Philosophical Speculations

I'm seeking some clarification here regarding the posting of newsworthy articles as topics of discussion, of the kind that one can find just about anywhere nowadays, but which have no metaphysical focus or intention written into them ~ e.g. Lou's 'topic' linking to the Covid crisis in Brazil, and another such article posted today. Whatever Lou's motivation in this case, I feel that it's important that the forum stay within its intended metaphysical focus, and so no matter how topical or important such newsworthy stories may be, they should have some clearly focused metaphysical intention written within the story itself, above and beyond just being newsworthy. I understand that there can be a subjective grey area, and one needs to grant some leeway, but in the case of the Covid articles Lou has shared, I'm not seeing much grey area, but just straight up journalism intended solely to do what journalism is meant to do, far from what metaphysics is meant to do. However, feedback is welcome here, as to whether or not others feel that I'm being unreasonable here in wanting to keep the forum from becoming just a mini version of Facebook.

I clearly stated the metaphysical reason for my recent post as "What does the sanctity of individual free choice mean in a practical world dominated by governments, corporations, subsidies and contracts?" However, I no longer see the post. Does this mean that you "cancelled it", perhaps thinking that metaphysics need not be confronted with challenging examples journalistically and investigatively reported?

Lou ... yes, after chatting with Simon, and pending further feedback from other participants here, I'm putting on hold posting of such articles that in and of themselves have no metaphysical focus or intention written into them. If there is some clear consensus for or against this, we'll take it from there.

Lou Gold wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 4:29 pm I clearly stated the metaphysical reason for my recent post as "What does the sanctity of individual free choice mean in a practical world dominated by governments, corporations, subsidies and contracts?" However, I no longer see the post. Does this mean that you "cancelled it", perhaps thinking that metaphysics need not be confronted with challenging examples journalistically and investigatively reported?

PS: Can you request feedback without posting the article for folks to contemplate in context of my stated metaphysical question?

Lou Gold wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 4:41 pmPS: Can you request feedback without posting the article for folks to contemplate in context of my stated metaphysical question?

Well, we could get into metaphysical discussions about all kinds of topical news articles, but what I'm asking is should they be clear examples of articles that have some metaphysical focus or intention written into the article itself? Perhaps post one such example here that we may assess.

I think posts "on the fringe" would benefit from being visible.

Allow the post, and then lock it, stating the reason why it is locked. This will provide a kind of transparent self-documenting narrative for the forum policy.

Hiding stuff is never good.

For blatant hate-speech, profanities, etc. That's a different case.

As per references to linked news articles:
The post should state what specifically in this particular article makes it metaphysically relevant.

Maybe there's a quote in there, which is eerily similar to some metaphysical text. Or maybe some event maps back to what someone predicted would happen if idealism would become more common.

Some people are good at stretching the boundaries and giving the moderator a teasing time. Moderator, be firm! Or be lax. Or both.

And at Facebook folks are surely not discussing in metaphysical terms issues such as individual free choice or in the specific context of BK's alter constructions (whirlpools, DID, etc) the glaring absence of alter structures such as governments, corporations, economies or the earth itself. The challenge here is not to divert from metaphysics to covid but to see what metaphysics can contribute to practical existential realities where the rubber meets the road. If metaphysics can't or seeks to "cancel" hard problems, I see little hope that Idealism might become the guiding consensus. The deeper question is whether ideas cause events or events cause ideas. My answer is both/and which is, I acknowledge, an awkward fundamental position. Mitakuye Oyasin and Vivas to The Great Mysteriousness