Wisdom holding a giant lollypop
or
How the Cynics are interesting to gnostics, anarchists and other notable minorities;
or
Don't get wheezy-ah, it's just parrhēsia.
If you’re looking for wisdom here, please navigate away from this place, hence never to return. This blog is filled with nude, speculative mud-wrestling at its most sordid. Some of you know that there are many days when I think that everything about social networking and blogging is nothing but narcissistic self-gratification.
Today is obviously not one of those days.
In my mind, the most important shred of sanity to which we can cling is the realization of the absurdity of our condition in general, and specifically as it relates to electronic media. It is patently absurd to haggle with people on tiny boxes of light that appear on our computer screens. If I can’t sit down with you over a meal, or annoyingly poke my finger into your ribs, my means of communication with you are insufficient from a human point of view. So in that spirit, I figure why not shovel another load onto the electronic dung heap that we call virtual civilization.
Over the past several years I have been working on simplification. Narrowing-down who and what is important to me, and generally downsizing. This exercise hasn’t been about self-negation or asceticism in its currently misunderstood form, at least. It is about enjoying the people around me, building quality relationships and community, and engaging in work that is meaningful to me, and hopefully useful to others.
The trend towards simplicity hasn’t been easy or without problems. Life always gives us unexpected complications. If I believed in the devil, which I don’t, I’d say that he never stops farting in my face. Thankfully, there remains a little flicker of consistency throughout the past few years which this diabolical flatulence has yet to extinguish. Some might argue that the “flicker” is my insanity, and they might be right. Still, as I recently reviewed some of the things that I have written over the past several years, I noticed that there are themes to which I have remained true, despite huge changes to my perceptions and experiences of things since then.
When I think of simplicity and true nakedness, I still think of the Cynics. In fact, in an article which I wrote a little more than four years ago, I looked at these controversial philosophers and how their attitude towards the world is useful for us today. Since then I’ve come across other sources and references to the Cynics ranging from the later works of Michel Foucault, to more recent social commentary. A few days ago I stumbled on yet another article, much longer and more scholarly than mine, which drew some interesting comparisons between the ideas of the Cynics and anarchist theory.
I suspect that when I have a few days to think about this theme, I might share some ideas on a larger scale. In the meantime, you can read the old one.
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