does to one, so I wanted to capture that in writing. Secondly, I believe the purpose of philosophy is to uproot us from the normal, comfortable state of being. However, if my essay made you feel defeated and cynical, then I'd say I've failed as a writer as my intention wasn't malicious but metamorphosis. But of course, the readers are to judge that.