'' ....you ask questions. “How did we arrive at that conclusion?”
But only intelligent people will think that way. Since most people are dumb, they do not. I mean, one has to be dumb to even be on 'social media' at all. As for not being alone: I am indeed the exception. And yes, absolutely: I don't speak, out of fear. I agree with what Schopenhauer and other philosophers suggested: philosophers are observers. They don't engage.
The story from 'The Critic' by Baltasar Gracian, comes to mind: Andrenio asks Critilo, but should no one try to change the world? And the latter replies: yes, fools.
We only need to look at the people who have been burned, shot, hanged, crucified, poisoned, etc.
From Socrates to Lucilio Vanini to Martin Luther King and beyond, the list only grows too long.
I choose to keep silent and to do what Schopenhauer advised, i.e. look at society as if it were a comedy of fools, and keep out of it entirely.
Perhaps I am a coward. But more likely exactly the point of your excellent essay comes to mind: survival. Thank you.
As a general rule (in Western 'democracies') we are DUMBED-DOWN, or stupid-ized early on! We do not begin in this way, though!
That so many participate in social media in such dumbed-down ways, only reflects those peoples' experience, I think, of how authoritarian their socialization has been!
And I think of the term "psychological genocide", coined by one John Trudell, a leading light in critical thinking during his lifetime. We've all (especially including white folks) been put thru this kind of attack, and where does it originate? I think in all the wars we've been duped into fighting for so many generations. Not recognizing that "war is a racket", as USMC general Smedley D. Butler spoke!
Interestingly, even the subject of 'courage' is more thorny than it seems. Both Plato and Schopenhauer wrote about that. I remember one man in the news getting stabbed to death because he tried to save someone's wallet.
Essentially, he died for a wallet. Other recent examples spring to mind, such as one man trying to disarm someone when he could have remained safe. This 'defender' bounces around and stumbles in a awkward way because he isn't fit to defend anyone: he is out of shape and fat. Predictably enough, he gets shot and dies.
Quite frankly, even many 'courageous' people seem to me fools. Better ones, sure, but still fools.
The greatest danger is not being wrong, but staying silent out of fear: when truth is subordinated to belonging, conscience abdicates.
Thinking requires courage; silent agreement is the subtlest way of abandoning oneself.
'' ....you ask questions. “How did we arrive at that conclusion?”
But only intelligent people will think that way. Since most people are dumb, they do not. I mean, one has to be dumb to even be on 'social media' at all. As for not being alone: I am indeed the exception. And yes, absolutely: I don't speak, out of fear. I agree with what Schopenhauer and other philosophers suggested: philosophers are observers. They don't engage.
The story from 'The Critic' by Baltasar Gracian, comes to mind: Andrenio asks Critilo, but should no one try to change the world? And the latter replies: yes, fools.
We only need to look at the people who have been burned, shot, hanged, crucified, poisoned, etc.
From Socrates to Lucilio Vanini to Martin Luther King and beyond, the list only grows too long.
I choose to keep silent and to do what Schopenhauer advised, i.e. look at society as if it were a comedy of fools, and keep out of it entirely.
Perhaps I am a coward. But more likely exactly the point of your excellent essay comes to mind: survival. Thank you.
As a general rule (in Western 'democracies') we are DUMBED-DOWN, or stupid-ized early on! We do not begin in this way, though!
That so many participate in social media in such dumbed-down ways, only reflects those peoples' experience, I think, of how authoritarian their socialization has been!
And I think of the term "psychological genocide", coined by one John Trudell, a leading light in critical thinking during his lifetime. We've all (especially including white folks) been put thru this kind of attack, and where does it originate? I think in all the wars we've been duped into fighting for so many generations. Not recognizing that "war is a racket", as USMC general Smedley D. Butler spoke!
Interestingly, even the subject of 'courage' is more thorny than it seems. Both Plato and Schopenhauer wrote about that. I remember one man in the news getting stabbed to death because he tried to save someone's wallet.
Essentially, he died for a wallet. Other recent examples spring to mind, such as one man trying to disarm someone when he could have remained safe. This 'defender' bounces around and stumbles in a awkward way because he isn't fit to defend anyone: he is out of shape and fat. Predictably enough, he gets shot and dies.
Quite frankly, even many 'courageous' people seem to me fools. Better ones, sure, but still fools.