- Why Philosophy? -

- Abstract -

And so marks the end of back-to-back philosophy posting, especially upon a post that asks this very question. Indeed, 'twas fun to redo (and re-earn) old posts in the first week and do some requests while some original philosophy posts in the second week. But 'tis time for this weary person to rest a bit and get back to the regular posting and regular groove of Steemit. I shall return back to this maybe in the warm transition season (Spring) but most definitely in Summer; if I shall return in such, then it shall be due to mental folly. Withal, expect 1.5 fortnights of philosophy (with minor interruptions) of philosophy by then.

But with that ritual completed, let's transition to the post proper: Why Philosophy? It truly is the most important yet insincerely loaded question I, and I as a person that shares this I with everyone else when they say I, have ever faced and will continue to ever struggle with. Wonderful lil' bit this question is, not because it wants to ask sincerely why do I go into philosophy (for which they are not using Karl Marx's intervention into philosophy with his eleventh thesis). Instead it is the question that encompasses and includes: what do I do that makes it so important (almost sealionish this mannerism is), why to go there when this entire field of (lab-coat, lowercase s and dependent on philosophy) science does so much, who cares what dead authors think and why be bothered when the field pays lil'?

However, I shall insincerely shove those qs away and focus on this loaded q and treat it unloaded. To give this q, of which I asked myself, and treat it sincerely a q on why philosophy. Those qs above are, when taken to their logical conclusion, united in one field: to dissuade having to actually think of the World and to ask people to not change the World while am at it. These mental follies above shall not be given any more do respect and I shall turn back the questions to them: why do you think everything has to be tailored to you on importance, why do you fetishize (lab-coat, lowercase s and dependent on philosophy) science and never care for the people that do the hard work nor of their own philosophizing, why not to care about the dead when we care so much about dead scientists that we still teach them in schools and why treat that everything that can't yield a quick buck as inherently bad? Because, that's what they're asking and their actual mannerism at the end of the day.

- Unto the question -

Now this question is very personal to the things I do and the historical baggage it has within my life. From when I first watch one of the carnædes.org videos, I just wanted to consume more and more and to know every bit of philosophy there was ought there. An immense hunger to know the absolute limits of philosophy and I never felt gluttonous as I took on the next video of his. Yet why of course to then just consume such serious knowledge as a teen in those earlier days of YouTube and the internet? For the simple reason that philosophy acted as that pointer that pointed towards something, something achievable, even when it was blind and only giving the vaguest of hints.

Indeed, I could've landed in a hellhole, but I already was in one and we nowadays call that rightism (to mock rightists for their usage of leftism). I, as a teen, was already dissatisfied with how they concluded their findings, how they went about explaining concepts, why they said "they" were the enemy and why "we" should care. It didn't sit right, for me as a teen, with my Xtian beliefs who wanted to treat my neighbor (I could go Lacanian but I'm holding back) nicely, to never sin to nor lie of someone and found a lack of Xtian morality in some of the rightists own videos. For all intents-n-purposes, a kid (because that's what teens are, kids with bigger statures) that never attended Sunday school but had a bible at home founded them as more anti-Xtian than the supposed enemies; a Pole who's family who's family was also katolicki (Xtian) 'n' conservative founded their morality disgusting.

And so then came philosophy on the scene, Carnædes.org would serve as this great transition away from rightism into something that was steady, believable and one I can advance my knowledge without the expense of one's dignity. A holy cleansing if one must call it that I faced in this entire process, as I would find and learn Pyrrhonian Skepticism, Modal logic, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Aristotle, Plato and so on and so on. But the first item, Pyrrhonian Skepticism, would stick fervently unto me and would be my main cleanser of these rightist sins. I would finally feel that I could take a step and be confident, to actually be able to tear apart arguments and interject to the face of rightists, to have a voice and to be. To be, such a lovely two word phrase that I wish to not expound upon - maybe in private if we ever face each other~

And this journey will go deeper as I rose out of the hellhole that was rightism, I would stumble upon, in the least expected spot in a comedy app called Ifunny, a thriving philosophical community and expand myself. There I would finally learn of Anarchism (the anti-capitalist one), Marxism, Psychoanalysis (Jung and Freud, no Lacan at this stage) and Hegel. This is where, at this point, Pyrrhonian Skepticism had proved its maximal fruitfulness to me and became a back-burner item while a sympathy for me; or to say truly: something I cuddle carefully but never afraid to use again when I want to nuke my entire politics. Even so, transitioning from the Anarchist clique (it's a sad tale I shall only share with a few friends in DMs only) to Marxism, I finally would be able to have a solid political position and not just rip mercilessly into the hearts of rightists.

And all about this time, as I emerged into Marxism from the philosophical scene, I would also see the horrendous acts being committed under GamerGate and the rightists at it with their reactionary storms. People like Anita Sarkessian, that I thought had okayish but intellectually correct videos, would find my love, sympathy and support at the height of my Pyrrhonian Skepticism. They were, plain and simply, victims to the reactionaries and other rightists - ironically all calling for "fair and clean journalism." Me ærs were they fighting for such when their tactics involved literal revenge porn, cyber-harassment, endless spam-n-ddos attacks, false and real death threats 'n' so on 'n' so on. At this point, whatever little left that Xtian feeling I had for redeem-ability for the Online Right scene had was gone faster than a nuke claiming waste to lives (some of the death threats did go that far to mention exposing people to radiation). I may never been a victim of GamerGate, but my pecking sympathies went out to them and my unspurred anger, for which Stoicism had kept at bay for only the worst of moments, came racing out.

Yet, as the Internet claims that everything remains forever, so true was it that nothing really matters after it goes by for a year. In this time as I would begin a serious plunge into Feminism to truly see "if they were taking our games away and being the big bad monolith," I would finally dig deep into my politics. I committed serious labour to understand the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for those restless nights; eventually getting to people like Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov Lenin, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and Mao Zedong (of which I am now only re-reading all three). I would be restless to find out why-o-why the World was so upside down and why these things happened; many an economic and social explanations where there and I still treasure them to this day, but I wanted more again and so my hunger grew to a volatile beast. My sympathies became active fields of investigation again, I learned and read carefully of Pyrrhonian Skepticism and Stoicism as I did with my Marxism and Feminism.

Which so landed me into the laps of Lacan, coming late into the Iphilosophy/Ipolitics age of mine and in the middle of my transition to accepting and becoming a Feminist in reaction to my anger against rightists. It must've been interesting that I would watch videos and never jump into the texts, of which I am only doing now with secondary sources. But yet he, along with everything before me, gave me pointer to something, and all were equally blind as none claim to be prophets no future tellers. Yet a sign was there and something that can steer my life towards a better one and one that would hopefully cleanse the Earth of this rightist disease. Hypocritically I would venture more into Lacan's contemporaries at this time than actually jump into him head-on. And one must remember that I was studying all those four items above in conjunction to actually understanding who this Lacan was. And so in this time I would stumble upon people like Cicero (Antiquity), Marcus Aurelius (Antiquity), Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism), Simone de Beauvoir (Feminist Existentialism), Albert Camus (Absurdism), Immanuel Kant, David Hume (Skepticism of 18th century), Adam Smith (Pre-Marxist critic of Capitalism, not the farther of such) and so on and so on.

So many people but yet I've crunched through them all in a blur, yet the ones that wouldn't stick so well have been forgotten in this haze while the ones that did form's my ever-living thoughts. Of course, I probably should make a direct intervention right now and say that I didn't just did academic labouring and actually did activism but I am rather hush, hush on that front. To continue on and now permanently keeping in mind that I was philosophizing while doing activism (that eleventh thesis by Karl Marx with his Theses on Feuerbach), I would finally jump into Lacan and start reading the secondary literature around him (along with Frantz Fanon and other minor philosophers here which I was illuminated thanks to Gregory B. Sadler of ReasonIO). And so we jump into the modern times with me where I am now only returning back to the Marxist texts and carefully re-reading them, been finding out all sorts of Queer theory and philosophy, still watching Feminist Frequency to this day without a slight cringe (okay their jokes actually pecking improved, bite me ærs) and looking back proudly at Pyrrho who obviously was so far in the past yet guided this poor soul out of a hellhole to begin with.

- Concrete -

I guess in the most cathartic pieces I could've made for the back-to-back posting, I've done a ritual to just finally introduce and explain a story of myself. (@f3nix, this only counts as revealing 1/4 of myself rn; yah happy yah now that yah know 3/8ths!) There was a reason why I hesitated upon what to end this all, but why not with a bittersweet tale of how conservatives pushed me away from conservatism, how Pyrrho guided my soul to proper philosophy, how everything with Marxism and Feminism guided me towards correct politics (and having a soul as Mao Zedong would put it) and how I want to only fight for the life that's worth living. Of course, this is still, while a massive improvement to a concealed explanation of how I came to be, a simplified explanation of everything that lead into me. Simply put, this is less oversimplified and I have the confidence to voice my past. Even still, with all this library of knowledge that resides in my head and the fact that I am willing to rip out a rightist's heart in every sense of the word; truly, the only thing that I do know, is that I know nothing at all... Thank you Philosophy, Feminism, Marxism and Psychoanalysis. Love,... I'm not going to reveal my true name nor full identity... I can't, as much as that pains me truly. Even with all the heroes, sung and unsung, in these fields, I can't... Dobranoc~

- Back-to-Back Philosophy fortnight -

Dialectics: an updated guide

The Utopia of Sir Thomas More

The Social Basis of the Woman Question, part 1, by Alexandra Kollontai (audio read)

On the Suspension of Disbelief

On problems of fictional characters being not real

On class conflict

On political activism for the LGBTQIA+ community

Begriff (Fiction Piece)

The Social Basis of the Woman Question, part 2, by Alexandra Kollontai (audio read)

On the failings of Liberal Feminism, the need for Proletarian Feminism

Noir or not? (Fictional Piece)

Intro to Lacan