The Foundational Text

Wouldn't be some unknown wacko website without a deranged manifesto, so away we go!

The Premise

I'll begin by establishing the premise occupied by what follows. If you disagree with any of this, you're probably not gonna like what comes next. Sorry, I guess. On the other hand, if you agree with this and think it's obvious, good. This section doesn't include anything even remotely original, and I take no credit for any of the contained ideas.

The Self

For the purposes of this writing, the Self refers to the experience of living from the perspective of a conscious individual. I think it's important to note that the Self is (in life as we know it) a very animal way of filtering existence. I don't mean animal in a pejorative sense, mind you. Consider the other forms of life on our planet. I know I can't speak for them, but it seems a reasonable assertion to me that the concept of the Self is not very applicable to the life of a mycelial network.

Discrete Objects

Still with me? Okay great, let's keep going. Discrete objects (in the colloquial sense, like what I mean when I refer to "the chair in the corner" or talk about "my computer") aren't real in any non-arbitrary sense. Some matter is bonded to other matter more strongly than it is bonded to some different other matter. The threshold between some matter being part of the same thing and not being part of the same thing is completely arbitrary. Of course, this is not to say that this is a bad way of looking at things. It suits us very well.

Who Cares?

Okay, so hear me out. Given this premise, it follows that the Self does not exist in any real sense (fuck you, descartes, you dog-torturing bitch). Instead, its abilities of perception and introspection imply Self constructs itself. This seems like a contradiction, and by most metrics it certainly is, but you'd better buckle the fuck up because things are about to get funky. (I think another good but slightly esoteric way of describing this would be to say that the Self is a self-hosting experience)

Language and Experience

I do not think that the meaning conveyed by "the Self isn't real and is a construct of itself" is contradictory, but rather that our default, instinctive way of thinking as well as our languages are not capable of succinctly expressing the intended meaning in a non-contradictory way. If you are unconvinced, consider the premise and that the ideas of "your body" and "your brain" are very important and significant, but not at all real. From a metaphysical angle, consider how much of your identity is determined by the circumstances of your life, and how much of "you" would be lost if you were removed from those circumstances.

Whether or not you agree with the above bullshit, you probably recognize that this interpretation of reality is completely impossible to experience. You can try, but I'm pretty confident that you won't be able to force your human brain to accept its own non-existence and experience reality as a big soup of matter instead of as individual, discrete things. The filter that sits between your senses and your conscious simply will not allow this understanding of reality to be "true" for you, even if you're certain it's real (, guys).

Unknowable Reality

I don't think, as a human, that you or I will be able to truly understand and experience the objective nature of reality. That's probably for the best. I like being me, and unless you've got some personal shit going on right now, you probably like being you. Nevertheless, I think it's important to emphasize that we as humans most likely do not consciously experience or understand reality as it truly is and that the nature of reality is probably fundamentally incompatible with our experience. Bazinga.

Dangerous Games

When having arguments about how the world works, what's best for humanity or whatever, it's very, very easy to indulge a certain sort of hubris. In some form or another, we often end up claiming that our beliefs, morals, wants, etc. are fundamentally derived from the nature of reality itself. Regardless of how much I agree with what you're saying, doing this puts you on shaky ground. You're roping the universe itself onto your side of the debate when it really doesn't want fuckall to do with you.

That being said, I am not advocating for nihilism. It's possible to pretend very hard that you don't care about anything and nothing matters to you, but doing so neglects the fact that it follows from your acceptance of yourself as an individual that you are not embracing the cold objectivity of reality. Even if you believe life is meaningless, you will never be able to live a meaningless life. You are very capable of living a miserable and unfulfilling life, but those two are not to be confused.

That being said being said, you should be wary of those of nihilistic persuasion when making the sort of appeal to the nature of the universe I mentioned before. They will be very eager to crawl out of the woodwork to proselytize. Know this: they are lying to themselves, but they can only damage your position if you are doing the same.

Be Honest with Yourself

I don't think trying to philosophize outside the boundaries of human experience is very productive. In fact, it's pretty cringe and pretentious in my opinion. In matters of philosophy or ideology or other boring and dumb things, what matters is the actual people. We can pretend to be detached and describe our lofty ideals and other bullshit, but we may as well strap in to the perspective of an individual in a world of discrete things because we are pretty much along for the ride whether we like it or not.

This isn't an absolute rule or anything, but I think we're mostly already aware of it to a certain extent: most honest pursuits towards the betterment of human life will not delude themselves with all this crazy nonsense. The inverse is also true. Pursuits that really aren't benevolent will often tell on themselves by inventing some weird bullshit to justify themselves because attempting to do so with only their service to the actual living people who are affected by their antics.