Being Messy
Hey friends,
Another great day at The Stoa. I am so happy Jordan Hall is back. I am going to try to upload all the outstanding videos by Friday. Hold me accountable!
Tomorrow’s events:
Writing Meditation w/ Davood Gozli. Every Wednesday @ 9:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
The Rise of Networks During COVID-19 w/ John Robb. May 6th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
Breaking the Frame Session w/ Travis Mann. May 6th @ 7:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
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May 5, 2020
At the moment I am annoyed, but I do not feel called to write about why, which is making me even more annoyed. Maybe it is the Scorpio in me, but I feel things very intensely. In the past, I have lived as if emotions were persistent nags that would not leave me alone and kept attempting to hijack my entire being. Which they often did. Thanks to my Stoicism, I could always keep my distance from them, but they were still often too strong for me to handle.
Now, instead of attempting to push them away completely, in a dissociative act of cognitive defusion, I am swimming in them, and I feel that I am becoming a skillful swimmer in the emotosphere. This might be a bold thing to say, but I am pretty confident that I am the closest I have ever been to being individuated. I feel whole. And there is a power to feeling whole. Jordan Hall's term sovereignty maps onto this well I think: being the king and queen of your own dominion: this localized slice of God, being, reality, or whatever you want to call it.
Your kingdom or queendom can always be invaded, though. This cult state that currently masquerades as a culture is hungry for your sovereignty. If they cannot gaslight you into normie conformity, or seduce you with the scintillating spectacle, they will sic cancel culture on your ass. The epistemic cowboy in me wants to come marching in, guns a-blazing and attempt a violent takeover. I am not smart enough to do that, but I am clever enough to realize that that would not be a wise approach.
Game recognizes game. When I speak to certain people, like Soryu, I feel their sovereignty and it inspires me to sit comfortably on my throne in front of them, and I can sink into the moment with them, and given enough time, I am sure I can fall into communitas, which I am starting to see as the same thing as falling in love.
I think I can smell those with the pretense of sovereignty, as well, with their awkward ambitions, and I sit uneasily on my throne in front of them. My fuck you energy comes online. Stop pretending, you boy kings: I can sniff out your gaslighting game a mile away. Maybe I am projecting somewhat here. Game recognizes game. My ambitions do feel somewhat awkward, maybe because I have no clear goals anymore, or no felt-sense of tomorrow. Or maybe I am still in the interregnum between being a boy and being a man.
This journal entry feels messy, as does this entire ride that I am on, but I want to be messy in front of you. I also want to tell you to get messy with me. Let us get into the right relationship with messiness. Philosophy is active, not passive, and it is a way of life. We all need to risk philosophizing messily. Fuck the spectacle, let us start using it, and not be used by it anymore.
I was talking to the blackbird recently about philosophers of the spectacle, which seems like a new category to add to the philosophers of the world and philosophers of the word distinction I made in a previous entry. Philosophers of the spectacle, while often sincere in their thoughts, are primarily motivated to win in the attention economy, and are thirsty for likes. I could name names, but I will not, and I would probably be wrong and uncharitable if I did.
The General, Jordan Hall, is no philosopher of the spectacle; he is a philosopher of the world, and this is why I admire him. He embodies the philosopher-entrepeneur archetype that I aspire to, or at least take inspiration from. Philosophers of the world philosophize towards a new world instead of just gesturing towards it in the spectacle. But we will need spectacle game too, for sure, if we are going to seduce this thing.
The General is returning to The Stoa today, and then the blackbird and I will be discussing how to steal and seduce the culture in the evening. With a sober Stoicism, I feel excitement.
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