AshvinP wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:50 pmLou,Lou Gold wrote: ↑Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:16 pm Dana,
I may be way ignorant of what you and Ashvin are referencing due to the fact that I don't follow anyone on Twitter, however, I'm honestly baffled that my read of Bernardo's recent comments (posted with the Ukraine flag) seems so different. I see a guy, like lots of intellectuals who are being shaken out of high-minded detachment by current events.
I can't help wondering if that high-minded detachment also appears in many of the discussions and the ethos of this forum, which (horrors, it's Lou again) passionately avoids politics? My read is that there's a serious weakness if metaphysical speculation avoids practical messy reality. Volodymyr Zelensky, the unlikely Jewish comedian become courageous Ukraine President is emerging as a wake up call in Europe and the world. When the US Embassy offered to provide safe passage out of the war zone he now-famously said, "I need ammunition, not a ride." I think he's worth a couple praise-worthy photos here:
Twitter is full of people who make comments, post photos, memes, etc. as a way of expressing their own feelings, desires, and opinions on every topic, most of which they have probably never taken the time to even attempt to understand. These people do not think their memes and photos are going to actually influence the situation in Ukraine in a positive way, or any other situation for that matter, but rather they crave virtual 'pats on the back' for how "virtuous" and "empathetic" they are signaling themselves to be. This is what has taken the place of humility, i.e. recognition of all that which we do not yet know about ourselves and the world, gratitude that we have been blessed with the capacity to know through the Incarnation of human reason, and genuine thinking effort towards knowing through that reasoning faculty. What was once self-sacrificial spiritual activity of knowing has become pure virtual hedonism. No one is being shaken out of anything with these displays of "empathy". They are simply entrenching themselves further in the egoistic consumer culture, with its on-demand opinions and speculative commentary, while appeasing their guilty conscience. This strategy has diminishing returns, though, and I think that is evident with many of the "public intellectuals" we have today. Expressions of our own feelings and desires on every topic will not weave our individuality into the holistic meaning of the Cosmos. It will not shine the light of consciousness on the shadows, terrors, and abysses of the world. That only comes through the inner light of higher Thinking. The word "only" here is being used in the same sense as, "only drinking water will satisfy a person's thirst". We are involved in a deeply structured reality and therefore our localized wants, likes, dislikes, speculations, etc. will not bend the structure of that reality to our own egoic intellect.
"That [enlightenment] only comes through the inner light of higher Thinking. The word "only" here is being used in the same sense as, "only drinking water will satisfy a person's thirst". We are involved in a deeply structured reality and therefore our localized wants, likes, dislikes, speculations, etc. will not bend the structure of that reality to our own egoic intellect."
Actually, I rather think the big shifts come by the Grace of God, by an initiation or rite of passage, or by hitting the wall but I think that we might be arguing about incremental evolutionary adjustments versus punctuated evolution and its rapid changes. In the long haul, there are both. Do you think homo sapiens are here for the long haul or just what we are stuck with now?