tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post5196946360816498239..comments2024-02-13T12:50:30.457-05:00Comments on Rants Within the Undead God: Modernity and DisenchantmentBenjamin Cainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-41921918171658419652018-11-24T08:15:19.648-05:002018-11-24T08:15:19.648-05:00But what exactly is this lost sensation of being? ...But what exactly is this lost sensation of being? I like to think of it as an appreciation of nature's aesthetic dimension. Spinoza called it the vision of deterministic eternity or the recognition of how everything has its place in the whole of the universe (in the metaphysical "substance"). <br /><br />I think that's just what's forever missing. The structure of knowledge and the division between life and nonlife make for a tragic disconnect between the whole of reality and a mind or species finding itself within that whole. Thus, reality is monstrous and has negative aesthetic value. There's beauty and grandeur in nature, to be sure, but it's an alarming, appalling order, not a comforting one. Religion can indeed bring focus on these deep questions, but religion can also easily become propaganda and rationalization for political ends and unjust (animalistic) social structures. Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-1150218083584127602018-11-22T05:37:13.602-05:002018-11-22T05:37:13.602-05:00I like to say nonhuman living beings have a overdo...I like to say nonhuman living beings have a overdominance of primary instincts which make them absolute in their own dimensional perceptions while human beings thanks for self-awareness, discover the essence of life, the individuality, as well its real size in front of gigantic reality, and religion appeared in the down of humankind to reconnect us to this lost instinctive sensation, to be the center of itself-perceptive-world. Humans feels and know more than they want, than what they can tolerate. So, religion is the propaganda of meta-physical, of, what i call ''holystic dimension or plan'' but, in the truth, it's the regression to this lost absolute self-centerism where the world make all sense because no have reflection or doubts, even the doubt of empty. <br /><br />Sidelicious https://www.blogger.com/profile/08965375109519912539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-42272889338068319102018-11-18T08:46:31.904-05:002018-11-18T08:46:31.904-05:00I think most "modern" folks aren't e...I think most "modern" folks aren't explicitly nostalgic, yearning for a return of childhood wonder. They're too stressed and busy with work and family to think about what's missing. Instead, we suffer from ennui, as in the Arcade Fire song "Modern Man" or as in Citizen Kane (the meaning of "rosebud"). As Durkheim said, modernity entails anomie, the loss of reliable social norms, since we humanists lose faith in anything but ourselves. <br /><br />We're supposed to be confident in our rationality, self-control, and creativity, but with the death of God and the humiliation of theocracies at the hands of tangible technoscientific progress, we prefer to escape our solitude and join movements to feel larger than we are. Perhaps introverts or overbearing libertarians are the truest humanists, since they presume they're self-reliant and don't need social norms to dictate how they should live. But the problem is that godless social norms are often uninspired and championed by hypocrites. As many philosophers from Nietzsche onward have pointed out, we lack myths we can believe in, because the modern world doesn't inspire much great art. Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-39380124332753090212018-11-18T08:30:28.819-05:002018-11-18T08:30:28.819-05:00My apologies, Michelle. I didn't mean to shun ...My apologies, Michelle. I didn't mean to shun you. I must have missed your contact form message. I just searched for it and found a message from you with a couple of links. This was from July 29. I seem to recall writing a comment on one of your blogs a while back.<br /><br />Sorry again for missing your comments. If a reader leaves a general Thumbs Up comment on my blog or on one of my videos, I may just say "Thanks" or let the comment stand for itself. Of course I appreciate the encouragement, but I almost appreciate criticisms or specific thought-provoking observations more, since they often inspire me to write better articles. Also, general positive comments on my blog can be mistaken for spam, in which case they might be accidentally deleted. I have less time now to work on my blog and videos than I used to, but I enjoy talking to my readers. <br /><br />So let's have a dialogue. I'll have to read more of your articles to get a sense of where you're coming from. Do you see some fruitful areas of disagreement between our views? If so, feel free to lay out some criticisms or your analysis of the situation, and we can go from there.<br /><br />I see that you're involved in science and philosophy, and that you may have some radical criticisms. I wonder if you read my exchanges with R. Scott Bakker on scientism. <br /><br />I haven't read that Lewis story, but upon googling it I see that it's about the importance of faith. Or are you suggesting my writing is like a depersonalized fortress of thought and imagery? I'm not sure my blog is depersonalized exactly, since I put myself into my writing. But it's true I don't usually write directly about myself. There's plenty of egoism on the internet (e.g. displaying what you had for dinner on Instagram). My writings do express my experience and my judgments, but they're also independently supported by arguments and evidence, so I'm not inclined to put myself at the forefront. If anything, my "fortress" is visible (anyone can read the blog) and I'm the invisible one. Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-77434968692334078162018-11-18T06:43:23.196-05:002018-11-18T06:43:23.196-05:00I suppose me posting what I want to say to you her...I suppose me posting what I want to say to you here may end up an embarrassment Benjamin. I'm not above it. I used your "Contact this blog's author" link a few months back and got no response. A few years ago I left an enthusiastic comment or two at this blog, with no reciprocal acknowledgment (if memory serves). I have followed your blog over the years and even enjoyed and commented on your youtube videos in earnest. My wish is for feedback and/or a minor collaboration - to be and have a friendly existential dialogue - yet what I'm met with is a seemingly impenetrable, albeit *enchanting* fortress of depersonalized thought and imagery. (Are you familiar with C.S. Lewis's evocation of Psyche and Eros' unwitnessable fortress in his final tale Till We Have Faces?) If you recognize that letting down that guard would be safe given the right circumstances, I hope you will be in touch. michellehttp://celebratemind.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-17272664380584864492018-11-17T11:15:57.364-05:002018-11-17T11:15:57.364-05:00You know, I often wonder how people can get caught...You know, I often wonder how people can get caught up in paper-thin conspiracy theories of some cryptocracy running the show and leaving them powerless, or how people can get caught up in equally paper-thin religions, where the foundations of the universe are different than they appear, but this gives me something to think about. There's a feeling of powerlessness, of loss of wonder, and then that is filled in with something that artificially takes them back to a childlike state (I'm not using that term in a negative way).<br /><br />I've never gone in for an -ism because music is the way I stave off ennui. Granted, as pointed out here, I found most of my favorite albums in the year when I was 14 and 15, but I still search for that perfect sound. Harry Hamidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13176265571549991218noreply@blogger.com