Well, we tried this once already and found that the first idea didn't work.
But let's summarize a few things: With all that is going wrong in the world, why are you fucking around with Philosophy? And my answer is, exactly.
[Confused Pikachu Face]
(I mean, if there's a shocked Pikachu face, there is a meme out there with confused Pikachu right?)
A Philosphy is: "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.
a particular system of philosophical thought.
plural noun: philosophies"
Or in plain english, its the Operating system for your brain. The 20th century was largely a contest of ideologies: Communism, Capitalism, Fascism and Democracy. Capitalism seemed to win until the advent of Fox News turned the 1rst Amendment and axiomatic diatribes we inherited from the 18th century and shows why fanatical devotion to the 1rst amenmend is a terrible fucking idea.
And more importantly, as I've researched WHAT to put here, I've come to realize that you can fit a work of fiction to your lens if you want, no matter what you do. I've thought exercized Lawful Good versions of Baileyism or Chaotic Evil ones. And you can do the same thing to the Count of Monte Cristo. But I stand by my decision to pick this work based on the principal that its both a work that most people recognize, with a widely recongized hero, but also a very morally complicated one.
Spoilers from the book from the one person that read this far who hasnt read the book. Who am I kidding? Thats almost assuredly zero, but for purposes of this thought exercize, we'll proceed.
Summary randomly stolen: "A poor, good-hearted sailor named Edmond Dantès gets wrongfully imprisoned by jealous rivals, rots in a dungeon for years, escapes, finds a treasure on the Isle of Monte Cristo, reinvents himself as a fabulously rich and mysteriously powerful nobleman, and then, in a grand operatic blaze of cunning, disguise, and vengeance, utterly wrecks the lives of the bastards who ruined his—but not without learning that forgiveness might be stronger than revenge, if not quite as satisfying."
The pihlosophy I want and that I think we need is POST ism. It has to be able to deal with complicated scenarios and agitprop and a world where AI can make us question what's the fucking POINT of even being alive? And these are questions we've needed to ask about the increasing rot of capitalism democracy for quite some time. Western Liberal Democracy infested with Capitalism has created prosperity but to misquote Margaret Thatcher, "It works pretty good until you run out of other people's money to pay for it."
Unlimited Freedom of Speech; or framly any variety thereof creates a rot that allows the rich and the elite to leverage democracy to their favor and a cycle of corruption that makes people more cyncical about democracy and their freedom until they are willing to do most anything to fix it including burn the world down. The Founding Fathers learned the lessons of Athens so they made checks and balances against Tyranny, but those were thrown out the window because we had so much trouble amending the constitution when we needed it that the minority undemocratic faction stalled and stalled and stalled until tehy got their cictator psycho elected.
Edmund Dantes is not a guy who sits around and twiddles his thumbs and accepts his lot in the world. The part about "There are things in this world that you cannot control" from Stoicism is absolutely one hundred percent on. But the part of "Learn to accept it" is replaced in Christoicism with "Fuck That" to "I'm going to make the world a better place as best I can."
I like this work not just because of the attitude of Dantes to adversity but because he uses iterative, recursive and planned methods and means to achieve justice. He understands that in a world where the levers of justice have been turned agaisnt you there is no justice but what you take yourself. Christoicism is the Neutral Good philosophy of the revolutionary; there are times when you must be Chaotic Good and there are times where you must put down the sword and build socities and civilization and be Lawful Good. Chaotic Good and Neutral Good are needed to ensure in perpetuity that Lawful Good does not allow soul killers to our society like Fox News.
The Old World is falling apart; we see it before our eyes. We must be our own Foundation; every one of us. I seek practical methologies to navigate these times not bankrupt dogmas like Anarchism that do shit like this. My point as I walk you through this is to show you how you can organize the values that you hold dear and create a framework to know when you should apply one vs the other by doing the hard work for mometns of crisis ahead of time so you're not caught in ideological traps that cause more harm than good in the trenches. Every man must be a tactician and a strategist; a lone agent a team player ready to switch to the most effective means against fascism, falsehood and tyranny. Christocism shows that their is no master idiology no silver magic bullet but that we can act as if their is a greater truth worth striving for and defending all the same.
How do you fight corruption without becoming corrupt? What is the right level of introspection vs action? Dantes did both of these things and though a fictional character we can learn from this mirror into our darker shadows. This isnt about moral purity, it's about Direct Action. What we do now matters not only for us but for those who are to come. And I intend to do my part to see if we can find a better, more fucking effective, way.
